Lance Bean's starting weapon. Fires bursts of decaying short-range projectiles horizontally, evolves into Prototype B with both Weapon Power-Up and Bracer, and ignores Area and Amount stats.
Short Gun is the only weapon in v1.13 that requires two passive items to evolve, not one. Per the wiki, the Prototype B evolution needs both 
Weapon Power-Up and 
Bracer at max level simultaneously when a chest opens. From our experience, this catches new Operation Guns DLC players off guard, since every base-game evolution and most Castlevania DLC evolutions only need one passive. The two-passive gate means you spend roughly twice as many level-up picks setting up the Short Gun build as you would on a standard projectile weapon, which directly affects when you can squeeze in additional weapons.
The other quirk that catches new players: per the wiki, Short Gun ignores Area and Amount stat scaling. That means stacking Empty Tome (Cooldown), Spinach (Might), and Bracer (Speed and projectile Speed) is good, but stacking Candelabrador (Area) gives nothing and stacking the Amount stat from Duplicator only matters because Duplicator adds projectile instances as a separate effect, not via the Amount stat. From our experience, this stat-ignore quirk is what keeps Short Gun balanced despite its 200% base projectile Speed and 3 base Amount, both of which are extremely high for a level 1 weapon.
Short Gun by surviving 15 minutes with Lance Bean (purchase Lance for 100 gold first by evolving Long Gun)
Prototype B at max level (level 8) plus max-level Weapon Power-Up AND Bracer (both required)
Lance Bean, who starts with it and gets +20% Speed for the buildAccording to the Vampire Survivors wiki, Short Gun fires a burst of short-range decaying projectiles horizontally in the direction Lance Bean is facing. The damage caption confirms it: "Fires bursts of decaying projectiles horizontally." The "decaying" part matters because each projectile only travels a short distance before disappearing, with a Duration of just 0.4 seconds per the wiki stats block. From our experience, that gives Short Gun a very different positioning logic from auto-aim weapons. You aim by turning Lance Bean toward the wave, and the burst saturates a short horizontal lane right in front of him.
The 200% base projectile Speed (twice the base of most weapons) combined with 3 base Amount per the wiki means Short Gun at level 1 already throws six projectiles per cycle that travel quickly through the burst lane. From our experience, that makes the early game (minutes 0 to 5) much smoother than Operation Guns alternatives like Long Gun or Spread Shot, which both ramp up slower. The trade-off is the 0.4-second Duration: enemies behind your initial burst lane are not threatened until you turn to face them.
Per the wiki, Short Gun explicitly ignores Area and Amount stat scaling. From our experience, this changes the standard build priority for projectile weapons. Candelabrador (which adds Area) gives zero effect on Short Gun's burst size. The Amount stat from passive items has no effect either, although 
Duplicator's "add 1 projectile" effect works independently of the Amount stat (Duplicator adds projectile instances directly, not via the Amount stat) so it still functions. The wiki combos table marks Duplicator as a green-checkmark synergy for this reason.
From our experience, walk into the wave with Short Gun firing rather than backpedaling. The 0.4-second Duration means projectiles disappear before reaching enemies you're running away from. Lance Bean's +20% Speed character bonus per the wiki helps you maintain forward pressure into waves, which is exactly what Short Gun's short-range burst needs.
Per the wiki, Short Gun's stat block in v1.13:
| Stat | Base (Level 1) | Max (Level 8) |
|---|---|---|
| Damage | 20 | 60 (+40 from levels) |
| Area | 100% (ignored by stat scaling) | 100% |
| Speed | 200% | 200% |
| Amount | 3 projectiles (stat scaling ignored) | 7 (+4 from levels) |
| Pierce | 1 | 3 (+2 from levels) |
| Cooldown | 2.0 seconds | 2.0 seconds |
| Duration | 0.4 seconds | 0.4 seconds |
| Rarity | 50 | 50 |
Per the wiki levels table:
From our experience, the levels you do not want to skip are level 2 and level 5 (the +2 Amount bumps both make a noticeable difference) and level 8 (the +20 Damage at the end is the single biggest level-up bonus across all 8 levels). Levels 3 and 6 are smaller +10 Damage steps that you can defer if better passives appear on the offer screen.
