Vampire Survivors and other top-down arcade shooters (VS discussion now forbidden)

[mkultra]

Could be wrong, but I felt like it boiled down more to different builds suiting different maps (at least when it comes to surviving the early game).

Exactly. The game plays quite differently in e.g corridors than in the open.

That's because going on the offense is what levels you up.

and your enemies too though... the really important part about leveling up is the Evolution of the weapons.

I think i'm gonna have to try time lancet on the Bone Zone map..

This is good to have in case you don't btw:
"Milky Way Map is a Relic located in Dairy Plant. Once collected, it permanently unlocks a viewable map in the pause menu. The map displays the locations of stage items and Treasure Chests in any stage."
Milky Way Map | Vampire Survivors Wiki | Fandom

 

[Sore Loser]

.

 

[Alpan]

It feels like the difficulty of this game takes a distinct nosedive once two things happen:

1) You get the +1 projectile upgrade in the unlocks menu.
2) You start evolving your weaponry.

The first one in particular makes the early game much more smooth, which has a dramatic impact on the rest of the run. I have about 7 hours in the game and won my last three runs (not counting the OHKO at 30 minutes), and most of the stuff is still locked (I haven't yet played the third stage, for example). I haven't checked out what "Hyper Mode" is but I might look into it in case the other stages don't provide a bigger challenge.

I'm glad someone mentioned Nova Drift ITT, because while this game is quite fun (in the simple way these games can be), I kinda feel like Nova Drift is just better and more engaging on just about every level. That game has been successful on its own right but let's say the developer is within his rights to be a little envious.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

yes, the second stage is just too much easier than others, so much that for a long while garlic is the best weapon, you just walk through mobs and rack a lot of xp much faster than any other weapon could. even easier in hyper mode which should be more difficult, with more and faster mobs, all they manage to do instead is to crash onto you and give more points. the weapons are severely unbalanced, some builds will let you sit there, invincible, others aren't even going to hit anything. but until you notice all this, the game is going to give you 5-10 hours of solid entertainment for the price of an ice cream.
triple value if you speak italian, the names in this game are silly jokes, references or plain serious blasphemies. san culamo and prophilax would be proud.

 

[Nirvash]

LOL LA BORRA. (the... "um")
But only a italian can do the molise joke.

You are supposed to also get the curse upgrade, don't be a casual shitter.

 

[Caim]

You are supposed to also get the curse upgrade, don't be a casual shitter.

How much of an increase in XP and money gain is Curse? Will it just be a flat 50% increase because there's 50% more enemies, or is the actual output lower because you can't kill them faster?

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

Garlic/Pummarola is overrated because it subtracts from your attack power. Just don't get hit and you won't need regen. Also buy the duplicator upgrade first, it is the most powerful upgrade by far at low level.

A good combo is:

Magic Wand + Fire Wand + Lightning Ring
(Empty Tome) (Spinach) (Duplicator)

...because the evolve requirements synergize extremely well. There's no need even for garlic, so you can experiment with the different weapons.

 

[perfectslumbers]

I feel like there's less of a weapon meta and more of a passive item meta, since stacking all the passive items that increase your damage is better than anything else (cdr, aoe, spell duration, spinach, extra projectiles.)

The game is really fun though, probably the best timewaster game I've ever played. Has the right mix of skill and braindead gameplay. I agree that the game falls off once you finish your build though. I like games where you get the time to be powerful but the enemies you face are pretty boring so you basically afk and hope your build was good enough to win.

 

[Joggerino]

The evolved song of mana is incredible!! Even moreso with evolved garlic, not even boss monsters could approach me. In fact they were getting repulsed, I easily won the first stage. Highly recommended.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I've got about 15 hours in the game so far, so I still got a ways to go leveling stuff, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of it.

I've made it to 30 minutes and died a few times to the reaper, but I saw a video of a guy who was able to kill the reaper with the lancet by freezing him.

I kinda want to try that now.

Evolved garlic is good for surviving the last minute rush where it's all boss monsters. The garlic pushes them away so you can survive.

 

[JarlFrank]

My favorite selection of weapons has become:

- bible for a nice protective shield around yourself once it's evolved
- fire wand with the randomazzo that makes projectiles explode
- santa water, the item you need to evolve it increases your pickup radius so much that you will level up super quick

then usually axe, mana song, magic wand, whip, depending on what comes up

Not a fan of knife because you have to aim it and it only goes in one direction, but there's a new randomazzo that makes knives bounce... which makes them a LOT more useful.

 

[Black Angel]

It would be hard to sell it for more than $3 when you can get Magic Survival on Android, the same game but with worse graphics, but more levels, hazards, a crapload of more weapons, 20+ classes, etc. etc. for free.

Unfortunately, since the 0.8v patch for Magic Survival, the dev absolutely shit the bed and removed the few things that made the game fun and distinguished in the first place. It's not different from Vampire Survivors now, and at the pace VS's developer is updating the game, VS is way beyond MS now.

