Vampire Survivors by poncle is an interesting game; it's one of those titles that feels simultaneously familiar, yet unique. This game has been described as a roguelike crossed with a reverse bullet-hell shooter, or Smash TV with a Castlevania theme. As players fight their way through the timed (30 minutes) levels, they will find additional weapons and accessories. These weapons and accessories, for the most part, can be upgraded – or leveled up.
Picking the right accessory during a playthrough is crucial to surviving the full 30 minutes. It's also important to remember which accessory a weapon requires to evolve. This list ranks the accessories in Vampire Survivors on a general basis, since the usefulness of most accessories varies depending on which level is being played and what weapons were chosen.
Updated on November 14th, 2022, by Jeff Drake: There have been a lot of changes to Vampire Survivors since this article's publication. In fact, accessories aren't even called accessories anymore. They now go by the title "passive items". There are six new passive items in Vampire Survivors. A few of them are awful, but there are a couple that player's will almost always get if it's made available. Four of these new items - Metaglio Left, Metaglio Right, Gold Ring, and Silver Ring - can be found for free on nearly every stage, but they each have a very tough guardian that will chase the player until it's defeated.
20 Skull O'Maniac
In general, never get this passive item when it's offered. The Skull O'Maniac can get to level five, and increases the character's Curse level by 10% per level. When fully leveled, this will make enemies 50% faster, stronger, healthier; it also increases the amount of enemies onscreen and their spawn frequency.
Get this item if the Song of Mana is selected, as it is needed to evolve the weapon. The Skull O'Maniac is fun when a player wishes to test their skill, but when getting it for the Song of Mana new players might want to Banish it at level two.
19 *Gold Ring And Metaglio Right
These two passive items are being lumped into one entry due to their powers being identical. Both of these items increase the player's Curse level by 40% when fully leveled. This is great for a challenge, but in general players should avoid picking-up these items. Just defeat their guardians, collect the Golden Eggs, and move on.
The Gold and Silver Ring evolve the Clock Lancet into the Infinite Corridor. The Metaglio Left and Right items are needed to evolve the Laurel into the Crimson Shroud.
18 Stone Mask
The Stone Mask increases the amount of gold a player finds while playing a level. At level one (of five) the bonus is 10%, and this increases by 10% per level. This substantially boosts the coins earned per playthrough, and it improves the gold found in chests too.
Gold is nice, but ultimately it has only two uses in Vampire Survivors: purchasing power-ups between playthroughs and new characters. The power-ups are nice because they affect all the characters for every playthrough. The Stone Mask simply allows the player to purchase these a little faster.
17 Pummarola
Pummarola increases a character's health regeneration by 0.1 per second. One would think an item like this would be preferable in a game where enemies can literally fill the entire screen and the player can have their health depleted in seconds. Unfortunately, this item is just kinda meh, and its effects aren't that noticeable.
Plus, there are candle stands and braziers scattered around the battlefield that can spawn healing when destroyed. This is usually all the healing that a player will need. Only get this accessory to evolve the Garlic into the Soul Eater.
16 Armor
The Armor accessory reduces the damage the user takes by one, and it goes up to level five. This damage is lessened by one for each level-up of the accessory. This combines with the purchased Armor power-up bonus. In general, it's hard to argue against picking an item that reduces damage, but in Vampire Survivors it's hard to argue in favor of picking this accessory. There are too many better accessories, and only six can be selected (with exceptions).
If the player picks the right weapons and accessories, and levels them up smartly, their character won't have to worry about taking damage.
15 Hollow Heart
The Hollow Heart increases the character's maximum health by 10%. It has a maximum level of five, and the bonus health increases by 10% per level. More life is useful as it helps get the characters to the 30-minute mark.
The thing is, though, that there are much better accessories in Vampire Survivors, and it's not difficult to find healing on the battlefield (represented by a piece of meat). If a character is using the Whip then the Hollow Heart is necessary to evolve it into the Bloody Tear.
14 Metaglio Left
This item does the work of two other passive items, but not as well as either. The Metaglio Left increases health recovery and maximum health. The Pummarola is a little better at boosting health recovery, and the Hollow Heart is over twice as good for improving maximum health.
Even though it's not as good individually as either the Pummarola and Hollow Heart, it still gives two bonuses rather than one. This item really helps during the difficult parts of a run by keeping the character alive.
13 Attractorb
The Attractorb allows a character to pick up items on the ground from further away. This is handy for those times when the screen is filled with enemies and there's a patch of experience crystals nearby that is desperately needed. This is also great when the character is nearly dead and some healing is halfway across the screen.
This would be rated a little higher if the Gorgeous Moon, and the Mad Groove arcana, didn't pull all the experience gems on the floor to the player. With a high enough Luck score the player will usually get plenty of Vacuums, too.
12 Wings
Vampire Survivors is a type of shoot'em-up, and one feature present in nearly every game in this genre is a speed power-up. Starting off, the character is quite slow. This can lead to players being surrounded by enemies, and in the early minutes of the game, this spells doom.
The Wings increase the movement speed of the character by 10%. Its maximum level is five, and the bonus increases by 10% with each jump up. Being too slow makes Vampire Survivors a lot more difficult. Being too fast also makes this game more difficult.
