Time-mastering demon halfway up the Clock Tower. Drops Gale Force, which evolves into Pneuma Tempestas with maxed Bracer.
Zephyr is a Castlevania crossover boss in the Ode to Castlevania DLC. He is a rune-summoned encounter halfway up the Clock Tower, designed to gate the Gale Force weapon drop behind a kill on the Ode to Castlevania stage.
Zephyr is a Castlevania crossover boss added to Vampire Survivors with the Ode to Castlevania DLC on October 31, 2024. He is a rune-spawned enemy on the Ode to Castlevania stage, distinct from the wave-timer bosses like Death and the Reaper.
The Vampire Survivors version of Zephyr keeps the Castlevania design template: a robed time-mage who controls clocks and stops time around himself. The 
Ars Gouda bestiary entry describes him as "a demon that mastered time itself," with a wry note about Santa Ladonna trying to headhunt him to improve the Clock Lancet's efficiency and Antonio Belpaese trying to literally headhunt him.
His main reward is the 
Gale Force weapon. Gale Force drops directly from his rune kill and is one of the four DLC weapons required to unlock John Morris through the Tides-of-evolution path.
The Ode to Castlevania DLC has TWO entities named Zephyr, which causes regular confusion in the community. The naming reflects the original Castlevania source material, where Zephyr was both a recurring time-mage boss and the same character's playable form across different games.
Zephyr (boss/enemy): the rune-summoned enemy halfway up the Clock Tower. Drops Gale Force. Covered in this guide.
Zephyr (playable character): a separate hidden character at the bottom of the Clock Tower. Unlocked by surviving 30 minutes on Ode to Castlevania as Soma Cruz, then defeating him after collecting the Pile of Secrets. Covered in the playable Zephyr section below.
The boss Zephyr is what most players encounter first. The playable Zephyr is a deep-completion unlock that requires beating the DLC as Richter Belmont before he becomes accessible.
Zephyr's rune sits halfway up the Clock Tower on the Ode to Castlevania stage, east of the Capra Gate. Reach him by clearing the Stallion, Scorpion, and Capra Gates first, then heading east into the Clock Tower.
Zephyr's rune is positioned about halfway up the Clock Tower section of the Ode to Castlevania stage, on the eastern side of the map. The full route requires three earlier gate openings before the Clock Tower becomes accessible.
Capra Gate relic, which opens the eastern Clock Tower path. Gale Force as a guaranteed weapon drop in the run.Zephyr's rune is the first stop on the Clock Tower path. The Abbadon boss is further north past the Zephyr rune, in an enclosed room near the top of the tower.
Players who blow past Zephyr without engaging will miss the Gale Force drop, which can stall later character unlocks like John Morris and Stella Lecarde.
The fight is a contact-damage encounter with no special attack pattern beyond Zephyr's movement. Any DPS-focused build can finish him after stepping on his rune. Bring a maxed AoE weapon to handle the spawns around him.
Mechanically, the Vampire Survivors version of Zephyr strips down the original Castlevania kit to a contact-damage fight. His signature time-stop ability does not transfer over in any disruptive way during the fight itself.
The walk-up to the rune is harder than the kill. By the time most players reach Zephyr they will have a maxed weapon or two, and the contact-only nature of the fight means a single AoE pass through his sprite usually finishes him.
The encounter has no enrage timer and no phase shifts. Zephyr drops Gale Force on the ground at the moment of his death, and the player picks it up automatically.
| Slot | Recommendation | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Character | Any DPS-focused starter | Antonio Belpaese, Pugnala Provola, or any Belmont with the Whip evolution all clear the walk-up easily |
| Weapon Priority | Whip evolution or starting weapon evolution | The Clock Tower has dense enemy spawns; AoE clears them faster than single-target damage |
| Passive |  Bracer (if going for Pneuma evolution same run) | Saves a second run if the player can level Gale Force to 8 in the same Ode to Castlevania session |
Gale Force summons a green magic circle in the direction the character faces, then fires curving piercing projectiles. Internal ID is a Belnades' Spellbook weapon, so it has a charge time before activation.
Gale Force is the direct payoff for the Zephyr fight. It functions as a Belnades' Spellbook weapon, meaning it has a charge time before activation indicated by the brightness of its created magic circle.
Once charged, Gale Force fires a cluster of curving piercing projectiles forward. The projectiles are affected by the Amount stat and curve backwards toward the player after travelling forward, allowing them to hit enemies on both the outbound and return paths.
