Vampire Survivors: Ultimate End Game Build Guide [1.10.1 + DLC]

Welcome! This guide provides a comprehensive summary and detailed explanation of how characters and weapons perform and play in Vampire Survivors during the later stages of game after most things have been unlocked.

Note: Operation Guns content is not yet added. Coming soon!

This guide is primarily in the form a tier list so players can best identify at a glance what characters, weapons, passive items, arcana, and builds are the best. This is updated alongside my Google Sheets version: Vampire Survivors Comprehensive Tier List[docs.google.com], but this guide should be far more in-depth. Although links will be included in some cases, please reference the Vampire Survivors Wiki[vampire-survivors.fandom.com] if there is a mechanic or something else you need better explained.

This is not a beginners guide. It can still be useful for beginners, but many combinations, weapons, and builds will not work properly if you are missing unlocks or are inexperienced. Furthermore, stats and certain mechanics are not going to be fully explained here. Unlocking Limit Break[vampire-survivors.fandom.com] and Arcana[vampire-survivors.fandom.com] are the biggest considerations for this guide. It is recommended you hold off on using this guide until you at least have those unlocked. Those two mechanics are located in Gallo Tower (4th Normal Stage) and Cappella Magna (5th Normal Stage), which can be reached and obtained within the first 5-15 hours of the game.

If you are a newer or returning player and just want to unlock everything as soon as possible, go to the “Quick Start Guide” section near the bottom of this guide.

As best as possible, this guide consider community input and take helpful feedback seriously. If there is anything in this guide that you feel is inaccurate (e.g. placements being off a whole tier and factually incorrect information), please let me know. This guide is not a personal favorites list, but is based on the expected outcome of character, weapon, item, or arcana when most things are unlocked. This is planned to be a living document and will be frequently updated as more content is added into the game and more knowledge or information is gathered.

Tip: Use Ctrl+F or your browser’s search function to find specific information as this is a massive guide.

To best play Vampire Survivors (in this guide’s opinion) it is to work to maximize your damage output and kills as much as possible. Eventually you reach a point where you can easily beat most levels, but you still want to expand your lethality through pure damage, levels, and number of kills, that is what this guide is for.

There are detailed build examples included. This game runs on synergy, so many weapons and items do not function well in an absolute vacuum. The characters, weapons, and arcana will have descriptions about what they work well with and those synergies will also be visible in the build examples.

The following factors are considered in order of priority: Damage, Survivability, Versatility, Ease Of Use, Stage Specific Strengths. Each Character, Weapon, Passive Item, and Arcana has a summary of why they are ranked the way they are. Each item is graded on a curve so most things will fall in the middle and few will be on the top or bottom of each tier list. Rankings within the tiers are ordered so something placed at the top of a specific tier, will be much better than things at the bottom of a specific tier. Weapons and Characters in S and A tier have the greatest variability within their tiers, due to the large power difference in game.

These tier lists and explanations assume you have all Power Up enabled and most, if not everything, unlocked, to include the paid downloadable content (DLC). If you are missing DLC or certain items, there are plenty of replacements for various items (with a few exceptions).

DLC references will be labeled as follows:

• LM: Legacy of the Moonspell
• TF: Tides of the Foscari
• EM: Emergency Meeting
• OG: Operation Guns

Refer to the DLC Priority section located after the tier lists for more information

The primary form of gameplay most of this guide is based on is with Golden Eggs disabled, Limit Break enabled, Inverse Mode enabled, and Hyper mode enabled. Ultimately which stage modes you use are up to you and many times they come down to preference.

Golden Eggs: Disabled. This game is not balanced around Golden Eggs[vampire-survivors.fandom.com]. The mechanics of the game fall apart at really high Golden Egg levels and 99% of builds no longer matter. Low Golden Egg Levels (under 200) can be okay if you want a bit of a handicap; they are also needed for high-end gold farming, otherwise it is not recommended to use them for normal gameplay.

The Gold Farm guide and information on how to get more Golden Eggs will be located near the bottom of this guide.

Limit Break: Enabled. Allows you to really push your character in the best way possible.

Inverse Mode: Enabled. This game’s hard mode. Make enemies’ start with more health, and gain 5% Max Health and 0.5% movement speed every minute. Most importantly it allows you to buy an additional Arcana, Skips, Banishes, and Rerolls from the Merchant. Always play with this on as the extra Arcana is critical to making the best builds work.

Hyper Mode: Enabled. Makes you and enemies fasters, gives extra gold, and provides a Luck bonus. No reason to ever play with this off.

Hurry Mode: Disabled. It halves the amount of time you are in the stage, making you weaker overall. Always a bad option to have, unless you just want a quick game.

Endless Mode: Optional. Can be nice for flexibility or just to see how far you can last. Turn it off if you want to make sure you adhere to the base time limit.

Random Events: Optional. Can make the game unpredictable, but often results in better outcomes over time. Having Random Events enabled or not isn’t considering in this guide.

Characters are ranked based on the following factors: Damage/Kill Potential, Survivability, Build Diversity, Stat Scaling, Starting Stats, Additional Bonuses. Greater weight is given to characters that will be strong at higher levels (100, 200, 300, etc) than just initial starting bonuses, unless those starting bonuses also scale with later levels. The more kills and levels a character can get without dying, the higher they will be ranked.

At least one build examples is provided for each character. Many of the builds are optimized to be the best for that character, but many others are there for build diversity or for thematic reasons. All builds in this guide can be used to beat almost any level, but you should also be open to customizing them or adapting if you are unable to get specific items. Link to the Vampire Survivors Build Planner.[danmer.github.io]

Images and/or links will be provided for each build, along with an explanation on how it works. In general the priority of the weapons and passive items are left to right, shown as the red and blue 1-6 in the image. The Arcana are represented by the pink 1-6, but most characters will only have 4 total. The order for the Arcana is the most strict as many times certain character need specific Arcana to be picked up immediately to ensure the run goes smoothly. If not playing on Inverse mode you will have 1 less Arcana at the start of the game and in total, so make sure to account for that. As said these builds are usually stage agnostic, but picking stages with a lot of stage pickups can significantly expand build options and should be considered when playing.

S Tier characters are unmatched by other characters in what they do. These characters win games and have the easiest time building the most overpowered builds imaginable.

The Queen! She has stats for days and the definition of overpowered.

She starts with 333 Max Health, 3.0 Recovery, 3 Armor, +50% Movement Speed, +50% Might, +50% Duration, -25% Cooldown, +1 Amount, +1 Revival, +100% Magnet, +50% Luck, +10% Curse, +108 Reroll, +108 Skip, and +108 Banish. She also gains +1% Might and +1% Growth every level, without cap. She starts with Victory Sword, a strong weapon, gets a Candybox from the Merchant at start, and at level 2, level 3, level 77, and level 108, the player is allowed to pick one Arcana from the full list of Arcanas, rather than picking from four randomly chosen ones. This allows her to get 5-6 Arcana in a single run instead of the normal 3-4.

She is unmatched in her starting power and leveling potential. Her main downside is she can make the game too easy and can’t use Golden Eggs. For normal gameplay Golden Eggs are not needed and only serve to reduce game difficulty, but she doesn’t need them anyway as her stats are the equivalent to around 3K Golden Eggs. Due to her being able to purchase a Candybox from the merchant, her stats, and her 5-6 Arcana, she is the ultimate build fantasy character. She is capable of running any build in game with extreme potency.

Builds:

• Overpowered Crit Sigma[danmer.github.io]
  
• Elemental Overload Sigma[danmer.github.io]
• Invincible Sigma[danmer.github.io]
• Elementalist Gemini Sigma[danmer.github.io]

The ultimate gold farm character.

Sammy starts with +2 Recovery and -60% Might. It gains an additional +10% Might on levels 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21. It also has longer Gold Fevers, causes Vicious Hunger to have a higher gold transmutation chance, and gains experience per gold picked with a multiplier of x1.1.

With the recent update fixing Sammy’s framerate issues, he can now safely dominate games by Limit Breaking Vicious Hunger and turning everything into gold, healing, and experience. As long as you grab Disco of Gold first, you can level and kill things infinitely (or until your game crashes). Make sure to also grab Sarabande of Healing and Wicked Season for your other Arcana. Can often outperform Queen Sigma, but is more limited in how he can be built and played. Also without Limit Break, Sammy may reach a point where he is unable to kill boss enemies if his level is too high. Use this character if you want to farm Golden Eggs by generating massive amounts of gold, but avoid using for normal gameplay if you actually want to play the game.

Check out the “Gold Farm” section of this guide for more information on how to use Sammy for gold farming.

Builds:

• Gold Farm Sammy[danmer.github.io]
  
• Crazy Cats Sammy[danmer.github.io]

Extremely strong character with overpowered passives.

Je-Ne-Viv gains +1% Might and +0.5% Curse every level, without cap. It starts with +150 Max Health, +5 Armor, +50% Might, +50% Greed, +50% Magnet, and +7 Reroll. Je-Ne-Viv starts with an innate unique weapon, Insatiable, which acts like the Blood Astronomia Arcana but its damage is multiplied by Greed. Upon leveling up It triggers vacuum. When taking fatal damage and everyth 6th level, Je-Ne-Viv triggers World Eater, becoming invincible for 2 seconds, killing all enemies on screen, and turning them into Little Hearts. Furthermore, World Eater destroys wall tiles, allowing the player to walk out of bounds. Finally It gains SpellString, SpellStream, and SpellStrike upon leveling up, which evolve into the powerful Spellstrom. Its starting weapon also evolves into one of the most powerful weapons in the game, Ophion.

The Might and Curse per level allows Je’Ne-Viv to scale extremely well. Having access to Ophion and Spellstrom means enemies are constantly taking damage and getting instantly killed. Its stats and passive abilities allow it to have flexible builds, but it truly thrives when it is able to constantly gain levels and take advantage of its scaling Curse. A truly oppressive character that will dominate any level, while not being as overpowered as Queen Sigma or Sammy.

Builds:

• Curse Destroyer Je-Ne-Viv[danmer.github.io]
  

The best stat scaler in the game.

Scientist Mina gains 1% Might, Area, Speed, Duration, Recovery, Growth, Luck, Greed, Curse, or Move Speed per level up to a total of 5% points. Scientist also gets -10% Luck every 10 levels until level 90, losing a maximum of 90% Luck.

Characters make A tier for infinite scaling potential, Scientist Mina is better than all of them. Their biggest downside is their starting weapon, Science Rocks, which may be annoying to use and gives them a rough start especially on levels with walls that prevent the rocks from triggering. Unlike the other characters in S Tier, you can lose early on with this character, so you have to make sure you survive to benefit from their stat buffs. Has high build flexibility. Recommended stats to select are 3-4% Growth, 1% Might, with an optional 1% Area or 1% Curse.

Builds:

• Max Power Scientist[danmer.github.io]
  

These are characters that start the game strong, are hard to kill, and/or can scale their stats infinitely into the hundreds or thousands of levels before minute 30.

A powerhouse of a character with great stats and the strongest defensive passive, damage immunity.

Megalo Menya starts with -20 Max Health, +100% Move Speed, +100% Might, -20% Cooldown, +10% Luck, and +108 Banish. She cannot be damaged at all but her run ends as soon as the Time Limit is reached.

While immunity to damage seems like it should land her an immediate spot on S, most characters in S and A Tier are already extremely hard to kill, so she’s not exceptional in that regard. Despite her high starting stats and innate 108 Bocce, the main thing that holds her back is she doesn’t get any infinite stat scaling like other characters in S Tier and A Tier. Her Time Limit also sours anyone wanting to kill the Reaper or do an Endless run, further limiting what she can do. Like other characters with innate weapons, she is fully customizable when you start a game.

