12 Beginner-Friendly Vampire Crawlers Tips for a Strong Start

Vampire Crawlers brings a turn-based roguelite deck-building twist to the critically acclaimed Vampire Survivors, featuring unique weapon/item cards, a variety of Power Ups, a plethora of enemies, and more than 150 Trophies and Achievements to earn.

For a beginner stepping into the dungeons for the first time, all these mechanics will feel overwhelming. To ease yourself into the game’s flow, here are 12 beginner-friendly Vampire Crawlers tips for a stronger start to your roguelite journey.

1 Always Perform Combos

Vampire Crawler’s combo system focuses on playing cards in ascending mana order to chain attacks and increase their damage. This means you can start with a 0-cost card, then move on to a 1-cost card, then a 2-cost card, and so on. There will be cases where you’re out of 0-cost cards, so use your 1-cost cards to start the combo.

However, beginning your combo chain with a 0-cost card builds your combo meter much more. If you begin with a 1-cost card, it limits how far you can go with your combo, so unless your hands are tied, always begin with 0-cost cards to maintain your combo, increase your damage, and utilize more buffs with fewer cards in Vampire Crawlers.

2 Use Your Wild Cards Tactically

Wild Cards in Vampire Crawlers are one-time use cards without any mana value. They are consumed upon use, and won’t stay in your deck like the other mana-cost cards. You can easily identify them by spotting the “W” at the card’s top-left corner. As they incur no mana cost, we recommend using these cards to chain more combos.

They are best used to gap bridges during your combo to continue it even without having the next consecutive number in your deck. They are extremely effective at building long combo chains and extending sequences. For example, when you have a 1-cost card and a 3-cost card, use a Wild Card after the former to bridge the gap and continue your combo in Vampire Crawlers.

3 Get the Right Cards Early

Certain cards will help you more than others in Vampire Crawlers. When you’re beginning your rougelite journey, you won’t get a variety of card selection, but you’ll have a handful at your disposal, which will make your runs through the floor as smooth as butter. For example, the Whip is an excellent card to begin with, as it deals damage to all enemies.

The Knife is also a solid card to deal critical damage to enemies, but you can also opt for the Magic Wand, depending on the character you’re playing. These are all 0-cost cards, so open the battle with them, then move on to 1-cost cards such as Armor and King Bible to have more armor and deal knockback damage to enemies. It’s all about making the combo flow and having cards scale with each other.

4 Perform Weapon Evolutions Whenever Possible

The concept of Weapon Evolution in Vampire Crawlers is simple: you take two compatible weapon/item cards, apply an Evolution Gem to the weapon to create a Weapon Evolution. It’s basically the best of both worlds, where you’ll have the buffs from both cards, but you’ll also need more mana to use them since they’re so overpowered and broken.

Weapon Evolution focuses more on the Item Type than on a specific card. However, the Card Combination needs to be compatible. Suppose you’re looking for a Weapon Evolution with the Runetracer card. Combining it with any Armor card will trigger the NO FUTURE Weapon Evolution. You don’t have to combine specific cards like a Hero’s Armor or a Gold Armor to trigger it. So, perform these Evolutions whenever you can.

5 Pick the Right Crawler Early On

Vampire Crawlers has a stacked Crawlers cast, featuring 21 characters with unique buffs and Card Effects. However, you won’t have access to the best ones when starting the game. Your starter Crawler, Antonio Belpaese, adds 3 Armor and increases damage by 10% whenever a Red Card is played. He does fine, but the more Coins you earn, the better Crawlers you’ll be able to purchase.

We recommend saving your Coins until you can unlock Arca Ladonna, as their Color Bonus and Card Effect are incredibly helpful early on. When you progress further and rack up more Coins, we suggest unlocking the Crawler Slot upgrade at the Shop and purchasing Pugnala Provola to pair both, as they’re currently one of the best Crawlers in the game.

6 Upgrade Greed First

When you’re starting Vampire Crawlers, you’ll have access to incredibly useful Stats like Greed, Might, Growth, and many more. As a beginner, it’s important to know which Stats to upgrade and which to save for later. Initially, you need Gold Coins to not only upgrade your Stats but also to purchase new Crawlers to make your runs more rewarding.

