Strongest Standard Characters In Vampire Survivors

Key Takeaways

• Unlocking new characters in Vampire Survivors can provide unique starting weapons and stat bonuses.
• Characters like Poppea and Gains offer endless power scaling, perfect for leveling up quickly and creating strong weapon builds.
• Queen Sigma is the ultimate character to unlock, with a variety of powerful passive effects and stat boosts for a high-powered playthrough.

The road to the end of Vampire Survivors is paved with countless unlockables. Whether it is hidden stages, relics that provide new game modes and weapons, or smaller secrets, the game is full of hours of content that only the most observant and committed fans can hunt down. Brand-new, unique characters are many of the secret unlocks, and each of these starts with a different design, a new starting weapon, and completely fresh stats that will affect how any given run against the evil hordes will progress.

Some characters are an improvement over others and set themselves apart by being consistently stronger than the rest of the selection. Here are the strongest characters in the base game of Vampire Survivors who players should aim to unlock and upgrade as soon as possible.

Updated November 8, 2024 by Connor Hogg: Vampire Survivors is loaded with secret characters and hidden easter eggs that make unlocking every character challenging. Some of these hidden characters and base characters who are given the right load-outs to match their unique powers can make for incredibly strong builds with little preparation. While some undeniably strong characters will more often than not pass any level they are placed on, others require a closer look to see what makes them powerful and effective.

11 Yatta Cavallo

How To Unlock: Kill 3000 Total Lionhead Enemies

• Gets more projectiles every 20 levels (max +3)
• Can evolve with Chaos Rosalia to gain +2 Armor, +1 Amount, +100 Max Health, +25 Luck

If players can kill a total of 3000 Lionheads they will get the chance to purchase Yatta Cavallo, a lumbering character who looks a lot like a panda and throws Cherry Bombs as his starting weapon. While it can take time to get Cavallo started, he gains +1 Amount every 20 levels which can quickly lead to any weapon with lots of projectiles becoming a flurry of attacks.

The bonus of using Cavallo only activates for any players who have managed to get their hands on the Chaos Rosalia in the Astral Stair map. When Cavallo reaches level 80 when the player has unlocked the Chaos Rosalia, he will evolve into a creature made of stars and gain new stat increases for Armor, Amount, Health, and Luck. His weapon will also evolve to have a 100% explosion chance, making him surprisingly effective at clearing hordes of enemies.

10 Smith IV

How To Unlock: Type “spam” On The Main Menu, Then “spam” On The Character Select Screen, Then “spam” On The Stage Selection – Type “humbug” When Level Starts

• -93 Max Health
• +20% Move Speed
• -10% Might
• -10% Area
• -50% Speed
• -10% Duration
• +10% Cooldown
• +100% Luck

Unlocking Smith IV requires players to be very familiar with the cheat codes of Ultima VI, or at least to be able to find the easter egg codes online. Unlocking Smith IV gives fans a character who, on a surface level, has poor stats that can lead to difficulties starting off. Doing less damage with slower weapons can certainly hinder players in the beginning but the +100% Luck, and starting with the evolved weapon Vandolier means that Smith IV can fire colorful laser bolts right off the bat.

The biggest boon is the Luck modifier, which can help deal critical damage, unlock incredible rewards faster, and make for an all-around easier game. There are no caps on Smith IV’s leveling bonuses, meaning Smith can quickly gain Might, Projectile Speed, and even more Luck infinitely.

9 Avatar Infernas

How To Unlock: Travel To The Far Right On Inverse Inlaid Library, And Defeat The Trickster At His Piano

• +60 Max Health
• +50% Might
• +50% Luck
• 100% Magnet
• +1 Revival
• +10 Reroll
• Gains +2% Move Speed every level, infinitely, as well as +0.5% Might

Surviving long enough to get to the piano on the very far right of the map in the Inverse Inlaid Library can be tricky enough, but managing to do so and keeping both the Peachone and the Ebony Wings in one’s inventory unevolved will prove to be a challenge for any Vampire Survivors fan. Beating the Trickster will mean players can play the piano, and the pair of birds will show players which notes to play to open a secret passage.

Walking through it will see players fighting the Avatar Infernas before unlocking the strange character. The indefinite scaling speed means that he can move so fast that he becomes difficult to control. This means loading the character up with weapons that scale with movement, like the Shadow Pinion, which can make for a lethal build that can survive almost anything if players can harness the insane speed.

8 Marrabbio

How To Unlock: After Collecting The Skull O’Maniac And Pummarola In Mad Forest, Follow The Trail Of Pies

• +20% Max Health
• +30% Move Speed
• +20% Might
• -80% Greed
• +10% Curse
• -110% Speed

After defeating a tanky shadow boss in the Mad Forest, players can purchase a character wreathed in darkness: Boon Marrabbio. Starting with the Thousand Edge weapon, an evolved form of the Knife, Marrabbio is already firing plenty of projectiles.

His biggest distinction from other characters is the massive decrease in projectile speed that comes with him. This means that the knives he throws will travel at about the same speed as the player, making for interesting combos where the player can move within a cloud of their own thrown knives. Add on extra projectiles or the possibility of area effects, and Marrabbio is a powerful choice for players who manage to unlock him.

