How did a game as simple as Vampire Survivors take the world by storm? It's a twin stick shooter without the shooting. Yes your character is attacking the onslaught of enemies marching towards you, but you have no direct control over their attacks. You can only move and choose what weapon or item to acquire or upgrade next. Its simplistic pixelated visuals and horror themed motif don't exactly scream "I must play this", and sure the music is great, but every indie game has great music these days. The price is affordable at around $5, and that's what made me give the game a chance when my friend Andrew recommended it to me back in early 2022. A couple weeks later, I was hooked, gifting the game to everyone on my friends list.
So what's the appeal? It's how difficult it is to survive 30 minutes. The hordes increase in size and ferocity as the seconds tick away. Through playing the game and hitting specific milestones, new weapons, characters, and stages are unlocked, as well as earning enough gold to buy upgrades in the power-up shop. Eventually through enough knowledge, and the act of attrition, survival is guaranteed, but what keeps a player going until they reach that point, or beyond?
Let's briefly sidestep to the question of beyond because that was a legitimate concern in approaching this game for a critique. When I first played Vampire Survivors in Early Access, it felt like a simple arcade game. How long can you last, and how much damage can you rack up? Nothing but survival to strive for. Since then the game has undergone a slew of updates, and one of those updates added a final boss and a credits screen. There we go, a definitive end point. A goal for the critique. Now we can return to the question of what keeps a player engaged enough to survive for 30 minutes, let alone take things all the way to the end.
That's the question this video will be trying to answer. I'll begin by narrating the journey from my first attempt at the game, to the first time I survived 30 minutes. After that I'll talk about the steps I needed to take to reach the final boss, with some thoughts on time, my favourite weapons, and the progression of player power sprinkled in, leading to a discussion of why I kept playing after I stopped recording footage, wondering if the compulsion to complete the games' list of unlocks was all that kept me going.
If you haven't played Vampire Survivors and worry about spoilers, I will be showing footage, and discussing characters, bosses, levels, and weapons from later on in the game. Finally, a word of caution. If you have photosensitivity issues, a lot of my footage contains flashing lights and effects, so please be careful. With all that out of the way, it’s time to tell you a story about my journey through this little indie game you may have heard of called Vampire Survivors.
Trying to Survive
My first goal was to survive for 30 minutes. This took close to 6 hours of play. When the game starts, the weapon and character selection is miniscule, and most importantly, you don't know what you're doing. For a game where the only gameplay is moving the character through the level and making decisions on upgrade screens, those first few games seem unfairly complex. Like the player is missing out on crucial information, or that the heart of the game is earning enough money to power up through the shop. I think that's partially true, but it's a loop that reinforces itself. The better you do in game, choosing the right weapons for your character and the stage you play, the further you'll get, the more weapons, characters, and stages you'll unlock, and the more upgrades you'll be able to purchase in the shop, which will lead to longer games, better decisions, and continuing this process.
When I talked about a sense of progression in this version of the game that wasn't there when I played back in early access, I'm mainly talking about the relics. I unlocked the library after three attempts of the Mad Garden. Upon selecting it, I noticed there was a relic listed, and upon entering the stage, there was a green arrow enticing me to follow it. I ignored the swarming hordes, following the siren song of this green arrow. Eventually I found it, and it was a book of weapon evolution recipes. This blew open the game for me. Back in early access, I had heard about weapon evolutions when trying to work out how to get better at the game. If you level up a weapon to its maximum, and have the right item in your inventory, opening a chest dropped by a boss monster will trigger a weapon evolution. It felt that these were the trick to surviving 30 minutes, and now the game was giving me access to these important evolutionary secrets.
Of course it's still easier to look up what items you need for a weapon evolution online. When I first got the grimoire it revealed a few evolutions, but it was still up to me to experiment. I didn't mind this as it was fun filling my inventory with 6 items that I hadn't worked out an evolution for, and seeing if anything happened when I got to max level with a weapon. As the game went on, I started using the wikis for weapon evolutions to make sure I wasn't making an error and wasting a run. This wasn't until I started surviving the whole 30 minutes though, so I'm getting ahead of myself.