There is no way to beat the final boss?

The Reaper isn't a 'final boss' per se, just a convoluted way of putting a hard cap on a run to forcefully end it at 30-minute mark. But the dev does have an intention with this entity, in that eventually the players would kill him and unlock a secret, even if it depends on luck (both literally, as in the in-game stat, and figuratively, because RNG). Oh well, the game does depended on RNGs a lot, so...

Anyway, yeah, the way I see it this game only truly begins after you unlock everything, because before you're playing for the achievements and its unlockables, the next you're playing purely for the challenge and experimentation, and I said this because I've played Magic Survival to absolute hell and back. Currently, it doesn't seem much compared to Magic Survival's arsenal of spells and artifacts selection, but the developer is adding updates and new contents at pretty decent pace. I mentioned how Magic Survival isn't as fun anymore, right? Well, I still find myself coming back to it from time to time, and I can damn well say the same for Vampire Survivors, though I hope they don't do the stupid shit that MS's devs pulled by removing stuff and shattering that delicate balance of fun factor MS used to have.

Right now, the community at large is concerned with the Leaderboards, though I doubt the Codex cared much. I'd prefer the dev add more fun stuff like how the I said above regarding the Reaper. Secret unlockables like what we already know is what elevate this game way above MS in my eyes.

 

[Jasede]

You're right, I hadn't updated in a while. MS was a lot more fun before the recent big remaster. Honestly, I find it boring now. When I wrote about it, that was before the update.

Shame VS doesn't run on Linux, though maybe it would work with Wine. Anyone try?

 

[Joggerino]

I think a lifesteal build may be viable. There is an arcana that damages enemies proportional to your life regen. Evolved garlic and evolved whip have lifesteal, maybe some other items too.

 

[Caim]

Managed to get 30 minutes on the library just now with whip/axe/birds/runetracer/pentagram. Unless I was actively getting swarmed by enemies the evolved whip managed to steal enough life to keep me going without having to hunt for food.

 

[perfectslumbers]

I think a lifesteal build may be viable. There is an arcana that damages enemies proportional to your life regen. Evolved garlic and evolved whip have lifesteal, maybe some other items too.

I went a full tank build with laurel, evolved garlic and whip, the arcana that doubles healing and makes it do damage, and armor. I was basically immortal.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

how do you unlock more stuff for randomazzo? i always get the same card. what's "arcana"? i swear my game is malfunctioning, because i lack only 11 achievements and yet i feel i haven't seen half of the game.
btw, random thought: if you get enough multishot, area and fire rate, death can't walk past the dog's farts. i've been sitting for 3-4 minutes while death kept hugging flowers. garlic could add some damage but i guess knockback is negligible to nonworking on it.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

I've now gotten 100% after 117 hours of play. It was well worth $2.99.

 

[Caim]

how do you unlock more stuff for randomazzo? i always get the same card. what's "arcana"? i swear my game is malfunctioning, because i lack only 11 achievements and yet i feel i haven't seen half of the game.
btw, random thought: if you get enough multishot, area and fire rate, death can't walk past the dog's farts. i've been sitting for 3-4 minutes while death kept hugging flowers. garlic could add some damage but i guess knockback is negligible to nonworking on it.

Reach 99 with a number of characters. Check your achievement list if you want to know which ones. If they're not on there, it's the following:

Spoiler

Krochi, Giovanna, Gennaro, Imelda, Lama, Poppea, Arca

 

[JarlFrank]

As expected, the incredible success of Vampire Survivors is now leading to a handful of direct clones that don't even pretend they're not clones.





A new trend among indie games is born!
Prepare for the flood of Vampire Survivors likes!

 

[Caim]

Spirit Hunters looks like it had some actual effort put into it, but the other two are obvious cheap knockoffs.

 

[Joggerino]

how do you unlock more stuff for randomazzo? i always get the same card. what's "arcana"? i swear my game is malfunctioning, because i lack only 11 achievements and yet i feel i haven't seen half of the game.
btw, random thought: if you get enough multishot, area and fire rate, death can't walk past the dog's farts. i've been sitting for 3-4 minutes while death kept hugging flowers. garlic could add some damage but i guess knockback is negligible to nonworking on it.

https://vampire-survivors.fandom.com/wiki/Arcana

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

oh, they're the same thing.

meh.

 

[Joggerino]

Nailed it (did a run to get the arcana)

Spoiler

 

[Ranselknulf]

I've been playing a tiny bit here and there.

When I logged in today I noticed they did an update. Seems like there are new items to find and new "game modes'

I didn't read all the patch notes, but I found a "music box" that lets you pick the game music and I also unlocked a "gold blitz" or something where every monster you kill gives you gold.

It's a fun little game, but I don't have time to sperg the game to completion in a couple days like everyone else, let alone try those games that JarlFrank listed.

Vampire Survivors is the perfect game to waste 30 minutes on when you are taking a break.