Vampire Survivors: Weapon, Power-Up, Character Tier Lists and Gamplay Guide

The following guide was formed in collaboration with a few friends as we all played for the first time and streamed videos of it to each other over Discord while recording stats and sharing stories. This is a super fun game and I am looking forward to updates to come.

Some notes before we start:

• This guide is for Early Access v0.2.7e
• This guide contain spoilers. I haven’t hidden the spoilers as I should because the markup messes up my tables. If you want to experience the game first hand, stop reading. Go play instead!

Now onto the guide…

• Playing with a game controller has many advantages. Half-tilt the joystick to walk slowly. Moving slowly is often safer than moving quickly. Keyboard only allows you to move in 8 directions at full speed.
• Destroy torches to drop gold, food (+30 HP), or a special pickup. Explore the map to find torches, especially if you are low on HP.
• Don’t worry about leaving some experience gems on the floor. If you are destroying torches, they will eventually drop a Vacuum pickup that sucks up all the experience.
• There is a pickup which freezes enemies. It also prevents them from dealing damage. Don’t be afraid to push into a mob of enemies while they are frozen.
• Every few minutes the game will spawn a boss enemy. Kill them to drop a Treasure Chest which gives between 1 and 5 random upgrades and a generous sum of gold.
• Don’t underestimate Luck. Upgrade your Luck stat and you might start noticing epic Treasure Chests and bigger bags of gold.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment. The lower tier weapons are actually the most fun.

There are 3 varieties of experience gem in order from least to most potent: blue, green, red. More potent experience gems are dropped by stronger enemies. Bosses will also drop a Treasure Chest. Many of the following drops are affected by Luck.

Mad Forest

Passing through the forest is the only way to reach the Castle. Also, there’s free roast chicken.
Hyper: +50% Gold bonus.

The forest extends infinitely in all directions. Torches spawn randomly.
At 5 minutes, a flower ring surrounds you and a Mantis boss will spawn with a hoard of green ghouls. It is not advisable to attack the flowers: they have VERY high HP and the flower ring vanishes after a short period of time. The flowers deal little damage, so you may be able to dash through the ring without dying. At 10 minutes, another flower ring surrounds you and a bigger, stronger Mantis boss spawns with more green ghouls. The flower ring takes longer to vanish. Generally, you will be forced to dash through the ring, so find a gap and run for it. There is another flower ring at 25 minutes, but you should be able to kill them by now.

Tip: Save a Rosary to destroy the Flower Ring.

I usually die at the mid-point when a wave of werewolves and ghosts spawn. They have higher HP than you’d expect. Keep moving, don’t get surrounded. Prepare some good defensive weapons (Whip, Cross) and be prepared to carefully evade them for 5 minutes. There is a noticeable drop in difficulty during the Mummy Golem wave at 17 minutes. Just hold out until then.

Inlaid Library

This quiet, long library is the ideal place where to rest, meditate, and forage for roast chicken. But what’s a stone mask doing here?
Hyper: +50% Gold bonus. +10% Luck bonus.

The library extends infinitely in a row to the left and right. Torches spawn in predetermined positions in scene tiles, usually along walls. Some weapons are not suitable for this stage e.g., Santa Water, Peachone, and Ebony Wings. There are some obstacles here that you and enemies (including death) can get caught on.

There are some kamikaze ghosts here that deal major damage at close range. Run away from them or knock them back with your weapons e.g., Magic Wand or Cross.

Tip: Move left and right between the piano and reading nook to regenerate torches and amass pickups for when you need them.

I found this stage easier than Mad Forest. There are no massive jumps in difficulty. There is a noticeable drop in difficulty during the Headless Knight wave.

There are many characters to choose from starting with whip-man, Antonio Belpaese. He has a relatively high skill requirement so don’t be surprised if you die below level 20 on your first run. If you are looking for an easier experience, you can unlock Imelda for just 10 gold. She has an auto-targetting magic wand and levels up faster, which means you can keep your distance from enemies and experience more of the game, more quickly. If you like more intensity, try the knife-man, Gennaro. His knives require targetting and distance management, but he has the best passive bonus in the early game.

There are many weapons to choose from but you can only have 6. Generally, you should choose weapons that complement your other weapons, power-ups, and character. Consider the following:

• Some weapons are buffed by the same power-up.
• Some weapons have a skill requirement e.g., Whip and Knife.
• Some weapons must be built around carefully or else lead to an early death e.g., Pentagram, Clock Lancet.
• Some weapons evolve into a stronger form if you have their required power-up. Evolved weapons are ranked in a separate list.

 

There are many power-ups to choose from but you can only have 6. Generally, you should choose power-ups that complement your weapons and character. Consider the following:

• Does this power-up benefit multiple weapons?
• Is selecting this power-up better than upgrading an individual weapon?
• Does my character benefit from levelling up quickly?
• Is this power-up required to evolve one of my weapons?

 

The following are the weapons which can be evolved if you pick a compatible power-up. I had a run where I evolved all weapons (not including Knife (I cannot hold 7 weapons)). The DPS of those weapons, for that run, is included below.