Gale Force has two distinct acquisition paths. The Zephyr fight is the most reliable route, but other players can encounter the weapon through character starting weapons or spellbook randomisation.
| Path | Condition | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Zephyr boss kill | Step on Zephyr rune in Clock Tower | Guaranteed drop; works for any character on the Ode to Castlevania stage |
| Julia Laforeze starter | Play as  Julia Laforeze | Julia's starting weapon is Gale Force; instant access on every run |
 Belnades' Spellbook | Play as Sypha or Juste with the Spellbook weapon | Spell rolls can offer Gale Force as one of the random spellbook outputs |
| Standard random pool | Evolve Gale Force at least once | After the first evolution, Gale Force enters the standard random weapon pool for any character |
Unlike most Vampire Survivors weapons, Gale Force does NOT enter the standard random weapon pool until it has been evolved at least once. The Zephyr drop, the Julia Laforeze starting weapon, and the Belnades' Spellbook spell pool are the only ways to access it before the first evolution.
After the first evolution, the weapon becomes available as a normal level-up option for every character in the game.
Gemini (I): Creates a counterpart of Gale Force called Speculo Gale Force that mirrors the original in the opposite direction, effectively doubling output.
Waltz of Pearls (XI): Gale Force projectiles bounce up to 3 times when hitting enemies, dramatically changing their travel path and increasing total hits per cast.
Evolve Gale Force into Pneuma Tempestas by levelling Gale Force to 8 and picking up a maxed Bracer, then opening any boss chest. The evolution keeps Gale Force as a hidden secondary weapon and adds a spinning tornado attack.
Pneuma Tempestas is the evolution of Gale Force. Internally identified as TP_WIND2, it is a rarity 1 Evolution-type weapon that fires upward instead of horizontally.
The evolution recipe is straightforward: level Gale Force to its maximum level 8, equip a maxed Bracer, then collect a chest dropped by any Castlevania boss. The chest will offer the Pneuma Tempestas evolution as a level-up option.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Internal ID | TP_WIND2 |
| Type | Evolution |
| Rarity | 1 |
| Damage | 20 |
| Area | 2 |
| Speed | 2.5 |
| Amount | 5 |
| Duration | 1.0 seconds |
| Cooldown | 7.0 seconds |
| Hitbox Delay | 0.5 seconds |
| Projectile Interval | 0.4 seconds |
| Pool Limit | 200 |
| Hits Walls | No |
Pneuma Tempestas keeps the magic circle visual under the character but redirects the attack pattern. Once charged, it fires a large cluster of piercing projectiles upward, spinning around, damaging enemies they touch on the way up and again as they return to the character.
The fixed travel path is one of the key differences. Where Gale Force's projectiles curve based on character facing, Pneuma Tempestas always launches vertically. This makes the Waltz of Pearls (XI) Arcana almost useless on Pneuma Tempestas: the strictly fixed path means bouncing has minimal effect on output.
The name combines two languages. "Pneuma" comes from Greek and means "Spirit." "Tempestas" comes from Roman mythology, where it is the Goddess of Storm. Together the name reads as "Spirit of the Storm Goddess", a fitting upgrade for a wind-themed weapon.
The naming pattern matches the rest of the Ode to Castlevania DLC, which uses Latin and Greek roots throughout its weapon and item names. Pneuma Tempestas, Tenebris Tonitrus, and Acquazzone all follow the same convention.
Stella Lecarde is a secret playable character whose starting weapon is Pneuma Tempestas. Unlock her by defeating Stella & Loretta in the Clock Tower with the Sanctuary weapon's screen-wide attack.
Stella Lecarde is a secret playable character in the Ode to Castlevania DLC who starts every run with Pneuma Tempestas already equipped. For players who want the evolved Gale Force without the multi-step grind, Stella is the fastest access point.
Her sister 
Loretta Lecarde uses 
Cocytus instead, which is the evolved form of the Ice Fang weapon (dropped by the Brachyura boss south of the Library).
Richter Belmont to unlock Vlad Tepes Dracula and gain access to the 
Pile of Secrets.
Sanctuary weapon. Land the killing blow on Stella & Loretta with Sanctuary's screen-wide attack to register the unlock.The unlock check is specific to Sanctuary's screen-wide attack. The crosses spawned by 
Refectio look similar but do NOT count for the unlock. Players who finish Stella & Loretta with Refectio crosses will not register the unlock and will need to retry the fight.
Spell shortcut: cast twinnado in the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane to skip the Sanctuary requirement and unlock all six Stella/Loretta variants directly.