Our recommendation would be to upgrade Greed (25% more Gold Coins per rank) first. When you have more Coins, go for Growth (20% more XP per rank), Might (20% more damage per rank), and Recovery (heal 1 HP per rank after each encounter). Two points in each Stat early on should be enough, but focus on maxing out Greed first.

7 Break Every Object You Find

You’ll eventually bump into multiple objects when running through different floors in Vampire Crawlers. Smash all of them to receive Gold Coins, new Cards, Healing Chickens, and much more. These objects can range from chests, candles, bookshelves, and even lamps. While chests are marked on your map, you’ll need a specific Relic to mark the others.

The more you break, the more rewards you’ll get and the better you’ll become at noticing breakable objects. They might appear as your typical lamps or bookshelves, so always look for anything that seems off. Sparkles around the bookshelves? Crash into it. Chests located in a weird location? Break it open. Keep an eye out for these breakable objects throughout your runs in Vampire Crawlers.

8 Accept Gold When a Chest Offers Nothing Useful

Speaking of chests, there will come times when they offer nothing to your liking in Vampire Crawlers. During such cases, you can cash out and accept Gold Coins instead. Not every chest will contain an item worth grabbing, which makes this feature more convenient to save your deck space for better cards.

This applies to Evolution Gems as well, which offer cards to trigger a potential Weapon Evolution. If you do not possess the correct cards with you, don’t worry, as it will compensate you with a weapon or an item card that will help you create a Weapon Evolution with the next Evolution Gem you interact with in Vampire Crawlers.

9 Focus on Your Mana Pool

You can chain combos, create Weapon Evolutions and deal massive damage to the point that the enemies become terrified in Vampire Crawlers. But, how do you solve the mana problem? If you have devastating cards in your deck without the mana pool to run them, consider yourself cooked.

So, when you’re going through different floors, play Tome Cards. The first Tome Card you unlock in Vampire Crawlers adds 1 mana at no mana cost, and it’s unlockable by obtaining mana orbs from Mana Statues on dungeon floors. If you have the blessing of the RNG gods, you may even get a permanent mana pool upgrade on the current dungeon floor.

10 Loot Everything Before Engaging in Combat

A general rule of thumb in Vampire Crawlers is to loot as much as you can before engaging in combat. As we mentioned earlier, chests and enemies are marked on the map. This will help you plan a specific route before you deal with the impending threats.

You can’t avoid enemies, but what you can do is plot a route with minimal combat and maximum loot. Open chests, bump into candles, smash into bookshelves and break lamps to obtain more loot on a dungeon floor. The loot is marked with a “?” on your map, while a skull symbol indicates the enemies.

11 Save Your Progress Mid-Game

Fortunately, Vampire Crawlers has a save mechanic, allowing you to save your dungeon progress and quit mid-game whenever you feel like it. It’s a wild detour from its predecessor, Vampire Survivors, which unfortunately didn’t have this convenience.

So, whenever you feel like you need a break from the dungeon crawling, open the main menu and select “exit to menu” to leave the game. When you find yourself in the mood for more, simply click on “continue” to pick up from where you left off.

12 Replay Dungeons to Earn Gold

As a beginner, the dungeons you clear initially should offer you enough Gold to progress further in Vampire Crawlers. However, the game offers a replay feature, allowing you to replay previous dungeon floors you’ve already cleared to look for more items and loot.

There might be chests, candles, or lamps you’ve missed, so replaying those floors will not only offer a chance to earn new cards but also obtain more Gold Coins. The more Gold you earn, the better cards, crawlers, and stats you can purchase and upgrade in Vampire Crawlers.

Game	Vampire Crawlers
Developer(s)	poncle & Nosebleed Interactive
Release Date	April 21, 2026
Platforms	PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Nintendo Switch & Nintendo Switch 2

Remember these tips every time you venture into a dungeon to get the most out of Vampire Crawlers early on!

So, how are you enjoying Vampire Crawlers so far? Let us know in the comments section below.