I unlocked level 3, the dairy, and the relics here were a bestiary and a map on the pause screen. This added another level of understanding, as I could see that each stage had items just hanging out in the game world. I wondered if this was a hint towards which weapons were best for each stage based off the items needed for weapon evolutions. I also noticed the giant question mark, but when I first made my way over, it was surrounded by enemies that were too high level for me. I figured I needed at least one or two weapon evolutions to make my way there, but the question I had was when, so let’s talk about the importance of time.
In the Mad Garden, every 5 minutes, a ring of flowers will encircle the player, trapping them in an arena with some higher level creatures and a Mantis boss. I think it's best to think of the difficulty of a Vampire Survivors level in terms of time. Once I made it to minute 15, I found making it to minute 20 wasn't too difficult, but after minute 20, if I wasn’t set up to take things to the end of the game, I would get swarmed. This led to a theory that minute 15 is the best time to start making my way towards the question mark (and perhaps the relics, as future relics weren't as easy to beeline at the start of a run). Weapon evolutions unlock at level 10, so by 15 I felt I should at least have one evolution if not a couple. Basically the earlier I selected what weapons and items I wanted, and which evolutions to work towards, surviving to 30 minutes would be all but guaranteed.
And eventually I got there, I survived my first 30 minutes, and then in the same session I did it again. Hold your applause please. Similar to how there's a point in any level when it seems like a win will be guaranteed, once the player works out how to survive the time limit, they can easily do it again. Part of my initial success was playing a new character, part of it was the amount of unlocked weapons and items I now had at my disposal, part of it was all the upgrades I'd purchased at the power-up shop, and part of it was the confidence I'd gained working out how the game worked. On the run I first survived, I had 5 weapon evolutions. It would take a while before I was able to activate all 6, because that requires some additional knowledge in regards to planning at the start of a run, but thanks to all these factors, I had survived, and I could do it more than once. So now, the question forming in my head was… "what now?"
When Does it End?
Yes in the intro I talked about how there’s a final boss, but I didn’t know that at the time. I wondered if I was done with Vampire Survivors. Was my only goal to survive 30 minutes? Was I now supposed to do it with every character on every level, slowly making my way through the remaining unlocks until there were no new secrets to uncover? Yes… and no. I looked it up online, and the internet told me that once a player collects all the relics, a special stage will unlock, leading to a credits screen. There’s my goal. I would reach that credits screen. I mean, that's how most games work right? The game is finished once you reach the credits. What I didn't understand was how many steps there would be between this moment and finally finishing the game. 14 more hours of gameplay, and more than once I thought "well surely that was the end right?", only to be wrong. This happened at least 3 times.
Step one: obtain all the relics. I could survive 30 minutes, and I had a better understanding of how to build my character during a run, not to mention having more characters to select from. Some of them having powerful special abilities, such as Pugnala gaining 1% might with each level. Might is basically damage output, so you can see how having that rise with each new trip to the level up screen can be of assistance. During this time I got to play with new weapons thanks to characters like Pugnala, Poppea, and Giovanna. Unlocking these weapons for use on the level up screen made future runs a lot easier, and by this point I had evolved most of the weapons available, gaining a greater idea of which weapons synergised well, and which I just liked.
Ok. Dave's top 5 Vampire Survivors weapons. #5 Celestial Dusting. I like the idea of farting flowers of death. #4, Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow. Like their evolution, I can't have one of these pistols on my list without the other, and what can I say? I just like being a whirling dervish of bullets. #3, the Pentagram. Originally I thought this was an evil weapon, but when I finally got over myself and unlocked its evolution, I realised its greatness. Gem explosion baby! #2, King Bible. Alongside the garlic, this is an early favourite of most players, as it keeps enemies at bay. I'll usually save a weapon slot for it in most runs, unless I want to shake things up. And #1, Song of Mana. Even more of a barrier, and a must when playing the Library stage. Once it's always on, you're a vertical do not enter sign. Of course, there’s not really a weapon I dislike (not even Carréllo or La Romba), as they all have utility either in their normal or evolved forms, and besides, I don’t start every run looking for my top 5. The decisions are based on the character I’ve chosen, their starting weapon, the stage I’m playing, and what weapons show up on the level up screen. It helps keep each run at least a little fresh once I learned how to properly build my character.
