Forward-fired homing rockets. Two-passive evolution gate, no wall blocking, target-switch on kill.
Homing Miss fires in the faced direction before the homing kicks in, which is the detail that quietly breaks player muscle memory on Stanley runs. The wiki effects block specifies missiles travel in the player's facing direction first, then home on a random enemy and explode on hit. Turning toward an empty quadrant wastes the opening salvo, even though the homing pattern eventually corrects.
The second buried mechanic is the target-switch on kill. According to the wiki, each missile switches targets when its initial target dies mid-flight, so a stacked Amount and a clearing wave both pay off twice: the missiles redirect instead of whiffing into empty space. Pierce stacks on top, letting a single missile chain through up to four enemies at max level.
Build context. Homing Miss is an Operation Guns DLC weapon, unlocked by surviving 15 minutes with Stanley on any stage. The evolution to Multistage Missiles requires two passives, not one: Weapon Power-Up AND Duplicator both at max level. Missing either bricks the chest.
This guide covers the forward-fire-then-home behavior, the two-passive Multistage Missiles gate that catches players expecting a single-passive evolution, the Heart of Fire (XIX) double-explosion arcana, the best Stanley build, and the Operation Guns family context.
Homing Miss, Stanley's Operation Guns starter that fires forward-then-homing rockets with target-switch on kill.
Multistage Missiles at max level with max-level 
Weapon Power-Up AND 
Duplicator. Weapon Power-Up, Duplicator, and 
Spinach. Heart of Fire arcana doubles explosions.Homing Miss fires a salvo of three rockets in the player's faced direction on a 2.0-second base Cooldown. The wiki effects block specifies the missiles home on a random enemy after the initial forward push, then explode on hit. When the original target dies mid-flight, the missile re-acquires a new random target rather than whiffing into empty space.
Damage starts at 20 and scales with Might. Pierce starts at 1 and tops out at 3 (+2) at max level, which means a single missile can chain through up to four enemies in tight crowds. Per the wiki, Homing Miss is not blocked by walls, so corridor stages do not break the home-in pattern.
The Projectile Interval is 0.064 seconds between the three missiles in a single volley, which is fast enough that the salvo reads as a single burst rather than three discrete shots. In actual play, the burst pattern makes Amount stacks visually obvious: each Duplicator adds another missile to the same tight cluster.
Always fire toward the densest enemy cluster. The forward-then-home pattern means the initial vector still matters: rockets pointed at empty space spend extra travel time finding a target. Once the homing locks, the missiles correct, but every wasted half-second of travel is half-second of Cooldown not spent on a new salvo.
| Stat | Base | Max (Level 8) |
|---|---|---|
| Base damage | 20 | 40 (+20) |
| Area | 100% | 100% |
| Amount | 3 | 5 (+2) |
| Pierce | 1 | 3 (+2) |
| Cooldown | 2.0s | 1.8s (-0.2s) |
| Projectile Interval | 0.064s | 0.064s |
| Speed | 100% | 100% |
| Knockback | 1 | 1 |
| Pool Limit | 100 | 100 |
| Rarity | 50 | 50 |
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Normal (Operation Guns DLC) |
| Blocked by walls | No |
| Starting weapon for | Stanley Ironside |
| Unlock | Survive 15 minutes with Stanley |
| Evolves with | Weapon Power-Up (max) + Duplicator (max) |
| Arcana interaction | Heart of Fire (XIX) doubles explosions |
| ID | FB_HOMING |
Limit Break adds Might +0.5% per pick (rarity 10), Speed +5% to a 200% cap (rarity 10), Area +2.5% to a 1000% cap (rarity 10), and Amount +1 to a 10-pick cap (rarity 1). Per the wiki, the Amount Limit Break is the standout pick once Multistage Missiles takes over, since each extra missile carries the same Pierce and home-on-kill behavior.
