A weapon-selector item from the Ode to Castlevania DLC. At stage start, lets you pick one of 20 vampire-killing tools. Unlocked by evolving all 16 evolvable vampire-killing tools across any number of runs.
Coat of Arms is the only weapon in v1.13 that does no damage on its own. Per the wiki, the entire stat block is dashes: no Damage, no Area, no Speed, no Amount, no Pierce, no Cooldown. Max level is 1 and Rarity is 2. From our experience, this is the single most confusing weapon in the Ode to Castlevania DLC for new players, because the level-up screen offers it like a normal pick but selecting it does not add a weapon to your active slots. Instead, the game presents a selection menu at the start of your next stage and lets you choose one of 20 vampire-killing tools to bring with you, replacing what would otherwise be a starting weapon slot.
The other thing that catches new players: per the wiki, the unlock requirement for Coat of Arms is to evolve all 16 evolvable vampire-killing tools across the base game and Ode to Castlevania DLC. That spans 8 base game weapon evolutions (Whip into Bloody Tear, Knife into Thousand Edge, etc.) plus 8 Castlevania DLC evolutions. From our experience, this is roughly 30 to 60 hours of gameplay for a player who has not been systematically evolving every weapon, and it is the highest-friction unlock requirement in the Ode to Castlevania DLC. The payoff is that Coat of Arms becomes a permanent run-start customization tool for any character it is equipped on.
Coat of Arms by evolving all 16 evolvable vampire-killing tools (8 base game + 8 Castlevania DLC). Does not need to be done in a single run
King Bible, 
Santa Water, or 
Javelin for most characters and stagesAccording to the Vampire Survivors wiki, Coat of Arms is classified as a Normal weapon with ID `TP_COATOFARMS`, max level 1, and Rarity 2. The caption reads "Allows you to choose from a selection of vampire-killing tools." Per the wiki, the weapon becomes available at the start of a stage when unlocked and equipped by an eligible character. From our experience, this means Coat of Arms occupies a weapon slot on the equipped character before the run starts, and at the moment the stage loads, a selection menu appears letting you pick one of 20 vampire-killing tools. The chosen tool replaces Coat of Arms in that slot for the duration of the run.
Per the wiki, Coat of Arms itself does no damage. The stat block lists dashes for Damage, Area, Speed, Amount, Pierce, Cooldown, Projectile Interval, and Knockback. From our experience, the practical effect is that Coat of Arms is a run-start customization tool, not a weapon you fight enemies with. Once the selection is made, the chosen vampire-killing tool behaves exactly as it would on a character that starts with it natively. Whip from Coat of Arms levels and evolves into Bloody Tear with Hollow Heart the same way Whip would on Antonio Belpaese.
From our experience, Coat of Arms is most valuable on Castlevania characters whose default starting weapons are unusual or hard to evolve. Equipping Coat of Arms on a character whose native starter is a Belnades' Spellbook spell, for example, lets you swap to a more conventional Whip-into-Bloody-Tear opening when you want a familiar build path. The trade-off is that Coat of Arms occupies a passive or weapon slot that could otherwise hold a stat-bonus passive, so you are paying one slot worth of build flexibility for the run-start choice.
From our experience, equip Coat of Arms BEFORE you commit to a stage. The selection menu appears the moment the stage loads, and there is no way to swap mid-run if you change your mind. Plan the run beforehand, equip Coat of Arms on the character at the character-select screen, then load the stage and pick the vampire-killing tool that matches the stage hazard pattern.
Per the wiki, Coat of Arms draws from three subsets of vampire-killing tools, totaling 20 weapons. The 16 evolvable weapons (8 base game plus 8 Castlevania DLC) are also the unlock-requirement list. The 4 Master Librarian weapons are not required for the unlock and are only available after each one is unlocked through Master Librarian merchant purchases.
Whip
Axe
KnifeSanta Water
RunetracerKing Bible
Cross
Lightning RingFrom our experience, this group contains the most reliable picks for Coat of Arms on a default-build run. King Bible, Santa Water, and Lightning Ring all auto-target without requiring the player to face a specific direction, which makes them solid choices for Castlevania characters who already have movement-heavy starting weapons. Whip and Knife are direction-dependent and best on stages where you control your facing.
Curved Knife
ShurikenJavelin
Iron Ball
Discus
Silver Revolver
Hand Grenade
Wine GlassFrom our experience, this group is the best fit when running Coat of Arms on a Castlevania character whose own starting weapon comes from this set. Picking Javelin or Hand Grenade through Coat of Arms on a character like Charlotte Aulin gives you double the same weapon family, which stacks evolution timing for late-run union weapons. Each weapon in this set has its own evolution path through a specific Castlevania DLC passive item.