Builds:

• Twilight Fire Menya[danmer.github.io]
  

Extremely strong character with powerful stat scaling.

Avatar gains +0.5% Curse, +0.5% Might, +2% Move Speed, and -0.25% Cooldown every level. There is no cap on these bonuses. He also starts with +60 Max Health, +50% Might, +50% Luck, +100% Magnet, +1 Revival, and +10 Reroll.

Starts with the Heart of Fire Arcana which can pair well with Hellfire, Greatest Jubilee, and Luminaire to fill the screen with explosions. This Arcana does not count against his limit, so Avatar can have 4-5 Arcana in a run. Picking items like Clock Lancet or Laurel will make it impossible for him to get damaged once his Cooldown Reduction hits -87.5%. His main downside is that he gets 2% speed per level, which makes him harder to control as the game goes on.

Builds:

• Max Fire Avatar[danmer.github.io]
  

The ultimate leveling character.

Gains gains +2% Growth every level. There is no cap on this bonus.

Starts with Heaven Sword, a strong evolution weapon, and has the second fastest leveling behind Scientist Mina.

Builds:

• SoS Heaven Sword Gains[danmer.github.io]
  

Can get some of the best stats in the game, if you work for it.

Smith starts with 7 Max Health, +20% Move Speed, -10% Might, -10% Area, -50% Speed, -10% Duration, +10% Cooldown and +100% Luck. They gain +0.01 Recovery, +0.7% Might, Area, Speed and Duration, -0.25% Cooldown, and +1% Luck every level.

Starts out with extremely low health, but if you are able to survive Smith scales extremely high and becomes a powerhouse at later levels. Starts with Vandalier, which can deal a lot of damage, but has poor aiming. Use the Divine Bloodline and Awake Arcanas to get them through the early game. Like Avatar Infernas, Smith can eventually become invincible with Laurel thanks to their scaling Cooldown.

Builds:

• DB Max Exp Smith[danmer.github.io]
  

Like Megalo Menya Moonspell, but not always.

Menya starts with -20 Max Health, +10% Might, -10% Cooldown, +10% Luck, and +8 Banish. She enters a boosted state at certain kill thresholds and comes a stronger version of Megalo Menya Moonspell gaining +200% Might, -20% Cooldown, +50% Curse, and up to 300% total Move Speed for 30 seconds.

Good starting stats and can get invincibility and a massive stat boost at certain kill thresholds for 30 seconds. She also starts with a great base weapon that turns into one of the best weapons in the game overall. When you get a good enemy kill count going it is possible to stay within her boosted form indefinitely.

Builds:

• SoS Godai Shuffle Menya[danmer.github.io]
  

Extremely strong user of low weapon builds.

Babi-Onna starts with +10 Reroll. She ignores the Cooldown stat, but poses while moving, using one weapon each time she poses. The faster she moves, the lower the Cooldown will be for every weapon you have.

Difficulty to use character, but once you learn it is extremely rewarding. She ignores Cooldown and triggers weapons whenever she “vogues” as she moves. This means you should build her using powerful and few weapons with long cooldowns like Gorgeous Moon, Godai Shuffle, or Ophion. Don’t stop moving and give her speed to enable constant weapon spam. Do not use Empty Tomb or Silent Old Sanctuary with her ever. Her starting weapon Mirage Robe provides some survivability, but you can also grab Laurel which can easily make her invincible, but that takes up a weapon slot. The fewer weapons she has, the stronger she is.

Builds:

• Ophion Dancer Babi-Onna[danmer.github.io]
  

A reviving and screen-wiping Goddess.

Luminaire starts with +0.5 Recovery, +40% Move Speed, +7 Revival, and +5 Banish. Upon levelling up, Luminaire triggers a Rosary. After reviving, she gets a temporary +200% Might, -100% Cooldown, and up to 300% Move Speed that lasts 15 +2(x times Revived) seconds.

Is incredibly strong in the early and mid game. Triggers Rosary on level up and gets a massive stat boost upon reviving that gets longer the more she is revived. Definitely want to grab the Awake Arcana on her as she starts with 7 Revivals and can get a total of 15 at one time with the proper items, which if you able to kill yourself enough causes a massive boost to her stats. Her starting weapon Prismatic Missile is also really good and involves into Luminaire, which benefits her level up passive. Since she triggers Rosary on level up, you will want to focus on builds that maximize experience gains. This can allow her to chain Rosary triggers through rapid leveling up, making her one of the fastest leveling character and a massive powerhouse early game.

Builds:

• Max Revive Exp Luminaire[danmer.github.io]
  

A glass cannon that gets stronger the more weapons you have.

Space Dude starts with +40% Move Speed. Space Dude will occasionally activate all weapons twice. This effect occurs more often the more Cooldown reduction you have.

The double firing of weapons can trigger really fast with a lot of Cooldown Reduction. On average this results in an 80-180% total damage increase or around 2-3 times. Starting weapon begins a bit weak, but gets stronger fast and evolves into one of the highest damaging weapons in the game. Due to how his passive works, having more weapons can result in more damaging areas being sent out, but he still works amazingly well with one weapon builds.

Builds:

• SoS Photostorm Space Dude[danmer.github.io]
  

Limitless Recovery and Revivals as the run goes on.

Cosmo starts with 20 Max Health, +1 Recovery, +20% Luck, +30% Movement Speed, and +1 Revival. It also gains +1 Recovery and +1% Luck every level, and +1 Revival every 100 levels. There is no cap on these bonuses. Every time Cosmo is revived, it triggers a Rosary effect.

Starts with two hidden Peachone and Ebony Wings weapons. This character has and gains a massive amount of recovery that makes it nearly impossible to kill after you get past Cosmo’s early game weakness. Pairs well with Awake, Sarabande of Healing, and Divine Bloodline. Since Cosmos has fully open weapon slots, they are highly customizable. Also the best character for doing a full item run if you are a masochist.

Builds:

• Max Regen Cosmo[danmer.github.io]
  

Syuuto starts with +50 Max Health, +2 Armor, -20% Movement Speed, +50% Might, -30% Projectile Speed, -30% Area, and +50% Curse. Transforms into Megalo Syuuto Moonspell once Summon Night Evolves into Echo Night. Megalo Syuuto gains +1% Might every level. He also starts with +150 Max Health, +2 Armor, +20% Movement Speed, +50% Might, +50% Greed, and +50% Curse.

If you are able to evolve Echo Night early enough, he can be a slightly better version of Megalo Syuuto Moonspell due to having an unslotted Night Sword.

Builds:

• DB Max Exp Night Suuto[danmer.github.io]
  

Megalo Syuuto gains +1% Might every level. He also starts with +150 Max Health, +2 Armor, +20% Movement Speed, +50% Might, +50% Greed, and +50% Curse.

He starts with Night Sword, which isn’t that good of a weapon, but the evolution, Muramasa has its uses. Has really good starting stats and stat scaling. Due to having Muramasa he can maximize the damage of Divine Bloodline through the self-damage aspect.

Builds:

• SoS DB Syuuto[danmer.github.io]
  

Has one of 8 names that determine level up stats. Cannot fully benefit from Chaos in the Dark Night, Boogaloo of Illusions, and Lost & Found Painting. Can start with any base weapon. Gets a small amount of all stats at level up that is generally positive, allowing this character to grow stronger slowly. Keep in mind, it is possible to lose stats on level up as well. In my opinion Chalanda, Mi Kujino, or Titto are the best names to use. Refer to Random’s wiki page[vampire-survivors.fandom.com] to get an understand of how their stats work.

Builds:

• Twilight Max Exp Random[danmer.github.io]
  

Rose gains +10% Might every 12 levels until level 108, +10% Growth every 12 levels from level 36 to 84 and +15% Growth on levels 96 and 108. She also starts with +100 Charm, +20% Move Speed, -90% Might and -80% Growth.

Starts with a really powerful weapon that heals her and has a unique passive of +100 Charm that will increase enemy spawns by 100% without the malus of additional health and speed like Curse. Does start with a Might and Growth malus, but the strong weapon more than compensates for that. Because she spawns more enemies than any other characters she can gain a lot of experience and make exceptional use of weapons like Sole Solution and Ashes of Muspell.

Builds:

• Crit Rose[danmer.github.io]
  

Gyoruntin starts with +3 Armor, +80% Move Speed, and +30 Max Health. Gains 1% Curse per level and NO FUTURE gains +1 base damage per level with no cap. Can fly through walls.

Starts with weaker version of NO FUTURE (5 base damage, instead of the normal 30), but it is still a really good weapon. The scaling Curse per level is offset by the large damaged gained by NO FUTURE. This makes Gyoruntin extremely strong when using just NO FUTURE and allowing it to Limit Break.

Builds:

• Unlimited Damage Gyoruntin[danmer.github.io]
• DB SoS Gyoruntin[danmer.github.io]

Impostor starts with +20 Max Health, +20% Movement Speed, and +20% Might. Imposter turns into Megalo Impostor Rina upon defeating a specific amount of enemies, triggering Rosary and gaining invincibility, +200% Might, -20% Cooldown, and 70% Move Speed for 30 seconds. They also gain 6 hidden Sharp Tongue weapons during the boosted state.

Starts with a decent weapon and has good base stats, but its evolution isn’t that good. Gets a massive boost to Might, Movement Speed, and Cooldown Reduction during certain kill thresholds. Is invincible during the boost mode and can infinitely chain the boosted stat if you kill enough.

Builds:

• Crit Imposter[danmer.github.io]
  

Megalo Impostor Rina starts with +80 Max Health, +80% Move Speed, +80% Might and -10% Cooldown. Additionally, Rina gains another hidden Sharp Tongue every 6 levels, up to 6 total.

A stronger version of Imposter Rina with a permanent large buff to Movement Speed, Health, and Might. Has no active weapons, which makes them extremely customizable.

Builds:

• SoS Echo Night Imposter[danmer.github.io]
  

Mask of the Red Death starts with +100% Movement Speed, 255 Max Health and +20% Might.

Extremely high starting health and speed. Death Spiral is a powerful starting weapon and can make Red Death snowball in power, Without innate infinite scaling stats, Red Death will eventually fall behind other characters with such stats and abilities the longer a run goes on.

Builds:

• SoS Crit Red Death[danmer.github.io]
  
• Red Death Crit Max Exp[danmer.github.io]

Strong characters that are versatile and can scale their damage and survive really well the longer the game goes on. These characters often lack the infinite scaling potential of A and S Tiers.

Maruto gains +1 Armor after being damaged, resetting every 10 seconds, getting hit again extends the reset timer by 1 second. He also starts with +20 Max Health, +1 Armor, +20 Might, and +10% Curse. Upon reaching level 30, an Academy Badge will spawn underneath him.

Extremely good weapon and passives that become overpowered when using Divine Bloodline. However, his passives don’t help with that significantly, which is why he isn’t higher. He is carried by his overpowered starting weapon, which any other character can get.

Builds:

• SoS DB Maruto[danmer.github.io]

Scorej-Oni starts with 108 Max Health, -20% Movement Speed, and +20% Area. It gains an additional hidden Lightning Ring every 8 levels, up to a max of 6 at level 40,

Can get up to 6 additional hidden Lightning Rings which allows for a lot of damage across the screen. Lightning Rings also trigger off of Scorej-Oni getting damaged. Decent starting stats and overall a really solid character.

Builds:

• SoS Muramasa Scorej-Oni[danmer.github.io]

Pugnala gains +1% Might every level. There is no cap on this bonus. She also starts with +20% Movement Speed.

Great character that starts with two weapons that union and gets level scaling Might. Probably the best character you can unlock early without DLC.

Builds:

• Elemental Gemini Pugnala[danmer.github.io]

Ghost starts with +156 Max Health, +100% Luck, and -100% Might. Ghost cannot be damaged or deal damage directly, but their run ends as soon as the Time Limit is reached. Can also pass through walls.

