Vampire Survivors – Definitive Survival Guide (with Tips)

Aimed at new players with tips on how to live forever! (or at least 30 minutes).

How to Survive

All credit goes to Lars!

Overview

In Vampire Survivor, you play a dude having a very bad day. Your job is to move him around while he uses all the abilities he has available, and try to not get dead for as long as you can. Along the way you should try to collect gems which give experience which in turn gives him more stuff he can do while you focus on not getting dead.

You will unlock more powerful attacks and upgrades for your guy as you go along and hopefully make it a bit further each time you play. The path will be long but following this guide you will eventually be able to win this game with one hand free to drink your beverage of choice, preferrably a strong one.

Equipment

The core of the game revolves around what weapons and accessories you pick for your guy as you level up. Every combination of these is capable of winning. That said, there are some picks that are plain stronger than others, or at least easier to use. Its important to note at this point that most weapons have an ‘Evolved’ upgrade, to get these you need to not only pick and upgrade the weapons themselves to max, but you also need ONE (just one is enough, upgrading the accessory does not impact evolve chances) point in a specific accessory to get the super version of the weapon.

While every weapon works and can beat the game, I have compiled a short tier list of the gear you should be aiming towards to have the best chances of progressing the game. Don’t expect to win immediately following this list. Some of the gear below is not available at the start, but you will unlock it all in short order as you play.

If you only remember one thing from this guide, this is the most important bit:

When levelling up, always upgrade weapons unless you can pick a missing accessory required for evolves. Trust me. You do not want to be running around without decent weapons when the hordes decide playtime is over! Don’t prioritize accessories. (Honorable exception for Attractorb, that thing is sweet!)

S Tier

King Bible + Spellbinder = Unholy Vespers:

The bible might not look like much at first when you try it out, but I strongly recommend highly prioritizing it as early as you can. It quickly becomes a main source of damage and pushback against larger waves.

Santa Water + Attractorb = La Borra:

Another unassuming weapon which doesn’t seem to do much at first, when upgraded this weapon covers a large portion of the screen and is one of the best sources of damage in the game when things get busy. Attractorb is also a boon which I feel is underrated by many by letting you collect a LOT more XP at a longer range.

Spinach:

Simple accessory that just gives a significant percentile damage boost to all your weapons. I usually grab this at the first opportunity. As a bonus, if you have this and get poor choices on level ups, pairing this with a Fire Wand lets it evolve into Hellfire eventually which can also be a solid weapon.

A Tier

Lightning Ring + Duplicator = Thunder Loop

This weapon also feels a bit random at first, but when it gets upgraded it quickly becomes a screen clearing monstrosity.

Runetracer:

While this weapon so far does not have an evolve, and seems to fire with a mind of its own often missing what you want to kill, when you upgrade this thing it will do serious work damagewise.

B Tier

Magic Wand + Empty Tome = Holy Wand

Probably the first weapon you’ll get to try evolving, the Holy wand provides a nice boost to damage in early to mid game which speeds up levelling a bit. The damage falls off a lot near the end of the game, but its auto targetting of close enemies and pushback (right into those spinning bibles most of the time) combined with the great stats on the Empty Tome make it an easy choice to go for in any build.

C Tier

Peachone+Ebony Wings = Vandalier

This is lower in the list than it should be because of the potential damage output it has. It is a little risky to go for this one since you need both the birds to appear in the upgrade pool which is not always guaranteed, and until you can max both the birds and get the evolved Vandalier, the birds are tricky to use at best, and generally a hindrance. On the other side, once the birds evolve they take up one weapon slot instead of two, allowing you to get an extra weapon. The already very high damage output of the Vandalier combined with the extra weapon slot makes feeding the birds a very tempting choice, though risky and potentially run ending in the early to mid game because of the wonkiness of the regular birds.

Bracer:

Another lonely accessory, this one is slightly situational because it doesn’t affect weapons like La Borra or Garlic. It works great with piercing projectiles like Runetracer, Hellfire or Knives (and Thousand Edge), and should be a priority pick if you use a lot of projectile weapons.

D Tier

Everything else! Typically you’ll end up with a couple weapons or accessories that didn’t make the list above, but you can absolutely make them all work with the proper support with a few of the higher tier items. Garlic makes early game grinding a breeze, Axe can provide some much needed extra damage, Knives can help you cut en escape path through a horde, evolved Whip can keep you healed when there’s no floor chickens to be found anywhere. Its all good!

PowerUp

These are persistent upgrades bought with coins earned through regular play.

I would suggest just picking what looks nice to you, but if you’d like some pointers here are a few of the more practical upgrades.

• Might (damage increase)
• Recovery (passive health regen)
• Greed (more coins)
• Armor (reduces incoming damage)

When you got some bank, I suggest refunding and grabbing Amount (+1 projectiles on all weapons) and Magnet (pickup radius), and then grab the rest as you prefer from there.