[1.5 + DLC 1+2] How to Succeed

Introduction

Are you having trouble completing levels? Are you struggling to clear huge screens of mobs? Are you needlessly grinding for coins to boost your stats in the hope of edging out a victory?

It's because you're choosing the wrong items.

Basic Strategy

To succeed in Vampire Survivors you need to understand a single truth: all defensive and quality of life items are worthless. All of them. Defense does not scale into the endgame. Defense does not clear screens. Defense does not punch a path for you to run into.

There are no enemies in the game that deal guaranteed damage to the player. This means that, with good positioning and the right weapons, you never need to consider mitigating hits or refilling your health.

Defense is worthless. Offense is defense.

To overcome the utter weakness of defensive items and stay safe while we kill vampire minions, we need offensive items in three specific categories: area (AOE) damage, directional damage, and knock back. We have six weapon slots to choose from; selecting at least one from each of these categories and filling the rest as luck dictates will make almost any run successful, barring a positioning failure or a streak of bad luck.

A Note on Experience GemsExperience in Vampire Survivors is given in the form of dropped gems. These are - obviously - important to pick up, as levels for your weapons and support items are critical to success. On early playthroughs, the player might obsess in picking every single gem up, but that's not actually needed: experience gems are never lost.

If you fill a screen with gems and, rather than pick them up, simply move away, the game will eventually collect all the gems you've "left" and create a red experience gem for you to pick up containing all the experience you've left on the floor. If you've ever picked up a random red gem and then leveled up multiple times, you've experienced this effect.

So don't worry too much about missing experience. It'll come back to you.

Items By Tier And How To Choose Them

Items come in two categories: weapons and passives. Weapons deal damage, and passives are used to upgrade level eight weapons and to buff your stats.

Below are all the items in Vampire Survivors, broken down by tier and explained. In any given run you aren't guaranteed to be able to select all the best items, but that doesn't matter. You can very easily last the full thirty minutes with sub-optimal choices, so long as you choose damage.

A Note on TiersThe point of breaking items into tiers is not to say which items are good and which are bad (besides defensive items) in every single case. Vampire Survivors is a game about synergizing items with each other and with your chosen character; it's a game about how a build as a whole functions, and tiers have nothing to do with that.

The purpose of item tiers is to rank the strength of individual items in a vacuum. The best item in the game, the Unholy Vespers, is always the best. The Runetracer (rank C) isn't great on its own, but can be a powerhouse with the right synergies. The birds Peachone and Ebony Wings (rank C) are very difficult for inexperienced players to use and absolutely soak up experience gems, but they're the highest DPS items in the game.

To reiterate: it's not about if your personal favorite is a low rank, or if your favorite makes an incredible build. It's about whether or not an item is excellent by itself.

S-Tier

King Bible

The King Bible, upgraded to the Unholy Vespers by the Spellbinder, is one of only two S-Tier weapons in Vampire Survivors.

The King Bible periodically circles around the character, striking enemies and passing through them. When upgraded to the Unholy Vespers, this periodic activation becomes a continually active wall of rotating projectiles. These projectiles deal decent damage while also knocking back any enemy hit and spinning quickly enough to prevent enemies from dodging past them and getting to the player. The Unholy Vespers embody the principle of offense as defense perfectly.

Sadly, the Spellbinder - the passive catalyst item needed to upgrade the King Bible - is mostly worthless. The Spellbinder scales skill duration, a stat which is ignored on all of the best weapons. However, the Vespers are so powerful that this wasted stat doesn't matter.

It's worth noting that you aren't required to find a King Bible and upgrade it to complete a run; it's just virtually guaranteed once you do.

Note: As of 0.7.2 it is virtually trivial to get enough duration and cooldown to enable the King Bible to have 100% uptime without requiring the Spellbinder, freeing up a passive item slot.

DuplicatorThe Duplicator is a passive item that upgrades the Lightning ring, but it can be chosen with virtually any build. It synergizes with literally everything in the game perfectly. It requires no explanation; all of the (good) weapons in the game scale with additional projectiles.

More projectiles means more damage, but also more knock back and more crowd-control. The more things you have flying around the screen, the safer you are.

A must-choose item.

Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the SparrowPhiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow, upgraded to Phieraggi with the Tiragisú, are potent weapons from the start of the game until the very end.

Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow fire frequent, small projectiles in an X-shape originating from the player. This shape leaves you vulnerable from the cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west) but with a circular walking pattern - or simple up-and-down strafing - they provide decent protection. They're quite strong early game; the large number of high-damage projectiles they output helps to clear the screen when you have very few good options, generating both experience and safety. After they're upgraded, they become one of the best damage weapons in the game.

Once Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow are both level 8 and you have a Tiragisú, they'll upgrade into the Phieraggi, refunding you a weapon slot. Unlike the Birds (below), the Phieraggi doesn't have to be upgraded any further; it's top-tier from the second you get it. Unfortunately, you are required to have a Tiragisú. The Tiragisú adds revives to your character; upon death, you'll return with 50% health. Like many defensive items, this seems like a good thing at first, but actually isn't: revive will save you if you screw up and sit on a mob by accident, but otherwise it'll just revive you in whatever bad situation you found yourself in and you'll die again to exactly what killed you seconds before.

The Tiragisú has no synergy with any weapon other than the Phieraggi, which scales in an interesting way with it: each revive you have adds another projectile to the weapon. This makes the normally trash Tiragisú go from "worthless" to "maybe not completely garbage." It's worth noting that, if you die on purpose until you have no revives, the Tiragisú will leave your inventory, granting another free passive slot. You lose out on additional beams, but you can choose a better passive item.

The Phieraggi, once upgraded to, is a powerhouse. It shoots rotating beams that originate from the player and cover the whole of the screen, piercing all enemies. Each revive you have adds a beam to the total number, increasing coverage and damage. With an endgame build, the beams shoot continually and have essentially a 100% uptime. I simply cannot overstate the amount of damage this weapon does; it's immense. The screenshot to the right shows the Phieraggi in a run with several other strong AOE weapons, and they don't even come close.

The Phieraggi is a very welcome addition to the game.

Arcana: Phieraggi scales well with Arcana IV - Awake. The added revives add beams to the Phieraggi's attacks, and dying purposefully will grant strong bonuses. See the Arcana section below.

Victory Sword and Torrona's BoxThe Victory Sword, upgraded to the Sole Solution with Torrona's Box, is a strong weapon and that only becomes stronger.

Victory Sword is a rapid-hitting, area-damaging weapon that retaliates when you're struck, making it an excellent damage dealer, screen clearer, and defender; it's very much an all-rounder weapon. It initially strikes in a small area, rapidly damaging enemies. It gains area, projectiles, cooldown, and critical strike as it levels, turning it into a real powerhouse by the time it's level 12. What's more, it upgrades via the excellent Torrona's Box.

Torrona's Box is a passive item that provides 25% omni (that is, 25% might, projectile speed, duration, and area) in total and, at level 9, 100% additional curse. This is an insane amount of stats for a single passive, by far the most efficient in the game, but you should only level it to 9 if you're sure your build can handle the added curse.

Originally posted by Master Basher: "Banish the last Level Up" if you don't want a super-curse run.Master Basher wrote the above in the comments to this guide, and it's a great idea. You can use a charge of banish on the final upgrade to Torrona's Box and avoid the curse penalty altogether, making the item nothing but massively positive. Note: doing so will prevent you from upgrading Victory Sword or Flames of Misspell. Only do this is you're using Torrona's Box without either weapon.

Once Victory Sword is max level and Torrona's Box is acquired, it will upgrade into Sole Solution. However, unlike every other weapon in the game, this "upgrade" isn't one; instead of Victory Sword disappearing, you simply gain Sole Solution as another passive item.

Sole Solution is a periodically-activating weapon that spawns a universe that damages essentially the entire screen, and makes your character untouchable while it's active. It deals 1 additional damage per 5000 enemies killed in the level, scaling without a cap, making it better the more curse you have.

Victory Sword and Torrona's Box are excellent items that should always be taken.

Arcana: Victory Sword scales absurdly well with Arcana IX - Divine Bloodline because it auto-retaliates against enemies.

S-Tier (cont.)

Vento SacroVento Sacro, upgraded to Fuwalafuwaloo with the Bloody Tear, is a terrible weapon that becomes a powerhouse after a lot of work.

Vento Sacro fires occasional small blue arcs of very, very little damage. The fire only directly in front of you, and only horizontally. With continual movement, the arcs fire faster and faster until they're basically constant. Like the Shadow Pinion (see below), this is terrible. Vampire Survivors requires you to adjust to threats and move freely; having to think about never ceasing your movement just to have optimal damage is annoying and, frankly, dangerous.

In order to upgrade Vento Sacro you need the Bloody Tear, the upgraded form of the Whip (see below). This means that, for at least 16 levels, you need to upgrade two quite poor weapons and sacrifice a passive slot in order to create the Fuwalafuwaloo. But boy is it worth it.

Fuwalafuwaloo combines the healing of the Bloody Tear with the fast hits of the Vento Sacro to create a weapon that hits in a large wedge in front of the player. This wedge does insane single-target damage and explodes for area damage on critical strike. It punches a hole in a group of mobs insanely well, giving the player easy paths for safe walking.

Fuwalafuwaloo is an excellent offensive and defensive weapon.

Arcana: Fuwalafuwaloo can utilize both Arcana XVI - Slash and, despite not being listed on it, Arcana VI - Sarabande of Healing.

A-Tier

Fire WandThe Fire Wand, upgraded to the Hellfire with the synergizes-with-everything Spinach, is second only to the Unholy Vespers in desirability. Although the wand itself is mediocre early, doing decent damage with projectiles that are absorbed by the enemy they strike, once upgraded it becomes a damage powerhouse.

Hellfire projectiles pierce all targets, doing tremendous damage. They also originate from the character's position, allowing the Hellfire to frequently punch a hole into a group of mobs, allowing you to run that direction. Although this isn't it's primary use, it shouldn't be discounted.

As you can see, the Hellfire deals incredible damage without being completely random.

There is no situation in which you shouldn't choose the Fire Wand as a weapon and the Spinach as a passive.

Arcana: The Fire Wand/Hellfire is granted the ability to explode on hit with Arcana XIX - Heart of Fire (see the Arcana section below). This adds a truly incredible amount of damage to the Fire Wand/Hellfire, making it the most damaging item in the game. With this Arcana, the Fire Wand/Hellfire becomes an S-tier item.

Magic WandThe Magic Wand, upgraded to the Holy Wand by the Empty Tome, is a very different wand from the Fire and Hellfire. It attacks quickly and automatically, doing unimpressive damage, but its utility comes in the form of knock back and of the excellent synergy implicit in the Empty Tome.

The Holy Wand is the best way to stay safe from bosses in the game. Once upgraded it attacks so quickly that you need to kite bosses very little - if at all - to be safe. This also applies to individual small mobs that may penetrate your defenses while you wait for your area damage to come online.

However, where this combo truly shines is in the Empty Tome. The Tome grants 8% reduced cooldown on all your weapons per level, scaling to 40%. This is just as good as - if not better than - the pure damage offered by the Spinach. A maxed Empty Tome means you have almost no down-time on your attacks. Combined with the Holy Wand, this means everything will die before it gets a chance to hit you, and the things that don't will be bumped backwards continually.

Flames of MisspellFlames of Misspell, upgraded to Ashes of Muspell, is a fantastic damage dealer with some moderate downsides that keep it from being S-tier.

The first downside is that the Flames require a fully-upgraded Torrona's box in order to transform, meaning the player will have 100 additional curse in order to use the item; a definite barrier for new and struggling players. The second downside is that the Flames fire in a frontal cone that, while large, is very narrow at its origin point. This cone also only protects one of the four cardinal directions.

Once the Flames are upgraded to the Ashes, a second cone fires behind the player, giving greater coverage. Where the Ashes truly shine, however, is in their damage, which increases over time by defeating enemies. Combine this continual growth with high base damage and excellent area and the Ashes are a powerhouse.

Make sure to upgrade them early to maximize on enemies killed.

B-Tier

AxeThe Axe, upgraded to the Death Spiral by the Candelabrador, is a very straight-forward item: just damage. Before the upgrade it's a high damage weapon that sails in an arc, hitting a limited area. After upgrading, the Death Spiral explodes outward from the character, damaging everything around you. This AOE damage is excellent for protecting your backside and clearing the screen.

The catalyst item for the Axe upgrade, the Candelabrador, should not be discounted. It scales the size of your weapons and radius of your AOE skills, allowing for any piercing weapon to hit greater numbers of mobs. This synergizes exceptionally well with all S- and A-tier items.

Arcana: The Axe/Death Spiral is granted the ability to critically strike and double critical damage with Arcana XVI - Slash.

KnifeThe Knife, upgraded to the Thousand Edge by the Bracer, isn't an excellent weapon. It is, in fact, a strictly worse version of the Magic Wand. But it does provide a very specific function that is occasionally necessary.

The Knife shoots the direction the character is facing, which sounds all well and good, but in practice is actually awful. You often need to move away from the mobs you'd like to attack, and in this scenario the knife is worse than useless, shooting into the empty space you're running towards. However, if your build lacks sufficient knock back to keep you safe, the massive speed and sheer number of projectiles of an upgraded Thousand Edge can shove any number of mobs backwards while dealing high single-target damage.

As for the synergy item of the Knife, the Bracer, it's awful. The speed of your projectiles is irrelevant in all but one case: the Runetracer (see below). Otherwise, it's a wasted item which could instead be a passive that offers damage.

The Knife and its upgrade exist only to punch a hole or shove a boss, and should only be chosen if you need them for that purpose. The only thing that stops it from being a C-tier item is that the Knife is non-random: you can point it where you want the damage to go.

Arcana: The Knife/Thousand Edge is granted the ability to critically strike and double critical damage with Arcana XVI - Slash.

Lightning RingThe Lightning Ring, upgraded to the Thunder Loop with the Duplicator, is a weak item that becomes a strong damage dealer. Functionally similar to the birds and the Santa Water, the Lightning Ring deals damage in circles on the map, scaling with both AOE and projectile number. The circles strike randomly, meaning you have zero control over where you deal damage, and will frequently kill mobs far behind the front line, making their experience gems difficult to pick up.

However, the Lightning Ring upgrades via the Duplicator, an item you should always be taking anyway. This makes picking the ring essentially "free," and an upgraded form the ring strikes twice, turning it from a small area annoyance to a screen wiping item. Its damage still can't rival the big hitters like Vandalier, Death Spiral, or Hellfire, but it's a viable choice (see right).

Because it scatters experience gems everywhere, the Lightning Ring/Thunder Loop works best with a build that plans to pick up the Attractorb.

