A bat-only stage with a -75% XP penalty and two Diamond-bordered relic drops.
Bat Country is the only stage in the base game that ships with a negative XP bonus by default. Per the wiki, the -75% XP penalty applies on every run, normal or Hyper, and turns the standard level-up cadence into a crawl. Players walk in expecting a challenge stage and walk out realizing the real challenge is hitting Level 80 fast enough to reach the second relic at 18:00.
The enemy roster is all bats. According to the wiki, every wave from 0:00 to 18:00 spawns Pipeestrello variants in escalating colors and bouncing patterns, plus Giant Bat scaling units from 14:00 onward. The Yellow Sign has no effect on this stage, which removes the standard ring-evolution skip route most challenge stages allow.
The payoff is two relics. Apoplexy drops at 9:00 inside a square of Diamonds. Chaos Malachite drops at 18:00 the same way. After collecting both, return visits add three pressure plates (A, B, C) due north for a visual-only background toggle and a ring of nine Gold Rings northeast that spawns nine Sun Atlanteans if approached.
This guide covers the Level 80 Inverse Mad Forest unlock path, the recycletheforest spell shortcut, the -75% XP build compression, the Apoplexy and Chaos Malachite relic windows, the Sun Atlantean Mad Groove trick, and the Sonic Green Hill Zone and Fear and Loathing references baked into the stage.
Bat Country, the fourth challenge stage. Patch 1.3.0, released 9 February 2023.
Apoplexy at 9:00 and 
Chaos Malachite at 18:00, both inside a Diamond square that drifts on the map.Two unlock paths exist. The canonical route is reaching Level 80 in Inverse Mad Forest, which requires Inverse Mode itself to be unlocked first. The shortcut is the recycletheforest spell, cast inside the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane that drops from the Bone Zone challenge stage.
| Route | Steps |
|---|---|
 Level 80 in Inverse Mad Forest | Unlock Inverse Mode via Gracia's Mirror, then push to Level 80 in an Inverse Mad Forest run. The XP curve past 60 is steep, so plan for an extended timer with XP gain stacking |
 recycletheforest spell | Per the wiki, casting recycletheforest in the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane unlocks Bat Country immediately. The Forbidden Scrolls itself drops from the Bone Zone challenge stage |
| Hyper unlock | Hyper mode unlocks by default the moment the base stage opens. No separate boss kill required |
According to the wiki, no separate Boss Rash or coffin step gates Bat Country, which makes it the most directly accessible of the late-tier challenge stages. The Inverse Mad Forest Level 80 push is slow but reliable; the recycletheforest shortcut compresses the unlock into a single spell cast for players who already farmed the Bone Zone.
Bat Country runs the standard challenge stage profile with one standout: the -75% XP bonus is the only default-negative XP modifier in the base game. Per the wiki, enemies also grow stronger over time on top of that penalty, with Max Health scaling per minute and Move Speed adding +0.25 per minute.
| Stat | Normal | Hyper |
|---|---|---|
| Time limit | 20:00 | 20:00 |
| Player move speed | x1.25 | x1.9 |
| Enemy move speed | x1.25 (+0.25/min) | x1.9 (+0.25/min) |
| Projectile speed | x1 | x1.15 |
| Gold multiplier | x1.3 | x1.8 (+80%) |
| Luck bonus | Default | +10% |
| Enemy health | x1 (+0.2/min) | x1 (+0.2/min) |
| XP bonus | -75% | -75% |
| Destructible chance | 1% (max 50% w/ Luck) | 1% |
| Max destructibles | 10 | 10 |
| Theme | Mighty Illusion | Mighty Illusion |
The wiki specifies that the -75% XP penalty stacks with Inverse Mode effects when both are enabled. In practice, this turns Bat Country plus Inverse into one of the slowest XP environments in the game. 
Stone Mask starts paying for itself within the first two minutes, since the baseline XP gain is already cut to a quarter of normal.
Pair Stone Mask with Crown to layer +30% XP gain. Per the wiki, both passives multiply the post-penalty XP value, so stacking them claws back the -75% modifier toward break-even by minute 10. In actual play, this is the difference between hitting Level 8 evolutions before 9:00 (Apoplexy spawn) and missing the evolution window entirely.
Both relics use the same spawn pattern: a large square of Diamond pickups appears at a fixed time, with the relic in the center. The wiki notes the relic disappears after one minute if not picked up, then can re-appear and drift on the map even though it is no longer on the field.
| Relic | Spawn time | Window |
|---|---|---|
| Apoplexy | 9:00 | 1 minute before drift starts. Per the wiki, the relic can re-spawn at moving locations after the window closes |
| Chaos Malachite | 18:00 | 1 minute window. Spawns 2 minutes before the stage ends, so the pickup deadline is the Reaper at 20:00 |
According to the wiki, the Diamond square is the visual cue for both spawns. Diamonds are the same currency-style pickup that drops from the Diamond (bouncing) map events that run throughout Bat Country, so the relic square reads as just another Diamond cluster until the relic icon registers in the center. Players who don't know the spawn time often walk past Apoplexy at 9:00 thinking it's a standard Diamond Road event.