Homing Miss evolves into Multistage Missiles at max level with TWO passives both at max: Weapon Power-Up and Duplicator. The wiki specifies both gates explicitly, which catches players who expect the single-passive pattern most base game weapons use. Either passive missing the level-8 mark bricks the evolution chest.
According to the wiki, Multistage Missiles inherits the home-on-kill behavior and adds a multi-stage detonation pattern where each missile splits on impact. The evolution chest fires at the standard minute 11 timer when both gates are met. The community-flagged confusion case is players holding Duplicator at level 7 because they ran out of level-up slots, which is the most common failure mode on this gate.
| Base | Passive needed | Becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Homing Miss (max level) | Weapon Power-Up (max) + Duplicator (max) | Multistage Missiles |
Pick Weapon Power-Up and Duplicator on the first two level-up screens you can. Weapon Power-Up has a 7-pick max climb to max level, so it eats more slots than Duplicator does. Skipping Weapon Power-Up early to grab a defensive passive is the most common way to brick the Multistage Missiles evolution.
Stanley Ironside's kit pairs with the Operation Guns roster: he gains bonus Cooldown and Amount as he levels. The build below front-loads the two evolution gate passives, then layers Spinach and Empty Tome for damage and Cooldown coverage, finishing with a defensive passive since Stanley has no innate healing.
Stanley Ironside (Operation Guns lead; Cooldown and Amount per level)Weapon Power-Up (evolution gate + Might scaling; first pick, every run)Duplicator (evolution gate + +1 missile per salvo; second pick)Spinach (Might scales the 40-damage cap further)
Empty Tome (Cooldown reduction stacks on Stanley's kit bonus)
Bracer (Projectile Speed cuts forward-fire-to-home transition time)
Crown (Growth speeds the climb to Weapon Power-Up and Duplicator max)Across multiple runs, this build is online around minute 11 once both evolution gates hit max and Multistage Missiles fires. Past minute 18, the Heart of Fire arcana (when offered) doubles every explosion, which carries the run through hyper Inverse on Hectic Highway and the other Operation Guns stages.
The wiki Arcanas section flags Heart of Fire (XIX) as the standout pick for Homing Miss. Per the wiki, Heart of Fire allows each homing missile to explode again on contact with an enemy, dealing half its base damage in an area. With Multistage Missiles online and a stacked Amount, the secondary explosions cover wider clear zones than the primary detonations do.
For passive synergies, the wiki combo table flags Weapon Power-Up, Duplicator, Spinach, and Empty Tome as green checks. Bracer's Projectile Speed reduces the forward-fire-to-home transition window, which is a small but real bonus on corridor stages. Crown is the standard Operation Guns Growth pick to accelerate the climb to max-level Weapon Power-Up.
In actual play, Homing Miss pairs cleanly with any Operation Guns secondary that shares its rapid-fire profile. Spread Shot and Long Gun both benefit from the same Stanley kit bonuses, so a multi-gun build runs the Cooldown and Amount stacks across three weapons at once.
Homing Miss and Spread Shot are both Operation Guns starters that fire in the faced direction, but they cover different battle profiles. Per the wiki, Spread Shot fires a fan of slower projectiles that do not home, while Homing Miss fires a narrower forward salvo that homes after the initial push and switches targets on kill. Spread Shot covers wider arcs; Homing Miss covers harder single-target focus.
Pick Homing Miss when the run needs target-switching damage on Reapers, stage bosses, or hyper Inverse waves where enemies die fast and missiles need to redirect. Pick Spread Shot when the run wants forward-cone wave clear at slower per-hit damage. In practice, most experienced Stanley runs aim for both online by minute 12, with Homing Miss handling priority targets while Spread Shot covers the rest.
Explore the rest of the Operation Guns family, the passives that gate the Multistage Missiles evolution, and the broader Stanley run roster.
Game data and screenshots adapted from vampire.survivors.wiki, used under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. Original content remains the property of the wiki contributors and Poncle.