Song of ManaThe Song of Mana, upgraded to the Mannajja with the Skull O'Maniac, is a limited area vertical damage item that covers the entire screen top to bottom with a narrow beam. With investment into area, its width increases and it becomes narrow - but decent - horizontal protection. Despite its limited width it does respectable DPS, comparable to the full screen AOE items.

Because the Song of Mana requires the Skull O'Maniac to upgrade, it should never be taken if you aren't prepared for the run to become much more challenging (see Z-Tier, below).

It's worth noting that the Song has decent knock back, but if you move an enemy into the beam, they can bounce around unexpectedly. If you're moving at speed and an enemy enters the beam instead of dying, they may bounce into you as you walk.

RunetracerThe Runetracer, upgraded to NO FUTURE with the Armor, is a randomly-fired narrow projectile that bounces off the edges of the screen. With investment into projectile speed, area, duration, and number, it can deal significant damage. Once upgraded to NO FUTURE, that damage increases even more with explosions centered on bounce points, helping increase its coverage and clear.

Unfortunately, the Runetracer still requires a useless passive: the Armor. NO FUTURE itself may be a good weapon, but the Armor scales with no other weapons and provides nothing of worth to your character, merely reducing the damage you take from enemy hits.

A decent item, but lacking in synergy.

C-Tier

All the items in C-tier are characterized not so much by being bad as they are by being random. Being able to put damage where you need it is very important to your survival.

The BirdsSpecial mention at the top of the C-tier, Peachone and Ebony Wings together upgrade into Vandalier, becoming a single weapon and refunding you a weapon slot. Both the base birds and their upgrade attack enemies within a circular radius which continually orbits around your character.

On paper, they do a tremendous amount of damage once upgraded, as you can see from this hyper forest run.

However, in practice, the birds are both random and investment-heavy. The rotating circle within which they damage enemies is basically impossible to position in any way; practically, they just hit what they hit, not what you want. They also require a tremendous amount of experience to fully upgrade, given that you need to upgrade each individual bird eight times, then upgrade the combined bird another eight times.

This experience point requirement isn't necessarily a bad thing; it just needs to factor into your planning on a run, and you need to have other tools to deal with specific mobs threatening you while the birds mete out damage to the masses.

A possible choice, but there are less risky options.

P.S.: The birds also absolutely fill the screen with projectiles, making it hard to see anything.

CrossThe Cross, upgraded into the Heaven Sword via the Clover, is another overly-random weapon with poor synergy. The Cross flies out from the character a short distance, then boomerangs backwards, dealing most of its damage behind you.

It's a prime example of yet another weapon that won't hit where you need it to, and that drops experience gems where you aren't going. But worse than that, the Cross upgrades with the mostly useless Clover.

The Clover increases the luck stat by 10% per level. Luck scales two things of import: the number of options you have when leveling up, and the Pentagram, the worst possible weapon in the game. In any decent run, you'll level up at least 70 times; you don't need more options. And you should never, ever pick the Pentagram in any run. Luck does seem to affect drops from light sources, allowing you to take some real risks, but this isn't a strong enough benefit to recommend the item.

With no synergy with any decent weapon and random damage, the Cross should only be taken if every other option is worse.

Arcana: The Heaven Sword is granted double critical damage with Arcana XVI - Slash.

Santa WaterThe Santa Water, upgraded to La Borra by the Attractorb, is thrown from off-screen to land on the ground in a pattern that rotates around the player character. Once it strikes the ground it creates blue flames that deal damage in an area.

Pre-upgrade, the Santa Water requires enemies to stay in its area to be damaged, which is of limited use. You should be moving continually (especially in the early game) in order to take minimal damage and have optimal positioning, and enemies will follow you as you move. An item that needs enemies to be stationary in its effect will never be effective.

However, once the Santa Water is upgraded to La Borra, these drawbacks lessen significantly. The flaming ground of La Borra moves towards the player (somewhat slowly) and grows, with the flames eventually overlapping and providing a strong ring of damage, all while fresh projectiles continue to fall. This turns La Borra into a powerful damage item, but one that offers no safety: the flames do not knock back enemies.

Compounding this lack of knock back or targeted damage is the fact that La Borra is upgraded via the Attractorb, an item that offers no synergy with any weapon (including La Borra itself). An expanded pickup range is nice quality of life - especially with strong area damage or screen clear - but it won't keep you alive. This means that La Borra is still less optimal than other choices, but decent.

A note on the projectile pattern of the Santa Water/La Borra. As you can see from the image to the right, the Santa Water seems to mimic the Birds and drop circles in a rotating pattern around your character. Pre-upgrade, with decent knock back you can sit within this circle and be relatively safe; post-upgrade, this circle will pull towards you, clearing mobs very effectively.

La RobbaLa Robba looks like a Kinder Egg but actually drops bouncing furniture all over the screen. With investments in amount, duration, and speed, it absolutely fills the screen with the contents of a fussy old British mansion and does decent damage at the same time.

Unfortunately, La Robba offers little protection, and its lack of evolution means that it may not fit in all builds. Its damage if good if you don't have other high-AOE sources killing enemies before it can get value from bounces.

Good, but not exceptional.

BraceletThe Bracelet shoots small projectiles at three random targets. It's upgraded simply by leveling it, rather than picking up a specific passive item. Its upgraded forms do essentially the exact same thing as the base form, just slightly better.

While the Bracelet deals reasonable damage, the random nature of that damage makes it hard to use effectively, and it offers absolutely no protection. A decent enough damage pick if you don't want to waste a passive slot, but there are many stronger options.

D-Tier

WhipThe Whip, upgraded to the Bloody Tear via the Hollow Heart, is the starting item in Vampire Survivors. The first thing weapon you use on the first character.

It's worthless.

The Whip and its upgrade attack horizontally in front of your character and, with some upgrades, behind. But enemies come from all 360 degrees, so your top and bottom are left incredibly open to damage. With extra projectiles, the Whip attacks more times, rising vertically, but it still doesn't protect well.

On top of this, the Whip requires the Hollow Heart to upgrade, and the Hollow Heart is also worthless, merely increasing your maximum health. Increased health doesn't scale the damage of your other weapons or synergize with anything in any way. It just allows you to be a little sloppy. So play better and build damage.

The final nail in the Whip's coffin is the upgraded version. It deals slightly more damage (but the Whip's damage is incredibly bad anyway) and leeches life. Again, you don't need to leech if you kill before you're hit.

Do not pick unless you're desperate.

Arcana: The Whip/Bloody Tear scale immensely with Arcana VI - Sarabande of Healing, which doubles healing and causes that healing to deal damage to enemies nearby (see Arcana section below). This makes the Whip/Bloody Tear a real option for damage and safety simultaneously. With the Sarabande, the Whip/Bloody Tear is an B-tier weapon.

Arcana: The Whip/Bloody Tear is granted the ability to critically strike and double critical damage with Arcana XVI - Slash.

GarlicThe Garlic, upgraded to the Soul Eater via the Pummarola, is a deceptive item. It deals pulsing area damage around your character and is always active, right from level one. It seems like the perfect item.

But it doesn't benefit from additional projectiles, so it scales like trash.

The Garlic is only effective in the early-to-mid game. The pulsing damage is a lifesaver in the early rounds, especially when you're new to Vampire Survivors, but it falls off strongly, and the pulses are slow, lacking the ability to push back enemies once you're truly being mobbed. Once you aren't one-shotting mobs, the Garlic will not keep you safe.

But the death knell for the Garlic, like the Whip, is its upgrade path. The Garlic upgrades with the Pummarola, which increases your passive life regen. Worthless. This stat, again like the Whip, doesn't synergize with anything or scale any damage. If you're hurt, move the screen to generate light sources and then kill them for floor chicken.

The Garlic's upgrade, the Soul Eater, is another life leech item that allows you to be sloppy. Once more, play better and build damage; don't rely on leech or regen. Being able to heal the damage you're taking because you've chosen Garlic isn't a boon.

A strictly worse version of the King Bible.

Arcana: The Garlic/Soul Eater scale immensely with Arcana VI - Sarabande of Healing, which doubles healing and causes that healing to deal damage to enemies nearby (see Arcana section below). This makes the Garlic/Soul Eater a real option for damage and safety simultaneously. With the Sarabande, the Garlic/Soul Eater is an B-tier weapon.

CarrélloThe Carréllo, currently with no upgrade, is a minecart that shoots horizontally from the character and ricochets off the sides of the screen, bouncing back and forth. It hits a very small area until fully invested into, shoots slowly, and provides essentially no protection. Additional projectiles merely increase the number of bounces.

Because it only has a narrow horizontal area of effect, it's very difficult to actually deal any damage with the Carréllo, or to even send it at mobs you intend to hit. When it does connect it hits like a truck, but its sustained damage is just abysmal.

Do not choose this weapon.

Gatti AmariGatti Amari, upgraded to Vicious Hunger via the Stone Mask, is a cat. It enters the screen randomly, flies around randomly, and attacks randomly. It either does a small-area swipe, a large-area damage over time effect that lingers, or absolutely nothing. Its damage is very poor and very random. The cats will also eat your floor chicken, robbing you of health.

The Stone Mask increases the number of coins you collect during a run. It's nice when you're first starting out, but doesn't help you finish levels. You'll make more money playing to win.

Once upgraded to Vicious Hunger, large cat eyes will bounce around the walls of the map, dealing incredibly poor damage (see right) to enemies and occasionally turning enemies into gold coins. Add in the Stone Mask, which adds nothing to either offense or defense, and you're left with a troll item that upgrades into a troll item and chews up a passive slot with needless, non-synergistic gold gain.

Just bad.

Arcana: Vicious Hunger can utilize the Arcana XV - Disco of Gold to heal the player with each enemy turned to gold. This healing is so small it's essentially meaningless.

Celestial DustingCelestial Dusting, currently with no upgrade, is a fart joke. Literally. As your character walks, flowers "pass" from behind you, damaging enemies. By tapping from one direction to another, or tapping all cardinal directions in sequence, you can achieve some measure of area coverage, but basically this item farts at enemies behind you.

As you're often surrounded in Vampire Survivors, this makes it difficult to achieve meaningful damage with the Celestial Dusting. It also has a very minor heal from defeated enemies, but this is of minimal use beyond the first 15 minutes of a game.

Not as troll an item as the cats or the mine cart, but still not great.

Shadow PinionShadow Pinion, upgraded to the Valkyrie Turner via the Wings, is very annoying to use. As you walk, your character will leave behind a trail of either drills (?) or flames, depending on if the weapon is upgraded or not. Then, when you stop moving, lines of damage will fire from the trail in the direction you last pressed.

This means, each time you want the Shadow Pinion/Valkyrie Turner to fire, you have to: Lay a trail on the ground in a direction

Move in the direction you want the beams to fire (usually perpendicular to the direction you were moving)

Release your movement key

Begin moving again to set up another lineThis is a lot of work for something that does, frankly, pathetic damage. You need to constantly be thinking not just of where you need to move to evade mobs, but how to lay a trail and what direction to move afterwards to deal damage. Every other weapon in the game fires by itself, and most to better damage than this (see right).

Combine that with the Wings, a passive item that synergizes with virtually nothing else of worth and simply increases your movement speed, and you're left with a fiddly weapon that doesn't do good damage. Do not pick.

D-Minus-Tier

D-Minus is a new tier created especially for the Pentagram.

PentagramThe Pentagram is a uniquely worthless weapon. When activated, it wipes out the entire map. Unfortunately, it cannot be activated at will; it activates on a timer. And when it wipes out all the mobs on the map, it also wipes out all the experience gems the mobs would drop. And the chests bosses would drop. With levels and with increased luck, it has a chance to leave the experience gems and chests instead of destroying them.

The Pentagram upgrades to the Gorgeous Moon when combined with the Crown. The Crown seems tempting; fast levels means more weapons and upgrades, faster. But killing more mobs also increases the amount of experience you gain via more dropped experience gems, so it's actually just a waste of a passive.

The Gorgeous Moon itself removes the massive downside of the Pentagram: it no longer deletes experience and items; instead, it generates gems and vacuums them to your character. This is a decent enough effect, but the Moon still has the same mechanical limitations as the original Pentagram: it activates on a timer - not when you need it - and clears just one screen.

Vampire Survivors (especially on a full curse run, see below) fills the screen constantly with mobs. Clearing it once every 35 seconds (the cooldown of Moon with an Empty Tome fully upgraded and cooldown purchased from the Power Up shop) is meaningless, and actually dangerous. If you're having a hard time clearing the screen and living by slipping into holes you've punched in the mobs, clearing the screen will give you a brief respite and then fill the entire screen simultaneously. You will be overrun in seconds and surrounded because you haven't had a chance to punch a hole anywhere.

But more important than any of that is the fact that, before you manage to level the Pentagram to eight and transform it, you still have to play with the Pentagram. 50% or more of the time it's going to clear the screen and erase all the gems and items on it. This will happen more frequently early on, before you have enough experience to have put levels into the Pentagram. Put plainly: the Pentagram will screw your early game completely, over and over and over. Need that boss chest for a level in something? It just got erased. Need that chest to upgrade something? Erased. Red gem on the ground, just waiting to give you a crucial level up? Erased.

The only reason the Pentagram and Gorgeous Moon aren't in F-Tier is because - technically - once upgraded they do kill mobs without a downside. But they're still awful and have a wasted passive slot. Pure trash.

P.S.: Since someone will inevitably comment this: yes, the Pentagram/Gorgeous Moon have - on paper - high DPS. That's because they wipe the screen. But they only protect you every 35 seconds for 1 second. High DPS without protection is worthless.

F-Tier

The items of F-tier offer no damage, or offer quality of life that can be found elsewhere.

Clock LancetThe Clock Lancet freezes mobs in a straight line shot from the player. It does no damage; frozen mobs do not shatter on their own, or explode to damage their nearby allies; they just get slow, then start walking again.

As you can see from the image, it also ignores basically all scaling in the game: no power, speed, amount, or area. It is a single, narrow beam that slows something you would have otherwise killed with any other (better) weapon.

Almost as useless as the Pentagram and should only be taken if attempting to kill Red Death (see below).

LaurelThe Laurel is a temporary invulnerability shield that activates when you take damage, allowing you to charge through groups of mobs without being chipped to death.

You know what else allows you to charge through mobs? Any decent weapon. You don't need to be invulnerable for a tiny amount of time. You need to kill everything you see.

Should only be taken if attempting to kill Red Death (see below).

Z-Tier (Special Mention)

Skull O'ManiacThe Skull O'Maniac is not an item you chose to help you complete a run; it's an item you choose to make the run more challenging.

Fully upgraded, it provides 50% increased enemy movement speed and health, as well as 50% more enemies and 50% faster enemy spawning. Combined with the curse upgrades in the Power Up shop, you can have up to 100% in these categories (130% if playing Lama, see below). This makes runs incredibly difficult; with a fully-purchased Power Up shop and a good character, the game will feel like you're taking your first ever run in Mad Forest all over again.

