While Vampire Crawlers may belong to a different genre than Vampire Survivors, its progression path retains that signature DNA. To become an unstoppable force, mastering specific Vampire Crawlers upgrades is essential. Picking the wrong path can seriously slow your progress in the early stages, so you must spend your hard-earned coins wisely.
The Best Crawlers to Recruit First
Crawlers are the cornerstone of any successful build. Since broken runs and massive stats start with them, filling the empty seats at the Inn should be your number one priority. While you can have fun with any character, two specific Crawlers stand out.
Pasqualina Belpaese is the first truly broken Crawler you can recruit. She increases your hand size when purple cards are played and boosts your Area stat whenever her card is used. To unlock her, you must reach level 20 with Imelda Belpaese on the Inlaid Library stage.
Because you unlock Imelda after your first run in the Mad Forest, you can often secure Pasqualina in under an hour. Her kit is built for crowd control, allowing you to clear huge waves of enemies with increasing splash damage. Simply stuff your deck with cheap cards to spam and use stronger combo cards to take out bosses.
Next on the priority list is Gennaro Belprese. He overwhelms enemies by increasing your Amount stat instead of Area and deals bonus damage when red cards are played. To unlock Gennaro, you must defeat the Mantichana, the final boss of the Mad Forest stage.
Gennaro excels at spamming low-cost cards to fill the screen with attacks. His starting deck includes Knife and Spinach cards, so use them to boost your Might. Since Might also increases his bonus damage from red cards, these buffs accumulate very quickly.
Essential Vampire Crawlers upgrades to buy in the shop
A returning feature from Vampire Survivors, the shop allows you to spend coins on permanent stat upgrades. While the same types of upgrades exist, your strategy should differ slightly here. Focus on these key purchases:
- Recovery: For only 500 coins, this restores one HP after every encounter.
- Reroll: At 250 coins, this lets you reroll rewards to hone your build.
- Duration: Increasing the time Crawler buffs are active is vital for high-level play.
- Might and Luck: These early upgrades increase stats by 20%, providing a massive boost during early runs.
Prioritize Recovery and Reroll first, as they provide the most immediate value. Once you have those, focus on Duration to maximize your buffs before saving up for more expensive options like Armor or Growth.
Unlocking Arcanas and Relics
The Fortune Teller's Arcana tent is a massive upgrade that can drastically improve your builds. However, you can easily miss it if you choose the wrong dungeons. To find the tent, you must locate the Polentir Relic in the Furious Forest stage.
Equipping an Arcana provides powerful passive buffs. One of the best early options is Over the Top, which returns a Crawler to the top of your deck once they leave. You can unlock this by playing Crawler cards 100 times, making it a highly accessible power spike for characters like Gennaro or Imelda.
Another strong choice is Your Shield My Liege, which allows you to keep armor between turns. This unlocks after gaining 2,000 total armor. This Arcana lets you focus entirely on offense; you can even use a Gem that deals damage based on your armor value for an easy victory.
Finally, keep an eye out for game-changing Relics. These passive upgrades, such as the Combo Stack and Gem Hammer, unlock entirely new gameplay features that are essential for late-game survival.
