# Vampire Survivors: Fun indie, rogue-lite game with 72,000 "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews on Steam, costs $3 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [April 13, 2022, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791 "2022-04-13T21:52:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/361 "2023-02-28T16:17:31Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > walked away at like minute 11. I came back to her having just died to Death. Stats: 101k enemies defeated, level 588, over 400M damage dealt. If you don’t mind, could you tell me what your Trousers would do? If I’ve understood the conditions correctly, here is what I did (you didn’t mention how many total minutes or how much cash collected in your scenario, so I just let mine run): Trousers, Dairy Plant, Endless, Hyper, specifically limited to 1 weapon slot (using the selector at the startup screen). I initially chose Greatest Jubilee as my weapon and card XV (Disco of Gold) as my starting Arcana. At minute 15 I opened a chest and got Super Candybox II, which _forced_ me to choose another weapon, so I chose Phiereggi. Some preliminary notes: Dairy Plant isn’t nearly as good as Bone Zone for gold farming. In Bone Zone I generally don’t have to move to collect XP, but in Dairy Plant I’d go stagnant after 30-45 seconds because my area of effect is so large, so I’d have to move, and I wasn’t always present to do so; this would stall my XP/level gain somewhat). At minute 30 (pause screen; damage stats not shown on this screen that I could find): Level 421 Gold 760K At minute 60 pause: Level 679 Gold 2.28M At minute 90 I stopped because I lost interest, but I’m sure I could have continued on for a very long time (around minute 70 enemies just seemed to not appear much, which I hadn’t encountered before; I was on level 699 for a very long time despite running around looking for someone to kill): Level 699 Gold 3.96M Enemies 160,298 Damage Dealt 600M (I didn’t see it listed as a discrete figure, but I added the 2 weapons together). I’ll note again that, for gold farming purposes, Bone Zone is far superior, for several reasons: lack of obstacles; more/difficult enemies (faster XP); and a high concentration of pickups/lights (but no floor chicken, so you need to have good survivability). As an example, in Bone Zone, same exact startup conditions (which includes Hyper, as I also did in Dairy) (and I was also forced to choose a second weapon around minute 6, so chose the same Phiereggi): I aborted at Minute 30: Level 837 Gold 3.6M Enemies 364,839 Damage Dealt 1,132M ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/362 "2023-02-28T17:00:34Z")
I managed to reach level 20 in the forest by sheer luck; while being crushed by the skeleton tsunami, I got a magnet thingy which pulled in all the gems and I got four levels just like that. Had I not gotten the magnet thingy I would have had no chance of reaching level 20, none whatsoever. That unlocked the house level… and I beat it. Easily. The last five or ten minutes were actually pretty boring. My lady was just annihilating everything, effortlessly. What an odd difficulty structure. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/363 "2023-02-28T19:05:53Z")
the difficulty is based on two things how much you move and the timer …in the library if you don’t move anymore than a screen length left or right it never gets hard the timer is for the mini-bosses the ones who drop chests and the bigger ones ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/364 "2023-02-28T19:44:42Z")
I just unloaded all my modifiers to try the basic from the start. I took the whip guy (knife one was pointless even with second projectile), and died about 7 minutes in. At the start it’s an exercise in brutal death earning small coin to get a few additions to boost you up from powerup menu, aim for might, and regen, maybe armor with a long term goal of the additional projectile at 5K gold. The problem is that it’s pure Random as to whether you get the useful stuff and last longer. At this point I’d be hoping to catch garlic (where you use the area to kill things), bibles, +1 projectiles (as a powerup), then the whip choice goes front and back and you can run and still dps down the following creatures. Spinach becomes essential to get further. A few runs more and you might evolve a weapon, then more characters, more weapons, chances to skip or reroll weapon choices means you’re not locked the RNG anymore. But yes, at first its a frustrating exercise against the random, which I stubbornly got through, after rage quitting a few times and coming back due to the nature of being able to play it when the cat is sitting on my lap and I can’t do anything else… ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/365 "2023-02-28T22:20:19Z")
