What is it
A world with a Vampire as ruler. They have thousands of minions of varying degrees from plants that don’t move, to skeletons, to little angelic cherubs. Vampire Survivor is a Roguelike dungeon crawler. As you gain achievements you unlock other heroes, other weapons, and passive items. The graphics on it are not the greatest, however, for a simple game, inexpensive, it is worth a look at.
It recently left Early Access, on October 20th, 2022. Contains hours of re-playability.
How to play
You pick one of four characters to start. Then the world selection. Each character has their own unique weapon, with some stat boosts, or debuffs if applicable. When you start the level you have one weapon to kill the enemies. As enemies are destroyed, you gain XP which levels you up with the option to choose other weapons or passive items.
You do not have the whole list available. Leveling up will show only 3-4 items to choose from. As you select your weapons and support items, you can also level up the items for better, stronger effects and attacks. Some items can evolve into really powerful weapons if you have the right support item to go with the weapon.
You play each level until you either die, or have reached 30 minutes in the gameplay. Reaching 30 minutes will summon a large reaper that kills you instantly, but the level is considered complete.
Some strong Enemies drop treasure chests. These chests can hold anywhere from 1, 3, or 5 items. These items can either be Weapon Evolutions(the only way to evolve them) or more levels for your items.
Gameplay Mechanics
The Game is played primarily with WASD, and mouse-clicking when the menus show up. The leveling system is pretty standard. You gather XP gems and you can either grab a new weapon/item or level up one you already have(if they show up in the level-up menu). The level-up menu is entirely random until you only have 4 or fewer items to level up to max.
There are also some items that are around the selected world. The items are always the same, until later items are unlocked. You can max your weapons and items to 6 each(holding a total of 12 items.) from leveling up. You can hold more Passive’s if they are laying around on the map.
The weapons typically have a max level of 8, however when you evolve them, they can have a single level from the evolution, or they can have extra levels to increase their power.
You can also collect Relics which unlock various other mechanics. One Relic unlocks Arcana, which is a bonus power randomly picked to add to the level in which you play. These powers can vary from bonus healing, extra money collected, to bonus damage when having certain weapons.
In addition, you can also alter the levels with some of the unlocks and relics, such as adding a hyper mode or playing an endless game.
There are even secret characters that can only be obtained through specific means. I’ll leave those a surprise for anyone who wishes to get the game.
Personal Style
If you have played Vampire Survivor, you may already have your own preference for playing. My personal favorite is picking the character Clerici for Santa water, or Poe for garlic. For earlier games, I would go for Garlic, Santa Water, and then any projectiles, such as Axe, Fire wand, Magic wand, and Cross. I typically avoided Runetracer, Whip, and the Laurel. Once the pentagram was unlocked I started taking that and maxing it out as soon as possible. When I could see unions and evolutions, Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow evolved was the best thing I could find. Peachone and Ebony Wings combined for the Vandalier was also a great weapon.
With my current unlocks, my ideal setup is:
Characters: Pugnala, Poe or Clerici
Weapons: Vandalier, Phieraggi, Gorgeous Moon, Holy wand/La Borra, Soul Eater, and Unholy Vespers.
Passives: Spinach/Attractorb, Tirigasu, Crown, Empty Tome, Recovery, Spellbinder, Silver Ring, and Metaglio Left.
If you need to last 31 minutes on any map, You will need to use the Clock Lancet maxed out(not necessarily evolved). I have used the clock lancet in place of the Holy Wand and have done all right.
Have you played Vampire Survivors, comment below your ideal setup that has gotten you through most of the game, but leave out all the secrets in-game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/Vampire_Survivors/
Mom of three, enjoy videogames, board games and phone games. I typically am playing Simulation games or FPS games.