7 Poppea

How To Unlock: Find Her Coffin In Dairy Plant

• +20% Move Speed
• +1% Duration every level

If players can locate the coffin on the Dairy Plant map, they will save another survivor: Poppea Pecorina. Poppea has a decent bonus to her move speed that should help fans evade the hordes of enemies, but her main draw is the limitless level bonus that she provides.

With every level, the duration of her weapons will increase by 1%, and this buff has no upper limit. By the end of a run, her Song of Mana weapon, as well as any other weapons with lingering hitboxes, will continue to damage enemies for long enough to wipe out any nearby foes. While a little basic, her screen-covering starting weapon and endless increase in power make her formidable.

6 Giovanna

How To Unlock: Find Her Coffin In Inlaid Library

• +20% Move Speed
• +1% Projectile Speed every level

When players find the hidden coffin in the Inlaid Library, they will meet the witch, Giovanna Grana. Another standard character, she benefits from a move speed bonus that can help her to escape from trouble. She also has a limitless bonus that scales with her level; her projectile speed will increase by 1% with every single level up.

Pair this with her Gatti Amari starting weapon – a cat projectile that randomly meanders across the screen and scratches at enemies when they collide – and fans can set up speedy felines that spew across the whole stage. Other weapons that scale well with this powerup, like the Runetracer or Bone, can make for a manic run that proves Giovanna can be a great choice.

5 Space Dude

How To Unlock: Survive 20 Minutes In Space 54

• +40% Move Speed
• May occasionally activate all weapons twice depending on Cooldown

Likely one of the last characters that players will unveil, Space Dude can only be unlocked after gamers have acquired the Space 54 map and mastered it enough to survive for 20 minutes. Space Dude comes with a unique weapon that can only be unlocked through him, the Phas3r, which fires damaging lines that can quickly scale with Amount to trigger all over the screen.

As well as his powerful weapon, Space Dude has an effective speed bonus and will sometimes trigger weapons an extra time. The chance of his special effect triggering scales with his Cooldown stat, so players should try to get the Empty Tome to make Space Dude as effective as possible.

4 Red Death

How To Unlock: Settle The Score With The Reaper

• +155 Max Health
• +100% Move Speed
• +20% Might

One of the hardest characters to unlock, who is hinted at by one of the secrets that players can see, Mask of the Red Death is only available after fans manage to defeat The Reaper by having a strong enough run and making it to the end of the stage’s timer. If the villain is defeated, players will be able to play the speediest character in the game.

His movement speed bonus means that he can easily outrun any foe. His Might and Health bonus also makes him hit harder and last longer, making up for his lack of a scaling statistic. He also starts with the Death Spiral, an evolved version of the Axe that fires large, slow projectiles.

3 Gains

How To Unlock: Find The Only Place Where Flowers Bloom In The Bone Zone

Gains Boros is another secret character who must be located in the Bone Zone stage, with the only clue pointing players towards flowers on the map. If players go far north from the starting spot, they will find a circle of flowers, and staying within the circle for ten seconds will unlock Gains.

While lacking in other passive effects or stat buffs, Gains is given an extra 2% Growth with every level, which doesn’t have an upper limit. Growth affects how many experience gems are needed to level up, so players using Gains will level up much faster and will be able to race towards the build they want much more quickly than any other survivor. If players use Limit Break, Gains will let them explore how powerful leveling up can make their favorite weapons.

2 Pugnala

How To Unlock: Find Her Coffin In Mad Forest

• +20% Move Speed
• +1% Might every level

Although Pugnala Provola will likely be one of the first unlocked characters, as she is hidden in a coffin in the very first stage of the game, she is by far one of the most powerful characters in Vampire Survivors. Her Move Speed bonus will help her to evade damage, but the best part of her kit is the +1% Might bonus every level.

Like other scaling abilities, this one does not have a cap. As such, Pugnala will be able to keep her damage in line with increasing enemy health. This can let her remain a threat until very late game. She also starts with two weapons that unite when they are leveled up: Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight The Sparrow, which fire red and blue bullets diagonally. The amount of bullets that the player can fire at once makes Pugnala a good choice for players who want a high-damage output.

1 Sigma

How To Unlock: Complete All Entries In The Standard Collection

• +233 Max Health
• +3.0 Recovery
• +3 Armor
• +50% Move Speed
• +50% Might
• +50% Duration
• +1 Amount
• -25% Cooldown
• +50% Luck
• +10% Curse
• +100% Magnet
• +1 Revival

The character who is likely to be the very last one unlocked, Queen Sigma, requires every single part of the Collection to be filled out, which means unlocking every Arcana card, every character and weapon, and defeating every enemy in the base game. After trawling through the secret content to find secret stages and one-off items, Queen Sigma will be unlocked.

She starts with her exclusive Victory Sword weapon, which slashes at nearby enemies with lots of small attacks that deal critical damage. If her strong weapon is not enough, she also has a huge number of passive effects and stat bonuses, the most helpful being her +1 Amount, which increases the number of projectiles she shoots. She also gains Might and Growth as she levels up with no upper limit, which makes Queen Sigma far and away the best character to play in Vampire Survivors.