Speaking of the right build, as I was making my way towards relic acquisition, I started to form ideas about the right way to play the game. How it might be best to only collect 3-4 weapons initially, supplement them with thier evolution items sure, but then make room for the items I feel greatly assist any run, like the duplicator or the empty tome. There's a bonus stage called Moongolow that has every item just sitting there, easily accessible. I made a mistake in one run of collecting everything. I wasn't able to level up my weapons because the level up screen was taken up by all the items in my inventory. That's why I like to keep my inital selection low. Not only does it allow me to level up what I already have, but it gives me more chances for the weapons and items I want to appear, as the more I unlock, the greater the selection the game's randomizer has to pull from, muddying my level up plans by not having that weapon or item I want ever show up. Thank goodness for the reroll, am I right?
The Long Winding Endgame Road
After collecting all the relics, it was onto Step 2, which is… uncovering more relics. A secret ending to the Moongolow stage leads to an angelic corridor, leading to yet another relic. This relic opened up a boss in the Cappella Magna stage where you defeat all the reapers, and then they Captain Planet into a super reaper. Beating this boss gave me, you guessed it, another relic! Limit breaks, the ability to level up weapons past their max level, which is an amazing addition if you just want to let loose and show off your power in endless mode. Speaking of endless mode, the two final relics are in yet another secret stage that beating the super reaper opened up, Eudaimonia. This was the level that the internet told me lead to the credits screen, and it did… I just had to play a game in both inverse and endless mode before the final boss showed itself.
But before the final boss, I want to talk about the reaper. The whole game this jackass has swooped in at the end of the time limit, ruining my fun. In the Cappella Magna stage you take out all the different coloured reapers, and wail on them when they team up. I thought the super reaper would be the end of it, but no, once you defeat it, a white reaper takes over slaughtering duty. It’s one of the appeals of endless mode, no reaper to contend with, the stage just resets with harder versions of the same swarms. It’d be great to finally have dominion over death, and that relic I found in the angelic corridor allowed me just this opportunity. It unlocks the silver and gold bracelet, and the left and right metaglio signs.
These are the evolution items for the Laurel and the Clock Lancet, the weapons that I ignored even more than the pentagram for most of my play. The trick with the bracelets and signs is that both need to be levelled to max before the evolution takes place, and each has 9 levels. To top it off, one half of these items buffs you, and the other half buffs the enemies. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to contend with a power-up that powers up the enemies, as the evolution item for Song of Mana is the Curse-o-matic, and levels of curse are able to be purchased in the power-up shop. I ignored this for the longest time, because why would I want to make the game harder for myself?
Because increased enemy quantity means more enemies to kill, which means more experience, allowing quicker level ups. It allows weapons to gain the power they need even earlier, and once I realised that, I rationalised that since I already knew how to survive the game, this increase in enemy speed and health wasn’t going to hurt, and it didn’t. Sure it makes the start of each run more precarious depending on the character, but ultimately it’s a way for the player to gain more power, and this is why the evolution of the Clock Lancet and Laurel was left till the end of the game, it gives you the power to kill the reaper.
Thanks to the Infinite Corridor and the Crimson Shroud evolutions, the reaper went down, but that white bastard reared its ugly head again. The white reaper showed up in the fight against the final boss as well. The first time it appeared and killed me, I was shocked, but as I had the power to revive, I was able to continue…as long as it didn’t appear again. And it appeared again. This time however, I gained a helping hand heh heh heh. At certain milestones through the game these disembodied hands have been applauding me, cheering me on. The final boss is called The Director, but based on the power of the hands, overwriting the power of the white reaper, and then showering me with riches once the boss fight is done, I’d say these hands are the true director of the game. The one who’s wanted me to succeed this whole time, and thanks to their help, I reached the credits screen. I beat Vampire Survivors.
Why Am I Still Playing?
But I haven't stopped playing Vampire Survivors…and I'm wondering why. The game kind of got stale around halfway through my playtime. 30 minutes can be a long time to see a bunch of flashing effects and numbers popping off everywhere. I don't have photosensitivity issues and even I felt tired in my eyes and brain after each successful run. I was thankful for the level ups and treasure chest drops because they were always an audio/visual reprieve. Regardless of the overstimulation, the game itself is less exciting once "solved". I worked out how to survive around hour 6, and while there were many more hours of enjoyable experimentation with stages, weapons, characters, evolutions, and secrets, the gameplay itself became the most boring part. And the more I played, the better I got at making the right decisions to keep the enemies off me minute after minute, making the core gameplay even duller.
