When I first played Vampire Survivors, I didn’t really know what to do, aside from “stay alive,” which is pretty much the goal of your first dozen playthroughs.
Beyond that, I felt scattered, bouncing around screens trying to pick a path toward completion. Sure, there’s the Wiki, but going there immediately didn’t feel right.
Now that I’ve put in a decent number of hours, I figured a general guide would be fun to write.
Full transparency: there are MANY players with way more hours than me, so I went to Reddit and collected community insight as well.
Throughout the guide, you’ll see mentions of Reddit quotes and threads that stood out and ultimately contributed to the overall guide.
Hope you enjoy 🙂
Vampire Survivors Tips at a Glance
TL;DR — Key tips for new and returning players
| Tip | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Level up one weapon at a time | Evolutions require a maxed weapon; spreading thin delays your biggest power spikes |
| Start in the Inlaid Library | Smoother difficulty curve than Mad Forest, plus free floor items that expand your passive slots |
| Hit Amount and Might first in PowerUps | Extra projectiles and flat damage feed the leveling loop faster than any defensive stat |
| Follow the Unlocks menu top to bottom | It's the game's actual progression guide; every objective opens something useful |
| Get the Milky Way Map relic early | The minimap changes how you navigate every stage; grab it from Dairy Plant as soon as you can |
| Keep Garlic and King Bible early on | They provide damage and crowd control while you're still learning weapon evolutions |
| Don't stress over PowerUp order early | You can refund everything penalty-free, so early mistakes cost nothing |
| Wiki for Secrets, Unlocks menu for everything else | Secrets are intentionally vague; the wiki is what Poncle expects you to use for them |
Vampire Survivors Beginners Guide
The funny thing is, Vampire Survivors is deceptively simple at first glance.
You pick a character, you move around a map, your weapons fire automatically, and enemies come at you in waves that escalate until either you die or the 30-minute mark hits. At that point, an unkillable Reaper appears and ends your run. Woo!
And that’s the loop.
Every time you level up, you pick one of three (or four, with the right PowerUps) items to add or level up. Weapons evolve into far more powerful versions if you meet specific conditions; usually maxing the weapon to level 8 and having a particular passive item in your inventory when you open a chest.
Pro tip: Those evolved weapons are the whole game.
The Biggest Beginner Mistake
Every Reddit thread on this topic says the same thing: Spreading too thin, too early.
As u/LolYouFuckingLoser put it in this thread: “Focus on one thing where possible, only pick new items if you are unable to strengthen an existing one.”
One maxed weapon is far more powerful than four weapons at level one.
You need that maxed weapon to unlock its evolution, and evolutions are what carry runs past the 20-minute mark.
Which Character to Start With
Beginner-friendly picks and how to unlock them
| Character | Unlock Requirement | Starting Weapon | Why Beginners Like It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imelda | Default (free) | Magic Wand | XP bonus scales every 5 levels up to +30%; great for getting to evolutions faster |
| Poe | Default (free) | Garlic | Passive damage field keeps weak enemies off you without any effort |
| Gennaro | Buy for 500 gold | Knife | +1 projectile to every weapon from the start; strong once you understand weapon slots |
| Krochi | Survive 20 min with any character | Cross | Two built-in revives and the fastest early-game movement speed; very forgiving |
| Suor Clerici | Find 1 Floor Chicken | Heaven Sword | Starts with +30 HP and bonus area; easy to keep alive while learning |
| Pasqualina | Level Imelda to 4 | Runetracer | Runetracer bounces through enemies and scales with almost every stat; great first evolution target |
| Dommario | Reach 5 min in Inlaid Library | King Bible | Slow movement is the tradeoff, but King Bible orbits automatically and his stats are strong |
Imelda and Poe are the community’s default starting recommendations.
As u/Vorral noted in this thread: “If you want to point at an enemy and kill it, pick Gennaro. If you like standing still and killing enemies, pick Poe.”
Krochi is worth unlocking early, specifically because of the two revives.
For anyone dying before the 10-minute mark and never seeing a chest, having a safety net changes the experience fast.
Pasqualina is the pick once you’re ready to start learning evolutions properly. Runetracer is one of the best Vampire Survivors weapons in the game, and she makes it better from level one.
Note: all Vampire Survivor characters above are base game only. DLC characters like Sammy are strong for beginners, too but require a paid expansion.
Which Map to Start On
It sort of feels backwards, but start in the Inlaid Library, not Mad Forest.
Mad Forest is the default, but the Library has a smoother difficulty curve and two free floor items sitting on the map: a Tome (head left from spawn) and a Stone Mask (head right).
Both can be picked up even when your passive slots are full, giving you extra passive capacity beyond the normal limit.