11 Candelabrador
The Candelabrador increases the area of effect for Vampire Survivors' weapons. The increase is a lot more noticeable for some weapons like the Cross, Ebony Wings, and Peachone. Increasing the area of effect helps clear the enemies from the screen with fewer attacks.
This accessory works well with the Axe since that weapon's area scales more than other items. This accessory is also required to evolve the Axe into the Death Spiral.
10 Bracer
The Bracer increases the speed of a character's projectiles by 10%. This accessory can be improved to level five, and, like many accessories in Vampire Survivors, its bonus increases by 10% each time. Some projectiles in this game are painfully slow; the Fire Wand and Magic Wand in their base state are prime examples.
The Bracer also affects weapons like the King Bible, which is also initially quite slow. A character needs to have the Bracer to evolve the Knife into Thousand Edge.
9 Spellbinder
The Spellbinder increases the duration of a character's weapon effects by 10%. As always, the accessory can go up to level five, increasing its benefit by 10% with each promotion. This is more helpful than it sounds, and it already sounds incredibly helpful.
The Spellbinder makes already must-get weapons, like the King Bible, even better by increasing how many enemies the weapon kills per use. The Spellbinder is also needed to evolve the King Bible into the Unholy Vespers.
8 Tiragisu
This is a passive item that many players have trouble declining when it's offered. The Tiragisu gives the player an extra Revival at level one, and another at level two. Many long-time players can no doubt think of numerous times this item kept them alive long enough to evolve a weapon and overcome the enemy horde.
This item is also required to merge Eight the Sparrow and Phiera Der Tuphello into the Phieraggi - possibly the best weapon in the game. The Tiragisu maxing-out at level two also helps the player by quickly removing it from the item pool when leveling-up.
7 Torrona's Box
This is the most recent passive item in Vampire Survivors, and one of the best passive items. This cursed item gets better until level eight; however, at level nine Torrona's Box makes the enemies much deadlier. This item improves the character's Area, Might, (projectile) Speed, and Duration by 4% per level.
At level nine it improves the enemies' Health and (movement) Speed by 100%. It also double the amount of enemies onscreen and their spawn frequency. A great run can be brought low in seconds by getting Torrona's Box to level nine. Banish this item at level eight unless the Victory Sword or Flames of Misspell weapons.
6 Silver Ring
The Silver Ring is easily one of the best passive items in the game. This fantastic item increases the Area and Duration of the player's weapons; at level nine the bonus for each is 40%. This is only 10% less than the Candelabrador and Spellbinder when they're fully leveled.
In other words, this passive item does the work of two - and for only one passive item slot. The Silver Ring is made even better by its inclusion on every stage for free. Just be ready to defeat the ring's guardian.
5 Empty Tome
The Empty Tome accessory reduces the cooldown time of a character's weapons by 8%. This accessory's maximum level is five, and its bonus increases by 8% per level. The better weapons have longer cooldown times; reducing the cooldown time dramatically increases the effectiveness of weapons like the birds (Peachone and Ebony Wings) and the Axe.
The Empty Tome is required to evolve the Magic Wand into the Holy Wand. The Holy Wand doesn't have a cooldown time between shots and is one of the best weapons in Vampire Survivors.
4 Spinach
Spinach increases the character's weapon damage by 10%, with this improving by 10% until level five. This is truly one of the best accessories in Vampire Survivors. This accessory can turn a playthrough, where the player is constantly dodging enemy swarms in desperation, into a playthrough that only requires minimal attention and no need to move.
Besides turning a character into an absolute death dealer, the Spinach is necessary to evolve the Fire Wand into Hellfire. Hellfire is able to cut through the toughest enemies and can clear the screen with a couple of shots.
3 Clover
The Clover increases the character's luck by 10%, which can be improved by 10% until level five. Luck isn't really described that well in most of the game guides for Vampire Survivors. However, a character's luck affects several aspects of the game.
Luck increases the chance to score a critical hit, provided a weapon is capable of critical hits. A high luck gives the player a fourth option when leveling up. Luck also affects the chance for better treasure chests, reduces the likelihood of negative events (like bat swarms), and increases the chance of getting better items from braziers.
2 Crown
The Crown increases the amount of experience a character earns from the experience crystals that are left behind by defeated enemies by 7%. An extra 7% is added every time the Crown goes up a level.
Leveling up quickly is key to surviving the full 30 minutes. Each time a character gains a new level they are given the choice to improve an accessory or weapon, or pick a weapon or accessory to add to the inventory. The Crown is almost a must-get accessory for every playthrough as it helps the character quickly get to a power level that reduces the chance of being killed.
1 Duplicator
The Duplicator increases the number of projectiles a weapon sends out per use. This accessory's maximum level is two, and it gives each weapon an extra projectile for each level. This affects all weapons and makes each one of them quite a bit more efficient (and deadlier).
There are a couple of characters, Gennaro Belpaese and Mortaccio, that have an innate ability to increase the number of projectiles. The Duplicator's effect is cumulative with these characters' innate abilities, making a deadly combination. The King Bible's evolved version, Unholy Vespers, is especially effective when improved by the Duplicator.
Vampire Survivors is available on PC and Android.