Stella Lecarde's value comes from starting every run with an already-evolved weapon. Most characters need to spend the first 10 to 15 minutes of a run levelling their starting weapon and finding the evolution passive. Stella skips that entire phase.
She starts with +1 Armor, +20% Move Speed, +100% Greed, and is immune to health drain. The Move Speed bonus stacks with the boss-walking strategies common in the rest of the Ode to Castlevania DLC, making her a strong general-purpose pick once unlocked. Her unlock also chains into Jonathan & Charlotte, Charlotte & Jonathan, Stella & Loretta, Loretta & Stella, and Loretta Lecarde, six characters from one Sanctuary kill.
The unlock method is itself a Castlevania reference. In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the player must defeat the Lecarde twins using the Sanctuary spell to access the game's good ending. Vampire Survivors recreates the requirement faithfully.
Playable Zephyr is unlocked by surviving 30 minutes on Ode to Castlevania as Soma Cruz, then defeating playable-Zephyr at the bottom of the Clock Tower. Cost is 5,000 coins. Spell shortcut: abouttimeyoushowedup.
The playable Zephyr character is a separate entity from the Zephyr boss covered above. He shares the name and the time-magic theme but has his own unlock chain, his own location on the Clock Tower, and his own playstyle once acquired.
Pile of Secrets unlock chain by beating the DLC as Richter Belmont, then collecting the Pile of Secrets pickup.
Soma Cruz selected. Soma is required for this specific unlock to register.The spell shortcut is abouttimeyoushowedup, cast in the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane. The phrase is a direct nod to Zephyr's time-mage theme. The spell registers the unlock immediately at the same 5,000 coin cost.
Playable Zephyr starts with +50% Move Speed, +20% Speed, and +2 Amount. Those bonuses scale into a unique passive: while an Orologion is active, he gains an additional +100% Move Speed and -33% Cooldown.
Orologions are the time-stop pickup items in Vampire Survivors. They normally drop rarely, but Zephyr makes them spawn at twice the normal rate. Combined with Hail from the Future (X) Arcana, this turns him into a near-perpetual time-stop character.
| Build Element | Recommended Pick | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon |  Knife (evolves to  Million Cut) | Knife scales with Slash (XVI) and benefits from the Amount bonus |
| Arcana |  Hail from the Future (X) | Generates additional Orologions, stacking with Zephyr's native Orologion bonus |
| Optional Slot |  Greatest Jubilee | Benefits from Slash (XVI) and may generate more Orologions through light source spawning |
| Avoid |  Curved Knife | Does not benefit from Slash and cannot evolve into Million Cut |
Zephyr is also adept with Pocket Knife and any of the other Knife-family evolutions. The unifying thread is weapons that benefit from raw Speed scaling and Slash (XVI) crit interactions.
Gale Force is one of four DLC weapons required for the John Morris unlock chain. Without the Zephyr kill (or alternative Gale Force access), John Morris cannot be unlocked, which blocks the larger Richter Belmont path.
The Zephyr boss fight is one of the higher-priority DLC encounters because the Gale Force drop is a hard prerequisite for two longer unlock chains.
John Morris is unlocked once Raging Fire, Ice Fang, Gale Force, and Rock Riot have all been evolved at least once. The four weapons can be evolved across separate runs and do not need to all be on the same character.
| Weapon | Source Boss | Evolution Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Raging Fire | Charlotte Aulin starter | Raging Fire + Spinach (max) = Salamender |
| Ice Fang | Brachyura (south of Library) | Ice Fang + Spellbinder (max) = Cocytus |
| Gale Force | Zephyr (Clock Tower) | Gale Force + Bracer (max) = Pneuma Tempestas |
| Rock Riot | Behemoth (forest north of start) | Rock Riot + Stone Mask (max) = Rock Riot evolved |
Once John Morris is unlocked, his starting weapon Iron Ball evolves into Wrecking Ball with maxed Armor. Levelling Iron Ball to 4 also unlocks the weapon for all characters, making John Morris a stepping stone for further Iron Ball-related unlocks.
The longer goal at the end of this chain is Richter Belmont, the iconic Castlevania character whose unlock requires beating the DLC content as a sequence of Belmont family characters. The full chain is documented in the dedicated Ode to Castlevania secrets and unlock catalogue.
Zephyr debuted in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow as a time-mage boss. He returned in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow with the same time-stop kit. The Vampire Survivors version preserves the visual and the time-mastery theme.