A fun character that like Megalo Menya Moonspell is immune to damage and ends the run at the Time Limit, unfortunately for us Ghost Lino cannot deal direct damage due to a permanent -100% Might modifier. This immediately makes most weapons completely useless on them. Sarabande of Healing, Divine Bloodline, or Blood Astronomia are immediately required for them to deal damage. After which you are limited in the weapons you are able to take, making it difficult to beat the damage output of most characters in B Tier and above. Again a fun character, but the damage immunity doesn’t fully make up for the inability to deal direct damage.

Builds:

• SoS Ophion Moon Ghost[danmer.github.io]

Miang starts with +20 Max Health, +1 Recovery, and +20% Movement Speed. Miang gains +0.2 Max Health each time she over-heals. There is no cap on this bonus.

Her increased recovery, starting weapon, and passive health increases allows her to focus on a self-healing play style. This can give her great survivability, but her weapon and others that complement that playstyle don’t deal high damage.

Builds:

• DB Healing Self-Damage Miang[danmer.github.io]

Eleanor starts with -10 Max Health, +20% MoveSpeed, +25% Growth, and +2 Reroll. Upon reaching 10, 20, and 30, SpellStream, SpellStrike, and Academy Badge will spawn underneath her respectively.

Has easy access to one of the strongest weapons in the game, Spellstrom, by combining the weapons she spawn. Has good passive stats and the weapons spawn really round out her playstyle. If going for a full weapon build it can be worth it to not immediately pick up the “spell” weapons or Academy Badge until all other slots are full. If doing a solo-weapon Limit Break build, you will have to pick up at least one of her weapons during the level up screen.

Builds:

• Frost Mage Eleanor[danmer.github.io]

Santa starts with +2 Armor and +30 Luck. She spawns an Arma Dio at level 40 and CandyBox at level 80. If you level Santa Water, Cross, and King’s Bible to level 8 they will be absorbed, providing hidden versions of their evolutions and freeing up weapon slots. Evolution chests have a chance to be Arcana chest. Triggers Rosary at low health. Finally, she starts with a temporary Cooldown bonus.

This character has a lot going on. The early Arcana from evolution Chests can be good or bad depending on if you want an evolution or not. The hidden weapons mechanic can be worth pursuing, and they provide a nice defense to Santa Javelin’s early weakness. Santa’s greatest strength is her weapon, Seraphic Cry, which is extremely powerful when Limit Breaking.

Builds:

• Twilight Gemini Max Exp Santa[danmer.github.io] (replace Glass Fandango with Santa Javelin)

Genevieve starts with +20% Move Speed, +50% Greed, +50% Magnet, and +5 Reroll. Upon levelling up, Genevieve triggers a Vacuum. Once per life, she triggers World Eater after receiving fatal damage, becoming invincible for 3 seconds, then killing every enemy on screen and turning them into Little Hearts to heal her.

Has the powerful World Eater passive and starts with Shadow Servant which evolves into one of the best weapons in the game, Orphion. Grabbing the Awake Arcana and Tiragisu can give her extra lives to trigger World Eater again, but it is not necessary. With her built in vacuum Genevieve is able to be more mobile around stages and not have to worry about missed experience or items.

Builds:

• SoS Ophion Genevieve[danmer.github.io]

She-Moon starts with +2 Armor and +20% Move Speed. She triggers a screen-wide time-freeze, similar to Orologions, when she gets below 25% Max Health.

Can become nearly unkillable with high healing due to her critical health screen-wide freezing passive. Her starting weapon, Glass Fandango is good and can let you create freezing builds, but it has a learning curve to use.

Builds:

• Crystal Ice She-Moon[danmer.github.io]

Leda starts with +5 Armor, -20% Movement Speed, +100% Might, +10% Area, -10% Cooldown and -80% Greed.

Starts with Holy Wand, a decent evolved weapon, and a lot of stats. Most notably 100% Might. Can be unlocked somewhat early and can help carry newer players through the game. Leda’s strong starting bonuses can help her snowball in power as the game progresses.

Builds:

• Elemental Max Exp Leda[danmer.github.io]

missingN▯’s base stats are randomized every time the character selection screen is opened. The final stat is determined by the base stat and the stat from PowerUps.

Has a large range of stats it randomizes, can be one of the best starting characters in game or the worst. Can potentially roll negative Health and be invincible, but it can also roll stats that break your ability to play like -100% Growth or Curse. There is also a bias that some of its stats have a higher chance of being better or worse than the base stats. Check out MisssingN▯’s wiki page for more details.[vampire-survivors.fandom.com] Due to being able to view stats before start, this character can be good, but you can spend a lot of time rerolling its stats. Make sure that Death Spiral is the starting weapon and not Axe. Also will almost always be slow or have controls reversed.

Builds:

• E̸͇͖̽͗͜l̸̦̘̟͔̒͘e̵̜̋̕͝c̶̤͙̙̀̈t̸̲͔̼̪̿̐̍r̵͕̟͓̟̂̍͒͘i̶̱̍̑̇͋̕ć̴̍̀͋͗͜ ̵̨̤͑E̴̢̧͚͌̈́̃n̶̢͕͇̫̥̐͒̉͂͝e̸̝̼͎̔̋͝ȓ̵͔͙͑ǵ̶̨̨̤̃͜ỹ̴̛͙̪͚͇̫͆ ̸̡̡̞̲́͆̿͗̎M̷͙̔͌̓͘͝ĩ̵̟͔̒̎s̴̥͙̊ŝ̸̢̼̤̣͎̃͠ḯ̴̧̜̌͋̾͝n̵̢͉͈͎̯̊ǧ̷͔̣̙́ ̷̧͚̟̗̈̏̿̽N̶̢͕̜̕͝ǒ̸̮͒́[danmer.github.io]

Crewmate starts with +20% Movement Speed. Crewmate gains minor stat bonuses every time a weapon or passive items is upgraded to its maximum level, with no limit. This passive also includes maximum level items by teammate in multiplayer. The stats increased are Amount, Armor, Cooldown, Duration, Growth, Magnet, Max Health, Move Speed, Might, Recovery, and Revival.

Gets a random stat boost when you fully level an item, this incentivizes full weapon builds and weapons that are Unions or from the Emergency Meeting DLC. The stat increases are noticeable, often better than a single level on a passive item. The best stat boost available is to Cooldown Reduction, which has a 1 in 11 chance of occurring. Recommend playing on stages that have a lot of stage items like the 4 special stages: Mt.Moonspell, Lake Foscari, Abyss Foscari, and Polus Replica.

Builds:

• Max Items Space Crewmate[danmer.github.io]

Zi’Assunta gains +0.5% Might, Projectile Speed, Duration, and Area every level. There is no cap on this bonus. She also starts with +20% Movement Speed and +10% Curse.

Has good stat scaling. Vento Sacro isn’t a good starting weapon, but you can build it into Fuwalafuwaloo. She a strong character when you are new to the game. You have to keep moving to make her weapon work well.

Builds:

• DB Crit Zi’Assunta[danmer.github.io]

Toastie starts with -99 Max Health, +20% MoveSpeed, -10% Might, -10% Area, -50% Speed, -10% Duration, +10% Cooldown and +100% Luck. Additionally, Toastie gains +100% Luck by level 100, y +9998 Max Health at level 100, and +65520 Armor at level 200.

The most difficult character to survive early game, but if you can make it to level 100 and 200, you’ll be greatly rewarded with massively increased health and armor and capable of tanking hits from the Reaper. The Divine Bloodline and Awake Arcana are essential when trying to survive. Due to their massive health and armor bonus, they are the best user of Divine Bloodline and one of a few characters capable of maximizing the flat Armor bonus of Divine Bloodline without Golden Eggs or Paranormal Scan.

Builds:

• Max DB Toastie[danmer.github.io]

Poppea gains +1% Duration every level. There is no cap on this bonus. She also starts with +20% Movement Speed.

Starts with Song of Mana, one of the best base weapons in the game and gets scaling Duration each level. Due to the uncapped nature of her Duration, weapons like King Bible/Unholy Vespers and Santa Water/La Borra are really strong on her.

Builds:

• Blood Twilight Poppea[danmer.github.io]

Christine starts with 1 extra level. She has -50 Max Health, -35% Might, -25% Cooldown, and +30% MoveSpeed bonus.

Pentagram can be hard to manage if you are not used to it, but this character provides a whopping -25% Cooldown Reduction, which is the highest of non-scaling characters. This allows her to use stronger weapons more often. When using Pentagram you want to turn it into Gorgeous Moon as soon as possible, so playing on stages with an early evolution chest is key.

Builds:

• Level Breaker Christine[danmer.github.io]

Minnah starts with 150 Max Health, 0.5 Recovery, and -70% Might. She gains +10% Might every three levels until 24. Her stats change every minute similar to some Arcanas. Might, Projectile Speed, Duration, Area, and Cooldown are on a cycle; when Duration, Area, and Cooldown are multiplied by 2, Might and Projectile Speed are divided by 2, and vice versa.

Starts with a mid-evolution weapon, allowing them to get Fuwalafuwaloo without wasting a passive on Hollow Heart. Passive stat changes can create two distinct “modes” that you can play around with for great results:

• Big Area, long Duration and Cooldown, slow Projectile Speed, and weaker.
• Small Area, low Duration and Cooldown, fast Projectile Speed, and stronger.

Their weapon gives them incredible sustain and makes them really hard to kill early game, even with their large -70% Might malus at game start.

Builds:

• SoS Fuwalafuwaloo Minnah[danmer.github.io]

Gallo starts with with 1 extra level. They have +15% Duration, -15% Cooldown, -50% Greed, +3 Reroll, and +3 Skip. Gains 10% Growth every 5 levels, up to 50%

Growth and Cooldown Reduction are some of the best stats to have, which makes Gallo a really good charter.

Builds:

• Ice Magic Gallo[danmer.github.io]

Giovanna gains +1% Projectile Speed every level. There is no cap on this bonus. She also starts with +20% Movement Speed.

Gatti Amari can easily be the strongest base weapon in the game, but can be bad to start with. She does get infinite Projectile Speed that can allow her to fully utilize weapons like Runetracer to clear screens.

Builds:

• Gemini Max Exp Giovanna[danmer.github.io]
• Crazy Cat Lady Giovanna[danmer.github.io]

Keitha gains +1% Luck every level. There is no cap on this bonus. She also starts with +40% Move Speed, +20% Speed, -10% Cooldown, +10% Luck, and +10% Curse.

Flash Arrow is not a great starting weapon on its own, you will want to grab Iron Blue Will to make it better at killing enemies. If you can overcome the Flash Arrow weakness she has decent starting stats and with scaling Luck can go for critical hit builds. Grabbing a 108 Bocce early would be good since it scales with the difference between Luck and Curse.

Builds:

• Bouncing Arrow Keitha[danmer.github.io]

Concetta gains +1% Area every level. There is no cap on this bonus. She also starts with +20% Movement Speed and +10% Curse.

Starts with the Shadow Pinion, one of the most contentious weapons in the game. She gets infinite area scaling, which can stack with Boogaloo of Illusions. If you can handle the movement requirements of Shadow Pinion she can be a good character. Shadow Pinion can be a difficult weapon to use, at the start of a run you can move in a small circle without stopping to create a good defensive wall. It will sometimes be better to keep moving and not release the pinions if you are getting overwhelmed by enemies.

Builds:

• Flame Dancer Concetta[danmer.github.io]

C Tier characters generally don’t do anything particularly special, but don’t have notable downsides to playing them either. Characters in this tier that do have major downsides, have a benefit that is able to compensate for it. With nearly every character in C Tier, another character in a tier above can do what they do better.