Recommended for veterans looking for a challenge.

Hidden ItemsAfter finding the Yellow Sign in the secret level (see Moongolow in the Choosing a Level section below) these hidden items are unlocked in all stages.

Gold Ring and Metaglio Right both increase curse by 5% per level. Fully leveling both results in 80% additional curse and should only be done by experienced players looking for a challenge.

The Silver Ring increases both area and duration by 5% per level. It is always worth picking up.

Metaglio Left increases recovery by 0.1 and max health by 5% per level. It is mostly useless.

Infinite CorridorThe Clock Lancet, upgraded to the Infinite Corridor via the Silver and Gold Rings, is technically the highest damage weapon in the game because it instantly halves enemy health (see right).

Infinite Corridor is specifically meant to allow you to kill the Red Death at the end of levels, allowing you to unlock that character for your own use and farm Golden Eggs (see below).

Because the health halving allows you to kill enemies more quickly and easily, the Infinite Corridor fits any build that wants it and is essentially S-Tier for its protection and damage.

Crimson ShroudThe Laurel, upgraded to the Crimson Shroud via Metaglio Left and Right, is a purely defensive item designed to allow you to tank hits from the Red Death at the end of levels. It caps damage at 10, meaning if you have 10 armor as well you're functionally invincible while it has charges.

Because defenses are useless in Vampire Survivors, Crimson Shroud should only be taken if you intend to farm Golden Eggs (see below). It is essentially F-Tier.

Greatest JubileeGreatest Jubilee spawns small fireworks around the screen that damage enemies. It also periodically spawns light sources around the player, allowing for easy access to healing chicken and bags of gold.

Greatest Jubilee isn't a weapon so much as it is a generator of light sources. This means it cannot be recommended for its damage (which is poor) but can be used situationally when generating light sources synergizes with a player's plan, such as for farming gold in the Bone Zone.

DLC Items: Mt. Moonspell

DLC items may not be available to all players and are thus in a separate section.

Note: Mt Moonspell weapon ranks will come after more playtesting has occured.

Silver WindSilver Wind, upgraded to Festive Winds with a max level Pummarola, is a moderately powerful early-game weapon with a strong AOE pulse and the chance to heal on kill.

More data coming soon.

Four SeasonsTier: S

Four Seasons, upgraded to Godai Shuffle with a max level Spinach and Candelabrador, is a strange weapon: it starts strong, grows weaker with each level up, and then upgrades into an absolute powerhouse.

Four Seasons strikes the four diagonal directions around the character, but with each level moves further and further out from the character until, at level 8, it's striking the corners of the screen and barely hurting enemies that are closer and dangerous to the player. This means that a heavy early investment in Four Seasons usually leaves you vulnerable to close enemies, and should be delayed until both Spinach and Candelabrador are fully leveled and a chest is available to upgrade to Godai Shuffle.

Once upgraded Godai Shuffle gains a fifth striking point in the very centre of the screen, once again protecting the player. It also does incredible damage, more or less wiping the entire screen of enemies constantly. With investment in cooldown and area, it's the most damaging weapon in the game.

If you can manage the early difficulties, Four Seasons and Godai Shuffle are fantastic picks.

Summon NightSummon Night, upgraded to Echo Night with a max level Duplicator, is a terrible, terrible weapon early and a strong damage-dealer once upgraded.

More data coming soon.

Mirage RobeMirage Robe, upgraded to J'Odore with a max level Attractorb, is a strong early weapon that only gets more powerful once upgraded.

More data coming soon.

Night SwordNight Sword, upgraded to Muramasa with a max level Stone Mask, is just incredibly mediocre from start to finish.

More testing needed and more data coming soon.

Mille Bolle BluTier: F

Mille Bolle Blu, upgraded to Boo Roo Boolle with a max level Spellbinder, is worthless. It shoots small bubbles behind your character that explode in a tiny area dealing poor damage.

Once upgraded to the Boo Roo Boolle this is only mildly improved in the form of larger AOE and overlapping explosions. The fact that this upgrade requires picking the Spellbinder, one of the weakest support items, just makes it worse.

It appears to be the troll item of the Mt Moonspell DLC, mirroring other 'favorites' like Carréllo or Celestial Dusting.

108 Bocce108 Bocce has no evolution and doesn't scale with projectile number, immediately making it non-competitive with other weapons.

More data coming soon.

DLC Items: Tides Of The Foscari

DLC items may not be available to all players and are thus in a separate section.

SpellString Tier: A

SpellString, upgraded to SpellStrom with max level SpellStream and SpellStrike, is a three-part weapon where each part is kinda bad by itself.

SpellString fires small sparkles at the enemy which do little damage and have no pierce or AOE, providing very little safety. SpellStream fires a circle from the player that surges forward and then returns slightly, dealing decent damage in a small AOE comparable to Santa Water. SpellStrike creates a modestly-sized zone and slashes within it, dealing surprisingly high damage with a high cooldown. When all three weapons are max level, they will upgrade to SpellStrom.

SpellStrom absolutely fills the screen with blue sparks, and creates two black holes that circle the player. Each hole attacks with a SpellString, and SpellStream and SpellStrike continue to attack with their effects (although this can be hard to verify or even see; the screen will be completely full of sparks). Periodically, the black holes will slam into each other, causing a riot of sparks and a damaging singularity that increases in damage with every activation.

SpellStrom is a very effective AOE weapon, on par with La Borra, but far behind Godai Shuffle (everything is). Its difficult early game and fiddly upgrade process - requiring three weapon slots - make it somewhat annoying to use, but this is made up for by its excellent damage and the fact that it leaves a passive item slot "free" by not requiring one.

EskizziburTier: S

Eskizzibur, upgraded to Legionnaire with max level Armor, is a cleaving, close-range weapon that does a surprisingly good job keeping you safe while dealing damage, and retaliates.

Eskizzibur attacks in front of and behind the player, with additional swings added with increased Amount. After level 5 it will also attack the ground in a large circular slam in front of the player. This slam is fiddly, like all directional attacks, as you aren't always facing the area you want to deal damage in. Eskizzibur scales very well with AOE, as the cleaving attacks grow quite large and can protect from all sides, and the slam will hit in a huge area.

Once combined with a max level Armor, Eskizzibur will become Legionnaire. Legionnaire is functionally identical to Eskizzibur, except it begins hurling clones of the player across the screen in whatever direction the player last moved, dealing decent damage.

What sets the base and upgraded weapon apart is not the damage or safety, however; it is the fact that they retaliate when you're struck, and that the player clones sent by Legionnaire count as retaliatory damage. Retaliation damage scales with Armor and, more importantly, Arcana IX. Using that arcana, it's trivial to reach more than 20,000% increased Might by either running face-first into enemies or simply killing them with Legionnaire clones.

A relatively safe, high damage weapon without Arcana IX. With it, a guaranteed victory.

Flash ArrowTier: F

Flash Arrow, upgraded to Millionaire with max level Bracer and Clover, is an absolutely terrible weapon that is useful only for single-target damage.

Flash Arrow fires a single, tiny arrow in the direction the player is moving that passes through a limited number of enemies and disappears. It is almost impossible to aim it at anything you want to target without counting down its cooldown in your head and turning to face the enemy you're running from. Nothing will scale the number of arrows that are shot; Amount only increases damage. It also takes two awful passive items, the Bracer and Clover, to upgrade it to Millionaire.

Millionaire is just as bad as Flash Arrow in every way, although it has infinite pierce and is slightly larger. It also causes sparks to rain behind the player when collecting gold or killing enemies.

Flash Arrow and Millionaire virtually require Arcana VII in order to be functional at all, since it lets them bounce of walls rather than simply disappear after firing, but even then they aren't good. Terrible protection and damage in a tiny strip of the screen is just not good enough to use. With enough Limit Break levels you can get the single arrow to hit a large amount of the screen, but by that point any other weapon would be just as effective.

Banish it.

Prismatic MissileTier: A

Prismatic Missile, upgraded to Luminaire with max level Crown, is solid all-round AOE weapon that benefits from everything you want.

Prismatic Missile sends a spiralling rainbow projectile down the screen that hits enemies in vertical lines. It scales very well with Area and Amount, doing excellent damage and screen clear from level 1. It is also affected by the first chosen of three arcana: II, XIV, and XIX. Arcana II causes horizontal explosions around the projectile, clearing in a wide flat disk. Arcana XIV causes the projectiles to freeze enemies, which is less useful. Arcana XIX again causes explosions, this time in a circular AOE. Both explosion choices are very strong.

Once fully levelled with a max level Crown, Prismatic Missile becomes Luminaire. Luminaire fills the screen with what looks like a giant lace doily that doesn't actually do anything; the actual attacks are hard to see beams of rainbow light that lance down from the top of the screen. It is still affected by whichever of the three arcana the player chose. Luminaire does excellent AOE damage, comparable to La Borra, but worse than Godai Shuffle.

A surprisingly safe AOE weapon and solid choice.

Shadow ServantTier: B

Shadow Servant, upgraded to Ophion with max level Skull 'O Maniac, is an absolute endgame destroyer, and very bad early.

Shadow Servant fires a snake at a random nearby enemy, permanently slowing them and dealing moderate damage. Amount scales the number of snakes, but it takes significant investment in AOE and at least level 5 before they'll hit more than a single enemy, making Shadow Servant one of the least-safe items in Vampire Survivors. However, once combined with a max level Skull 'O Maniac it becomes Ophion.

Ophion creates huge black void zones around the character that deal damage and explode. It also has a 1% chance to instantly kill any enemy, and this is where Ophion really shines. This chance can increase to 100% with Limit Break levels, allowing Ophion to wipe screens easily and continually.

Tough to start with, but fantastic once upgraded.

Party PopperTier: F

Party Popper is this DLC's troll item.

Party Popper creates several small projectiles that fire in an arc away from the character then fall down the screen and bounce off the corners and bottom. It has no upgraded form. Even leaning strongly into it with Arcana I and scaling the two worst stats in the game (projectile speed and duration) its damage is awful.

Nope.

Academy BadgeTier: A

Academy Badge is a passive item that currently upgrades no weapons. It exists only in the two Tides of the Foscari DLC stages and from several of the DLC characters dropping it. It cannot be acquired otherwise.

Fully upgraded, the Academy Badge provides 3 Amount and 2 Revive at the cost of -15% Growth, and as such this is a very good item. At all but very endgame gold and egg farming, 3 Amount is almost certainly worth more than slightly reduced experience gain.

Arcanas

Unlocked by finding the Randomazzo in stage 4, Gallo Tower, Arcanas are game-altering buffs that change many things, and make various new strategies possible. There are currently six Arcanas, and space in the interface for a total of twenty-two.

You can have up to three Arcanas at a time. The first you choose when starting a stage, allowing a degree of planning. The other two are unlocked during a run by opening chests dropped by the bosses that spawn at minute 11:00 and 21:00. These second two Arcanas are selected from a random draft rather than picking from the entire selection freely, and may thus be useful to you or completely worthless.

Arcana 0 - Game KillerGame Killer immediately stops your character from leveling up, preventing you from gaining any new weapons or passives. In exchange chests are always triple items (at minimum) and exp gems become damaging explosions.

Choosing Game Killer to early in a run (or at all) can easily result in a loss; thus its name. An Arcana for those looking for a challenge.

Arcana I - GeminiGemini causes the Birds and the Guns to have a second copy of themselves, essentially doubling their output.

If you're going to use either of the affected weapons, Gemini has no downside and should be picked.

Arcana II - Twilight RequiemTwilight Requiem causes the listed weapons to deal a horizontal, wind-like explosion when they expire. While the effect is fairly strong, it won't cause them to suddenly rival the highest DPS weapons in the game the same way that Arcana XIX does.

Twilight Requiem does work with Unholy Vespers, despite the fact that the weapon never actually expires.

Arcana III - Tragic PrincessTragic Princess significantly lowers the cooldown of Garlic/Soul Eater, Santa Water/La Borra, Lightning Ring/Thunder Loop, and Carréllo as long as the player is moving. Given that you spend most of the game having to dodge enemies this cooldown reduction is essentially always active.

Borderline mandatory for any build planning to use the listed items.

Arcana IV - AwakeAwake grants a number of additional revives and causes previously useless revives to grant the player bonuses. This scales directly with the Phieraggi (see above) by adding additional beams to its shots.

Another strategy, although dangerous to all but seasoned players, is to select this Arcana, take the Tiragisú passive item, and then die purposefully until you have no revives. This will consume the Tiragisú, freeing up a passive slot, and grant you buffs for each death. With full upgrades this is six revives (eight on Krochi, but don't play Krochi), totaling +60% maximum health, +6 armor, and +30% might, area, duration, and speed.

Always worth taking if you're comfortable with dying on purpose.

Note: the Tiragisú is consumed last. Make sure you've upgraded the Phieraggi before your final revive if you intend to use it.

Arcana V - Chaos in the Dark NightChaos in the Dark Night rotates between high and low projectile speed, an essentially useless effect. If chosen early, it also provides decent stacking projectile speed as you level.

Not worthless, but not nearly as powerful as other arcanas.

Arcana VI - Sarabande of HealingSarabande dramatically changes the Bloody Tear and Soul Eater (see above). No longer is their healing a wasted stat; it's now doubled and damages nearby enemies, allowing for builds that are more or less invincible, face-tanking everything short of bosses.

An incredible Arcana to build around.

Arcana VII - Iron Blue WillIron Blue Will adds bounces, which is always good, but too narrowly. You're probably not using the Knife; you may be using the Axe; you're definitely upgrading out of Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow, and it doesn't add bounce to Phieraggi, sadly. Carréllo is a troll item.

Mediocre.

Arcana VIII - Mad GrooveMad Groove pulls every single interactable item on the stage into a circle around your character. This is enormous quality of life and very convenient but adds no damage or survivability to your run.

Useful if you're happy to sacrifice a damage arcana. (Note: the hidden stage items are also pulled in. If you pick them all up at once, you'll be mobbed by 4 guardians at the same time. Be ready.)

Arcana IX - Divine BloodlineDivine Bloodline allows for a "brawler" style of play, encouraging you to bull your way into enemies to kill them. It grants the Cross, King Bible, Garlic, Santa Water, Lightning Ring, Song of Mana, Vento Sacro, and Victory Sword bonus flat damage equal to five times your armor value, up to 250 flat damage. It also grants all weapons +1 damage per 10 missing health.

If you can inflate your health and ram into as many enemies as possible, this is a very strong arcana.

Arcana X - BeginningBeginning grants +1 amount to Bone, Cherry Bomb, Carréllo, and Celestial Dusting, as well as +3 to whatever weapon your character starts with. Additional projectiles are always excellent and always scale well.