Zephyr first appeared in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow as a recurring time-mage boss in Dracula's castle. His signature ability was stopping time around himself, allowing him to attack while the player was frozen mid-action. The Castlevania design template gave him a robed appearance and floating posture.
He returned in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow with the same kit, and his soul drop in those games (the Zephyr soul) gave the player a similar time-stop ability. The Clock Lancet weapon in Vampire Survivors is a direct reference to that Castlevania mechanic.
The Vampire Survivors lore reframes Zephyr as a demon being headhunted from two directions. Santa Ladonna wants him for clock-mage research and would professionally hire him. Antonio Belpaese wants him for the more violent kind of head-hunting. The bestiary entry plays this contrast for laughs.
The Vampire Survivors sprite preserves the floating-robe silhouette from the Castlevania source material. The colour scheme leans green and white, matching his wind/time theme, and the magic circle visual when he attacks mirrors the Gale Force weapon's charge animation.
The playable Zephyr character keeps the same colour scheme and robe design, with minor variations to make him distinct from the boss version. Both share the same source-game inspiration but appear at different points in the Clock Tower path.
| Date | Build | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 31 October 2024 | Ode to Castlevania DLC launch | Zephyr boss added to game with the Clock Tower section. Gale Force weapon and Pneuma Tempestas evolution shipped at the same time. Playable Zephyr added as a Pile-of-Secrets-gated unlock. |
| 28 October 2025 | Update 1.14 | Adventure mode and additional roster content added to the Ode to Castlevania map. Zephyr boss kit unchanged. |
| 4 December 2025 | Steam beta 52172286R | Ode to Castlevania enemy hitbox pass. Zephyr included in the broader update according to the wiki revision log. |
Zephyr's rune sits halfway up the Clock Tower on the eastern side of the Ode to Castlevania stage. Reach it by clearing the Stallion, Scorpion, and Capra Gates first, then heading east into the Clock Tower section. The first red rune in that area summons Zephyr.
Gale Force unlocks by defeating Zephyr in the Clock Tower on the Ode to Castlevania stage. The weapon drops as a guaranteed pickup at the end of the fight. Alternative paths include playing as Julia Laforeze (Gale Force is her starting weapon) or rolling it from the Belnades' Spellbook as Sypha or Juste.
Evolve Gale Force into Pneuma Tempestas by levelling it to 8 and equipping a maxed Bracer passive, then opening any Castlevania boss chest. The chest will offer Pneuma Tempestas as a level-up option. The original Gale Force is kept as a hidden secondary weapon after evolution.
The Zephyr fight is a contact-damage encounter with no special attack pattern. Step on his rune to spawn him, then deal damage with whatever build is active at that point in the run. Any AoE-focused weapon clears him quickly.
Beat the Ode to Castlevania DLC as Richter Belmont and collect the Pile of Secrets, then start a fresh run as Soma Cruz on Ode to Castlevania. Survive past 30:00 (Endless Mode recommended), then defeat the playable Zephyr at the bottom of the Clock Tower. Cost: 5,000 coins.
The spell code abouttimeyoushowedup unlocks the playable Zephyr character without the Pile of Secrets requirement. Cast it in the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane menu. Note that this unlocks the playable Zephyr character, not the Gale Force weapon.
Gale Force does not enter the standard random weapon pool until it has been evolved at least once. Until the first Pneuma Tempestas evolution is registered, Gale Force only appears via Zephyr drops, Julia Laforeze starting weapon, or Belnades' Spellbook spell rolls.
Orologions are time-stop pickups in Vampire Survivors. The playable Zephyr character has a unique passive: while an Orologion is active, he gains +100% Move Speed and -33% Cooldown. Orologions also drop at twice the normal rate when playing as Zephyr, making him the most time-stop-focused character in the game.
Zephyr boss location, Gale Force weapon stats, and Pneuma Tempestas evolution recipe pulled from the official Vampire Survivors Wiki on Weirdgloop. Castlevania source material cross-referenced with the Castlevania Wiki on Fandom.
Step-by-step Clock Tower route verified against multiple Ode to Castlevania DLC walkthroughs published shortly after the October 2024 launch.
Sprite assets and stat data derived from the Vampire Survivors Wiki, hosted by Weirdgloop and licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. Vampire Survivors and the Ode to Castlevania DLC are trademarks of poncle. Castlevania and associated characters are trademarks of Konami. This guide is an independent reference and is not affiliated with poncle or Konami.