Clerici starts with +0.5 Recovery and +50 Max Health. Additionally, Clerici has +400% Area, however, the Area bonus depreciates by 100% each level, until the bonus is entirely gone at level 5.

Starts with 400% additional Area at level 1 and the Santa Water weapon. This makes her an extremely good choice for the Game Killer Arcana.

Builds:

• Game Killer Clerici[danmer.github.io]
• Twilight Princess Clerici[danmer.github.io]

Ambrojoe starts +20% Luck, +20% Greed, +20 Magnet, and +10 Amount, but loses 2 Amount every level until level 6, in which the Amount bonus is reduced to +0. He then gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 60.

One of a group of projectile characters that gain +1 Amount every 20 levels up to +3. Has one of the best starting weapons of the projectile characters group due to the defensive potential and high damage of the falling furniture. Due to starting with +10 Amount at level 1, he is a great user of Game Killer.

Builds:

• Game Killer Ambrojoe[danmer.github.io]
• Furniture Salesman Ambrojoe[danmer.github.io]

Porta starts with +30% Area. Additionally, Porta starts with -90% Cooldown bonus, which decreases by 30% on every level up until negated upon reaching level 4.

Starts with Lightning Ring, a decent weapon made better by her passive. At level 1 she starts with a capped Cooldown of -90%, making her one of the best users of Game Killer. If not going for Game Killer, make sure to grab weapons that can make up for the weak defenses of Lightning Ring.

Builds:

• Game Killer Porta[danmer.github.io]
• Mage Blade Porta[danmer.github.io]

Marrabbio starts with +20 Max Health, +30% Move Speed, +20% Might, -80% Greed, +10% Curse, and most notably, -110% Speed.

Starts with, Thousand Edge, a good evolved weapon, has an interesting mechanic of firing projectiles backwards until you invest in Projectile Speed, however the backwards firing only works when you have both the Projectile Speed and Omni Power Ups disabled, otherwise he just throws slow projectiles. Disabling Omni is not recommend, so this turns him into a character with a strong starting weapon that fires slowly.

Builds:
SoS Backstabber Marrabbio[danmer.github.io]

The “Don’t Move Challenge” character.

Peppino starts with +20 Max Health, +2 Armor, -60% Area, +100% Magnet, and mostly notably, -100% Move Speed. It gains an additional +10% Area on levels 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21.

Starts with Soul Eater, one of the worst evolved weapons, but still a strong starting weapon. Can move with Power Up Speed, and the Wings passive item. Notably starts with 100% additional Magnet, which it will definitely use. Mad Groove is very necessary if you want stage items.

Builds:

• Healing Fire Peppino[danmer.github.io]
• Frozen Water Peppino[danmer.github.io]

Gyorunton starts with 300 Max Health compared to the usual 100. He also has +30% Might and +2 revivals.

Really good starting stats, but starts with Bracelet, a bad weapon that does eventually evolve into a decent one, Tri-Bracelet. Gains Curse per level with no other stats. A big benefit of Gyorunton is that they can find weapon evolutions in any chest. This can allow them to evolve weapons, like their starting weapon, really fast. Due to the scaling Curse and eventually gaining Tri-Bracelet, picking the Twilight Requiem Arcana is highly recommended.

Builds:

• Twilight Fire Gyorunton[danmer.github.io]

McCoy-Oni starts with +8 Max Health, +1 Armor, and +20% Growth. His Area temporarily increases by +150% every second.

His area increases and decreases every few seconds, which can provide a big boost to area damage weapons like Garlic, Santa Water/La Borra, and King Bible/Unholy Vespers.

Builds:

• Big Aura McCoy-Oni[danmer.github.io]

Divano starts with 1 extra level. They have +1.0 Recovery, +30% Luck, -50% Greed, and +6 Banish. Gains +1 Armor every 5 levels up to +5 Armor total.

Pretty decent defensive character that starts with Laurel. Due to the armor level bonuses, starting with Divine Bloodline is recommend, especially since Laurel’s evolution, Crimson Shroud, makes good using of it.

Builds:

• SoS DB Retribution Divano[danmer.github.io]

Imelda gains +10% Growth every 5 levels until level 15, for a total of +30% Growrth.

One of the few characters with passive Growth. It isn’t much, but it is still a good stat. Her starting weapon is good for early levels, as is its evolution, but it falls off in performance compared to other weapons as the game goes on.

Builds:

• SoS Frost Mage Imelda[danmer.github.io]

Trouser gains +1% Greed every level. There is no cap on this bonus. He also has longer Gold Fevers by multiplying its duration cap and duration extension from Gold pickups by 1.5.

One of the most talked about characters. For gold farming he is S Tier, but for this Tier List that measures damage and survivability, making money doesn’t help him live, especially without Golden Eggs. He has no combat stat bonuses and his biggest benefit is that he can pick any weapon he wants. Since he starts with any weapon he wants, his build potential is a blank canvas. He can do any build, but he won’t be the best character for that build.

Check out the “Gold Farm” section of this guide for more information on how to use Trouser for gold farming.

Builds:

• Tier Chaser Trouser[danmer.github.io]

Shapeshifter starts with +1 Recovery and +10% Movement Speed. Shapeshifter also leaves behind collectable body parts when damaged.

Has a unique passive where he can self-heal from excess body parts and change forms. Some of the forms also do area damage. Just Vent is a terrible weapon, but they can generally survive past it thanks to its strong early game passive. The effectiveness of the parts collecting passive greatly diminishes as the run progresses.

Builds:

• DB Self Damage Shapershifter[danmer.github.io]

Mortaccio gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 60 for a total of +3 Amount.

One of a group of projectile characters that gain +1 Amount every 20 levels. Mortaccio automatically evolves Bone when they reach level 80, assuming you collected the Chaos Malachite. Was once widely considered one of the best characters before Limit Break was added to the game. Mortaccio is still a solid choice, for most runs, but falls behind other more powerful characters.

Builds:

• Twilight Max Exp Mortaccio[danmer.github.io]

O’Sole gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 60 for a total of +3 Amount.

One of a group of projectile characters that gain +1 Amount every 20 levels up to +3. O’Sole automatically evolves Celestial Dusting when they reach level 80, after you have obtained the Chaos Altemanna.

Builds:

• SoS Celestial Dustling O’Sole[danmer.github.io]

Yatta Cavallo gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 60 for a total of +3 Amount.

One of a group of projectile characters that gain +1 Amount every 20 levels up to +3. Yatta Cavallo automatically evolves Cherry Bomb when they reach level 80, after you have obtained the Chaos Rosalia.

Builds:

• SoS Cherry Bomb Cavallo[danmer.github.io]

Engineer starts with +20% Movement Speed, +20 Reroll, +20 Skip, and +20 Banish. Engineer can choose an extra passive item at levels 2, 12 and 22.

Lucky Swipe is a weak starting weapon. Their passives can help target specific builds and overcome their weak starting weapon. To maximize the benefit of their passive, try to fill out your Passive Item pool before level 12 so you get 2 extra items.

Builds:

• Electric Twilight Engineer[danmer.github.io]

Arca starts with 10% Might. He also gains -5% Cooldown every 10 levels until level 30, for a total of -15% Cooldown.

He is a an early game character, but with a poor starting weapon, Fire Wand. Other characters have better versions of this passive bonuses, but Cooldown is still really good. Starting with Heart of Fire is highly recommended due to the added defensive capability and boosting the power of Fire Wand.

Builds:

• Fire Mage Arca[danmer.github.io]

Gennaro starts with +20 Max Health and +1 Amount.

A character that seems strong when you’re new to the game, but having only a single +1 Amount makes him unable to compete with other characters that just offer more as the game difficulty increases.

Builds:

• Bouncing Crit Gennaro[danmer.github.io]

Everyone’s first character.

Antonio starts with +20 Max Health and +1 Armor. He gains +10% Might every 10 levels until level 50, for a total of +50% Might.

Basic early game character. Whip is an okay starting weapon that is easy to use. Acts as a baseline for most other characters.

Builds:

• Beginner Build Antonio[danmer.github.io]

Pasqualina starts with +10% Projectile Speed. Additionally, she gains +10% Projectile Speed every 5 levels until level 15, for a total of +40 Projectile Speed for this character.

She has a decent starting weapon with Runetracer. Works best in levels that have walls like Inlaid Library.

Builds:

• Beginner Build Pasqualina[danmer.github.io]

Dommario has permanent +40% Projectile speed and +40% Duration, at the cost of -40% Movement Speed.

He starts with King Bible, a good defensive weapon. The low Move Speed can cause issues, especially before you are able to ramp up the power of King Bible.

Builds:

• Beginner Build Dommario[danmer.github.io]

Krochi starts with 1 Revival, allowing him respawn once with 50% health. He gains another Revival at level 33. He additionally has +30% MoveSpeed.

Cross is an okay starting weapon to have. Revives may help in the early game. There is not much else to say about Krochi Freetto.

Builds:

• Beginner Build Krochi[danmer.github.io]

These characters are not necessarily bad, but fall behind many of the characters above them for one reason or another. The main culprit is having a terrible starting weapon or weak passives. Like C Tier characters, they are outclassed by characters in the tiers above.

Lama starts with +10 Max Health, +10% Might, +10% Move Speed, and +10% Curse. She gains another 5% Might, 5% MoveSpeed and 5% Curse every 10 levels, for a max increase of +20% or +30% in total.

Starts with an high damage weapon, Axe, that can be good early one, but has trouble if there are too many enemies. The starting Curse can often tougher starts than other characters that get Curse later have.

Builds:

• DB Crit Lama[danmer.github.io]

Ramba gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 60, for a total of +3 Amount.

One of a group of projectile characters that gain +1 Amount every 20 levels up to +3. Starting weapon cam deal high damage, but has a very narrow attack zone. If you want her passive bonuses, it is usually better to pick a similar character in the tiers above.

Builds:

• Tragic Princess Ramba[danmer.github.io]

Bat Robbert starts with 0.5 Recovery, +1 Armor and +20% Move Speed. He gains +16 Max Health and heals for 30% Max Health when his health drops below 20%.

He is a tanky character that can be difficult to kill, but Pako Battiliar and its evolution are terrible weapons. Furthermore his passive healing can help save him, but it will only recharge when he heals back up to full again.

Builds:

• DB Flame Robbert[danmer.github.io]

Poe starts with -30 Max Health and +25% Magnet.

Has meme level of infamy in the community. Is an okay starting character with Garlic, but his low health can make him vulnerable should enemies get past Garlic.

Builds:

• Beginner Build Poe[danmer.github.io]

Gav’Et-Oni gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 80, to to +4 Amount total. They also start with +20% Movement Speed.

One of a group of projectile characters that gain +1 Amount every 20 levels up to +4. Mille Bolle Blue is not a good weapon, but at least it evolves into one that is more usable.

Builds:

• Diverse Build Gav’Et-Oni[danmer.github.io]

Guardian starts with +0.1 Recovery, +1 Armor, +20% Movement Speed, and +1 Revival. Guardian provides +1 Armor and +0.1 Recovery to nearby characters. They can walk through walls. Guardian has a chance to gain +1 Revival when anyone revives.

Clear Debris is a weak and unreliable starting weapon. It is a good thing they can walk through walls, as you’ll need to do that just to survive. Starting weapon’s evolution Clear Asteroid is a good weapon though. They are meant to be a support character for Multiplayer, so using them solo is underwhelming.

Builds:

• Revival Energy Guardian[danmer.github.io]

Horse gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 80, to to +4 Amount total. They also start with +20% Movement Speed.

One of a group of projectile characters that gain +1 Amount every 20 levels up to +4. Hats is a bad starting weapon that also scales in damage poorly. If you want their passive bonuses, pick someone else.