Apoplexy gates the Bone Zone's Forbidden Scrolls spell roster and Chaos Malachite is one of the four Chaos pickup family relics. Per the wiki, collecting both relics on a single visit unlocks the pressure plates and Gold Ring extras on every future run.
Use the Diamond Road map event at 3:00 and 12:00 to practice the Diamond-square visual. The wiki effects block confirms the relic Diamond squares share their sprite with the normal event Diamonds, so training the eye on the smaller events first makes the 9:00 and 18:00 relic squares pop. In practice, marking the stage center mentally at 8:30 cuts the pickup miss rate to near zero.
After collecting both relics on a previous run, a circle of nine 
Gold Rings appears northeast of the starting area. Per the wiki, approaching the ring spawns nine Sun Atlanteans, one per ring. The Sun Atlantean is among the harder enemies in the base game, so nine at once is a wipe risk for underleveled runs.
The wiki documents a single workaround that cuts the spawn count down to one. Activate Mad Groove (VIII), collect a single Gold Ring, then level it up. As long as the other eight Gold Rings stay untouched, only one Sun Atlantean spawns instead of the full nine.
| Approach | Spawn count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Walk to the ring | 9 Sun Atlanteans | Default behavior. Per the wiki, all 9 spawn regardless of how many Gold Rings the player actually picks up. The trigger is proximity, not collection |
| Mad Groove single ring | 1 Sun Atlantean | Cast Mad Groove (VIII), collect one Gold Ring, level it up. The wiki specifies the other 8 rings stay inert as long as the player never approaches the original spawn location |
According to the wiki, the proximity trigger is the catch. If the player ever travels to the original ring location after Mad Groove banishes the rings to inventory, all nine Sun Atlanteans spawn anyway. Stay clear of the northeast quadrant for the rest of the run once the single Gold Ring is collected.
Every Bat Country wave is a Pipeestrello variant or Giant Bat. According to the wiki, the stage features no non-bat units in any wave, which is the namesake mechanic. Color and behavior changes mark the wave progression instead of new enemy species.
| Time | Wave content | Boss / Map event |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 |  Pipeestrello 1 (scaling) | Monster Dance: 24 bouncing Pipeestrello 3 units, 10 seconds |
| 1:00 to 4:00 | Pipeestrello 1 and 2 scaling waves | Glowing Bat boss spawns, Diamond Road and Diamond Square events rotate |
| 5:00 | Pipeestrello 3 (scaling) x2 | LV128 Golden Bat (Arcana holder). Evolution chest unlock |
| 9:00 | Pipeestrello 3 (yellow) | Apoplexy relic spawns inside Diamond square. 1-minute pickup window |
| 10:00 | Pipeestrello 3 (yellow and green) | LV128 Golden Bat returns. Arcana + Evolution rewards |
| 14:00 |  Giant Bat (scaling) | Giant Bat enters rotation. Diamond Square event |
| 18:00 | Giant Bat + mixed Pipeestrello waves | Chaos Malachite relic spawns. 2-minute window before stage ends |
| 19:00 | LV128 Golden Bat (scaling) swarm | Final wave before the Reaper |
| 20:00+ | Field cleared | The Reaper spawns. Per the wiki, each additional minute spawns one more Reaper |
Per the wiki, 
Orologions and 
Nduja Fritta Tantos cannot drop from light sources on this stage. The standard "break a candle for clock or invincibility" routine that works on Inlaid Library and Dairy Plant does not apply here, which makes the 14:00-onward Giant Bat waves harder to clutch-clear without a built-in defensive passive.
Bat Country is layered with two pop-culture references. Per the wiki, the stage visuals echo Green Hill Zone, the first level of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), and the ring of nine Gold Rings northeast of spawn reads as a Sonic Chaos Emerald reference. The stage name and description "We can't stop here" are a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas reference, the 1971 Hunter S. Thompson novel.
| Reference | Source |
|---|---|
| Stage visuals | Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). The wiki notes the background palette and tile style match the original Mega Drive level |
| Nine Gold Rings northeast | Sonic reference per the wiki. The ring placement and count echo the original Sonic ring pickup motif |
| Stage name "Bat Country" | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971). The line "we can't stop here, this is bat country" comes from the novel's drug-fueled drive through the Nevada desert |
| Description "We can't stop here" | Direct quote from the same Hunter S. Thompson novel. The pairing is intentional per the wiki trivia section |
| "Mighty Illusion" theme | Stage music theme. The name leans into the psychedelic-trip framing that connects the Sonic + Fear and Loathing layers |
The combination is unusual for the base game. Most stages reference one source (Inlaid Library to Castlevania, Bone Zone to bone music gags), but Bat Country layers a video game reference and a literary reference on top of each other. According to the wiki, the LV128 Golden Bat enemy and the bat-only roster reinforce the surreal imagery of the Thompson novel.
Pair Bat Country runs with the XP-recovery passives the -75% penalty demands and the cooldown passives that compress evolutions into the 20:00 timer.
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.