An all-rounder choice.

Arcanas (cont.)

Arcana XI - Waltz of PearlsWaltz of Pearls - like Iron Blue Will - adds bounces, but to much better weapons. Magic and Fire wands are excellent items, and the Cross benefits from not instantly disappearing off-screen once it fires. Ignore the Carréllo.

When combined with Arcana XIX - Heart of Fire, Waltz makes the Fire Wand even more hilariously strong, essentially turning it into NO FUTURE but with all the regular benefits of the Fire Wand.

Arcana XII - Out of BoundsOut of Bounds causes the Clock Lancet and any found Orologions to cause explosions around effected enemies. These explosions are powerful enough to use the Clock Lancet as a damage item very effectively. However, Out of Bounds is too narrow an arcana to recommend using, affecting just a single weapon.

Although the wording of the arcana states "freezing enemies," its effect only applies to Clock Lancet and Orologions. Empowering the Magic/Holy Wand, Runetracer/NO FUTURE, and Eight The Sparrow via Arcana XIV - Jail of Crystal does nothing.

Arcana XIII - Wicked SeasonWicked Season provides temporary doubling of certain stats, rotating through Growth, Luck, Greed, and Curse. The doubling applies to only one stat at a time. This can get out of hand if you don't have a strong enough character to deal with the doubled Curse when it rotates through, but is otherwise largely unimpactful.

A challenge arcana, but a silly one. The challenge is only present 1/4 of the time thanks to the rotation.

Arcana XIV - Jail of CrystalJail of Crystal causes Magic/Holy Wand, Runetracer/NO FUTURE, and Eight The Sparrow to have a chance to freeze on hit. The chance is reasonably high (at least 25%) so this Arcana is an excellent defensive choice, both single target with Magic/Holy Wand and screen-wide with Runetracer/NO FUTURE.

Does not synergize with Arcana XII - Out of Bounds.

Arcana XV - Disco of GoldDisco of Gold causes gold to heal you and bags of gold to trigger Gold Fever, a temporary state where killing enemies generates gold. Unfortunately, the healing from a gold coin basically negligible. During Gold Fever the healing is greater thanks to the large amount of gold you're generating, but bags of gold are rare so getting a Gold Fever and using that healing cannot be relied upon.

Recommended only if farming gold or scaling Luck (for more gold bag drops).

Arcana XVI - SlashSlash is not a game-changing Arcana, but is interesting. It allows you to take all the bladed weapons and helps compensate for their various downsides with massive damage.

Fun, but not mindblowing.

Arcana XVII - Lost & Found PaintingLost & Found is similar to Chaos in the Dark Night. It produces a net-positive amount of duration, but it's far more dangerous than Chaos: when you hit the -50% duration, it can be deadly if you're unlucky and your weapons drop off just as you need them.

Given that even very high duration is mostly wasted, I wouldn't recommend Lost & Found.

Arcana XVIII - Boogaloo of IllusionsBoogaloo of Illusions is similar to Lost & Found and Chaos in the Dark Night. It produces a net-positive amount of area. Area is good, but having random amounts of it isn't useful.

A stronger arcana than Lost & Found and Chaos in the Dark Night, but pendulum effects are lackluster.

Arcana XIX - Heart of FireHeart of Fire is a very strong defensive item early, causing you to kill anything that touches you. While it does only affect one weapon, it does so amazingly: taking Heart of Fire will cause the Hellfire to become the most damaging item in the game (see right).

Hellfire projectiles will cause AOE explosions on every single enemy they hit, effectively clearing whatever side of the screen they're flying at. This is two things: hilarious, and effective.

Very fun and very useful.

Arcana XX - Silent Old SanctuarySilent Old Sanctuary grants strong flat stats for each weapon slot you leave empty. This is a large bonus to both might and cooldown, but not all weapons can carry a run by themselves.

Using Silent Old Sanctuary essentially makes any run a challenge run, but is a fun limitation for advanced players.

Note: earning the Mindbender relic by filling out 100 entries in the Collection allows you to limit your weapon slots before starting a run from the character select screen.

Arcana XXI - Blood AstronomiaBlood Astronomia grants the Garlic, Soul Eater, Pentagram, Gorgeous Moon, Song of Mana, Mannajja, Clock Lancet, Laurel, and Attractorb special properties. The weapons create strange red effects that damage enemies within magnet range based on amount. The damage this adds is respectable, about half that of a Phieraggi (see right).

Blood Astronomia is a good way to pull extra damage out of several mediocre weapons.

Choosing Power Ups

The Power Up store allows us to build power over time via successful runs with high coin totals. Everything in it is worth buying eventually, but several upgrades stand out.

Remember: you can refund your purchases at any time with no penalty. Never leave coins unspent.

Early Power Ups

Movement Speed: 1 level

Magnet: 1 level

Greed: 5 levels

A single level of each movement speed and pick-up radius allows us to ignore those passive items in any run, and is borderline mandatory. Without those levels, you move quite slowly compared to mobs and have a tiny little pick-up radius.

After that, five levels of greed allows us to prioritize high coin totals and makes everything else in the shop more easily acquired.

Middle Power Ups

Amount: 1 level

Luck: 3 levels

Movement Speed: 1 level

Magnet: 1 level

Growth: 5 levels

Might: 5 levels

Omni: 5 levels

Amount is the most powerful upgrade on the board. Everything of any worth scales with additional projectiles. Refund your other upgrades and buy amount as soon as you feel safe doing so.

Three levels of luck means we have a decent chance of having four choices with every level up, allowing for better selection of skills. Finishing the last point in both movement speed and pick-up radius allows for more quality of life, making runs smoother. Five levels of growth for faster level-ups does the same.

Might is damage, damage is safety, safety is long runs with more coins.

Late Power Ups

Cooldown, Area, Speed, Duration: your preference.

All of these passives are decent, but the increases they offer are very, very small, so they don't make much difference. Speed is the worst one, though.

Final Power Ups

Armor: 3 levels

Max Health, Recovery, Revive, Skip, Reroll, Banish: your preference.

As always, defense does not win games. Armor does let you bull your way through mobs in the early game, however, and is better than the other five options in this tier.

Revive will save you if you screw up and sit on a mob by accident, but otherwise it'll just revive you in whatever bad situation you found yourself in and you'll die again to exactly what killed you seconds before.

Skip and Reroll allow you to avoid a bad set of items on leveling up. They're nice quality of life, but they're outrageously expensive, especially for a new player.

Banish is also nice quality of life, allowing you to nix an item you particularly hate, but has the advantage of being very cheap.

CurseCurse is a fully optional challenge Power Up designed to increase the difficulty of a run. Fully upgraded, it provides 50% increased enemy movement speed and health, as well as 50% more enemies and 50% faster enemy spawning.

Combined with the Skull O'Maniac item, you can have up to 100% in these categories (130% if playing Lama, see below). This makes runs incredibly difficult; with a fully-purchased Power Up shop and a good character, the game will feel like you're taking your first ever run in Mad Forest all over again.

Recommended for veterans looking for a challenge.

SealSeal is an ultra-lategame power up that allows you to banish either an item or a light source pick up from your game, up to 10 times. This is not done in game, but rather from the collection menu.

Seal allows you to customize your game to your tastes, either by banning items you never use or by banning strategically for hyper-specific runs, such as gold farming.

Good for every player, but prohibitively expensive early.

CharmCharm causes 20 more enemies to spawn with each wave, up to a maximum of 100. Although this sounds like a pure positive in terms of experience, it's a double-edged sword: this many extra enemies can make the early game very difficult for a character without splash damage.

If the sheer numbers can be overcome, however, Charm is a fantastic upgrade that speeds up weapon and passive growth noticeably.

Golden Eggs And How To Farm Them

The MerchantOnce you've unlocked the Moongolow level (see below) you can purchase and unlock a merchant named the Glass Vizard.

Henceforth he will appear in every level and can be interacted with once. His inventory consists of the character-specific weapons (see right) and Golden Eggs. Given that those weapons do not upgrade and are generally troll items it's not recommended that you purchase any of them.

Of note, however, are the Golden Eggs.

Golden EggsGolden Eggs act as a gold sink in Vampire Survivors, allowing experienced players who've already purchased all upgrades to spend their excess gold on their favorite character to (very, very minorly) enhance their power.

For 10,000 gold you'll gain between 0.01 and 0.2 of a random stat. This can be literally any stat, including projectile count and curse. Given the extreme expense, Golden Eggs should only be purchased by a character the player intends to use indefinitely.

There are two ways to get more Golden Eggs: kill specific enemies, and farm gold.

Farming Golden Eggs: EnemiesThere are two enemies that drop Golden Eggs: Red Deaths and hidden item guardians.

Once the hidden items are unlocked (see Z-Tier above) there will be four items in each map that are guarded by special monsters. These item guardians have an enormous amount of health, but once killed each drop a single Golden Egg. They can be killed without any special preparation.

At the end of every level, Red Deaths appear to kill your character. These Red Deaths, if killed, also drop Golden Eggs. In order to kill them you need to collect all four of the hidden items mentioned above, fully level them, and upgrade them with the Clock Lancet and Laurel (see Z-Tier above).

Farming Golden Eggs: GoldThe other way to farm Golden Eggs is simply to collect 10,000 gold and purchase one.

Gold farming is best done in The Bone Zone, given its 100% gold multiplier and the lack of healing from light sources (meaning all light source drops will be gold coins or bags). Pick a strong character and use Arcana XV - Disco of Gold to maximize profits.

Farming Golden Eggs: InfiniteIf the player has purchased DLC2, Tides of the Foscari, and unlocked all content, they can enter the Abyss Foscari level and go to where the Torrona's Box is located. Once there, mini Atlanteans will spawn continually and the player can farm an infinite number of eggs.

Choosing A Character: Top Tier

When selecting your character there are only two variables: starting weapon and passive. The best weapons are those with upgrade paths, and the best passives are damage-related. This makes selection easy, and also eliminates most characters.

Top TierImelda BelpaeseImelda starts with the A-Tier Magic Wand. Her passive is experience gain, which is mediocre compared but others, but she excels during early playthroughs as you're unlocking all the items and initial coin shop passives.

Recommended, but outclassed by later characters.

Arca LadonnaArca starts with the A-Tier Fire Wand and offers a passive 15% weapon cooldown reduction, an excellent stat. The early game can be difficult with just a slow Fire Wand, but that downside is outweighed by Arca's kit.

All-round excellent choice.

MortaccioMortaccio's passive is +3 additional projectiles, a stat so good I'm surprised he was allowed to have it. It literally outclasses every other passive in the game. Without upgrades from the coin shop he may be difficult early game, since he needs 20 levels for his first +1 projectile.

Mortaccio's starting weapon is the bone, a bouncing projectile that acts like the ball from the game Breakout, striking enemies and then bouncing away. It does decent early damage and scales well with projectiles, speed, and duration.

After unlocking the Chaos Malachite in the Bat Country level, Mortaccio will transform at level 80, upgrading the Bone to the Anima of Mortaccio. Once upgraded, this causes the Bone to accelerate after each bounce, and causes bone arms to rotate around Mortaccio. This upgrade does decent damage, and allows Mortaccio to remain competitive with other, more powerful characters.

DommarioDommario starts with the King Bible and has incredible passives: 40% increased duration and 40% increased speed. This comes with the downside of 40% lowered movement speed, which may make him challenging for newer players, but for anyone experienced he is insanely powerful. The King Bible is already the best weapon in the game, and essentially has 100% up-time on Dommario with just a single additional level, and maxed out it's essentially already the Unholy Vespers without needing to be upgraded.

Nearly Mortaccio and Yatta's equal, if you can handle the slowness.

Lama LadonnaLama uses the Axe, which is a decent weapon, and starts with 10 bonus health, might, move speed, and curse. He also gains up to 20% more might, move speed, and curse as he levels, making him a strong but difficult character.

Recommended for experts and those with a fully-purchased Power Up shop.

Yatta CavalloYatta's passive, like Mortaccio, is +3 projectiles and, again like Mortaccio, this is overpowered. Unlike Mortaccio, his early game isn't difficult at all, thanks to his weapon.

Yatta's starting weapon is the Cherry Bomb. While the Cherry Bomb lacks an upgrade path, this is largely irrelevant; it's incredibly powerful baseline. Like the Bone, the Cherry Bomb shoots out from Yatta and bounces off walls and enemies; unlike the Bone, it doesn't just disappear: it explodes. The AOE of the explosion is generous and scales well, and with Yatta's additional projectiles passive quickly fills the screen. The Cherry Bomb is amazingly strong early game.

After obtaining the Chaos Rosalia from the Astral Stair level, Yatta will transform upon reaching level 80, gaining +2 Armor, +1 Amount, +100 Max Health, and +25% Luck. The Cherry Bomb also evolves into the Yatta Daikarin, which has 100% explosion chance.

An excellent weapon and passive combined with this eventual evolution make Yatta an excellent character.

Pugnala ProvolaPugnala's passive is 1% stacking might per level, an incredible bonus, and has a 20% movement speed bonus.

Pugnala's starting weapons are Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow, both of which are very strong early game and become complete monsters once upgraded to the Phieraggi.

An excellent passive and excellent weapons make Pugnala an easy choice for a strong game from start to finish.

Zi'Assunta BelpaeseZi'Assunta's passive is 0.5% stacking might, speed, duration, and area (a collection of stats referred to as "omni") per level, and has 20% bonus movement speed and 10% additional curse.

Zi'Assunta's starting weapon is the terrible Vento Sacro, an item that hits like a wet noodle and only exists to upgrade the Whip. That upgrade is excellent, but it means that Zi'Assunta's early game is much more difficult than Pugnala's.

Zi'Assunta's excellent passive, however, means that the possible top-end damage is simply absurd. A pick for veteran players, but a truly powerful one.

Sir AmbrojoeSir Ambrojoe's passive is +1 projectile every 20 levels, capping at +3, just like the other "troll item" characters. He also has +20% magnet, +20% luck, and +20% greed.

Sir Ambrojoe's weapon is the surprisingly excellent La Robba, a weapon that looks like a Kinder Egg but actually drops bouncing furniture all over the map that does high damage.

A good weapon and strong passive make Sir Ambrojoe an easy choice.

Queen SigmaQueen Sigma starts with 333 Health, 3 Recovery, 3 Armor, +50% Movement Speed, +50% Might, +50% Duration, -25% Cooldown, +1 Amount, +1 Revival, +100% Magnet, +50% Luck, +10% Curse, +108 Reroll, +108 Skip, and +108 Banish. She gains +1% Might and +1% Growth every level, and can have five arcanas. Her weapon is the excellent Victory Sword.

If she seems overpowered... that's because she is (see right). Sigma is so powerful it's essentially impossible to fail a run as her. Her only "negative" is that she is unaffected by Golden Eggs, but that hardly matters with stats this good.