Builds:

• Bouncing Weapon Horse[danmer.github.io]

Rottin’Ghoul gains +1 Amount every 20 levels until level 80, to to +4 Amount total. They also start with +20% Movement Speed.

One of a group of projectile characters that gain +1 Amount every 20 levels up to +4. Starting weapon is really bad. If you want their passive bonuses, pick someone else.

Builds:

• Gemini Rottin’ Ghoul[danmer.github.io]

Reserved for Exdash, the worst character.

Exdash starts with -23 Max Health, -10% MoveSpeed, -10% Might, -10% Area, -50% Speed, -10% Duration, +10% Cooldown and +100% Luck.

Low stats and starts with a weak weapon. Easily the worst character in the game outside of a bad stated Missing N.

Builds:

• DB Max Exp Exdash[danmer.github.io]

For weapons they are weighed how good they are in roughly the following priority: Limit-Break Effectiveness, Non-Limit Break Effectiveness, Arcana Strengths, Defensive Capabilities, Utility, and Evolution Requirements. For base weapons a focus is given to how effective they are as you level them, especially when they are used by themselves or with few other weapons.

These are weapons unmatched by most other weapons, especially when Limit Breaking them. These provide high damage, high stats, high defenses, or high utility. Can easily win games when selected on a character.

Evolution of Clock Lancet (Mid C Tier), requiring Silver Ring and Gold Ring both at max level.

Along with Crimson Shroud, these weapons are unmatched in what they do to your character. Infinite Corridor freezes everything and takes half their health every time it triggers. Works well with Out of Bounds. Infinite Corridor is also able to kill intangible beings like Stalkers, Drowners, and Tricksters. One of two weapons designed to kill the Reaper and trigger White Hand. This is one of the highest damaging weapon in the game, and one of three weapons that deals pertentage damage based on health.

Evolution of Laurel (Low C Tier), requiring Metaglio Left and Metaglio Right both fully leveled to evolve.

Along with Infinite Corridor, these weapons are unmatched in what they do to your character. Crimson Shroud makes you nearly impossible to kill by capping damage at 10 minus whatever Armor you have. Works well with Divine Bloodline. Crimson Shroud is also able to kill intangible beings like Stalkers, Drowners, and Tricksters. One of two weapons designed to kill the Reaper and trigger White Hand.

Evolution of Lifesign Scan (Low C Tier), requiring Mini Ghost at max level.

The best weapon in game outside of the two Death-killers and the best thing to come out of the Emergency Meeting DLC. Increases your character’s stats similar to Golden Eggs. It is a support weapon that requires other weapons to be good, but like Golden Eggs has infinite stat scaling potential. This can and should be used in every build, with the possible exception of Divine Bloodline due to the healing effect.

This weapon is used in most builds in this guide. If you do not have the Emergency Meeting DLC, you can simply remove it and the build will function mostly the same. You can also chose not to use this weapon in general due to how overpowered it is.

Evolution of Eskizzibur (Mid C Tier), requiring Armor at max level.

Strong weapon that when combined with Divine Bloodline, creates a nearly invincible and highly destructive combination. Using Legionnaire in combination with Divine Bloodline can cause the weapon to deal over 10 times its damage than without, being second only to Ophion in terms of damage by the end of a standard run using Limit Break.

Evolution of Shadow Servant (Low C Tier), requiring Skull O’Maniac at max level.

An instant kill weapon that scales with Luck. Pair with Wicked Seasons to have a weapon capable of doing more damage than even Infinite Corridor. This weapon will outscale every other weapon in the game the longer the game runs. The downside is that it doesn’t start out strong if you have low stats and you won’t be able to see anything on your screen. You will need Luck and Area to make it really powerful.

Evolution of Four Seasons (Low B Tier), requiring Candelabrador at max level.

Causes five large zones of damage, four in each corner and one in the middle. It deals a massive amount of damage and can cover the screen. Candelabrador is one of the best Passive Items, so this weapon can fit into most builds. It doesn’t synergize with any weapon specific Arcana, but it deals so much damage that it doesn’t need to.

Union of SpellString, SpellStream, and SpellStrike.

A combination of SpellStrike (Mid B Tier), SpellStream (Mid D Tier), and SpellString (Mid C Tier) with a massive damage boost. It has two damage zones that orbit the character and will combine every 22-40 seconds depending on your Cooldown Reduction and deal massive damage to everything on screen. The main downside with this weapon is that you need to have its three base weapons before you can fuse it. The SpellStrike effect of it provides a good protective circle around your character.

Evolution of Pentagram (Low C Tier), requiring Crown.

Destroys all enemies on the screen periodically with a very telegraphed animation. Its main advantage is that it provides a large amount of experience when it triggers and vacuums all experience gems on the map. This makes it a great utility weapon for those looking to screen clear and gain experience without having to lift a finger. Gorgeous Moon is also able to kill intangible beings like Stalkers, Drowners, and Tricksters.

Base weapon that does not evolve.

Deals good damage over a large area and summons light sources which spawn items and interact with other weapons and Arcana. The main advantage of this weapon is the the utility of spawning light sources, which is incredibly powerful and synergizes with many different weapons and Arcana.

Gift of Candybox.

Can be almost any evolved weapon. Appears only after Candybox has been picked.

Base weapon.

Can be any base weapon. Higher luck will increase the chance for it to appear. Will appear in chests after you max out your weapon slots and has a small chance to appear in the level up screen.

Base weapon.

This allows you to select any of the base game Passive Items. Can be useful for rounding out your build or getting an extra passive item. This can also be chosen from a Candybox, but this is not recommended unless you are limiting your weapons through Silent Old Sanctuary or would not benefit from having an extra weapon.

These are strong weapons that can make any character or build good. These often go well with a lot of other weapons, can synergize well with powerful Arcana, or can push the limits on what your character can do. The base weapon listed here can be played without evolving them and

A strong weapon that surrounds the character and moves with them providing a nice defensive boost. Be careful with stacking too much Amount and Durability with this weapon, as it can hit the Pool Limit and prevent more damage zones from spawning until the old ones have expired.

High damage and area, increases the value of experience gems and gold. Luminaire will usually deal less damage than its base form, Prismatic Missile. Why it is ranked higher is due to the utility from increasing experience gem values. The value of the experience gems scales with Amount. This weapon also has synergies with many Arcana, greatly enhancing its power.

Deals a high amount of damage in multiple horizontal beams. Can quickly fill the screen when Limit Breaking. Not ranked as high as other weapons because it doesn’t deal as much focused damage when needed, such as when a boss is on the screen.

A massive improvement over its base weapon. Deals random area damage across the screen. It can be somewhat predicted based on the green crosshair. Amount increases the amount of explosions. This allows this weapon to deal constant pulses of damage that can stunlock enemies and bosses.

Deals extremely high damage and has a special constant damage effect when picking up a Rosary. Like its base form the attacks are random and can leave you open to enemies. Benefits from Gemini, Twilight Requiem, and Tragic Princess. It’s Gemini base form benefits from Limit Break, which helps it cover its targeting weakness by providing another form of attack.

Extremely high damage with a large area effect that lingers on the screen. Gives good defensive value as the damage zones can stop enemies from moving towards you.

Flash Arrow had a Glow Up, this is an extremely big power boost over its base weapon. Gets improved by Iron Blue Will and Slash, as well as deals damage in an area based on the amount of gold picked up. Great for focus damage on boss enemies. Overall a great weapon, but is held down by needing to level up Flash Arrow.

Can deal a lot of damage through its screen bounces. Benefits from Jail of Crystal and Out of Bounds, which can greatly increase its area damage and boost its defensive utility. Can also provide retaliation triggers for Divine Bloodline. NO FUTURE’s retaliation damage deals around twice as much damage as its main attack.

High damage weapon that fires in all directions, which allows it to behave defensively. Good with Slash and Iron Blue Will. Has an extremely high pierce value.

One of the best base weapons in the game alongside Gatti Amari. This has extremely high damage, a large area effect, and can benefit from many Arcana like Twilight Requiem, Jail of Crystal, Out of Bounds, and Hear of Fire. With enough Cooldown this can stay up permanently and prevent enemies from touching you.

One of the best base weapons in the game alongside Prismatic Missile. It is really bad at the start of a game when your stats are low, but once you get going it is extremely strong. Wicked Seasons is a great Arcana for this due to the Luck bonus and Greatest Jubilee is a nice weapon to pair it with due to increasing the amount of Floor Chicken that can spawn. Definitely read the wiki for this weapon as its mechanics are more complex than most.

Strong damaging weapon that can be paired with the Slash and Waltz of Pearls Aracana. Has infinite pierce and generally requires a lot of Amount to become really good.

Scales with revives, can cover the whole screen and deal a lot of damage. The damage scaling with Revives means that you have to use the Awake Arcana or gain revives through a character passive or Paranormal Scanner to maximize the benefit. This can make this weapon feel like wasting additional passive and Arcana slots, as revives are only useful if you are dying outside of the damage boost for this weapon.

A union of two of the worst weapons in the game. It is much stronger than Peachone and Ebony Wings, offering high damage and the same familiar aiming mechanics. If you are able to Limit Break it and gain a lot of Area, it can outperform many other stronger weapons.

Deal a high amount of damage over an area when the wires connect. Has additional defensive utility from the damaging zones.

Amazing for gold farming, not for normal gameplay unless you are playing Sammy. One of the few weapons that is worse than its base form. While at base it does more damage, It eats experience gems and will significantly slow down leveling

Extremely high damage, but has the same difficult movement mechanic as Shadow Pinion, just a lot more forgiving. Requires Wings to evolve, which can feel like a waste of a Passive Item slot, but it benefits from the speed increase. Grabbing Bracers for the increased Projectile Speed is also recommended as it will allow the non-firing flames to drift away from you faster.

Does surprisingly good damage considering how bad its previous stages are. Can benefit from Arcana that its previous stages used. Without beneficial Arcana, especially Heart of Fire, it isn’t as good.

Weapon evolutions listed here can work well in many games, but are not as exceptional as those in the higher tiers. Base weapons listed here can usually carry your character in the early game and often evolve into much stronger weapons.

High damage with a lot of healing, but it requires a Hollow Heart to acquire and requires you to constantly move to maximize the benefit.

Good damage and a great defensive weapon, although not a significant improvement over its evolution.

Deals a lot of large area damage, but you need to walk over blue buttons to detonate them. Walk over numbered buttons 1-5 to create the large rocket explosion. The mini-game can be distracting and hard to see when there are a lot of other effects occurring.

Can be really powerful when paired with freezing weapons and ways to increase Orologion spawns like using Greatest Jubilee. Needs synergy to work well.

Can wipe out a specific enemy type on screen. Depending on what other weapons you have and whatever else is on screen, this is either a good weapon or forgettable one.

A great defensive weapon with decent damage output. Damage can increase a lot by using the Out of Bounds Arcana.

Moderate damage, heals you and lowers the defenses of enemies. Each hit of Festive Winds adds a stacking debuff of 2% increased damage, up to 10,000%. Unfortunately it needs Pummarola to evolve, which is one of the worst passive items in the game.

Sucks in enemies on the left and right sides of the screen. Decent damage, but distracting visuals. It is best to move away from the side of the screen that is open so you can get more enemies inside it.

Initially deals good damage and provides a nice random spread of targeting, but the damage falls off compared to other weapons in the mid to late game. Also greatly suffers in damage when used in full weapon builds as it usually attacks slower.

Good damage and nice healing, but requires Hollow Heart to evolve it. Can be better than Fuwalafuwaloo if you don’t feel like moving a lot.

Damage scales with Might, a good basic weapon. Deals a lot of damage in an area at the nearest enemies which can quickly create a ring of damage that enemies cannot pass. Is the best of the trio of “Spell” weapons.

