How to get your best run on Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors, published by Poncle, is one of the easiest games to get hooked on. It is an addicting roguelike, with amazing weapon variety, Castlevania enemies, and arenas that get insanely chaotic. Steam sells it for $5 and Xbox Game Pass included it in their library making it highly accessible. The game will only take up 1/3 of a gig on your console, but the insane amount of replay value is why you always come back.

For a game that could fit on a graphing calculator, there is a lot of strategy in Vampire Survivors. The aim of the game is to survive (as the title suggests) while hundreds and hundreds of sprites try to swarm you Serious Sam style. Death is always coming.

1. Timing is everything

This is what threw me off the first time I played the game. I thought my touch screen was broken (BTW this plays great with touch screen controls on Gamepass cloud). All the offensive moves are down automatically with different cooldown timers. Your job is to line yourself up with the enemies at the right time as your attack. This puts a whole new strategy on gamers who love to button bash.

Antonio starts off with a whip that has a short-range attack. You will need to get close to enemies to break through the mobs. You will want to upgrade him so he can be as strong and diverse with his offense. Pasqualina fires a bouncing rune. Her shot is weak and unpredictable, but once you upgrade it she can be a force. Gennaro is my favorite because he fires two daggers at a fast rate. He is the easiest to level up.

2. Some weapons are better than others

When you level up your player not every enhancement is created equal.  Some weak weapons can make it a pain to advance, while there are some powerups that make the game feel like a breeze. Weapons that surround your character with an offensive shield are crucial against swarms that overtake. The King Bible and the Garlic are my jam. The Peachone bird fires off a volley of projectiles that clear up swarms fast. It is good to get your character outfitted with at least three different kinds of projectiles and shields. Once you are safe to move about you can get creative and invest in the lightning ring or the santa water, which is less predictable but has high damage.