As u/Goken222 noted in this thread: “I personally felt the Mad Forest was too spaced out and devoid of enemies early and I had a lot more fun practicing on Inlaid Library.”
One Thing Most Beginners Miss
Just as a (major) heads up, XP gems don’t despawn.
If you’re running across the map and leaving gems behind, they consolidate into a red gem that you’ll collect when you pass back through.
Also, you don’t lose XP by moving, but you can lose it if the Pentagram erases the pile, so keep that in mind if you ever run it.
Vampire Survivors Unlock Guide
Here’s some info about the best way to unlock stuff:
How the Unlock System Works
The Unlocks menu is where VS hides its entire progression system.
It’s a sorted checklist of objectives: survive 10 minutes with a character, level a weapon to max, and reach a specific milestone. Working through it, top to bottom, is the community’s consensus on how to move forward.
As u/23kukulcan put it in this thread: “Use the ‘Unlocks’ menu as a guide. It tells you exactly how to progress in a nice sorted checklist.”
The items at the top are easier, and unlocking them opens up options for later entries. You don’t have to go strictly in order, but it’s organized roughly by difficulty, so treating it as a to-do list works.
Which Character to Start With
Beginner-friendly picks and how to unlock them
| Character | Unlock Requirement | Starting Weapon | Why Beginners Like It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imelda | Default (free) | Magic Wand | XP bonus scales every 5 levels up to +30%; great for getting to evolutions faster |
| Poe | Default (free) | Garlic | Passive damage field keeps weak enemies off you without any effort |
| Gennaro | Buy for 500 gold | Knife | +1 projectile to every weapon from the start; strong once you understand weapon slots |
| Krochi | Survive 20 min with any character | Cross | Two built-in revives and the fastest early-game movement speed; very forgiving |
| Suor Clerici | Find 1 Floor Chicken | Heaven Sword | Starts with +30 HP and bonus area; easy to keep alive while learning |
| Pasqualina | Level Imelda to 4 | Runetracer | Runetracer bounces through enemies and scales with almost every stat; great first evolution target |
| Dommario | Reach 5 min in Inlaid Library | King Bible | Slow movement is the tradeoff, but King Bible orbits automatically and his stats are strong |
The Secrets Menu Is Different
The Secrets menu unlocks after you’ve made some progress through the standard Unlocks list, and its hints are intentionally vague.
u/DoveCannon in this thread put it plainly: “Anything in the unlocks menu is either straightforward or will be straightforward once you’ve explored some more. Most things under the secrets menu are intentionally extremely vague and often require a look at the wiki.”
The Vampire Survivors wiki is the right tool for Secrets. Poncle designed them to be community-discovered, and the wiki has the full breakdown without spoiling standard unlocks.
PSA: Looking things up is not cheating (the devs expect it for this section).
One Common Unlock Mistake
Investing heavily in Greed right away.
Greed increases gold earned per run, but you get far more gold from surviving longer and opening more chests than from a stat multiplier on a short run.
Spend your first gold on offensive PowerUps first, then layer in Greed once your runs are consistently going past 15 minutes.
Vampire Survivors Progression Guide
Here are some key parts:
How PowerUps Work
Once you’ve survived a few runs and started unlocking things, the PowerUp menu becomes the main lever. These are permanent stat upgrades you buy with gold between runs, and they carry over to every character and every stage.
You can refund all PowerUps at any time with no penalty. This is buried in the menu and new players often don’t know it exists. It means early mistakes cost nothing; just refund and redistribute when you know more about what you need.
PowerUp Priority for Beginners
The consistent advice across threads is to prioritize offensive and utility upgrades over defensive ones.
Survival in VS comes from dealing damage fast; the more enemies you kill, the more XP gems drop, the faster you level, and the better your weapons get.
PowerUp Priority for Beginners
Where to spend your gold first
| PowerUp | Priority | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | High | Adds one projectile to every weapon; one of the highest-impact single purchases in the game |
| Might | High | Flat damage increase that helps every weapon |
| Growth | High | Extra XP per gem; makes every run level faster and reach evolutions sooner |
| Cooldown | High | Reduces weapon fire delay; particularly strong on King Bible and Runetracer |
| Greed | Medium | Gold multiplier; less impactful early, more important once runs go past 15 minutes consistently |
| Move Speed | Medium | Helps with dodging and kiting; also scales damage on some weapons |
| Armor | Low (early) | Reduces damage taken but doesn't fix the core loop; invest here after offenses are solid |
| Revival | Low (early) | Handy but often you'll just die again anyway if the run is underpowered |
Stage Progression
Mad Forest is the default starting stage, but most players find the Inlaid Library easier and more productive early on.
