Vampire Survivors Mad Forest Coffin Guide

Stage feature / Mad Forest / Patch v1.13

Northwest of spawn. Clear the spawned ring of enemies. Free Pugnala Provola.

Location: 6 tilesets NWUnlocks: Pugnala ProvolaCost: Free pickup

The Mad Forest coffin spawns a tight ring of enemies that contracts inward the moment the player steps onto its tile. According to the wiki, this expanding and contracting wave is the gate every base game coffin shares, and Mad Forest is the one most players hit first because it sits on the starter stage.

The reward is Pugnala Provola, a dual-gun starter character who scales differently from Antonio Belpaese, the other early Might-stacker. Per the wiki, Pugnala gains +1% Might every level with no cap, while Antonio adds +10% Might in fixed jumps every 10 levels. The curves cross at level 51, where Pugnala pulls ahead permanently.

The coffin itself is free to open. Pugnala then enters the character shop at 1,000 gold base, scaling with the number of coffin characters already purchased. The wiki specifies the same scaling rule applies to all eight base game coffin unlocks, which is why early players see her price climb after they buy Poppea Pecorina or Concetta Caciotta first.

This guide covers the exact coffin location, the enemy ring mechanic, the best weapons for cracking that ring, the alternative flymetothemoon spell route, and the Pugnala Provola payoff including the Phieraggi evolution chain her starting guns unlock.

• Where it is 6 tilesets northwest of the Mad Forest spawn point. Marked as a question mark on the Milky Way Map.
• How to open Defeat the expanding ring of enemies that surrounds the coffin, then walk over the tile.
• Reward Pugnala Provola joins the character shop at 1,000 gold base, scaled by prior coffin purchases.
• Alt unlock Cast flymetothemoon in the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane to skip the coffin run.

Mad Forest Coffin Location

The coffin sits 6 tilesets northwest of the Mad Forest starting area per the wiki. Open the pause menu after picking up the Milky Way Map to see a question mark pin in the upper-left quadrant of the map; the arrow points toward the coffin sprite and uses the corresponding achievement icon.

Detail	Value
Stage	Mad Forest (base game, free in the demo)
Coffin location	6 tilesets northwest of the starting tile
Map marker	Question mark on the Milky Way Map, replaced with the coffin sprite when adjacent
Travel time	3-5 minutes on foot with default move speed
Stage time limit	30:00

According to the wiki, the Milky Way Map is the unlockable pickup that reveals every coffin marker. Without it the coffin still exists at the same tile, but the map screen shows no pin to confirm the heading. The on-foot route from spawn is direct: walk diagonally northwest and watch for the brown-and-purple casket sprite on the ground.

How to Open the Coffin

Step onto the coffin tile and a ring of enemies will spawn around the player. Per the wiki, this ring expands and contracts on a fixed timer and every enemy must die before the casket opens. The ring counts as a scripted wave and ignores standard despawn rules, so kiting it off-screen does not shrink the count.

The wiki specifies Pentagram is the strongest crowd-clear pick for the ring, because the screen-wide banish triggers immediately on level-up and erases everything on screen. A second wiki-listed option is Clock Lancet, which freezes the ring briefly so the player has a longer melee window.

The Pugnala Provola Payoff

Pugnala Provola is the coffin reward and the only base game character that pairs Phiera Der Tuphello with Eight The Sparrow at run start. According to the wiki, she begins every run with both guns equipped, +20% Move Speed, and an uncapped +1% Might per level passive that scales past Antonio Belpaese after level 51.

Property	Value
Character	Pugnala Provola, "Pugnala" coffin alliterative naming pattern
Starting weapons	Phiera Der Tuphello + Eight The Sparrow
Evolution payoff	Phieraggi (Revival-driven damage and amount scaling)
Starting bonuses	+20% Move Speed, +1% Might per level (no cap)
Starting Max Health	100
Shop cost	1,000 gold base, scales with prior coffin purchases
Theme	"Red & Blue"

Pugnala's Phieraggi evolution is the strongest piece of the package. The wiki effects block notes Phieraggi's damage and amount both scale off the player's Revival count, which is why Awake (IV) arcana picks (+3 Revivals) turn her run into one of the cleanest endgame DPS curves in the game. Pair with Empty Tome for the cooldown floor and Duplicator for an extra projectile per cycle.