Svarog Statue
Troll Bomb
Hydro Storm
Grand CrossPer the wiki, these four weapons are only included in the Coat of Arms pool once each one has been individually unlocked via the Master Librarian merchant in the Ode to Castlevania stage. From our experience, these are situational picks. Hydro Storm is excellent for screen-clearing on bullet-hell stages but stays at level 1 forever (no evolution path). Grand Cross is the strongest of the four for raw damage output. Svarog Statue and Troll Bomb are utility picks for specific arcana combos.
Per the wiki, the Coat of Arms unlock requirement is to evolve all 16 evolvable vampire-killing tools. The unlock does not need to be completed in a single run, so progress carries across saves. From our experience, this is the highest-friction unlock in the Ode to Castlevania DLC, but it also means the unlock progress accumulates naturally as you play through other character builds and weapon spokes. The achievement associated with this unlock is commonly searched as "Fully Armed Coat."
| Base game (8) | Evolves into | With passive |
|---|---|---|
| Whip | Bloody Tear | Hollow Heart |
| Axe | Death Spiral | Candelabrador |
| Knife | Thousand Edge | Bracer |
| Santa Water | La Borra | Attractorb |
| Runetracer | NO FUTURE | Armor |
| King Bible | Unholy Vespers | Spellbinder |
| Cross | Heaven Sword | Clover |
| Lightning Ring | Thunder Loop | Duplicator |
| Castlevania DLC (8) | Evolves into | With passive |
|---|---|---|
| Curved Knife | Bwaka Knife | Stone Mask |
| Shuriken | Yagyu Shuriken | Tirajisu |
| Javelin | Long Inus | Spellbinder |
| Iron Ball | Wrecking Ball | Bracer |
| Discus | Stellar Blade | Empty Tome |
| Silver Revolver | Jewel Gun | Pummarola |
| Hand Grenade | The RPG | Crown |
| Wine Glass | Meal Ticket | Hollow Heart |
From our experience, the fastest path to the Coat of Arms unlock is to play character spokes on the Ode to Castlevania stage and rotate through the Castlevania DLC weapons first (8 evolutions on the same stage). Then run base-game characters on Mad Forest or Library to clean up the 8 base-game evolutions. Most players have 4-6 base-game evolutions already done from normal play, so the actual marginal grind is 10-12 evolutions across 10-12 runs.
From our experience, the optimal Coat of Arms pick depends on which character you have it equipped on and which stage you are running. Here are the highest-value picks across common scenarios.
King Bible (evolves to Unholy Vespers with Spellbinder)Santa Water (evolves to La Borra with Attractorb)Javelin (evolves to Long Inus with Spellbinder)Hydro Storm (unevolvable, max level 1)From our experience, three picks in the Coat of Arms pool consistently underperform: Knife (direction-dependent and falls off without Bracer + Spinach), Cross (boomerang pattern is hard to position on melee characters), and Curved Knife (very narrow attack arc that requires constant re-aiming). These three picks are technically valid for unlock progress but they will not carry an endgame run on their own. Pick them only if you specifically need their evolutions for other unlocks.
Per the wiki, Coat of Arms can be equipped by Castlevania DLC characters and select base-game characters. From our experience, the strongest pairings are with Castlevania-tier characters whose default starting weapons are situational, since Coat of Arms gives them a fallback to a conventional weapon. Sypha Belnades is the most common case: her default starter is Ice Fang (a Belnades' Spellbook spell with charge mechanics), and equipping Coat of Arms on her lets you swap to Whip or King Bible for a more familiar build path. See our Sypha Belnades guide for her standard build options.
From our experience, the Belmont line characters (Leon, Richter, Trevor) get less out of Coat of Arms because their native starting weapons are already conventional whips or projectiles that scale predictably. Equipping Coat of Arms on a Belmont takes a passive slot you would rather use for Hollow Heart or Spinach. See our Leon Belmont guide, Richter Belmont guide, and Alucard guide for their default-build details. Soma Cruz is a unique case where Coat of Arms pairs well because his Soul Steal weapon is a once-per-run special, and Coat of Arms fills the conventional weapon slot. See our Soma Cruz guide.
Per the Vampire Survivors wiki, Coat of Arms draws its name from the heraldic shield motif that runs through the entire Castlevania franchise. From our experience, the visual design of the Coat of Arms weapon icon explicitly references the Belmont family crest, the heraldic shield carried by every Belmont protagonist from Simon Belmont in the original 1986 Castlevania through Julius Belmont in Aria of Sorrow (2003) and Aria's sequel Dawn of Sorrow (2005). The "vampire-killing tool" terminology used in the wiki to describe the Coat of Arms item pool is a direct reference to the Vampire Killer whip itself, the canonical weapon of the Belmont clan in Castlevania lore, which is in turn the name of the iconic Castlevania theme music.