Once you’ve got comfortable runs going, here’s the rough order:
Stage Progression
Recommended order and what to expect
| Stage | Notes |
|---|---|
| Inlaid Library | Best learning stage; smoother enemy scaling, free Tome and Stone Mask on map |
| Mad Forest | Default stage; harder than Library early on due to enemy density |
| Dairy Plant | Significant difficulty spike; also where you grab the Milky Way Map relic |
| Gallo Tower | Harder again; opens up once you have solid PowerUps behind you |
| Cappella Magna | Late-game content; has the Ender boss that unlocks Limit Break |
Head to Dairy Plant specifically to grab the Milky Way Map relic. It adds a minimap to every stage, making it way easier to find floor items and relics (it’s worth a dedicated run just for that).
As u/UncomfortableAnswers noted in this thread: “Dairy Plant is a big jump in difficulty, so don’t feel like you have to brute force getting to 30 minutes there before you try other things.”
Vampire Survivors Best Build
Here are some key parts to consider:
Build Philosophy First
There is no single best build in Vampire Survivors, and any guide that presents one as gospel is selling you something.
The meta shifts with patches, DLC changes things, and what works depends on what you’ve unlocked. What the community agrees on is the build philosophy, and the philosophy is consistent.
Build Around Weapon Evolutions
Weapon evolutions are the biggest power spikes in the game.
Every Vampire Survivors evolution requires two things: max the weapon to level 8, and have the correct passive item in your inventory when you open a chest (which only drops after the 10-minute mark).
An evolved weapon is categorically more powerful than its base form.
The practical implication: limit your weapon slots to the weapons you’re actively evolving, and fill your passive slots with the items those evolutions require. Picking up interesting weapons with no room to evolve them is the most common build mistake beyond the beginner stage.
Evolution Reference Table
Weapon + passive combo required for each evolution
| Weapon | Required Passive | Evolution | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Water | Attractorb | La Borra | One of the highest damage evos at late-game crowd density |
| King Bible | Spellbinder | Unholy Vespers | Acts as a damage shield; keeps enemies at range |
| Lightning Ring | Duplicator | Thunder Loop | Strong AoE; good with Amount PowerUp |
| Runetracer | Armor | NO FUTURE | Runetracer scales with almost every stat; great base weapon |
| Fire Wand | Spinach | Hellfire | High damage, covers ground well |
| Magic Wand | Empty Tome | Holy Wand | Fast single-target; targets closest enemy |
| Peachone + Ebony Wings | Both at max | Vandalier | Frees a weapon slot on evolution; strong but weak birds until fused |
| Garlic | Pummarola | Soul Eater | Garlic solid early; falls off mid-game without Soul Eater |
Build 1: The AoE Survivor (Best for Beginners)
This is the easiest build to execute because all three weapons auto-target. You only need to focus on movement.
Build 1: The AoE Survivor
Best for beginners — all weapons auto-target, focus on movement only
| Slot | Item | Evolution |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon 1 | Santa Water | La Borra (+ Attractorb) |
| Weapon 2 | King Bible | Unholy Vespers (+ Spellbinder) |
| Weapon 3 | Lightning Ring | Thunder Loop (+ Duplicator) |
| Passive 1 | Attractorb | Required for La Borra |
| Passive 2 | Spellbinder | Required for Unholy Vespers |
| Passive 3 | Duplicator | Required for Thunder Loop |
La Borra follows your character and keeps the area around you dangerous.
Unholy Vespers acts as a rotating shield.
Thunder Loop handles AOE cleanup.
As u/Rajamic in this thread described when recommending weapons for beginners: target things that “can hit anywhere on the screen and hit multiple enemies.”
This build does all of that automatically.
Build 2: The Runetracer Build (Community Favorite for DPS)
Runetracer is uniquely powerful because it scales with almost every passive stat; Speed, Area, Damage, and Duration all improve it. That means incidental pickups that don’t obviously contribute to your build are actually enhancing Runetracer in the background.
Build 2: The Runetracer Build
Community favorite for DPS — scales with almost every passive stat
| Slot | Item | Evolution |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon 1 | Runetracer | NO FUTURE (+ Armor) |
| Weapon 2 | Fire Wand | Hellfire (+ Spinach) |
| Weapon 3 | King Bible | Unholy Vespers (+ Spellbinder) |
| Passive 1 | Armor | Required for NO FUTURE |
| Passive 2 | Spinach | Required for Hellfire |
| Passive 3 | Spellbinder | Required for Unholy Vespers |
u/MayhemMessiah in this thread was direct: “Runetracer does as much DPS as some upgraded weapons do, or really close to. Part of what makes it so strong is that it benefits from virtually every single stat.”
Build 3: The Vandalier Build (Higher Skill Cap)
Vandalier is formed by leveling both birds (Peachone and Ebony Wings) to max and picking up a chest.
Once fused, it frees a weapon slot and fires constantly around you.
The downside: both birds are individually weak until they fuse, which makes the early game rough.