Good damage, but covers a small Area and requires facing towards the target. Works extremely well with Iron Blue Will and Slash. Great for focus damage on boss enemies.

Deals increasingly high damage the more enemies you kill, gives your character invincibility during the galaxy screen-wiping animation. Is a gift of Victory Sword, meaning it is received after you already maxed out your other weapons. Unfortunately, Sole Solution is technically a Passive Item, so it does not have Limit Break and only benefits from Might. Furthermore you’re unable to pick up items while the effect is active. It requires a max level Torrona’s Box to obtain, which is only recommended to use if your build can kill a lot of enemies.

Deals high damage, but only attacks close up early on. Deals retaliation damage and gets a flat damage increase from Divine Bloodline. Also can get boosted by Slash. Victory Sword is also able to kill intangible beings like Stalkers, Drowners, and Tricksters.

Trades a larger Area for a long Cooldown when evolved from Song of Mana, both function similarly. Enemies hit by Mannajja are permanently slowed down through a stacking Movement Speed debuff. Works well with Blood Astronomia.

Great starting weapon that also does decent damage mid game before you evolve it. It drops area effects in a circle around your character. With enough levels and Cooldown you can have a permanent ring protecting your character. Works well with Tragic Princess.

Acts similar to Bone. Not a major improvement over its base weapon. Is limited to the character Mortaccio.

High damage, but random targeting. Gets a large damage boost when using Heart of Fire and Waltz of Pearls. Requires Arcana to be good.

One of the best early game and base weapons you can have. It isn’t improved much by its evolution, but it gives you a nice start if you grab it early and is better than some evolutions. Works well with Blood Astronomia.

The best scaling of the Merchant/non-evolving projectile weapons. While it is fairly unimpressive starting out, once you get a lot of stats and Limit Break, it can quickly become really powerful as the furniture can get extremely large and wedge itself between hordes of enemies dealing high amounts of damage.

Starts with low weapon damage, but gets stronger the more enemies you kill. Requires a maximum rank Torrona’s Box to evolve, so it is only recommended to get this item if you are also going for Sole Solution and are able to kill a lot of enemies.

Has a really good passive needed to evolve, but otherwise this weapon isn’t that strong.

High damage, large area that targets the corners of the screen. A great base weapon, but make sure you pair it with a weapon that can target the center because it moves to the edges of the screen as it levels up leaving your character vulnerable.

Acts similar to Celestial Dustling, but is not a major improvement over its base weapon. Is limited to the character O’Sole.

Acts similar to Cherry Bomb, not a major improvement over its base weapon. Is limited to the character Cavallo.

Good damage weapon that leaves vertical damaging zones at the top of the screen. As you level it up and get passive items it quickly damages much of the screen.

High damage weapon that attacks randomly, but can quickly begin to damage everything on screen and push enemies far away from you.

Good damage, but requires Pummarola to evolve, one of the worst passive items in the game. Healing at full health doesn’t count toward healing damage conversion, so you have to make sure you take damage somehow. Best used with characters that have good Recovery that can intentionally take damage to boost its power.

Becomes stronger with the difference between Curse and Luck, you need to focus on maxing out the difference to get the most benefit from this. Otherwise it has decent damage and acts like a more powerful Garlic.

Good starting weapon that can provide protection for your character. If paired with Garlic, it provides a great aura of defense, but King Bible is still good enough on its own.

This is where a majority of base weapons are. Evolved weapons that are in C tier are weak compared to other evolved weapons and should generally be avoided unless going for specific builds. Base weapons here are good to use and can effectively get you through the early game.

Deals moderate damage and can retaliate, but has poor range. Can synergize with builds that use Divine Bloodline, Sarabande of Healing, and Soul Eater. Healing scales with Luck. The damage you take scales with Max Health, which means if you have a lot of health, such as when using Divine Bloodline, this weapon can end up killing you if you lack additional sources of healing.

A high damage focus type weapon that targets the strongest on-screen enemy. Deals inconsistently high damage due to the targeting mechanic and has a very small Area size. Great for focus damage on boss enemies.

Okay damage weapon that provides a lot of healing and attacks horizontally. The area of this weapon can get really large and provide a nice protective barrier of damage. Pairs well with Sarabande of Healing.

A high damage directional weapon that is boosted against frozen enemies. While moving it concentrates attack in one direction, while not moving it attacks in random directions for less damage.

Deals high damage and has a large area, but you need to run over rocks to trigger the effect. This can be both good and bad, as you have control over when the damage goes out, but the rocks can sometimes spawn in bad positions. Gets a Mini Scientist passive item that has Santa Water.

Simple weapon with good damage. Works well with Gemini and Heart of Fire. Will often out-damage Eight of Sparrow due to firing first and having stronger Arcana. Phiera Der Tuphello’s Gemini counterpart Red muscle has better Arcana bonuses than Eight The Sparrow’s counterpart Twice Upon A Time.

Simple weapon with good damage. Works well with Gemini, Jail of Crystal, and Out of Bounds. Phiera Der Tuphello’s Gemini counterpart Red muscle has better Arcana bonuses than Eight The Sparrow’s counterpart Twice Upon A Time.

Low damage for an evolution. Benefits from Twilight Requiem and Jail of Crystal+Out of Bounds.

Decent defensive weapon that can become offensive when using the Out of Bounds Arcana.

Targets the closest enemy, the bubbles linger on the edges of the screen. Low damage for an evolution and requires Spellbinder to evolve.

Good starting weapon, can deal a lot of damage, but requires passives and levels to be good. Random targeting in the early levels may cause issues.

Requires your character to move to be good, has a chance of healing you at max weapon level. Can be used defensively by moving in a circle.

Deals good damage and attacks the closest enemy before it spins in the opposite direction. Grabbing the Waltz of Pearls Arcana can allow it to bounce and damage many enemies across the screen.

Damage scales with Projectile Speed, decent basic weapon. Attacks the closest enemy similar to Magic Wand, but stronger.

Deals moderate damage and bounces off walls and enemies.

Moderate damage, chance to explode that scales with Luck.

Has really good defensive utility, but can be weak if this is one of your only weapons. Pairs well with Out of Bounds and having high amounts of Cooldown. Evolves into Infinite Corridor.

Good damage and targeting. Prioritizes targets in front of the character. Gets a Mini Imposter passive item that has Knife.

Decent weapon that really shines when paired with Divine Bloodline. Evolves into the overpowered Legionnaire.

Deals high directional area damage and has a nice knockback, however it only attacks the area immediately in front of your character in a cone pattern. To maximize use, you would have to frequently switch directions, which can make this difficult to use. Gets a Mini Crewmate passive item that has Garlic.

It is great for the early levels and helping new players, but falls off in damage hard as you level making it feel like a wasted slot. If starting out it is great to pair with King Bible as King Bible will hover outside the range of Garlic.

Good damage, but not a lot of defensive ability. With the right combination of Arcana it can be extremely strong.

An invincibility shield, really good early on. With -87.5% Cooldown it can make a character invincible, however getting that much is not possible for most characters outside of Paranormal Scan and Golden Eggs. Evolves into Crimson Shroud.

Can deal decent damage. Starts off weak, but becomes a lot better the more levels and passives you get. Can benefit from Gemini. Evolves into one of the best weapons in the game, Ophion.

Use with caution. It can be a great weapon if leveled up quickly and you have a lot of luck. If not it will erase gems and chests. The big downside is that when you screen clear enemies, a large wave of them will respawn again which can overwhelm less prepared players. When using this weapon make sure that chests you are saving are off screen so they don’t get erased.

Damage isn’t that high, but scales with Max Health. More bats than the base version, but it still doesn’t kill things quick enough. Requires Hollow Heart, a bad passive item, to evolve. One of the worst evolution weapons in the game.

Acts like the Nduja Fritta Tanto. This weapon has low damage at low levels.

The first weapon you get to use in game. It attacks in a predictable horizontal pattern that leaves the bottom of your character exposed. Deals average damage. It will quickly be a weapon you outgrow, but it works.

Provides a pulse of healing that heals every player in range. Works well in multiplayer. Can pair well with Sarabande of healing. The real benefit of this is its evolution Paranormal Scanner, which can greatly enhance any run with the amount of stats it provides. Gets a Mini Ghost passive item that has Clock Lancet.

The weapon deals a lot of damage, however the movement requirements make it difficult to use and work well with other weapons. Can be used defensively by running in a circle and not allowing pinions to fire. Recommended to grab the Bracers for Projectile Speed if running in circles as it will allow the pinions to drift away from you. If you know how to use it, it is really good, if not then it will end up killing you.

Drops several large shards at an area. It deals extremely high area damage, but attacks randomly which can make you vulnerable to enemies. Benefits from Gemini, Twilight Requiem, and Tragic Princess. Its Gemini form mirrors its attack position, which can greatly help mitigate its defensive weakness.

These weapons perform on average worse than those in the tier above. They can still be played, but it may make the early game harder.

Can be decent to start out with, but it quickly falls behind other weapons. Targets the enemy closest to the player, which is really good.

Moderate damage, but no defensive capability and attacks in a small horizontal line. Best used on stages that are horizontal in layout, but even then there are much better weapons.

Can be used with Divine Bloodline and boosted by Slash, but its close range damage and luck based healing is not good at the start of a game.

High damage for a base weapon, throws in an arch pattern in the direction your character is facing. Due to the attack pattern it can be really hard to defend using this weapon as it leaves you exposed below and behind your character.

Deals focused damage in a small area in front of your character. Is really weak at the start, but once it gains additional Pierce it can become pretty good. Works well with Iron Blue Will and Slash. Great for focus damage on boss enemies.

It is a horizontal damage weapon that increases damage the more you move. As soon as you stop moving you lose the damage buff. The damage starts out low and it has a small range, so having to constantly move may just end up placing your character in danger.

The hats do moderate damage and can sometimes cause a big knockback effect. Bad against large groups of enemies. Despite not evolving, it gets the Mini-Horse passive item which has Greatest Jubilee.

Attacks in an arch pattern and the projectiles bound off the bottom of the screen when they land. Projectiles individually deal good damage, but there are not enough of them and it fires too slowly. Can work with Gemini.

High damage for a base weapon, but it has an extremely small area, long cooldown, and attacks in the direction you last moved. Needs the Iron Blue Will Arcana if you start with this or pick it early, otherwise you’ll have a near impossible time holding enemies back. Great for focus damage on boss enemies.

Damage scales with Area. It attacks slowly and in a wave at the nearest enemy. Starts out really underwhelming, but gets better with levels and stats. Worst of the “Spell” weapons, but all three are required to evolve into Spellstrom.

Provides okay focused damage, but hits only a few targets and attacks in random directions. Requires Heart of Fire to be good and survive if you start with this weapon.

The birds can be a pain on their own, but can be greatly improved by Gemini and Twilight Requiem. Their damage isn’t bad, in fact when properly used they are strong, but their targeting mechanic and low cooldown make it hard to kill large amounts of enemies. Ebony Wings’ Gemini counterpart Zhar Ptytsia gains a stronger Arcana bonus over Peachone’s counterpart Cygnus.

The birds can be a pain on their own, but can be improved by Gemini and Twilight Requiem. Their damage isn’t bad, in fact when properly used they are strong, but their targeting mechanic and low cooldown make it hard to kill large amounts of enemies. Ebony Wings’ Gemini counterpart Zhar Ptytsia gains a stronger Arcana bonus over Peachone’s counterpart Cygnus.

Good damage, but really low cooldown and awkward positioning. Works better the lower luck you have. Gets a Mini Engineer passive item that has the Lightning Ring.

These weapons will actively make the game harder due to their lack of kill potential or defensive utility. Unless these weapons have good evolutions, don’t bother.