Try her with all the stacking arcanas and absolutely blind yourself with a screen full of projectiles.

Choosing A Character: Everyone Else

Antonio BelpaeseAntonio's passive is more damage, which is good, but he uses the Whip, which is awful. Has bonus health and armor.

As soon as you unlock anyone else, stop using Antonio.

Pasqualina BelpaesePasqualina uses the Runetracer, which is only situationally good, and her passive is projectile speed, which only benefits the Runetracer.

Might actually be worse than Antonio.

Gennaro BelpaeseGennaro uses the Knife, which is a decent weapon. His passive is +1 total projectiles (non-scaling). He has 20 bonus health.

He's a strictly-worse version of Mortaccio.

Porta LadonnaPorta starts with the Lightning Ring, which can be hard to use in the early game for new players. Porta's passive is increased area, which is decent, but not good enough.

Pick Arca instead.

Poe RatchoPoe starts the game with the Garlic, making the early game incredibly easy. His passive is increased pick-up radius, making him a treat to start with, but ultimately Garlic is a dead-end item. His negative initial health is meaningless if you're following this guide and playing for damage.

A fun pick, but not good enough.

Suor ClericiEasily the worst character in the game, Clerici starts with a hilarious 400% increased area that quickly decays to 0%. The other passives are increased health and increased regeneration, both worthless stats.

Pick literally any other character.

Krochi FreettoBesides starting with one free revive, Krochi also has a 30% bonus to movement speed, making pathing around enemies a breeze. Unfortunately starts with the incredibly mediocre cross as a weapon, necessitating picking up the worthless Clover in order to upgrade it.

Revives are mostly useless, but by the endgame you can have three banked. When the reaper comes to kill your character it will do so three separate times, giving you a 500 coin bonus over the usual end of a run. A very small upside to a lackluster passive.

Poppea PecorinaPoppea starts with a 20% bonus to move speed, and gains 1% duration per level. She isn't awful, mostly thanks to the Song of Mana weapon she starts with, but duration is a mostly wasted stat for the builds in this guide.

A niche pick.

Christine DavainChristine starts with a free level, granting her a skill as soon as the game starts. She passively has low health (50), 30% increased movement speed, -35% might, and 25% cooldown reduction.

The might loss is a significant downside when combined with her awful skill, Pentagram. As detailed in the items section, Pentagram is essentially an increased challenge rather than a useful weapon, and with lessened might, all other weapons are worse as well.

Originally posted by Lorberry:I'd like to point out that, mathematically speaking and assuming both relevant shop upgrades, Christine is actually just about net neutral in DPS compared to baseline at game start. It works out to about a 2% DPS loss assuming full uptime... and no overkill. Which is actually incredibly important and what makes her a bit of a sleeper powerhouse - early game when you're one-shotting everything anyway, firing more often is usually going to be more *effective* DPS, since you aren't wasting as much damage to overkill.

And as you move to the mid- and late-game, any weapons that don't upgrade to continuous fire (or you weren't able to get the upgrade pairing for) are going to be getting better coverage and knockback. And that's all before picking up the Tome or Spinach. To make a long story short, it works out such that she scales better than the 'baseline' character with just spinach (about 8.5% better paper DPS if both take it), and MUCH better with Tome due to how Cooldown scaling works out - around 35% better. Taking both leads to her having a 46.6% DPS advantage.

Granted, this only works with weapons that scale with cooldown, so continuous fire weapons like the Vespers are clearly weaker... but as already mentioned, firing faster also closes the consistency gap that makes the Vespers so good in the first place.As pointed out by Lorberry in the guide comments, Christine does have a significant upside; I personally still feel it's outweighed by the Pentagram's awfulness, but there's a strong case to be made for an advanced player to pick her.

Bianca RambaBianca starts with absolutely no bonuses. She gains a projectile every 20 levels, up to +3. Her weapon is the abysmal Carréllo, a minecart that shoots horizontally from the player and ricochets off the edges of the screen. The Carréllo is incredibly bad; Bianca is doomed by her weapon. A poor pick.

Giovanna GranaGiovanna starts with 20% bonus movement speed, and gains 1% projectile speed per level. Her weapon is the Gatti Amari, which is highly random and more or less useless. As projectile speed is also a very niche stat, she isn't very good.

O'Sole MeeoO'Sole Meeo has no stat bonuses and gains +1 projectile every 20 levels. Its weapon is Celestial Dusting which is not very good, lacking an upgrade path and attacking behind the character. Projectiles are always good, but O'Sole Meeo doesn't offer anything else, making him worse than the other projectile picks.

Concetta CaciottaConcetta Caciotta starts with 20% additional movement speed and 10% additional curse. She gains 1% area per level, a very strong stat. Unfortunately, her starting weapon is the Shadow Pinion, which is quite weak and needs a very active playstyle to be effective. There are stronger choices.

Iguana Gallo VallettoIguana Gallo Valletto starts with 15% duration, 15% cooldown, 3 additional rerolls and skips, and, crucially, -50% greed. His weapon is the awful (unless hunting reapers) Clock Lancet, and his passive is 50% more experience.

The loss of coin (now that we have a money sink) and the terrible passive and weapon make him a poor choice.

Divano ThelmaDivano Thelma starts with 1% recovery, 30% luck, 6 additional banishes, and, crucially, -50% greed. His weapon is the awful (unless hunting reapers) Laurel, and his passive is 5 more armor.

The loss of coin (now that we have a money sink) and the terrible passive and weapon make him a poor choice.

Choosing A Character: Secret Characters

All secret characters can be unlocked via either special actions or codes. Codes are unlocked by collecting the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane item which is found by killing the skeleton ball enemy in the Bone Zone. This will unlock a Secrets menu which contains hints about how to unlock characters and a section to input cheat codes.

Exdash ExiviiqExdash Exiviiq is a secret, ultra-challenging character. It is unlocked by typing "x-x1viiq" (without quotes) into either the starting screen or the credits screen of the main menu.

Exdash is not a character designed to complete runs. Exdash exists solely to challenge yourself to complete a run with major downsides coming directly from your character. As you can see from the above picture, Exdash has the following stat penalties: less health, less movement speed, less damage, less area of effect, massively slower projectiles, less skill duration, and longer cooldowns. It does, however, have 100% increased luck, allowing for some interesting strategies.

Beyond the stat penalties, Exdash starts with Ebony Wings. This is an absolutely terrible starting item and makes the early game incredibly punishing. To play effectively, you will have to seek out light sources for health and rely on luck to overcome early disadvantages.

All told, Exdash is a welcome challenge that forces you to play differently and mix up your builds. I recommend you have many, many levels in your Power Up shop before attempting him, however.

ToastieToastie is Exdash's extra-squishy sibling, sharing exactly the same (incredibly bad) stats except for having +20% movement speed and only 1 health point.

Toastie is unlocked via killing either the green or blue deaths in the Dairy Plant or Gallo Tower levels respectively. This is most easily done with the Pentagram/Gorgeous Moon, and most consistently done in Gallo Tower. The green death in the Dairy Plant has a small chance to spawn, whereas the blue death in Gallo Tower always spawns with the crab boss.

To unlock: choose Christine as your character. Go to Gallo Tower (on hurry, if you have it unlocked). Upgrade your Pentagram to Gorgeous Moon. Survive until the crab boss spawns. Head straight down until you see the blue death on the left side of your screen. Wait for Gorgeous Moon to proc. Once it does, immediately mash ENTER+↓. That is the enter key and the down arrow key. You'll see a little red ghost face pop up in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Toastie starts with the same terrible stats and weapon as Exdash. The greater movement speed makes life easier whereas the 1hp does not. It's still quite possible to beat the game with him, even on 100% curse, as you can see from the screenshot to the right. I wouldn't recommend the hollow heart, which you can see I've used; it, plus all my revives from the Arcana, only got my maximum HP to 5. As always, just build damage and projectiles.

A challenge character for advanced players.

Smith IVSmith IV has the exact same stats as Toastie except for a whopping 6 more health, but has the significant advantage of starting with the Vandalier fully upgraded.

Smith is unlocked by first having unlocked Exdash and Toastie, and then:

Typing "spam" in the menu, and then

Typing "spam" in the character selection screen, and then

Typing "spam" in the stage select screen, and then

Typing "humbug" once the game starts.Do this all as quickly as possible and Smith will be in the character selection screen the next time you check.

Smith is essentially the same in gameplay and strategy as all the other ghost characters, but is somewhat easier thanks to having a completed Vandalier. Still a challenge character for veteran players.

Mask of the Red DeathMask of the Red Death is a secret character unlocked by beating the Red Death that kills your character when you reach the end of a thirty minute run. This is done by first unlocking the hidden items (see the Moongolow section of Choosing a Level, below), then collecting them, fully leveling them, and upgrading them with the Clock Lancet and the Laurel (see Z-Tier, above). Once you have the Infinite Corridor and Crimson Shroud you can freeze and kill the Red Death at the end of any level and unlock the hero.

Mask of the Red Death starts with the Death Spiral, 20% increased might, and 100% increased movement speed. These stats and that weapon make any run with Red Death essentially a free win.

You can literally run faster than experience gems can fly to you.

LedaLeda is unlocked by choosing stage 4, Gallo Tower, and running straight down until the screen darkens and you come upon the above image: a dude sticking out of a brain. If you then kill Leda (and this will take some time, he has an enormous health pool) the darkness of the level will dissipate and you'll have unlocked him in the character selection screen.

Leda's weapon is an upgraded Magic Wand, the Holy Wand. Leda has no listed passive, but instead starts with the following base stats: +5 armor, -20% movement speed, +100% might, +10% area, and -10% cooldown.

Leda is slow but powerful.

Boon MarrabbioBoon Marrabbio is unlocked by going to stage 1, Mad Forest, and picking up the Pummarola and Skull O'Maniac items, either from the floor or from leveling. Once you have them both, pies will start spawning on the ground; consume them. Eventually a shadowy figure will spawn. Once killed, Boon Marrabbio will be available to play.

Boon Marrabbio starts with 20 additional health, 30% movement speed, 20% might, -110% projectile speed, -80% greed, and 10% curse. This massive loss of projectile speed means that projectile behavior changes dramatically: some shoot behind you; others fall off screen; some don't move at all.

There's no reason to pick Boon Marrabbio other than for the jokes of weird projectiles.

Minnah MannarahMinnah is unlocked by picking up a cheese in the Dairy Plant level and killing the boss enemies that it spawns. This is most easily done by entering the Dairy Plant and selecting Arcana VIII - Mad Groove from the Randomazzo before the level starts. Then simply pick up the cheese and kill the enemies.

Minnah starts with 150 health, 0.5 recovery, and -70% might. Minnah's might, speed, duration, area, and cooldown all vary over time, rising and falling from huge to tiny and back again. Additionally, Minnah's might will slowly increase over the course of the level, going from -70% up to -10%. No other stats are affected by this increase over time.

Minnah starts with the rather poor Bloody Tear, but because it's already upgraded you can simply pick up a Vento Sacro and upgrade it again to a Fuwalafuwaloo, a much better weapon. Getting a Fuwalafuwaloo without having to use a passive slot on a Hollow Heart is a nice bonus, but Minnah's ever-rotating stats are annoying to deal with and the character doesn't differentiate itself from the others in any significant way, leaving it as a lesser pick.

Choosing A Character: Secret Characters (cont.)

PeppinoPeppino is unlocked by selecting O'Sole and entering the level Il Molise. Once there simply run left and right. O'sole's weapon, Celestial Dusting, will heal the plants. Take no damaging weapons and whatever passives buff Celestial Dusting (Wings recommended). Eventually you'll hear a special character unlock sound and Peppino will be available.

Peppino starts with 20 additional health, +2 armor, -100% movement speed, -60% area, and +100% magnet. Peppino's area increases when leveling, gaining a total of 60% by level 21, putting him at a neutral 0%. Peppino's starting weapon is the Soul Eater.

Playing as Peppino, you are essentially a stationary turret, damaging without moving and vacuuming up experience gems. Grabbing the Wings early can help you avoid bosses before you have any damage online, and Arcana III is highly recommended (see right).

A fun challenge character.

GyoruntonGyorunton is unlocked by surviving 15 minutes in the Boss Rash level. This is best accomplished with a character that is strong immediately, such as Red Death, because experience is scarce and a completing a full build is unlikely.

Gyorunton starts with 300 health, +30% might, and +2 revives, and gains 1% curse per level. Gyorunton's weapon is the Bracelet, which fires three projectiles at a random enemy. The Bracelet upgrades from opening any chest once it has been leveled to max. It becomes the Bi-Bracelet, which upgrades the exact same way into the Tri-Bracelet.

The only real reason to play Gyorunton is to try out the Bracelet, which is currently exclusive to the character. It deals good damage (see right) and clears decently, but has little else to recommend it.

Gains BorosGains Boros is unlocked by running straight up in the Bone Zone level. Pick your fastest character (Red Death) and charge north. You'll eventually come to a green circle that pulses for several seconds and disappears. Gains Boros will now be unlocked.

Gains Boros starts with no bonus stats whatsoever, and gains 2% experience growth per level, resulting in a very high level character by the end of a run. Gains Boros' starting weapon is the mediocre Heaven Sword.

Gains Boros isn't terribly challenging, but is more a fun character for pushing for high level runs.

Big TrouserBig Trouser is unlocked by fulling leveling all accessories in the Moonglow level. This is most easily done with any of the special characters who start with an already upgraded weapon (Red Death, Gains Boros, etc). Keep in mind that dying to the death at the end of the level will remove your leveled Tiragisú, so you have to fully level all the accessories and then leave the level before that happens.

Big Trouser starts with 30% movement speed and 20% greed. He gains 1% greed per level and the gold fever effect lasts longer on him. His weapon isn't a weapon at all: it allows you to choose any weapon you like once you start a level.

Big Trouser is a gold farming machine, especially when used with arcanas 13 and 15.

Cosmo PavoneCosmo Pavone is unlocked in a complicated way: take a character who has no eggs unlocked, go to the Cappella Magna level, get both Peachone and Ebony Wings, go north until you're above the Crown/Tiragisú, and walk to the gate that bars the small ledge. It will open and you'll be able to pick up Cosmo.

Cosmo Pavone starts with just 20 health, 1 recovery, 30% movement speed, 1 revival, and 20% luck. Cosmo also gains 1 recovery and 1% luck per level, and 1 revival every 100 levels. Cosmo starts with both Peachone and Ebony Wings, but they don't count towards your weapon slots, allowing you 6 other weapons. These "free" birds work with arcana 1.

Cosmo acts like a better version of the ghost characters, and is excellent if you really want to fill a screen blindingly full of projectiles.

RandomRandom is unlocked simply by visiting any previously unlocked coffin and unlocking in again.