Per the wiki, Short Gun can be further leveled up with Limit Break. The Limit Break stats are: Might +0.5%, Speed +5% (up to 200%), Area +2.5% (up to 1000%, but ignored), Amount +1 (up to 10), and Pierce +1 (up to 10). From our experience, the Pierce +1 limit is the meaningful one since Short Gun's 0.4-second Duration combined with even max-level 3 Pierce means projectiles still cap out quickly in dense waves. Pushing Pierce to 10 via Limit Break extends Short Gun's effective damage zone significantly into endless mode.
Per the wiki, Short Gun evolves into Prototype B when paired with both max-level Weapon Power-Up AND max-level Bracer. This is a two-passive evolution, which is rare in v1.13. From our experience, the dual-passive requirement means you need to commit to the Prototype B evolution from the first level-up screen, since splitting picks between non-build passives delays the chest evolution past minute 10.
| Step | Requirement |
|---|---|
| 1. Equip Short Gun | Play Lance Bean (auto-equipped) or pick from level-up offers if Short Gun is already unlocked |
| 2. Level Short Gun to 8 | Standard level-up path. Skip levels 3 and 6 only if you must |
| 3. Pick Weapon Power-Up | From Operation Guns level-up screen. Weapon Power-Up is the Operation Guns DLC equivalent of Stone Mask for stat-bonus passives |
| 4. Pick Bracer | Standard base-game passive, available on any level-up screen |
| 5. Max BOTH passives | Both Weapon Power-Up and Bracer must be at max level when the chest opens. This typically takes 10 picks across both passives |
| 6. Open chest at min 10 or 20 | Standard evolution gate. Prototype B replaces Short Gun in the slot |
From our experience, prioritize Bracer FIRST since it gives projectile Speed and character Movement Speed, both of which directly help Lance Bean while you're still leveling up the build. Weapon Power-Up is the second pick because it's only useful for the evolution gate and a small flat damage bonus. Bracer also helps survive the minutes 5-10 phase while you're hunting Weapon Power-Up offers.
From our experience, the strongest Short Gun build runs Lance Bean on the Operation Guns map. The plan is to evolve Short Gun into Prototype B by minute 10, then layer Spread Shot or C-U-Laser as a second weapon evolution, with Sonic Bloom or Homing Miss as the third for screen coverage. Because Short Gun ignores Area and Amount, the passive priority is unusual:
Lance Bean+Short Gun (starting weapon)Short Gun+Weapon Power-Up +Bracer→Prototype BBracer (projectile Speed, evolution gate)Weapon Power-Up (damage bonus, evolution gate)
Spinach (Might scaling, raw damage multiplier)
Empty Tome (Cooldown reduction, faster bursts)Duplicator (adds projectile instances, bypasses Amount-ignore)
Attractorb (pickup range, helps with the burst-and-move loop)From our experience, this loadout reaches Prototype B by minute 10 on Lance Bean and clears the Operation Guns stage into endless. Note that 
Candelabrador is intentionally excluded despite being a typical projectile-weapon green-check, because per the wiki Short Gun ignores Area and Candelabrador only adds Area. Candelabrador becomes useful only after Prototype B is online and a second weapon (one that does scale with Area) joins the build.
According to the wiki, Short Gun has one direct arcana synergy that fundamentally changes how the weapon plays.
Pale Diamond Incursion (V): individual auto-aim modePer the wiki, Pale Diamond Incursion (V) makes each Short Gun projectile aim at the nearest enemy individually, and gains a Cooldown bonus based on Speed. From our experience, this is the single biggest power-up arcana for Short Gun because it solves the weapon's two main weaknesses at once. The horizontal-only aim becomes 360-degree targeting, and the low base Cooldown of 2.0 seconds drops further as you stack Speed (which Lance Bean already gets +20% from his character passive). On Lance Bean specifically, Pale Diamond Incursion (V) plus Bracer plus Empty Tome can drop the burst cycle below 1 second.
From our experience, the natural Operation Guns DLC weapon pairing is Spread Shot or C-U-Laser as the second weapon slot. Spread Shot evolves into Prototype A (which fires a wider arc, complementing Short Gun's tight horizontal burst) and C-U-Laser evolves into Pronto Beam (a continuous beam that scales with Area, picking up the Area-stat picks Short Gun ignores). For a more defensive build, Homing Miss evolves into Multistage Missiles for off-screen coverage while Lance Bean focuses on Short Gun's burst lane.
