These Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors beginner’s tips and tricks will turn you into the toughest dungeon crawler the local vampires have ever seen. With enough mana, high combo stacks, optimized exploration routes, and zero respect for furniture, your dungeon runs will consistently end in a Red Death — which is a good thing, as it means you’ve cleared the dungeon.
Here are our best Vampire Crawlers beginner’s tips.
Use every Crawler and play every level
Most of Vampire Crawlers‘ “unlocks” (including new Crawlers [characters], dungeons, and card types) are locked not just behind dungeon achievements, but achievements linked to specific Crawlers. So, instead of using one Crawler repeatedly in an attempt to beat the first dungeon, start exploring various dungeons and using different Crawlers as soon as possible.
Here are a few early-game unlocks you can get simply by changing Crawlers and exploring different dungeons:
- Inlaid Library dungeon: Reach level 10 in the Mad Forest.
- Relic Museum: Play two dungeons (such as the Mad Forest and Inlaid Library).
- Gennaro: Defeat the Manticore boss in the Mad Forest.
- Pummarola cards: Reach level 10 with Gennaro.
- Pasqualina: Reach level 20 with Imelda in the Inlaid Library.
Bump into objects
Running into objects in real life would count as “odd behavior,” but, in Vampire Crawlers, it’s perfectly normal. Break every object you find along the path to and grab the loot. See a decorative light source? A chest? A cross? Or something that looks like a smooth slate of stone? Bump into it, and you may receive coins, a healing chicken, or something better.
Keep an eye out for anything that looks even slightly off; the chests near portraits and sparkly bookcases are among the game’s many breakable items. Although chests and enemies are marked on your mini-map from the start, you must pick up the Guiding Light Relic at the Inlaid Library to unlock torch markers.
Mind the combos
The most important mechanic in Vampire Crawlers is the combo system; if you play your cards in ascending order, you will build combo stacks, multiplying the effects of the next card you play. In other words, you should play a card with a cost of zero mana before playing one with a cost of one mana. While picking new cards, prioritize the ones with a mana cost you don’t have in your collection yet, so you can make longer combos.
Loot first, then fight
Upon entering a new dungeon, try to grab as much loot as possible before battle. If the player on the dungeon map below were to take the south route, they would face three waves of enemies with only their current setup, whereas the enemy to the west gives way to a special item (the question mark). If they keep following that path, the player may obtain three special items in total by defeating only two enemies.
Kill everything, evolve
Even after grabbing the good loot as recommended in the previous tip, it’s still wise to kill every remaining enemy before you leave a dungeon, as every defeated opponent grants experience. Leveling up means you get to draw a new card, so extra experience is always welcome.
As you choose new cards, try to grab the ones that may evolve into a stronger card later on. Here are a few early game evolutions to target:
- Hellfire: Evolved from the Fire Wand and Spinach.
- Unholy Vespers: Evolved from the King Bible and Spellbinder.
- Holy Wand: Evolved from the Magic Wand and Empty Tome.
Attractorb is your cheat code
This early-game Vampire Crawlers card is surprisingly overpowered. If you play it as the first card in your combo, it draws one extra card, but if you play it as the second card in a combo, it grants two new cards. If you’re lucky, and one of the new cards is a fresh Attractorb, you can, once again, draw and play more cards. There’s just one drawback…
You need more mana
The strong focus on combos means it’s easy to forget about mana in Vampire Crawlers, but without a large mana pool, you can never reach a high combo. For example, if you have five cards in hand, and they have a mana cost of zero, one, two, three, and four, respectively, you could make an amazing combo streak… but only if you have a mana pool of 10! If your current mana pool per turn is six, you won’t be able to play that last card.
Luckily, it’s possible to increase the mana pool. You may be lucky enough to bump into a permanent mana upgrade on the current dungeon floor, but the most reliable way to increase the mana pool (during your current encounter) is by playing Tome cards. The first Tome card you’ll unlock is the Empty Tome, which costs zero mana but adds one mana. You will unlock it by finding two mana orbs hidden in randomly spawned mana statues — remember, bump into every object!
Here’s what the Attractorb and Tome cards look like (though, of course, you’d ideally play your mana boost when you still have cards left to play):
Always make sure your current mana pool matches the mana cost of your cards. There’s no point in grabbing a card with a very high mana cost if you can’t use it yet. As a general rule, it’s better to have a bit of spare mana at the end of your turn than to run out of mana before you’ve played all your cards.
Understand the Area, Amount, and Magnet stats
While most stats in Vampire Crawlers are quite straightforward (Recovery is the HP recovery following an encounter, and Hand is the number of cards you can draw), a few stats may seem confusing. What is an “Amount”? What does the Magnet draw in? How does an “area of effect” work in a card game? Here’s how these stats work:
- Area: Adds splash damage to an attack. Enemies close to the attack’s target will receive a portion of the damage dealt.
- Amount: The number of projectiles fired. So, instead of throwing three axes with your Axe card, you would throw four or more.
- Magnet: Affects the “draw an extra card” ability. If it’s two, for example, the Attractorb card draws two new cards instead of one by default.
Get greedy
When you’ve unlocked the Shop in the Village (available between dungeon crawls), you can pick some Power Ups to boost your stats on the next run. As a new player, don’t worry about attack damage or HP recovery just yet; pour all your money into Greed instead. Why? Because you’ll receive much more money from your next dungeon run (up to 100%), which enables you to purchase other upgrades way sooner. You can respec the Power Ups anytime, so you won’t be bound to a max Greed stat forever. Be sure to pick Stone Mask cards (with the Greed effect) during your dungeon crawl, too.
Need a break? You can save mid-game
Vampire Survivors players will know the pain of a particularly good dungeon run getting interrupted by real life. But while you couldn’t save Vampire Survivors mid-game, you can save and leave Vampire Crawlers without losing your dungeon progress. Even if you’re halfway through the Inlaid Library right now, in the middle of a floor, simply open the main menu, choose “exit to menu,” and leave the game. Next time you boot it up, choose “continue” to find yourself back at the same spot.
About the Author