Random starts with no stat changes and 100 flat health. It has a random name and random starting weapon. Random is, as the name suggests, used when the player wishes to play a random round with no character bonuses affecting anything.

missingNomissingNo is unlocked by selecting the Green Acres stage and running down and left, to the extreme southwest corner of the screen. As you do so, you'll notice the grid on the screen eventually stops spawning (see right).

Once there, the screen will shift and waves of mobs will rush you (see below). Once they're defeated the regular Green Acres screen will return and missingNo will be unlocked. This can be a difficult fight, so chose a powerful character such as Queen Sigma.

missingNo starts with either the Axe or its upgrade, the Death Spiral. missingNo also has completely randomized stats with huge variances, resulting in wildly different runs each time you pick it.

Like Random, missingNo is a character for those players seeking random runs, but in a vastly different way.

Avatar InfernasAvatar Infernas is unlocked by selecting the Inlaid Library while inverse mode is on. Collect both Peachone and Ebony Wings weapons (but do not evolve them). Run right, past the gold ring, until you encounter a death at a piano. Kill the death, touch the piano, and the Birds will show you what notes to press (2nd white key, 6th white, 5th black key, 5th white 1st black). You will be teleported into a new area with nine coffins in a grid; open them all and kill the enemy that spawns.

Avatar starts with 160 health, 50 might, 1 revival, 100 magnet, 50 luck, and 10 rerolls. Avatar also gains stacking +0.5% Curse, +0.5% Might, +2% MoveSpeed, and -0.25% Cooldown every level. Avatar's weapon is the excellent Flames of Misspell.

Avatar's gameplay is simply rapid. The stacking movespeed and curse eventually mean that the player will fly across the screen, followed by equally rapid enemies. A lot of fun.

Scorej-OniScorej-Oni is unlocked by heading right on the Tiny Bridge until you encounter the character and then killing it.

Oni starts with 108 health, -20% movement speed, and 20% area. Oni gains a lightning ring every 8 levels, up to 6 total. These additional rings don't appear in your inventory, but absolutely work.

Oni is quite slow, but because the special lightning rings trigger on damage, this can be leveraged into a retaliatory build based on tanking hits and responding with ring triggers.

A fun, unique hidden character.

Choosing A Character: DLC1 Characters

Miang MoonspellNote: Miang is unlocked by opening the coffin in Mt. Moonspell.

Miang starts with 120 health, 1 recovery, and 20% movement speed. Miang's passive causes the recovery stat to multiply all healing and lets overhealing stack max health. Miang's weapon is the Silver Wind which is decent early game but mostly mediocre.

Miang's entire kit revolves around stacking healing items and arcanas; if that's your game plan this is an excellent hero to pick.

Menya MoonspellNote: Menya is unlocked by evolving Miang's Silver Wind weapon with the Pummarola.

Menya starts with 80 health, 10% might, 10% cooldown reduction, 10% luck, and 8 additional banishes. Menya's passive allows him to become invulnerable, incredibly fast, and stronger for a moderate amount of time after killing a set number of enemies.

Menya's weapon is the fiddly Four Seasons, which is good early, poor when upgraded, and fantastic after transforming (see the DLC Weapons section for suggestions for working around this downside). A niche pick.

Syuuto MoonspellNote: Syuuto is unlocked by evolving Menya's Four Seasons weapon with Spinach and Candelabrador.

Syuuto starts with 150 health, 2 armor, -20% movement speed, 50% might, -30% projectile speed, -30% area, and 50% curse. Syuuto's passive is a hidden Night Sword, which is mostly useless.

Syuuto's starting weapon is the incredibly bad Summon Night which hits only a small part of the top of the screen without massive investment in area or transforming it.

A challenging pick.

Babi-OnnaNote: Babi-Onna is unlocked by evolving Syuuto's Summon Night weapon with Duplicator.

Babi-Onna starts with 10 additional reroll. Babi-Onna's passive allows her to ignore weapon cooldown; instead, weapons fire at an interval determined by her movement speed. Babi-Onna's weapon is the decent Mirage Robe, which leaves exploding images behind her as she moves.

Babi-Onna's passive essentially makes it impossible to play a regular build with six weapons; they fire one at a time, meaning your overall uptime on any given weapon is 1/6th of the game. However, for 1 or 2 weapon builds, and especially with long cooldown weapons like the Pentagram, she is incredibly powerful.

A unique hero.

McCoy-OniNote: McCoy-Oni is unlocked by evolving Babi-Onna's Mirage Robe weapon with Attractorb.

McCoy starts with 108 health, 1 armor, and 20% growth. McCoy's passive causes the area of all weapons and abilities to "pulse" inward and outward repeatedly. This is funny, but not really useful.

McCoy's weapon is the 108 Bocce which is fine early-game but has no evolution and is thus poor.

A goofy hero.

Megalo Menya MoonspellNote: Megalo Menya Moonspell is unlocked by killing 100,000 enemies with Menya. This can be difficult, but does not have to be done on the DLC map Mt. Moonspell. It is easily done in the Inlaid Library using Arcana XX and stacking curse.

Megalo Menya starts with 80 health, 100% movement speed, 100% might, 20% cooldown reduction, 10% luck, and 108 banish. Megalo Menya's passive is a hidden 108 Bocce, invulnerability, and disappearing after hiting the time limit. Megalo Menya starts with no weapon.

You're guaranteed to finish a map by picking Megalo Menya so you can be completely aggressive. A strange hero.

Megalo Syuuto MoonspellNote: Megalo Syuuto Moonspell is unlocked by killing 100,000 enemies with Syuuto. This can be difficult, but does not have to be done on the DLC map Mt. Moonspell. It is easily done in the Inlaid Library using Arcana IX, building to retaliate, and stacking curse.

Megalo Syuuto starts with 250 health, 2 armor, 20% movement speed, 50% might, 50% greed, and 50% curse. Megalo Syuuto's passive is 1% might, scaling with level. Megalo Syuuto starts with the Night Sword, which is mediocre.

A well-rounded pick.

Gav'Et-OniNote: Gav'Et-Oni is unlocked by killing 6000 kappas. Kappas are found in the north west of Mt Moonspell around the Attractorb, or in the pond to the south.

Gav starts with 20% movement speed. Gav's passive is +1 projectile every 20 levels, capping at +4. Gav's weapon is the Mille Bolle Blu, a series of bubbles that fire behind the character and pop, dealing mediocre damage. Its transformation does not noticeably improve it.

A troll pick.

Choosing A Character: DLC2 Characters

Eleanor UzironNote: Eleanor is unlocked by opening her coffin in Lake Foscari.

Eleanor starts with -10 Max Health, +20% MoveSpeed, +25% Growth, and +2 Reroll. Eleanor's passive causes her to drop items on the ground as she levels: SpellStream at level 10, SpellStrike at level 20, and Academy Badge at level 30.

Eleanor's initial weapon is the SpellString, which is terrible early and cannot keep you safe. However, once leveled and joined with the other two spells, it becomes the SpellStrom, which is decent. A tough early game, but strong thereafter.

Maruto CutsNote: Maruto is unlocked by evolving Eleanor's weapon.

Maruto starts with +20 Max Health, +1 Armor, +20 Might, and +10% Curse. His passives causes him to gain +1 armour after being hit. He will also drop an Academy Badge on the ground at level 30.

Maruto's initial weapon is the Eskizzibur, which is not fantastic by itself, but does deal retaliatory damage. Combined with Maruto's static armour gain, this synergizes incredibly well with Arcana IX and allows you to beat anything just by walking into it.

A very strong pick with Arcana IX, otherwise very mediocre.

Keitha MuortNote: Keitha is unlocked by evolving Maruto's weapon. She can open the level Abyss Foscari by evolving her weapon and going to the "?" marked on the map of Lake Foscari.

Keitha starts with +40% MoveSpeed, +20% Speed, -10% Cooldown, +10% Luck, and +10% Curse. Her passive causes her to gain 1% luck per level, with no cap. She will also drop an Academy Badge on the ground at level 30.

Keitha's initial weapon is the Flash Arrow, which is unbelievably terrible at both killing mobs and keeping you safe. Her early game is abysmal thereby, and scaling luck cannot make up for it. Arcana VII helps mitigate the terrible arrow coverage, but not by much. Keitha can also - theoretically - get maximum damage out of the 108 Bocce, but 108 Bocce sucks, so who cares?

A very frustrating niche pick.

Luminaire FoscariNote: Luminaire is unlocked by entering Abyss Foscari with Maruto, evolving his weapon, and smashing the crystal located at the "?" on the map.

Luminaire starts with +0.5 Recovery, +40% MoveSpeed, +7 Revival, and +5 Banish. Her base weapon is the Prismatic Missile which is decent damage and synergizes with several arcanas well. Her passive is two-fold: she triggers a screen wipe when she levels, and she gains massive stats temporarily when she dies.

Luminaire is incredibly strong in the early-through-mid game, essentially able to level up, wipe a screen, pick up the dropped gems, and level-wipe again, over and over. If she does die, she returns massively buffed to begin the level-wipe loop again.

A fantastically strong pick, especially for weird item combinations that need early-game assistance.

Genevieve GruyereNote: Genevieve is unlocked by entering Abyss Foscari with Eleanor, evolving her weapon, and smashing the crystal located at the "?" on the map.

Genevieve starts with +20% MoveSpeed, +50% Greed, +50% Magnet, and +5 Reroll. Her base weapon is the Shadow Servant, which is not powerful early, but with levels and once evolved is very strong. Her passive is to vacuum the map every level, allowing full collection of items and experience. She also clears the entire screen once per revive on receiving fatal damage.

Genevieve is a solid character, but not much more than that. Her stats are fine, but her passive is convenience only.

Je-Ne-VivNote: Je-Ne-Viv is unlocked by defeating 100,000 enemies with Genevieve. This is easily done in the library with any high curse, AOE focused build.

Je-Ne-Viv starts with +150 Max Health, +5 Armor, +50% Might, +50% Greed, +50% Magnet, and +7 Reroll, and gains +1% Might and +0.5% Curse every level without a cap. Its starting weapon is the same Shadow Servant as Genevieve. It also has a hidden weapon called Insatiable that creates a purple circle around it and damages enemies who come in contact with that circle. Insatiable scales damage with greed and area with magnet.

Je-Ne-Viv's passives are: triggering a vacuum on level; clearing the entire screen once per revive on receiving fatal damage; clearing the entire screen and growing larger every 6 levels; and dropping SpellString, SpellStream, and SpellStrike on the ground at levels 10, 20, and 30.

Je-Ne-Viv is functionally unstoppable. It has immense stats, powerful passives, infinite scaling might, and the ability to have 7 fully-upgraded weapons.

SammyNote: Sammy is unlocked by killing 6,000 Sammy the Caterpillar. They are located in the bottom left and upper right corners of Lake Foscari. The upper right has many more, but is a secret area. It can be found by following the dirt path in the upper right, then walking into the trees at its terminus.

Sammy starts with +2 Recovery and -60% Might. It gains an additional +10% Might on levels 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21, bringing it to neutral might. Sammy's passive is longer gold fevers, an increased chance for Vicious Hunger to convert enemies into gold, and gaining experience for all gold picked up. Sammy's weapon is a Vicious Hunger.

Sammy is a gold farmer, and a good one at that. It levels up incredibly quickly, farms well, and is very safe. The loss of early might is meaningless. A strong pick.

Rottin' GhoulNote: Rottin' Ghoul is unlocked after killing 6000 rotting ghouls, which will happen without needing to think about it.

Rottin' Ghoul gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 80 and has +20% movement speed. Rottin's weapon is the Party Popper, which is this DLC's troll item. Even leaning into it via Arcana I, it's bad.

Rottin' is a troll character.

Choosing A Level

There are ten levels in Vampire Survivors: the Mad Forest, the Inlaid Library, Dairy Plant, Gallo Tower, Cappella Magna, Eudaimonia M, Il Molise, Moongolow, Green Acres, and The Bone Zone. Most levels have bonus items scattered inside them that can be collected to either quickly level a passive or to exceed the six passive soft cap. Levels also have several optional modifiers unlocked during play: Hyper, Hurry, Inverse, and Endless.

Choosing a level is easy: choose the Library.

The Mad ForestCollectable items: Skull O' Maniac, Hollow Heart, Pummarola, Clover, Spinach

The Mad Forest is the first level of Vampire Survivors and, strangely, a harder level. Mobs come from any direction, making movement more difficult than in the Library. The mobs are also more difficult, particularly the vampire bats, who have a slightly wonky hitbox that allows them to damage you from farther away than expected.

Bosses are also more difficult, with particular mention going to the Preying Mantis boss, who surrounds you with a ring of living flowers and fills that ring with high-health mobs. An unprepared vampire hunter can die very quickly in this ring.

The Inlaid LibraryCollectable items: Empty Tome, Stone Mask

The Inlaid Library is the second level of Vampire Survivors and is significantly easier than the Forest. The Library has walls to the north and south of the screen, meaning mobs can only approach from the east and west. This makes positioning much easier.

The Library also has easy bosses that are little more than moving health bars without mechanics. Early experience gain is fast and easy, making the Library a safe choice for successful runs.

Dairy PlantCollectable items: Candelabrador, Attractorb, Wings, Armor

The Dairy Plant is the third level of Vampire Survivors and is the most difficult one yet; it's more difficult than Green Acres, the "challenge" stage below. The Dairy has numerous impediments to movement in the form of buildings and pits in the ground, making player movement more difficult than in other levels.

Experience is also noticeably slower gained than in other levels, thanks largely to enemies waves made up of fewer but stronger mobs. In addition to these impediments, the Dairy has also added projectile-firing mobs, bringing a new, as-yet-unseen dimension to Vampire Survivors.

All these aspects together make the Dairy Plant - especially on hyper - the most difficult level yet.

Gallo TowerCollectable items: Spellbinder, Bracer

Gallo Tower follows the Dairy Plant school of level design, with various traps, projectiles, and spell effects for the player to pay attention to and dodge. It's also a narrow vertical level - like the Library but turned 90 degrees - so it strongly favors items like the Mannajja.

Gallo Tower has the first true boss of Vampire Survivors, the Giant Enemy Crab, who's claws grow ever larger and must be destroyed to harm it.

A slightly easier level than the Dairy Plant, but decently challenging.

Cappella MagnaCollectable items: Tiragisú, Duplicator, Crown

Cappella Magna consists of a series of wide corridors and pillars, with occasional gaps that can't be pathed over.

More importantly, Cappella Magna spawns three different deaths over the course of the level, with the first being a blue drowner that must be dealt with. Thankfully, there are three Rosaries provided on the map that can be used to kill the deaths.

