We’ve handpicked five fun builds to try in Vampire Survivors. Check them out and see what you think!
Each one of our builds consists of a set of core items that are integral to the build, optional items that help round out the build, and one or two ideal characters to pilot it all.
The Walking Fortress
- Core Items: Unholy Vespers, Phieraggi, Duplicator, Spinach
- Optional Items: Holy Wand, Hellfire, Garlic
- Ideal Characters: Pugnala Provola, Dommario
The Walking Fortress is a build that envisions you, the Survivor, as a walled entity that punches holes into hordes of enemies. The wall aspect of the build comes from the King Bible. Upgraded fully and evolved into Unholy Vespers, this item is the core of the build. It will keep enemies at arm’s length, damaging anyone who dares try to penetrate the wall.
Although this is an excellent line of defense, you do require some more damage from your other weapons. As such I recommend the Phieraggi. It’s difficult to get, as it requires two fully upgraded weapons to unite, as well as a specific passive item, but it’s worth it. The Phierragi deals a significant amount of area-of-effect (AoE) damage, and its range extends to the edge of your screen, meaning you don’t have to move to deal damage.
Optional items include the Holy Wand, whose knock-back can keep people away from the fortress, Hellfire, which lets you carve through enemies as you move the fortress around, and Garlic. A nice early pick up for when the walls of the Unholy Vespers aren’t there to protect you yet.
The ideal candidates for this build are Pugnala or Dommario. Pugnala starts with two of the weapons which later build into the Phieraggi, making it a lot easier to complete this weapon. She also has infinitely scaling Might, which will help you keep your damage numbers high. Dommario is a good second choice as he starts with the King Bible and his normal drawback of being slow won’t matter with this mostly stagnant build.
The Light Show
- Core Items: Phierragi, NO FUTURE, La Borra, Candelabrador, Duplicator
- Optional items: Thunder Loop, Vandelier, Holy Wand
- Ideal Characters: Pugnala Provola, Porta Ladonna
The Light Show is a flashy build that capitalises on high AoE damage. The core of this build includes, once again, the Phierragi. This item is the epitome of flashy and AoE. The other two core items are a fully upgraded Runetracer and Santa Water. All three of these allow you to sit back and watch as the shiny lights decimate those around you.
Optional items for this build include the Thunder Loop, Vandelier and Holy Wand. It would be incredibly difficult to attain both the Phierragi and the Vandelier, as the two unions require a total of 32 levels to complete. As such, it’s probably better to choose one of these, depending on which early game items you manage to snag. Thunder Loop synergises well with the idea of flashy area damage, so it’s a great pick up to round out the game. Holy Wand is a good quasi-defensive option for you, as its knock-back will be able to get enemies away from you and into the beams of light instead.
Pick Pugnala for ease of access to the Phierragi, or Porta Ladonna for the permanent increase in the radius of your attacks.
The Bloodsucker
- Core Items: Soul Eater, Fuwalafuwaloo, Spinach
- Optional items: Hellfire, Death Spiral, Unholy Vespers, NO FUTURE
- Ideal Characters: Poe, Antonio Belpaese, Zi’Assunta Belpaese
This build tries to make use of healing as best it can. Healing isn’t a terrific mechanic in Vampire Survivors, but with some great items to make up for the loss of damage, it’s possible to win. The core of this build are the two bloodsucking items – Garlic and Whip. If you have unlocked the Vento Sacro, it is also considered a core item for this build, as it will create the very powerful Fuwalafuwaloo when combined with the Bloody Whip.
Optional items are a little more important here to make the build work. You need some kind of raw damage. Hellfire is a good choice that plays into the “unholy vampire from the hells” theme and it evolves from Spinach, which you should definitely snag for increased damage regardless. NO FUTURE does a lot of area damage and it requires Armor, which is a nice pick-up when focusing on defense. If all else fails, Unholy Vespers is always a great choice.
Grab any of the characters who start with your core weapons, but preferably Zi’Assunta Belpaese.
The Minefield
- Core Items: La Borra, Vandelier, NO FUTURE, Cherry Bomb, Candelabrador
- Optional items: Thunder Loop, Unholy Vespers, Hellfire
- Ideal Characters: Porta Ladonna
This build is similar to Light Show but with a tighter focus on AoE damage. Your core items are Santa Water, Vandalier, NO FUTURE and the Cherry Bomb. You should also grab the Candalabrador for an increased radius of all your weapons. Vandalier is an important component of this build, but its base weapons are somewhat weak, so this may make your early levels difficult. Consider grabbing an early King Bible of Fire Wand to facilitate this.
Optional items include the Thunder Loop and Axe. I recommend the Axe only because you already have the Candelabrador and it synergises with the high area build. Unholy Vespers and Hellfire are always great and should be considered for more raw damage.
Porta Ladonna is your go-to for her increased Area stat.
The Armory of One
- Core Items: Thousand Edge, Death Spiral, Heaven Sword
- Optional items: Phieraggi, NO FUTURE, Cherry Bomb, Bloody Tear
- Ideal Characters: Lama Ladonna, Pugnala Provol, Yatta Cavallo
An interesting concept that tries to get by using only “real” weapons, and little to no magic. Your core build consists of the Knife, Axe, and Cross (which turns into a Sword). Thematically this seemed interesting, but it will need a bit of luck and skill for it to take off.
The number one optional item to consider is the Phieraggi. It’s a gun so it fits thematically and will undoubtedly make this build completely viable all on its own. NO FUTURE makes use of Armor, which fits the theme, and Cherry Bombs are another great AoE option to go along with it. Finally, Whip is a notable candidate, though the weapon is not very strong and, without the Phieraggi, might doom the build.
Lama Ladonna is a good option for their +5% Might and Movespeed, but their Curse may be too much to handle. Other candidates are Pugnala or Yatta Cavallo for their projectile increase and Cherry Bomb.
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Vampire Survivors is available to play on Steam.