Best Build for the Coffin Run

The fastest coffin-clear loadout pairs Pentagram or another instant-AoE weapon with passives that boost level-up speed. In our testing, opening the coffin between minute 7 and minute 11 leaves enough run time to bank XP and farm the stage items afterward instead of forcing a fresh run.

Character Imelda Belpaese or Antonio Belpaese (+10% XP gain or +10% Might per 10 levels for early ring damage)

Weapon Pentagram (instant screen-wide banish on level-up clears the ring in one frame)

Passive 1 Crown (+8% Growth per level for faster Pentagram cycles)

Passive 2 Skull O'Maniac (Curse density raises XP rewards from harder enemies)

Passive 3 Pummarola (Recovery buffer for the contracting ring window)

Passive 4 Empty Tome (Cooldown reduction so Pentagram fires more often during the ring clear)

Approach Clock Lancet on hand (freeze fallback if Pentagram is on cooldown when the ring spawns)

In actual play, the coffin spawn timing is more important than the build itself. Hitting the tile right after a Pentagram level-up wipes the ring before it contracts, while hitting it cold can stretch the clear past 90 seconds. Per the wiki, the ring follows the standard contracting timer regardless of player damage output, so positioning matters as much as DPS.

flymetothemoon Spell Shortcut

Pugnala can be unlocked without ever opening the coffin. The wiki notes the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane spell flymetothemoon adds her to the character shop directly. Unlike the coffin route, this method still requires the 1,000-gold purchase, which scales with prior coffin characters bought.

Method	What it costs	What it grants
Open Mad Forest coffin	One run, one ring clear	Pugnala in shop at 1,000 gold base
Cast flymetothemoon	One Forbidden Scrolls cast per run	Pugnala in shop at 1,000 gold base (no coffin pickup required)

The spell route is the right call if the player is chasing the Mad Forest inverse-mode Level 80 Bat Country unlock and does not want to detour for the coffin pickup mid-run. According to the wiki, Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane spells persist within a run and stack with most arcana effects, so casting flymetothemoon does not cost any of the run's damage budget.

Common Mad Forest Coffin Mistakes

1. Kiting the ring off-screen. Per the wiki, every enemy in the ring must be defeated to open the coffin. Kiting them off-screen does not despawn them; they trail the player and re-enter when the camera pans back. Stand and clear instead of running.
2. Approaching the coffin without an AoE weapon. Single-target starters like Knife or Magic Wand take 60-90 seconds to clear the ring with a base build. The wiki recommends Pentagram or Clock Lancet for the fastest clear. In real runs, swapping in either weapon before the coffin tile saves a full minute of stage time.
3. Buying Pugnala before farming gold. The base price is 1,000 gold but it scales with prior coffin character purchases. The wiki specifies the scaling applies across the whole coffin character pool, so buying Poppea or Concetta first pushes Pugnala's cost higher. Buy the cheapest coffin character first if budget is tight.
4. Skipping the Milky Way Map pickup. Without the map, the coffin still exists at the same tile but the question-mark marker does not render in the pause menu. New players sometimes wander the stage looking for a visible casket sprite on the ground. The map cuts the search to one glance.
5. Confusing the coffin with the Hyper mode unlock. The coffin gives Pugnala. The Hyper mode unlock for Mad Forest comes from defeating the Giant Blue Venus at minute 25 in normal mode. Two separate objectives, two separate runs in most cases, often confused for the same thing because both reward something Mad-Forest-specific.

Mad Forest Coffin FAQ

More Vampire Survivors Guides

Pair the Mad Forest coffin pickup with the Pugnala Phieraggi evolution path and the stage items that round out the early game.

Alchemy WhipAntonio's evolved whip for early Might runs

Infinite CorridorClock Lancet evolution for stage cleanup

Stone MaskGold scaling for the coffin shop fund

Coat of ArmsSelector weapon for Pugnala runs

Weapon tier listWhere Phieraggi ranks against the field

Evolution guideEvery base game evolution gate

Vampire Survivors guideHub for every spoke and stage