Additionally, after the level ends and the red deaths spawn, hundreds of tiny mobs spawn with them, overwhelming the player. A close AOE weapon, such as Garlic or Santa Water, is recommended if you wish to kill the red deaths.

Il MoliseCollectable items: None

Il Molise is a non-challenging level; not easy, but literally intended to be no challenge at all. It's filled with stationary plants that do not respawn once killed unless the player moves. Even standing directly on these plants deals negligible damage. It's virtually impossible to lose.

At 10 minutes into the map, a single stationary boss will spawn, giving the only available chest in the level. At 15 minutes Death will kill the player.

Il Molise seems to be intended to be a testing level, but with only a single chest you can't test a full build of upgraded items. A puzzling level, and not recommended.

Green AcresCollectable items: None

Green Acres is, essentially, an extra-challenging version of the Mad Forest. The layout and strategy is the same, but on hyper mode enemies have an additional 50% health. This makes knock back even more important than usual.

Still quite doable with the Vesper Wall build (see right).

The Bone ZoneCollectable items: None

The Bone Zone is an incredibly challenging level. No only are there no healing drops for early game shoring-up of builds, enemies also become stronger over time. This means that, if you already aren't killing well, you're only going to fall further behind. The mobs in the level are generally fairly sturdy and tend to come in huge waves that are difficult to avoid. A green death also spawns at 10 minutes, meaning you need to play either a relatively faster character or use the Pentagram to kill it.

Success in The Bone Zone is largely about character choice. High movement speed for active avoidance and a potent earlygame weapon are very much recommended. Less experienced players should spec out of whatever levels of the Curse upgrade they've selected.

Good luck.

Moongolow and the Secret LevelCollectable items: All

Moongolow has every passive item in the game on the floor for you to pick up. It isn't really a level; it exists to send you to a secondary secret level after surviving 15 minutes.

Pick your favorite non-hidden character (no Toasie, Red Death, etc)

Survive 15 minutes and kill the strange monsters.

You'll be warped to the secret level. You will be level 1.

Your goal is to run to the right, surviving all the random crap thrown at you, to pick up the Yellow Sign.

If you die, don't worry; the secret level will still be in your level list. It's most easily completed with Concetta because she can kill the light sources as she runs, ensuring you have full health.

Congratulations! You've unlocked the hidden stage items.

Boss RashCollectable items: All passive items

Boss Rash is actually a boss rush. You'll face bosses from every level in the game; simple as that.

Arcana VIII can be used to access the passive items present on the map.

Eudaimonia MCollectable items: None

Eudaimonia M is the final level of Vampire Survivors. Grab a strong character and punch an eldritch horror in the face.

Good luck.

Choosing A Level (cont.)

Tiny BridgeCollectable items: Wings, Vento Sacro, Lightning Ring, Attractorb

Tiny Bridge is an incredibly narrow horizontal bridge. This path is so narrow that it makes the Inlaid Library look positively massive, and makes the normally-useless Carréllo mildly viable.

Because of the shape of the level your avenues of attack are primarily to the left and right rather than up and down; choose your weapons accordingly. The level also only lasts 20 minutes, so don't plan on a completed build.

Bat CountryCollectable items: None

Bat Country is a strange level made of ground textures, sparse grass, floating multi-colour triangles, and an immense number of bats.

Although the Bat Country has a -50% experience debuff, this is mostly irrelevant because of the sheer number of enemies that spawn. This high quantity of enemies makes it a very good level to farm gold in.

Bat Country mostly exists to offer two relic unlocks that appear at minutes 9 and 18 respectively. A green arrow will guide the player to them.

Astral StairCollectable items: Phiera Der Tuphello, Eight the Sparrow

Astral Stair is a strange level where you traverse vertically to progress horizontally. You move up or down a long corridor until you find nooks to the left. The upper part of these nooks are doors that move you horizontally to the right. You essentially jump from island to island using these doors, and have to return to the corridor to progress once you've cleared a horizontal level.

Several islands in Astral Stair feature a small minigame where you receive prizes by killing enemies quickly.

Choosing A Level: DLC

DLC levels may not be available to all players and are thus in a separate section.

Mt. MoonspellCollectable items: Spinach, Pummarola, Candelabrador, Attractorb, Duplicator, Stone Mask, Night Sword.

Mount Moonspell is the first DLC level to be added to Vampire Survivors, and it's huge. The map is large, with many collectables scattered around it, but paths to them are never straight lines, instead taking the player through buildings and into caves. Enemies are not the most difficult in Vampire Survivors when in the central areas of the map, but entering a cave or house can cause special, difficult enemies to begin spawning until the player leaves that area.

These area-spawning special enemies are the main difficulty in Mount Moonspell, making the ordinary task of collecting items from the ground more challenging (although this can be invalidated via Arcana VIII pulling all items to the player position).

Lake FoscariCollectable items: Armor, Bracer, Clover, Crown, Skull O'Maniac, Academy Badge, Arcana chest.

Lake Foscari is a large, tricky level. There are items scattered everywhere, but to reach them players must pass through several different mazes, and cross a river with only two bridges. There are numerous small, secret areas that can be found by poking one's head into the trees. Enemies are of a standard difficulty, although the mushroom area in the middle left of the map can be challenging if entered too early.

Notably, one of the three treasure chests containing an arcana the player would normally acquire by killing miniboss is instead just sitting on the ground. It's location can be seen on the map, and it can be rushed immediately if the player so chooses.

Abyss FoscariCollectable items: Armor, Empty Tome, Attractorb, Crown, Stone Mask, Skull O'Maniac, Torrona's Box, Academy Badge, Prismatic Missile, Shadow Servant, Arcana chest.

Note: Abyss Foscari is unlocked by destroying a green crystal in Lake Foscari with Keitha Muort and her upgraded weapon.

Abyss Foscari is the counterpart to Lake Foscari and the second half of the Tides of the Foscari DLC. It has even more collectable items to find, and is even harder to find one's way around in, mostly thanks to the dark colour palate that is easily overwhelmed with player skills filling the screen.

Enemies are deadlier than in the Lake map, but this is balanced somewhat by the huge amount of item power lying on the floor, waiting to be collected. Enemies also move in a jerky stop-start way that can be removed by standing on a blue hourglass near the player spawn (this hourglass will only appear after Je-Ne-Viv has been defeated).

Notably, Abyss Foscari must be discovered in sections. A red crystal must be destroyed by Maruto Cuts with his upgraded weapon in order to unshroud a section of the map. Afterwards, a blue crystal will appear when playing as Eleanor, allowing for the Je-Ne-Viv boss fight to be attempted.

Egg farming: near where the Torrona's Box is located on the map is an area where mini Atlanteans will spawn. They are similar to the guardians of the rings and Metaglio items found in all stages, except they can spawn infinitely. The player can sit in this area to kill as many Atlanteans as possible, farming infinite golden eggs.

Choosing A Build: Reaching The Endgame

The most important part of Vampire Survivors picking items that synergize with each other. As long as you're building damage, almost any build will work, but the purpose of this guide is to get you to thirty minutes. With that in mind, here are several builds that you can choose from and customize, as well as a final omni-build.

Vesper WallChoose Yatta Cavallo, Mortaccio, or Dommario (or Imelda or Arca). Prioritize the King Bible, Magic Wand, and Fire Wand, as well as their passive upgrade items. Take the Duplicator whenever it appears. This is the core of the build, and will work no matter what else you chose.

The King Bible/Unholy Vespers keep you safe from masses of mobs. The Magic/Holy Wand keeps you safe from individual strong enemies and those that slip past the Vespers. The Fire Wand/Hellfire is your main damage dealer and punches safety holes. With a Duplicator and Yatta Cavallo or Mortaccio's passives you'll output a tremendous number of projectiles for complete safety.

The birds and the axe are added simply because they're the best possible damage. If you intend to go both birds you need to delay taking the axe until you've leveled both to eight and upgraded them to Vandalier. You can take the axe passive, the Candelabrador, while waiting for the birds to upgrade.

This build leaves one passive item slot open, thanks to the birds not needing one. This slot can go to the Bracer, to synergize with Mortaccio's Bone, or any quality of life item you choose.

Quickest Bone in the WestChoose Mortaccio (or possibly Pasqualina, but also definitely not Pasqualina). Prioritize the King Bible, Knife, and Runetracer, as well as the Bracer. Take the Duplicator whenever it appears. This is a far less safe build than the Vesper Wall, but once you have the Bible upgraded you should be alright.

Mortaccio's Bone and the Runetracer both scale very well with speed and duration. Since we're already taking the Bracer and Spellbinder for them, we might as well take the King Bible and Knife to get the extra protection of the Unholy Vespers and Thousand Edge.

This build only needs three passive items for upgrading, so we take the Spinach and Empty Tome for pure damage. Because of this, we might as well take the Magic Wand and Fire Wand, but we don't have to.

Once again a passive slot is also left open for whatever you choose.

Ring of Fire (and Books)Originally posted by eden_not_ttv: Maxed Santa Water with all relevant passives on lvl 60+ Mortaccio will literally let you AFK until 30:00 if you’ve got Unholy Vespers and Death Spiral. It’s a heavy investment, but your Vesper Wall build picks up all passives needed for it already, and the build has three weapons (Holy Wand, Hellfire, Birds) that are not needed for endgame with maxed Santa Water. You’ll end up with a constantly-online circle of heavy damage and minor knockback just outside Vesper range, and with Death Spiral going, most enemies will die before even touching the Vesper Wall. Anything that makes it through probably dies to the Vesper Wall, and anything that gets through THAT is dead to whatever leftover weapon slots you have.

I think this only works with Mortaccio, as I’m pretty sure anything less than max projectiles, max area, and max cooldown reduction fails to maintain the perimeter. This excellent build comes from eden_not_ttv in the comments for this guide. It works exactly as is described above, as you can see in the image to the right. It's so effective that I suggest you actually pick up the Attractorb and (if you're in the Library and can get the free Empty Tome) the Crown.

The entire build is excellent for both no-stress gameplay and for grinding out character levels and coins, since with a maxed Attractorb you can just do a small circle every minute or two and you'll level up constantly.

The Omni-BuildStep 1: Get the Unholy Vespers (or pick Dommario)

Step 2: Pick literally anything else

The Unholy Vespers are, in a word, overpowered. Literally any selection of skills on any character will work once you upgrade the King Bible. (Or, if you pick Dommario, you don't even need to upgrade it to the Unholy Vespers.)

As you can see from this screenshot, I attempted to pick the worst possible items in a hyper library run while upgrading the King Bible. There's virtually no synergy in my item choices and no damage from my coin shop, and I still lasted 24 minutes. My damage was abysmal, but the insane knock back protection from the Vespers made it irrelevant.

Anything works with the Vespers.

Choosing A Build: Less Meta, More Betta'

Maybe you aren't so concerned with hitting thirty minutes. Maybe you want to build something other than the Unholy Vespers (why though?) and scaling projectiles. Well, here are some build(s) for the intrepid Vampire Hunter who wants something a little different.

Effective AreaChoose Porta Ladonna for an incredible bonus to area. Prioritize the Garlic, Santa Water, and Candelabrador, going all-in on dealing and scaling area and area damage. Take the Duplicator, Empty Tome, and Spinach, because they're always good. You can fill out the rest of your items as you see fit, but I recommend both the Wands, or perhaps the Birds.

With this much area you'll literally be wiping the entire map of mobs without having to think about anything. The Garlic/Soul Eater will keep you safe through the midgame. Your biggest problem will be trying to actually collect all the experience gems mobs are dropping a long way away from your character (because of this, this is one of the few builds where I might recommend picking up the Attractorb). As you can see, the amount of area you can achieve is truly massive.

However, once you come to the endgame, especially post-24 minutes, the Garlic/Soul Eater begins to show its weakness. Once you aren't one-shotting mobs they're going to start slipping into your defenses. Once the final waves start spawning you'll likely be pushed into a corner, desperately looking for floor chicken.

As you can see from the image to the right I managed to take the build to the full thirty minutes, but only by using level ups to feed me chicken continually. It's a lot of fun, but would be improved by taking the King Bible/Unholy Vespers (but what wouldn't?).

Lucky GuyOriginally posted by viperinthemotor:Exdash luck + evolved Cross is nuts. Very high chance of crit on every hit and I've easily gotten 15k+ DPS by the 25 minute mark on Mad Forest.This build comes from viperinthemotor in the comments for this guide. It works by leveraging the incredibly high luck that Exdash has as its passive to cause the Cross's upgrade, the Heaven Sword, to critically strike almost constantly. I added the Whip and its upgrade, the Bloody Tear, because it can also crit, and it helps to mitigate one of Exdash's huge weaknesses: a tiny lil' health pool.

Of course, like any Exdash build, it can be very hairy getting it off the ground. Once you get a decent upgrade, however, the run can usually be completed (see the image to the right).

Just Leech (Books are for Nerds)One for the legions of Garlic fans in the comments.

Choose either Poe or Antonio, depending on whether you feel like the pickup radius or the damage. Grab whichever of the Garlic or Whip you're missing and the two passive items to upgrade them. Next grab any other items or passives you want (none of which the Garlic will scale with). You're essentially down two passives from the start, so pick high damage items.

Once you upgrade to the Soul Eater and Bloody Tear you'll be a life leeching powerhouse, able to wade into groups of mobs and heal up without thinking about it. However, with insufficient damage and knock back, you'll eventually be overrun. The Garlic/Soul Eater's pathetic knock back and the Whip/Bloody Tear's inability to strike downwards won't keep you safe once you need several hits to kill a mob. You'll likely be boxed into a corner if you've gotten unlucky with other items.

A fun build, but inconsistent.

A Typical Run

Regardless of your chosen build, level, or character, your strategy for a Vampire Survivors run is always the same:

Acquire a knock back weapon

Acquire an AOE damage weapon

Acquire a targeted, hole-punching weapon

Acquire the passive items that upgrade your chosen items

Acquire any further items that synergize with your previous choices.Beyond this strategy lies the tactics you use to accomplish your goal. There are no universal tactics - as they come down to player ability and choices - but there are some general tips.

You don't need to run in one direction continually to spawn light sources for their drops. As soon as a room is off screen it can spawn a light source when you reenter it.

Different weapons require different kiting movement. The Whip and Knife favor left and right strafing. The Garlic and Bible require stutter-stepping. Everything else works well with circular movements.

Moving diagonally will cause mobs to clump as they come towards you. You can then move around them and they'll often open a channel for you to slip into. Don't be afraid to take a couple small hits instead of pushing through a large pack of mobs.

Don't over-upgrade passive items. You only need one level of a passive to upgrade a level eight weapon to its better version.

Except the Duplicator. Always upgrade that first.

Prioritize your AOE damage weapon (preferably the Bible) levels. You can get by without strong single-target damage initially, but if you get mobbed, you're dead.