Per the Vampire Survivors wiki, Short Gun is the starting weapon of Lance Bean, who was added in the 9 May 2024 Operation Guns DLC. From our experience, the Operation Guns DLC name itself is a play on "Operation C," the 1991 Game Boy Contra title released in Japan as Operation C. Lance Bean is the iconic Player 2 character from the original Contra (1987), partnered with Bill Rizer (Player 1, also playable in the Operation Guns DLC). The two of them are the Konami protagonists most directly associated with the run-and-gun shooter genre that Vampire Survivors' bullet-heaven gameplay descends from. The Short Gun weapon represents one of the four iconic Contra weapon power-ups, alongside the Spread Shot, the Laser (C-U-Laser in Vampire Survivors), and the Machine Gun (Long Gun).
The Prototype B evolution name is a deeper Contra reference. In the original Contra, the player can pick up multiple weapon power-ups that stack into stronger versions, and "Prototype" is the development-phase name Konami used for unreleased weapon variants in the Contra series. The wiki notes that Lance Bean has an alternate unlock via casting the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane spell "beanmachinegun," which is a direct Contra reference to the Konami Code era of cheat codes. From our experience, the Operation Guns DLC roster also includes Bill Rizer, Ariana, Lucia, Brad, and Probotector, all of whom are recurring Contra protagonists across the franchise's 30+ year history. Lance Bean's character ID in the game files is `FB_LANCE`, where "FB" likely stands for Fantastic Bullets or similar Konami internal naming. The "DEFAULT" skin ID confirms Lance is treated as the canonical Player 2 representation.
Per the wiki, Short Gun is unlocked by surviving 15 minutes with Lance Bean. To play as Lance Bean you first need to purchase him for 100 gold, and Lance Bean himself is unlocked by evolving Long Gun (his predecessor weapon in the Operation Guns DLC). Once you have Lance Bean and survive 15 minutes in any stage, Short Gun becomes available for use on other characters.
Per the wiki, Short Gun evolves into Prototype B when paired with both max-level Weapon Power-Up AND max-level Bracer simultaneously when a chest opens. This is a two-passive evolution, which is unusual in Vampire Survivors. Most evolutions only require one passive.
Per the wiki, the Prototype B evolution explicitly lists both Weapon Power-Up and Bracer as requirements. From our experience, the two-passive gate is part of the Operation Guns DLC's design pattern where some Prototype-tier evolutions are gated behind dual passives. The trade-off is that Prototype B is a stronger evolution than most one-passive evolutions provide.
Lance Bean from the Operation Guns DLC. Per the wiki, Short Gun is his starting weapon, and his character passives include +50 Max Health, +20% Speed, +4 Skip, and +4 Banish, plus a Speed and Cooldown bonus when defeating enemies. The +20% Speed pairs naturally with Short Gun's forward-pressure playstyle.
Per the wiki effects block, Short Gun explicitly ignores Area and Amount stat scaling. From our experience, this balances the weapon's already-high base values (3 base Amount and 200% base Speed are both unusually high for a level 1 weapon). Without the stat-ignore quirk, Short Gun stacked with Candelabrador and Duplicator's Amount stat would clear screens at level 3.
Per the wiki, the main arcana synergy is Pale Diamond Incursion (V), which makes each Short Gun projectile aim at the nearest enemy individually and grants a Cooldown bonus based on Speed. From our experience, this is the single highest-value arcana for the build because it solves Short Gun's horizontal-only aim limitation.
Yes, especially on Lance Bean. The 200% base projectile Speed and 3 base Amount per the wiki are unusually high for a level 1 weapon, which makes the early game (minutes 0-5) much smoother than Operation Guns alternatives like Long Gun. The trade-off is the 0.4-second Duration and the dual-passive evolution gate.
Yes, after unlocking it via the 15-minute survival on Lance Bean. From our experience, Short Gun is best on characters with high movement Speed, since the short Duration rewards forward pressure into waves. Pale Diamond Incursion (V) is also more important on non-Lance Bean runs to compensate for the horizontal-only firing direction.
For Castlevania DLC weapons that share the projectile-burst pattern, see our Raging Fire guide, our Ice Fang guide, our Gale Force guide, and our Rock Riot guide. For thrown-projectile comparisons, see our Javelin guide, our Hand Grenade guide, and our Arma Dio guide. For base game weapon comparisons, see our Pentagram guide, our Glass Fandango guide, our Alchemy Whip 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 including Prototype B. The passive items guide walks through Bracer, Spinach, Empty Tome, Duplicator, and Attractorb. The Spellbinder spoke covers another evolution-gate passive in depth. 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.