The mechanic of selecting one weapon from a curated pool also echoes the Castlevania subweapon system. In the original Castlevania games, players collect a single subweapon from candle drops (Axe, Knife, Cross, Holy Water, Stopwatch) and that subweapon defines their secondary attack for the rest of the stage. From our experience, the Coat of Arms weapon-pool composition in Vampire Survivors deliberately mirrors this. The 8 base-game vampire-killing tools include direct equivalents of every Castlevania subweapon: Whip is Vampire Killer, Axe and Knife and Cross retain their Castlevania names, Santa Water replaces Holy Water, and Lightning Ring stands in for the elemental orb pickups in later Castlevania titles. The Coat of Arms item is the most explicit Castlevania-mechanics homage in the entire Ode to Castlevania DLC.
Per the wiki, Coat of Arms is unlocked by evolving all 16 evolvable vampire-killing tools. That includes 8 base-game weapons (Whip, Axe, Knife, Santa Water, Runetracer, King Bible, Cross, Lightning Ring) and 8 Ode to Castlevania weapons (Curved Knife, Shuriken, Javelin, Iron Ball, Discus, Silver Revolver, Hand Grenade, Wine Glass). Progress carries across runs and saves, so the unlock does not have to be completed in a single session.
Per the wiki, the Coat of Arms item pool includes 20 vampire-killing tools: 8 evolvable base-game weapons, 8 evolvable Castlevania DLC weapons, and 4 unevolvable Master Librarian weapons (Svarog Statue, Troll Bomb, Hydro Storm, Grand Cross). The 4 Master Librarian weapons only appear in the pool after each one has been individually unlocked through the Master Librarian merchant.
No. Per the wiki, Coat of Arms has dashes for all stats (Damage, Area, Speed, Amount, Pierce, Cooldown). It is a selector item that lets the player choose one vampire-killing tool at the start of a stage. The selected tool replaces Coat of Arms in the slot for the rest of the run.
From our experience, King Bible is the best general-purpose pick because it auto-targets, scales with Area, and its Spellbinder evolution gate is a passive that most Castlevania builds want anyway. Santa Water is the best pick for bullet-hell stages, Javelin is the best pick for Spellbinder-stack builds, and Hydro Storm is the best pick for endless-mode screen clear (after Master Librarian unlock).
Per the wiki, Coat of Arms only activates at the start of a stage when equipped beforehand on an eligible character. From our experience, picking it from a level-up screen mid-run wastes the pick because the selection menu only triggers at stage load. Always equip Coat of Arms from the character-select screen before starting a run.
Per the wiki, Coat of Arms can be equipped by Castlevania DLC characters and select base-game characters. From our experience, it pairs best with characters whose native starting weapons are situational (like Sypha Belnades with Ice Fang) because Coat of Arms gives them a fallback to a conventional weapon. It pairs less well with Belmont-line characters whose default starters are already conventional.
Yes. The Fully Armed Coat achievement triggers on the same condition as the Coat of Arms unlock: evolving all 16 evolvable vampire-killing tools. From our experience, both fire simultaneously when the 16th evolution is completed, regardless of which character or stage you are on.
Per the wiki, the unlock requirement is specifically to evolve all 16 evolvable vampire-killing tools, and the 4 Master Librarian weapons (Svarog Statue, Troll Bomb, Hydro Storm, Grand Cross) have no evolutions. They stay at level 1 and have max level 1 hardcoded. Since the unlock check counts evolutions rather than pickups, these 4 are excluded by definition.
For other Castlevania DLC weapon spokes, see our Raging Fire guide, our Ice Fang guide, our Gale Force guide, our Rock Riot guide, our Alchemy Whip guide, and our Arma Dio guide. For Operation Guns DLC weapons, see our Short Gun guide. For base-game weapon comparisons that pair with Coat of Arms picks, see our Pentagram guide, our Glass Fandango guide, and our Gaze of Gaea guide. The weapon tier list ranks every weapon in v1.13 and the weapon evolution chart covers every recipe across all DLCs. The passive items guide walks through the evolution-gate passives, and the Spellbinder spoke covers the most-used Castlevania evolution gate. The main Vampire Survivors guide is the hub for everything else.
Image sprites and screenshots sourced from the Vampire Survivors Wiki (vampire.survivors.wiki) under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.