Don't spread upgradable weapon levels around. One upgraded weapon is worth three or four low-level, non-upgraded weapons.

Don't rush when selecting weapons and passives. You don't need to grab all six of each before you start upgrading.

If you need to, level or select a new passive to avoid picking something bad. It's not as big a waste to level a passive as it is to pick the Armor or a Laurel.

and finally

If your first several levels offer up only garbage, just restart the run. There's no penalty. Don't punish yourself.

Example Runs

Below are several runs exemplifying the lessons taught in this guide.

Curse Runs: Vampire Survivors Hardmode

Patch 0.2.13 added the Curse Power Up and Skull O'Maniac item; if chosen together they will inflict the player with 100% curse. Each level of this curse effect increases enemy movement speed and health, as well as quantity of enemies and faster enemy spawning. This allows advanced players to go beyond the hyper mode offered on each map and play a true hardmode version of Vampire Survivors.

Curse runs are an excellent addition to the game. Advanced players will have noticed that, so long as one chooses synergistically, almost any selection of items can lead to a completed thirty minute run. Curse throws that out the window, requiring item careful selection and gameplay.

Because of the sheer number and strength of enemies that Curse provides, item tiers and builds are different for curse runs from standard. You can find them below.

Patch 0.6.1 added Gold Ring and Metaglio Right, each of which add 40% curse.

Patch 0.7.2 added Torrona's Box which adds 100% curse.

Curse Run Item Tiers

SS-TierSkull O'ManiacMandatory for doing a curse run. You're here for the challenge, right?

Torrona's BoxAdds lots of curse and lots of useful stats. Best of both worlds.

S-TierUnholy VespersUnholy Vespers offer the best possible protection from enemies on all sides of your character. It's perfect defense. Mandatory.

Note: with Torrona's box it's possible to only take King Bible and ignore the Spellbinder, saving you a weak passive item.

Holy WandThe incredible number of enemies in a Curse Run means that something is going to slip past your Unholy Vespers, especially in the endgame when the screen is permanently full. The Holy Wand keeps you safe because there's often too much noise on-screen to dodge properly.

La BorraAOE damage is needed right from the start of a Curse run, and eventually you'll be clearing entire screens. The overlapping AOE of La Borra is a very safe place to stand, and the added bonus of the Attractorb allowing you to actually pick up the experience gems enemies drop means that you'll have much needed levels to keep you alive.

Thunder LoopThe Thunder Loop is a screen clearing machine, synergizing well with the Attractorb (above). The Duplicator is still the best passive item in the game.

PhieraggiThe Phieraggi takes a bit of time to get to (and has a terrible passive - revives are useless - that scales with no other weapons) but it's just the most insane damage you could hope for.

A-TierHellfireThe Hellfire's ability to punch holes is needed more than ever. Its damage is still exceptional, but it hits less of the very full screen than the options above. The Spinach is still essentially mandatory.

Note: S-Tier with Arcana XI - Waltz of Pearls.

Death SpiralThe Death Spiral is simply pure damage originating from your character. Very good clear, decent passive from the Candelabrador.

FuwalafuwalooAlthough difficult to build towards thanks to having to take several poor weapons and a terrible passive, a completed Fuwalafuwaloo is big damage, healing, and hole-punching.

B-TierMannajjaThe Mannajja is a decent damage dealer and protector, and synergizes with the (required) Skull O'Maniac, which is a bonus. The attack being only vertical without area investment is a significant downside to positioning and safe play.

NO FUTURENO FUTURE deals excellent damage, but requires the worthless Armor to upgrade. It also requires a very specific build to do optimal work.

C-TierHeaven SwordGood damage but a completely wasted passive.

Thousand EdgeVery directional, but that's very hard to make use of with the sheer quantity of curse run enemies. Useless passive.

The BirdsThe Birds deal good damage, but they're very random and take ages to come online. With the Thunder Loop and La Borra available (along with their excellent passives), they're simply outclassed.

D-TierSoul EaterSoul Eater deals terrible damage, has terrible knockback, and is mostly worthless once you aren't one-shotting enemies. Completely worthless passive.

La RobbaLa Robba does decent damage but you have so many better options that it's never going to be competitive. Since it offers nothing else, it isn't a great pick.

F-TierGorgeous MoonClearing one screen is meaningless; leveling up slightly faster is also meaningless. Screens fill quicker than you can clear them, and you get more experience than you'll know what to do with.

Valkyrie TurnerRequires stop-start movement and way too much effort for very little damage.

CarrélloTroll item.

Vicious HungerCats are bad and steal your chicken. Cat eyes bouncing around the arena do no damage. You have no use for gold coins if you're doing 100% curse runs.

Celestial DustingTroll item.

Z-TierInfinite CorridorIf you intend to kill the Deaths at the end of a level, Infinite Corridor is mandatory. Otherwise it is also the highest damage in the game (in the form of health reduction) if you're willing to sacrifice a weapon slot to Clock Lancet and wait until you've collected both the rings for it to be useful.

Crimson ShroudIf you intend to kill the Deaths at the end of a level, Crimson Shroud is mandatory. Otherwise don't take it or any of its constituent parts; you need to kill, not be shielded.

Curse Run Build

Unlike in a standard run, a curse run has much less flexibility in building thanks to the many negatives stacked against you. There is, essentially, one build. It outclasses all others.

Cursed Vesper WallYatta Cavallo (or Mortaccio, but his early game is much worse) is the best choice. Scaling projectiles beats all other options. Since you have to sacrifice a passive to the Skull O'Maniac, having a primary weapon that doesn't upgrade isn't a hindrance; in fact, the Cherry Bomb is so strong that it makes even full-curse hyper Green Acres relatively easy.

Imelda, Arca, Porta, Lama, or Dommario are also viable characters for this build. They all use weapons that are already in the build and have passives that are advantageous (this is why Clerici is missing; healing is useless). They're outclassed by the projectile scalers, but they aren't awful.

Playing as Yatta Cavallo/Mortaccio means you choose between two options:

Cherry Bomb + five transformed weapons with passives

Cherry Bomb + four transformed weapons with passives + Vandalier + one passiveYou can delay one weapon from your offensive core to transform Peachone and Ebony Wings. This is relatively safe with Yatta Cavallo thanks to the power of Cherry Bomb.

The other viable - but worse - characters get the following options:

Five transformed weapons with passives + one non-transformed weapon

Five transformed weapons with passives + VandalierOn Imelda, Arca, Porta, Lama, or Dommario you can delay one weapon upgrade to pick up and transform Peachone and Ebony Wings. Do this only if you feel safe delaying your core. This is much more dangerous on these lesser characters: the Birds take significant amounts of your experience and do mostly random damage until Vandalier is upgraded.

Choosing to transform the birds to Vandalier in either build will provide the most damage (see right), but it comes with the downside of having to see nothing but rainbow garbage all game. You may die simply because Vandalier fills the screen with so much noise.

Special note: Dommario is slow. This is an incredible detriment in a curse run, making it very difficult for him to get past the early game.

Special note two: Lama has curse as his passive. Playing as him is literally the hardest Vampire Survivors can be (outside of Exdash's terrible stats).

The Secrets Menu

After obtaining the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane relic the secrets menu will be unlocked, allowing the player to unlock characters and stages without fulfilling their individual requirements.

Forbidden Scrolls of MorbaneThis relic is obtained by defeating the rolling Skull Pile in the Bone Zone level. Upon entering the level you'll notice a "?" moving left and right in the southern part of the level. This is a tiny ball of skeletons that grows as you attack it.

The Skull Pile is most easily destroyed by picking a secret character with an already upgraded weapon (Red Death, Gains Boros, etc), removing any levels of curse in your power ups, and unchecking "Hurry" in the level select options. Then select arcana 0 once in the level and charge straight south to intercept the ? and kill it via loose gems and your character's weapon.

Pick up the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane from its corpse to unlock the secrets menu.

SecretsSecrets are a list of hints for unlocking the secret characters in the game.

Code Name Description Unlocks KissMe Follow the trail after pillaging Pummarola and Skull O'Maniac from the Mad Forest. Boon Marrabbio CheeseAccident Deal with the consequence of stealing cheese from the Dairy Plant. Minnah Mannarah BringMeBackThere Investigate the bottom of Gallo Tower. Leda PureHeart With a pure heart and two good friends, visit the fiery balcony in Cappella Magna. Cosmo Pavone BeAGoodBoy Be a good boy in Il Molise. Peppino Master16 Master all 16 accessories in Moongolow. Big Trouser and Candybox SlumsFlowers Find the only one place where flowers bloom in The Bone Zone. Gains Boros BossRashBoss Survive the Boss Rash with just one weapon. Gyorunton and Bracelet KillThaReapa Settle the score with the Reaper. Mask of the Red Death CastThiefSpell 1) Cast the spell x-x1viiq. Exdash Exiviiq UppercutReaper 2) Uppercut a non-red reaper. Toastie SpamSpamSpam 3) Sometimes you just need to ask for help. Smith IV

SpellsSpells are cheat codes. They're exclusively used to unlock content without actually playing the game, and as such I don't recommend using them. (You're here to play the game, right?) Rather than reproduce a long list of cheats, spells can be here on the wiki.[vampire-survivors.fandom.com]

Closing Thoughts

Change Log v1.1: Added Exdash to the character section.

v1.2: Added fradigit's excellent tip about a free Empty Tome in the library; thanks fradigit! Added a new non-meta build. Further clarified Garlic's weaknesses. Clarified the Santa Water drop pattern. Added a build from the guide comments; thanks eden_not_ttv!

v1.3: Game version 0.2.10. Added the new level and images to the levels section. Added the new characters. Added missingNØ. Added several builds, including one from the guide comments; thanks viperinthemotor! Further clarified the purpose of item tiers.

v1.4: Game version 0.2.11. Moved Santa Water up to C-tier and added La Borra upgrade. Added Krochi to characters. Added Revive to power ups. Added Tiragisú to items.

v1.5: Game version 0.2.12. Moved Lightning Ring up to B-tier and added Thunder Loop upgrade. Removed MissingNo and added Mask of the Red Death. Added Skip and Reroll to power ups. Added a power up cost manipulation section.

v1.6: Game version 0.2.13. Added Lama, Yatta, and the Cherry Bomb. Added the Skull. Added Curse. Reshuffled Power Up efficiency order. Edited builds to include Yatta. Added a section for 100% curse runs. Added curse run tiers and builds.

v1.7: Game version 0.3.0. Added Dairy Farm and collectable items to all levels. Added Poppea Pecorina. Added Song of Mana and Mannajja to relevant sections.

v1.8: Game version 0.3.1. Added Il Molise (weird). Added Christine Davain. Added the Gorgeous Moon and a brand new tier of items, just for it.

v1.9: Game version 0.3.2. Added Banish. Added Pugnala Provola. Added Phiera Der Tuphello, Eight the Sparrow, and Phieraggi (finally, another S-tier weapon). Added Lorberry's comments about Christine to the guide; thanks Lorberry!

v2.0: Game version 0.4.2. Added Bianca and her terrible weapon, the Carréllo. Added Gallo Tower and new images to all levels. Added a blurb about hurry mode. Added NO FUTURE and moved Runetracer up a tier. Added a note about how experience gems function.

v2.1: Game version 0.5.0. Added Giovanna Grana and her terrible weapon, Gatti Amari. Moved Gatti Amari and Carréllo to the weapon list as opposed to the character section. Added the first 6 Arcanas. Added Arcana notes to all affected weapons. Removed "Game Balance" section below this change log; Arcanas seem to be accomplishing the points made there. Gave secret characters their own section; added Leda. Added Toastie.

v2.2: Game version 0.5.1. Added Arcanas 7 and 11. Added O'Sole Meeo and its weapon, Celestial Dusting (heh, fart jokes). Added The Bone Zone, which is well named.

v2.3: Game version 0.5.2. Added Concetta Caciotta. Added Shadow Pinion/Valkyrie Turner. Added Vicious Hunger. Added Arcanas 15 and 18. Removed duplicated passive items from the Item Tier section of the guide and merged their data with the weapons they upgrade. Re-ordered the upgrade purchase order section to be accurate again (when did the dev change the prices?). Added new items to the Curse Tiers.

v2.4: Game version 6.1. Added Iguana Gallo Valletto, Divano Thelma, and Boon Marrabbio. Added Arcanas 12 and 14. Added Moongolow and an explanation of the secret level. Added all hidden items, Infinite Corridor, and Crimson Shroud. Added a section about Golden Eggs. Updated the Red Death character unlock process.

v2.5: Game version 0.7.2. Added Arcanas 8 and 10. Added omni to powerups. Added Zi'Assunta Belpaese. Added Torrona's Box and Vento Sacro/Fuwalafuwaloo. Added a trick for Torrona's Box from the guide comments; thanks Master Basher! Added secret characters Smith IV and Minnah Mannarah.

v2.6: Game version 0.7.3. Added Arcanas 3 and 20. Added Sir Ambrojoe. Added La Robba. Tweaked Curse Runs items and tiers and added missing weapons. Added secret character Peppino. Removed the purchase order section of the guide after UltraLuigi pointed out that is no longer applies.

v2.7: Game version 0.8.0. Added Arcana 0.

v2.8: Game version 0.9.0. Added Gains Boros and Gyorunton. Added arcanas 1 and 2. Added Boss Rash level. Added the Bracelet.

v2.9: Game version 0.10.0. Updated arcanas 5, 17, and 18. Added arcana 13. Added Big Trouser and Cosmo Pavone. Added a new section for the secrets menu.

v3.0: Game version 0.11.0. Added arcana 9. Added Queen Sigma. Added Victory Sword and Sole Solution.

v3.1: Game version 0.11.3. Added Random and missingNo. Added arcana 21.

v3.2: Game version 1.0 (out of early access!). Added Greatest Jubilee. Added Avatar Infernas and Flames of Misspell.

v3.3: Game version 1.1. Added Seal, Tiny Bridge, and Scorej-Oni.

v3.4: Game v1.2: Moonspell DLC. Added all DLC heroes and weapons. DLC weapon rank in progress.

v3.5: Game v1.3. Added Mortaccio's changes. Added Charm power up. Added Bat Country.

v3.6: Game v1.4. Foscari DLC. Added DLC heroes, items, and levels. Added a note in egg farming for the Abyss Foscari infinite egg spot.

v3.7: Game v1.5. Added Astral Stair level. Added Yatta Cavallo evolution.

UpdatesAs Vampire Survivors is still very much in active development, so too will this guide be. With new items, transformations, and characters, much could change. Keep an eye out for updates.

Final WordIf you follow this guide and build damage, especially with an eye to using the Unholy Vespers whenever possible, you'll be successful with almost every run you attempt in Vampire Survivors. I hope it's helpful to you, and that you enjoy playing this excellent little game.

I know I will.

- Darkwell

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2716804773					

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