But I'm still playing. And despite what I just said, the game is still exciting. Why? Well I think there are two answers. The first is the randomizer I mentioned earlier. It's become known that the creator of Vampire Survivors Luca Galante worked as a developer for a gambling company. With the chests full of random unlocks, the gems to collect, and the joyous cacophany that accompanies each new increase in power, the influence is noticable. However, it's these random elements that keep each run exciting even when the challenge is gone. Each treasure chest will give one upgrade, but there is a small chance for it to give 3, and an even smaller chance to give 5. Each of these is accompanied by more bombast, and that's not even the most explosive and exciting random element. That honour goes to the red gems.
Red gems give more exp than turquoise or blue gems, and sometimes when I collect a red gem, I will recieve what I can only describe as a level explosion. Level after level after level after level. I swear I’ve had 10 in a row. Before writing this paragraph I wanted to understand how it worked, to see if like the chests, there was a small chance to hit a jackpot. It turns out that's not really the case. The following information is from the internet so may not be correct, but I'm going to mention it anyway. To prevent slowdown or crashing there's a limit of 400 gems allowed in the game at a time. Once that limit is hit, a red gem will appear, and all future gems will pool in this red gem, so depending what minute of the game the player is in, and when they collect the red gem, the xp they recieve can fluctuate wildly. Not as random as the chests, but boy does it feel that way when you strike it big.
And while these moments are full of excitement, and there’s still joy in watching my selection of weapons obliterate all who cross my path, the base game no longer holds the same pull. I mean I got more than my money's worth so I'm not sad about it, but yet I'm still playing. The treadmill of unlocks is exciting because new characters and weapons add much needed variety to the gameplay, but since I’ve beaten the game, unlocks are all it has left, and in the middle of finishing this script, I finally completed the unlock list, and the secrets to boot! All that’s left is to purchase the 2 pieces of DLC, opening up a new series of locks to un. I think I’ll purchase it once this video’s out.
Now the pull of the unlocks is strange because I’ve never had much interest in achievements. A list of arbitrary tasks to complete once a game is done holds no sway over me, because I always have dozens of new games to move onto. Achievements have always felt like busy work. That’s what’s baffles me about Vampire Survivors. Even when the core loop of powering up in the shop is done, even after the game is over, I still found myself wanting to complete the list, and I did. Now a lot of the unlocks did feel like busy work, but despite saying that the gameplay wore out its welcome once I knew what I was doing, I think I’m still drawn to the joy and bombast of playing a round of Vampire Survivors. At this late stage, the enemy swarms surround me thick as carpet, and there’s still fun in selecting what weapons and items I want to try and wipe them all out with, especially using some of the late game characters like Red Death or Queen Sigma.
Conclusion
To put it another way, I still like making the numbers go up, and I still succumb to the thrill of a chest or red gem jackpot. When I started writing this script, I was planning on discussing when Vampire Survivors shifted from enjoyable gameplay into a treadmill of unlocks, but now that I reflect on my time playing the game, and that I’m still continuing to play it, I can see that the gameplay itself is still enjoyable. The reason I think I convinced myself it wasn’t is in order to complete all the unlocks, I was using game modes like hurry and endless to make my way through the list as quickly as possible. No longer engaging in said gameplay. Also, I bought into the idea that because the core gameplay is so simplistic, the shine had to wear off eventually. I think that the reason there are so many unlocks and additions, is because developer Luca Gallante realises that you can only push such a simple concept so far… but think how far the concept has been pushed! Even in its early stages, Vampire Survivors captured everyone’s imagination, and it’s still attracting new fans. It feels like the unlocks were the only way to make the game bigger, as adding more base mechanics, a story, or a straight-forward campaign would have ruined its simplicity, its mystery, and thus its charm. And I’ve come to the realisation that I wouldn’t be interested in completing these unlocks if it didn’t add something worthwhile to these same base mechanics that I still enjoy interacting with. It could have done with more vampires though. Thanks for watching.
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