Instantly kills enemies, but does so at such a slow pace that it ends up being incredibly weak overall. Needs to be used with another weapon or specific Arcana to survive if your character starts with this or picks it up early. Gets a Mini Shapeshifter passive item that has Bone.

Low damage weapon, but it has an evolution, unlike the other projectile Merchant weapons. Fires damaging bubbles that have a slight pushback and stay on the ground. With enough Cooldown they can stack and produce a nice defensive area.

Extremely low damage. Its one saving grace is that it doesn’t require passives to evolve.

Has low damage, a long cooldown, and seemingly targets the screen at random. It cannot kill fast enough to have your character survive without additional support from other weapons. Gets a Mini Guardian passive item that has Laurel.

Not a good weapon. The attack direction is random and the bats push stuff back more than they kill. They spawn from the edges of the screen which isn’t helpful in keeping enemies off you. This weapon should only be used with other weapons, as it cannot work on its own.

Passive Items are ranked based on how effective they are at improving weapons and run outcomes.

This ranking should also be seen as an overall priority list for determining which 6 Passive Items you should get outside of evolution requirements. Ultimately, best judgement should be used depending on available stage items and targeted weapon evolutions.

Passives you almost always want to pick up. They greatly impact nearly every item in the game.

Empty Tome has 5 levels. At max level, Empty Tome provides -40% Cooldown.

Cooldown is the best stats in the game. Get this item as often as you can in every run unless using Babi-Onna. It is not necessary to try to get match weapon evolutions with this as the Cooldown it provides is usually worth more than a specific weapon.

Torrona’s Box has 9 levels. At max level, Torrona’s Box provides +25% Omni and +100% Curse.

Gives a bunch of good stats. Banish it before level 9 if you don’t want the 100% Curse. The only reason not to grab this is if you have no room in your passive item pool due to certain weapon evolution requirements. Like Empty Tomb, it is usually worth more than getting a specific weapon.

Passives that you should often pick up, they greatly benefit the vast majority of weapons.

Silver Ring has 9 levels. At max level, Silver Ring provides +40% Duration and Area. It is required to obtain Infinite Corridor and is usually located in a far point from the stage starting location.

A combination Candelabrador and Spellbinder. Grab after you have gotten all your passive items.

Academy Badge has 6 levels. At max level, Academy Badge provides -15% Growth, +3 Amount, and +2 Revival.

Great item, but it has no evolutions and is only found as a pick-up on Tides of the Foscari levels or on certain Tides of the Foscari characters. It benefits from being a predictable pickup, so you should always grab it after maxing out your passive items. The Growth trade-off for the additional Amount is usually worth it . The Revives are good as well if you are bind or using a build that benefits from more lives.

Duplicator has 2 levels. At max level, Duplicator provides +2 Amount.

Amount is an amazing multiplier for damage, however falls off when Limit Breaking and getting additional sources of Amount. Possible to hit Pool Limit on some weapons with too much Amount, but usually not something to worry about. This passive only having 2 levels is also a benefit, as it means you can spend more levels on other things.

Candelabrador has 5 levels. At max level, Candelabrador provides +50% Area.

Area causes your weapons to deal damage to more enemies. Always a great stat. The larger a weapon is by default, the more it will benefit from area bonuses.

Crown has 5 levels. At max level, Crown provides +40% Growth.

Grants more experience which allows for more levels and Limit Breaking more powerful weapons. The only reason this shouldn’t be on a high priority list is if you are not using Limit Break. On average this item produces 30% more levels, which usually makes up for the lost of not selecting an offensive passive item instead. It works well when combined with Attractorb as both contributing to increasing level gains.

Passives you usually want to pick up. They can be a great benefit to your weapons or provide gameplay conveniences.

Spinach has 5 levels. At max level, Spinach provides +50% Might.

Might is a great stat to have and provides a good impact throughout the entire game. Might is an almost universal stat, with the only weapons not benefiting from it being those that deal no damage to begin with.

Armor has 5 levels. At max level, Armor provides +5 Armor.

Powerful damage reduction for early game. Can allow you to play riskier, but often has little impact late game. Definitely grab if using Divine Bloodline as Armor increases retaliatory damage.

Attractorb has 5 levels. At max level, Attractorb provides 3.98x Magnet.

Doesn’t provide direct combat related stats, but instead provides convenience and utility by reducing the distance you have to travel to grab experience gems and pick up items. This can especially help in the early game when you want to avoid getting hit and need to grab as much experience as possible. Always grab if using Blood Astronomia.

Spellbinder has 5 levels. At max level, Spellbinder provides +50% Duration.

Decent if required for an upgrade, but not that great on its own since many weapons do not use Duration. Anything that scales with Duration can often gain a bigger benefit from other Passive Items unless your entire build uses Duration benefiting items.

Bracer has 5 levels. At max level, Bracer provides +50% Projectile Speed.

Decent if required for an upgrade, but not that great on its own. Anything that scales with Projectile Speed can gain a bigger benefit from other Passive Items.

These are passives Items that can be situationally good. Grab these if they are needed for an evolution or are a stage item, otherwise they should be a lower priority than those in the tiers above.

Clover has 5 levels. At max level, Clover provides +50% Luck.

Luck can be a good stat depending on your build. It is necessary for critical hit builds that use Slash. It can boost your chance to get multiple items from chests, more consistent item choices, additional level up choices, higher drop chance from light sources, and the chance of positive events occurring. Since it acts as a game mechanic modifier the immediate combat bonuses are limited, however it can enhance the run over the long term.

Metaglio Left has 9 levels. At max level, Metaglio Left provides +0.8 Recovery and 1.477x Max Health.

More health and regen are not good on their own, but together they aren’t that bad. By the time you get this item, you will already have 6 Passive Items, making this less of a bad choice than Hollow Heart and Pummarola. Like Hollow Hearth the Max Health isn’t retroactive and applies to whatever your current Max Health is.

Skull O’Maniac has 5 levels. At max level, Skull O’Maniac provides +50% Curse.

Good if you are powerful enough, bad if you aren’t. Never grab this item unless needed for an evolution or it a stage item.

Gold Ring has 9 levels. At max level, Gold Ring provides +40% Curse.

Increases Curse by 5% per level. Good if you are powerful enough, bad if you aren’t. Save for when you know your build can handle the increased health and quantity of enemies. It is required to obtain Infinite Corridor and is usually located in a far point from the stage starting location.

Metaglio Right has 9 levels. At max level, Metaglio Right provides provides +40% Curse. It is required to obtain Crimson Shroud and is usually located in a far point from the stage starting location.

Increases Curse by 5% per level. Good if you are powerful enough, bad if you aren’t. Save for when you know your build can handle the increased health and quantity of enemies. It is required to obtain Crimson Shroud and is usually located in a far point from the stage starting location.

Mimics using Greatest Jubilee. It appears in the level up item pool after Hats reaches level 8. Unlike the other Emergency Meeting passives, this one does not disappear. The reason it is ranked as the highest is because of the light source generation it provides.

Mimics using Garlic. It appears in the level up pool after Report! reaches level 2 and is consumed upon evolving the weapon.

Mimics using Laurel. It appears in the level up pool after Clear Debris reaches level 2 and is consumed upon evolving the weapon.

Mimics using Clock Lancet. It appears in the level up pool after Lifesign Scan reaches level 2 and is consumed upon evolving the weapon.

Mimics using Santa Water. It appears in the level up pool after Science Rocks reaches level 2 and is consumed upon evolving the weapon.

Mimics using Lightning Ring. It appears in the level up pool after Lucky Swipe reaches level 2 and is consumed upon evolving the weapon.

Mimics using Bone. It appears in the level up pool after Just Vent reaches level 2 and is consumed upon evolving the weapon.

Mimics using Knife. It appears in the level up pool after Sharp Tongue reaches level 2 and is consumed upon evolving the weapon.

These passives are generally not that beneficial and are situationally used.

Tirajisú has 2 levels. At max level, Tirajisú provides +2 Revival.

Can help you survive the early game and high Curse or useful when paired with the Awake Arcana, however unless you are dying this has no impact on gameplay. It disappears when you use the revive, allowing for some repeated selections if you kept it at level 1.

Wings have 5 levels. At max level, Wings provide +50% Movement Speed.

Additional movement speed isn’t that useful outside a few weapons, Babi-Onna, and the Tragic Princess Arcana that benefit from it. These can be also grabbed as a comfort item, but otherwise avoid choosing it in the level up screen.

Hollow Heart has 5 levels. Each of them multiplies the current value of Max Health by 1.2 for a total of 2.488x Max Health.

Additional health isn’t that beneficial. This passive only adds to Max Health, so you cannot use it for healing. In addition this only applies to your current health at time of pickup, making it is worse the earlier you grab it. If this is needed for an evolution or is a stage item, make sure to grab it as late as possible if you know your character will gain more health over the game time.

These passives have almost no combat utility and should only be grabbed for evolutions.

Pummarola has 5 levels. At max level, Pummarola provides +1 Recovery.

Provides a single point of Health regeneration. It doesn’t help in the moments you are taking damage and barely affects your Recovery outside of damage windows.

Stone Mask has 5 levels. At max level, Stone Mask provides +50% Greed.

Good for gold, not for killing things or surviving. Is situationally useful for characters and weapons that scale with Greed, but even then it is generally not worth it.

With a few exceptions it is hard to separate Arcana from weapons. Many weapons are greatly amplified by Arcana and vice versa. High value is placed on damage per second (DPS) and defensive capability. For statistical DPS benefits of Arcana per weapon see this Steam Guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172454086

At base you can get up to 3 Arcana in a game. Playing on Inverse mode increases that to 4 Arcana, which is why it is always recommended to use as Arcana are a massive power booster. At the start of the game you will get 1 Arcana and 1 from the Merchant (in Inverse mode only), an Arcana chest will then drop at 11:00 and 21:00 in most stages (minute 5:00 and 10:00 in Boss Rash, Bat Country, and Tiny Bridge). Lake Foscari, Abyss Foscari, and Polus Replica will start with an Arcana Chest, allowing you to get your chest Arcana early. Hitting your Arcana limit will cause the Arcana chest to turn into a normal chest.

Unmatched by any other Arcana, can provide a massive benefit to any game they are selected.

The best defensive and offensive Arcana in the game. Can make any character nigh-unkillable when paired with Legionnaire or other retaliation weapons. Massively increases the damage of all weapons based on missing health. Synergizes with Heart of Fire Arcana. Many weaker characters or weapons can be boosted by simply selecting this Arcana and grabbing armor and a weapon that retaliates. Stacking armor can greatly increase the damage of base weapons to the point that some are better than their evolutions. To maximize the benefit of this Arcana avoid using it with healing weapons and builds.

Allows for infinite scaling of the Growth, Luck, Greed, and Curse stats. While Curse can make things a lot harder, especially when it cycles, the ability to double your Growth periodically and increase it by 0.5% every level is extremely strong. When you have a really powerful build, gaining Curse is also really good as it allows you to kill more enemies faster. The scaling Luck can enable Luck based builds, and allow for the increased chance of Candyboxes from chests and Random Events. Greed is the least useful for combat purposes, but is necessary for gold farm builds. Overall Wicked Season is almost always recommend to grab as one of your starting Arcana.

Powerful Arcana that should be a good choice in most runs. These Arcana are often build makers.

Enables extremely powerful Limit Break 1-3 weapon builds. This Arcana can allow certain characters to hit the Cooldown cap of -90%, which makes weapons fire 10 times faster than base. Most of the strongest builds in game make use of this Arcana as the scaling potential of focusing on a single or few weapons is really high.

Area is one of the best stats in the game and this Arcana gives an infinite amount of it, at least until the 1000% Area stat cap. Can turn even the worse weapons usable and is used by nearly every weapon in game.