Build 3: The Vandalier Build
Higher skill cap — weak early, dominant post-fusion
| Slot | Item | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon 1 | Peachone | Weak alone; commit to both birds or skip both |
| Weapon 2 | Ebony Wings | Combines with Peachone to form Vandalier |
| Weapons 3–6 | Your choice | Fill remaining slots with evolutions of your choice |
| Key Passives | Duplicator, Empty Tome, Spellbinder, Candelabrador | All boost Vandalier significantly post-fusion |
u/Kitcastor in this thread called it “easily the highest damaging skill in the game” once combined. Worth building toward once you’re comfortable, but not ideal as a first-run plan.
A Note on DLC Builds
If you have any of the paid expansions, some of the strongest options in the game are gated behind them.
Sammy from Tides of the Foscari, in particular, is flagged by the community as capable of breaking early progression wide open.
All three builds above are fully available in the base game.
FAQ
Here are the questions that come up most from new players and people comparing VS to similar games.
Is Vampire Survivors on Mobile?
Yes. Vampire Survivors is free on iOS and Android.
The core gameplay is identical to PC, but the mobile version has ads; they’re optional (watch one to revive, or to double gold) and non-intrusive, but they’re there.
PC runs better, supports modding, and has a map and bestiary that the mobile version lacks.
If you have a PC, play it there. If mobile is your only option, it’s an excellent port.
Vampire Survivors+ is a separate Apple Arcade version (covered below).
Vampire Survivors vs. Vampire Survivors Plus
Vampire Survivors+ is the Apple Arcade version, launched in August 2024.
It’s included with an Apple Arcade subscription, has no ads, and comes bundled with two DLC packs: Legacy of the Moonspell and Tides of the Foscari.
The third-party IP DLCs (Operation Guns, Emergency Meeting) are not included because of licensing restrictions; Poncle explained this in their official Apple Arcade FAQ.
If you’re on iPhone or iPad and already subscribe to Apple Arcade, Vampire Survivors+ is the better version. If you’re on Android, the free standard version is your only option.
Vampire Survivors vs Vampire Survivors+
Version comparison by platform
| Version | Platform | Price | DLC Included | Ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vampire Survivors | PC (Steam) | $4.99 | None (buy separately) | No |
| Vampire Survivors | iOS / Android | Free | Buy separately | Optional |
| Vampire Survivors+ | Apple Arcade | Subscription | Legacy of the Moonspell, Tides of the Foscari | No |
| Vampire Survivors | Switch / Xbox / PS | $4.99 | Buy separately | No |
Vampire Survivors vs. Halls of Torment
These two are constantly compared, and the community has real opinions on both sides.
VS is more content-rich, more passive, and more likely to end in you standing still watching your screen go nuclear.
Halls of Torment (HoT) has real bosses with attack patterns, Diablo 1 aesthetics, and keeps you engaged longer because it doesn’t get AFK-easy the way VS does at late-game power levels.
The consensus across Steam discussions and my Games Like Brotato article is that VS is the better starting point for the genre and HoT is the better game for players who’ve already worn out VS and want more friction.
VS if you want the chill scaling experience and HoT if you want to actually get tested.
Vampire Survivors vs. Death Must Die
Death Must Die is closer to “Hades meets VS” than a straight VS-like. It has manual aiming (auto-aim exists, but precision matters more), a gear system where items drop and carry over between runs, and blessings from gods that change your build direction mid-run. It’s more active, more complex, and more demanding than VS.
If you’re new to the genre, VS first. If you’re coming off VS and want something that makes you play the game rather than watch it, Death Must Die is a natural next step.
For a full list of VS alternatives with community-vote data, my Games Like Brotato article covers several worth checking out.
20 Minutes Till Dawn vs. Vampire Survivors
The single most important difference: 20 Minutes Till Dawn requires you to aim and Vampire Survivors auto-fires (you only control movement).
20MTD is a twin-stick shooter; you pick a weapon, you aim it, you reload. That shifts the feel from idle-adjacent to properly active. Runs are also shorter (20 minutes vs 30), making them snappier.
VS has more content by a wide margin; more characters, more stages, more build variety, more meta depth. 20MTD is tighter and more demanding.
They’re not really substitutes for each other; they’re different flavors of the same genre.
For a broader explainer on where both fit, check out my Bullet Heaven vs Bullet Hell article.
Conclusion
Vampire Survivors is one of those rare games where the more you understand it, the more there is to understand, and that unfolds at whatever pace you want.
There’s always something pulling you forward, whether you’ve never cracked 15 minutes or you’ve gone full chaos mode in the Secrets menu.
If you found this helpful, drop a comment and let me know what build you’re running; I’m curious what the community is gravitating toward these days.
Take care and talk soon 🙂