I didn’t optimize the level or report gold because I don’t care about gold. I have no interest in buying thousands of eggs. Replicating your Bone zone run, at minute 30 I was lvl 868, with 159k enemies defeated and 1,012M damage dealt. I equipped all the cursed items with the thought that more health would increase damage done. Perhaps not. Retried with damage focused accessories: lvl 777. 129k enemies defeated, 757M damage. Guess my initial thought was correct. How is it that we had ~the same damage in my first run and you had \>2x the kills? Both these runs had 10k-20k gold. So, 3k eggs gets you slightly better damage and a lot more gold. Good to know I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/366 "2023-02-28T22:24:53Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > ow is it that we had ~the same damage in my first run and you had \>2x the kills? > > […] > > So, 3k eggs gets you slightly better damage and a lot more gold. On the number of kills, I was running Hyper mode, which I think increases the number of enemies; if you were running normal/non-Hyper, that might explain the difference. The Trousers build is legendary for gold farming, but no one is claiming it is “best” for anything else. The character’s special attribute (increased Gold Fever length) is the sole reason it is suggested for gold farming. Otherwise, I love Sigma and her flexibility. My “funnest” character by far. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/367 "2023-03-06T04:05:41Z")
huh huh huh huh huh “Bone Zone” huhuhuhuhuhuh ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/368 "2023-03-09T23:36:29Z")
I cannot for the life of me figure out how to beat the rolling ball in Bone Zone. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/369 "2023-03-09T23:48:47Z")
This worked for me: I used Leda and the Silent Old Sanctuary arcana and using Mind Bender to limit my weapons to just one (her starting weapon). Not sure you have to limit her to the one starting weapon but I think it helps. Then marched south non-stop levelling up as I went and focusing on Spinach and Tome and Wings (speed). Leda’s main weapon becomes a powerful wand-machine gun. When you see the ball just stay close (without getting hit of course) and wail on it. Goes down fairly easy. Doubtless there are other ways but that one works and was pretty easy. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/370 "2023-03-09T23:56:22Z")
i used sigma and it still took a while to beat that thing its a slog because you have to chase the thing … ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/371 "2023-03-10T01:39:05Z")
I don’t even know what most of those things are. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/372 "2023-03-10T01:43:27Z")
Don’t worry, neither do I. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/373 "2023-03-10T01:44:05Z")
How far are you in the game? Many of the things mentioned are unlocked by playing the game. Spinach, Tome and Wings you have access to from day #1. Leda is a character you need to unlock. Arcana are also unlocked (there are many, each needs to be unlocked) and Mind Bender is an unlock. I think you will almost have to use some unlocked character. I am not sure it can be done with a starting character. If you have access to Arcana then you will know it (although you may not have the right one…there are many of them). Again, I am sure there are other ways. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/374 "2023-03-10T01:55:29Z")
Haven’t yet seen Mind Bender that I remember or Silent Old Sanctuary but perhaps I don’t recall. I have 17 characters, and have unlocked about eighty things. I’m quite deliberately working down that list. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/375 "2023-03-10T02:25:57Z")
I recall it being trivial using the red death character. Haven’t killed it with anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/376 "2023-03-10T02:31:26Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Haven’t yet seen Mind Bender Mind Bender is not an Arcana. It is something you unlock just by playing enough (I think…I forget). It allows some options like limiting how many weapons you can have before you start the match. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/377 "2023-03-10T02:41:13Z")
I could see Red Death working. I think Red Death is harder to unlock than Leda but if you have it then yeah…use it. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/378 "2023-03-10T19:12:44Z")
I think I used Red Death, but first time I tried it it didn’t work. The ball moves, I didn’t realise, so took a while to spot it, and I was fully loaded and evolved by then, and it’s too late. You need to get the knives, spinach, speed, and go for it earlier. Much easier to kill. Leave it later and it just builds up too large to kill. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/379 "2023-03-10T19:24:04Z")
I did catch it no more than three or four minutes in and simply cannot kill it. I attacked for ten minutes or so to no effect, it just grew huge. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2023, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791/380 "2023-03-10T19:37:35Z")
I think the ball grows as you kill other entities (not 100% sure on that but it does seem to grow so it is gaining size/HP over time). That or it just grows over time so getting to it early helps. I think Red Death would be good here too since it is so fast and gets to the ball early. High damage focused weapons help. Think Knives or Magic wand (Leda has Magic Wand on steroids). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-survivors-fun-indie-rogue-lite-game-with-72-000-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-costs-3/962791.md?page=20)