Provides extreme utility by bringing every stage item to you. Often an easy choice after your 2nd or 3rd Arcana. It can allow you to complete builds faster, level faster, and get additional passives items from the ones spread across the stage. Best used on the Special DLC stages as they have a high amount of stage items.

Increases the damage of affected weapons by a massive amount, often as much as 2-3 times the damage depending on Luck. **Note: Slash is currently bugged and not properly applying the x2 multiplier to the critical hits base multiplier for Whip, Knife, Thousand Edge, Axe, and Death Spiral, and the Greatest Jubilee finisher.**

Good Arcana that can greatly benefit many weapons and synergize with other Arcana.

A deceptive strong Arcana that scales its explosion damage with Curse. Greatly benefits Unholy Vespers, Thunder Loop, Tri-Bracelet, Festive Winds, and Luminaire. This Arcana can be a must pick during high curse runs or with characters like Gyorunton that gain stacking Curse per level.

Only keeps copies of unevolved weapons. With the exception of Gatti Amari’s copy Flock Destroyer, the duplicate weapons are lackluster and several don’t scale with Limit Break. The good news is that they stay with you even after you evolve the weapon. Several of the Gemini weapons benefit from Twilight Requiem, Jail of Crystal, and Heart of Fire, which can make this Arcana a good multiplier for weapon effects

Greatly increases the power of Thousand Edge, Death Spiral, Phiera Der Tuphello, Eight The Sparrow, and Millionaire. An essential Arcana if picking those weapons up and often pairs well with Slash.

Great for survivability or using a healing focused character. Can provide a decent early game boost for difficult stages and can scale infinitely the more your character heals. Has the added bonus of pushing enemies back.

Generates a consistent pulsing damage as well as lays traps on the field when certain weapons activate. Similar to Sarabande of Healing in the way it deals area damage. Unlike Sarabande of Healing and many other Arcana it does not enable builds to be super powerful, but can greatly enhance existing builds and works well as a starting Arcana.

Pairs well with Divine Bloodline and Gemini, can greatly boost the damage of Tri-Bracelet, Hellfire, and Luminaire. Has a decent defensive component with its retaliation damage, which can make it great to use on weaker characters.

Situationally good Arcana that may not provide as big of a benefit as the Arcana in the tiers above.

Can greatly increase the power of weapons like Hellfire, Heaven Sword, and Holy Wand, which also synergize with several other Arcana. Although it works similar to Iron Blue Will, the weapons it affects are generally not as good as those affected by Iron Blue Will.

Causes specified weapons to freeze enemies, increased by Luck. Becomes a powerful combination when paired with Out of Bounds, but is underwhelming on its own.

Can apply to all weapons that freeze, making it a powerful combination with Jail of Crystal. Deals more damage the longer the run goes on, making it amazing for Endless runs. Increases spawn chance of Orologions, allowing for screenwide explosions.

Extremely strong gold generator and source of healing. Can synergize with Sarabande of Healing to deal a lot of damage during Gold Fevers.

Duration is an okay stat, but depending on your weapon can cause you to hit the Pool Limit for the number of projectiles allowed on screen. It gets completely outclassed by Boogaloo of Illusions and other Arcana work better than just getting more Duration depending on the weapon.

Can get you max Projectile Speed, but Projectile Speed isn’t a great stat and many weapons don’t get a significant benefit from it. It gets completely outclassed by Boogaloo of Illusions and other Arcana work better than just getting more Projectile Speed depending on the weapon.

Extremely situational Arcana that should generally not be selected in most games.

Useful and even necessary for characters that have trouble surviving like Toastie and Smith. Characters with Revive based abilities like Cosmos or Luminaire can benefit the most from this Arcana. Having said that, this Arcana is too situational and will not be used in most games.

A quirky and fun Arcana that lives up to its name. Most useful for Porta, Clerici, and Sir Ambrojoe. It can be quite powerful, but it severely limits your build potential in game. Can be a “challenge” Arcana for many characters.

Situationally good, but can also be pretty bad since it only applies to the start weapon and the evolvable projectile weapons. Use for strong weapons that you know will be key to your build. Generally due to both Limit Break and diminishing returns on Amount, this becomes much weaker the longer the game goes on, hence the name.

The Cooldown reduction is separate from the Cooldown stat. This allows it to rapidly fire weapons if you have high Movement Speed. The issue with this Arcana is that it only meaningfully impacts a few weapons, of which only two are good.

Beyond being able to buy everything you need, it is an exercise of the most cyclic sisyphean order. You farm gold so you can buy Golden Eggs, which you can then use to farm more gold with. The dopamine hit of see a number rise higher and higher is truly a good feeling.

It is also important to note that the display cap of gold in the main menus is 9,999,999. This is much lower than the amount of gold you will get in game. To get an accurate estimate of your gold you would have to see what is listed on the results screen. There is also an internal gold and Golden Egg cap of 3.402823 E+38 or 340,282,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is the 32-bit positive integer maximum.

There are two main characters used for gold farming: Sammy or Trouser. Scientist Mina can be used in place of Trouser, but otherwise all other characters don’t matter.

Sammy significantly outperforms Trouser at all Golden Eggs levels. If you think or heard otherwise, you are using OLD information from a time when Limit Breaking Sammy or using more than 5-15K Golden Eggs would cause major game performance issues. Vicious Hunger’s lag issue was fixed in the 1.09 update in February 2024. Sammy is supreme now.

Only use Trouser if you don’t have the DLC or you are running this game on a potato and are literally crashing from Limit Breaking Sammy.

With Tides of the Foscari DLC

Lower Egg Build

Higher Egg Build (use once gold fever stops workings)

Weapons: Vicious Hunger, Greatest Jubilee (drop Greatest Jubilee if lagging or around E20 Golden Eggs) – Make sure to Limit weapons to 1, get Greatest Jubilee from a Chest Candybox

Level: Moongolow is the best at 0 Golden Eggs, other options are Cappella Magna, Lake Foscari, and Abyss Foscari

Modifiers: Hyper, Arcanas, Inverse, Endless, Limit Break (Make sure Limit Break is ON)

Arcana: Wicked Season + Disco of Gold at lower Golden Egg levels, Blood Astronomia + Wicked Season at higher Golden Eggs levels (Threshold unknown, it is whenever gold fever stops working and only shows $0.)

Without Tides of the Foscari DLC

Queen Sigma Gold Farm Build

Trouser Low Egg Build

Characters: Queen Sigma to start, Trouser starting at 5K Golden Eggs.

Level: Cappella Magna/Moongolow

Modifiers: Hyper, Arcanas, Inverse, Endless

Arcana: Wicked Season + Disco of Gold + Silent Old Sanctuary (3rd)

Weapons: Greatest Jubilee + Crimson Shroud

Passive Items: Empty Tomb, Candelabrador, Attractorb, Crown, Torrona’s Box, Stone Mask

Trouser Mid Egg Build

Level: Cappella Magna

Modifiers: Hyper, Arcanas, Inverse, Endless

Arcana: Sarabande of Healing + Disco of Gold + Wicked Season (3rd)

Weapons: Greatest Jubilee

Passive Items: Do not matter, either Seal them all or toggle Random Level Up

Trouser High Egg Build

Level: Bone Zone

Modifiers: Hyper, Arcanas, Inverse, Endless

Arcana: Blood Astronomia + Wicked Season

Weapons: Laurel/Garlic/Pentagram (pick one, doesn’t matter)

Passive Items: Do not matter, either Seal them all or toggle Random Level Up

*If for whatever reason you have the Emergency Meeting DLC, but not Tides of the Foscari DLC, Scientist Mina can replace Trouser, but honestly the difference doesn’t matter after billions of eggs.

Good luck and happy farming.

This section is aimed towards beginners and returning player. It should allow you get everything in the game quickly and easily. be warned, this can ruin a lot of the enjoyment of the game as you will burn through the content faster.

1) Have the Tides of the Foscari DLC, preferably the Legacy of the Moonspell DLC as well.

2) Buy as little as possible, don’t buy any characters unless you need them for the achievements listed below!

3) Unlock Stage 2, which unlocks Lake Foscari

4) Kill 6,000 Sammies in Lake Foscari to unlock Sammy, see the map below for the location of Sammies

5) You will need at least 50,000 gold to buy Sammy. The easiest ways to get gold are the 50,000 gold achievements that grant it upon completion, they are:

• Evolve the Night Sword. – Legacy of the Moonspell (LM) – this is the recommended achievement to aim for as Night Sword can be found on the ground of Mt.Moonspell. All other achievements below require additional characters to unlock. Below is the Mt. Moonspell Map, you will need to grab the Night Sword in the north along with the Stone Mask in the Northeast to evolve it into Muramasa.
  
• Evolve the Mille Bolle Blu. (LM)
• Evolve the Flash Arrow.
• Evolve the Prismatic Missile.
• Evolve the Shadow Servant.
• Evolve the Flash Arrow.
• Evolve the Just Vent. – Emergency Meeting (EM)
• Evolve the Clear Debris. (EM)

6) Buy Sammy (he will be 50,000 gold if you have not bought any other characters)

7) Follow the Gold Farm Guide above

8) Buy everything as you now have infinite money. Follow the Unlock menu order to gradually unlock everything. With infinite money it should take you around 20 hours to unlock everything, but as you unlock more stuff you can be more selective of what you want to unlock next.

8b) Alternatively, once you unlock the Secret menu, you can use Spells to unlock almost everything in game in under an hour. Link to the list of spells.[vampire-survivors.fandom.com]

(Work In Progress)

Synergies are character, weapon, and Arcana combinations that greatly enhance the effectiveness of all parts involved.

Universal Arcana Core

Divine Bloodline Core

Silent Old Sanctuary

(Work In Progress)

This game is cheap to buy and the paid downloadable content is also cheap. Having more Vampire Survivors content just opens up more of them game. Having said that, if you want to only purchase certain DLC packs, read here for this guide’s opinion.

This DLC has the best kind of content. It provides 8 characters, 13 weapons, 1 passive item, and 2 stages.

Of the characters Sammy is the most notable, as he will trivialize gold gains effortlessly. Je-Ne-Viv, Luminaire Foscari, Maruto Cuts, and Eleanor Uziron are all really strong characters that make playing the game enjoyable.

3 of the 5 weapon evolutions added are listed as S tier in the guide and for good reason. Legionnaire has the most overpowered synergy with Divine Bloodline, while Ophion and SpellStrom are powerful in their own right.

Finally both Foscari stages are really well made, enjoyable to play on, and enhance many build options.

This is the best DLC to get and it isn’t event close.

Includes 8 new characters, 13 new weapons, and 1 new stage.

The characters and weapons are in generally really good and work well with many builds. Notable characters are Megalo Menya Moonspell and Babi-Onna. Notable weapons are Godai Suffle and Echo Night.

Overall a solid choice for build diversity and expanded gameplay.

Comes with 9 characters, 16 weapons, 8 passive items, and 1 new stage.

Notable additions are Scientist Mina and the overpowered Paranormal Scan. Most of the other weapons and characters don’t neatly fit in with the game, both thematically and mechanically. Furthermore many of the weapons and characters are underwhelming in terms of power. This DLC has a big focus on Multiplayer, which is guide doesn’t measure.

The most skippable of DLC, but may be worth it just for Paranormal Scan.

Adds in 11 characters, 22 weapons, and 2 stages.

Is a new DLC and not rated for this guide yet, but first impressions, above the Emergency Meeting DLC.

Thank you for viewing my guide. This guide took a lot of time to create and was built upon my previous work on my original Google Tier List document[docs.google.com].

I want to build up and add more information to this guide so it becomes as comprehensive as possible for creating builds and understanding the mechanics of the game at a higher level. If you see a Work in Progress (WIP) section, know that it will be added.

Please let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions or if there is any information you believe should be corrected or expanded upon.