{
"post": {
"title": "The Absolute Beginner/Just Installed guide to Vampire Survivors",
"selftext": "So, you heard the hype about this game, played bunch of other games that are known to be clones of this game, then you downloaded this game . You started your first game, and .... this game is hard! You are making almost no progress at all! Even the starting monsters are hard to kill, and even if you make some progress you are forced to run away from the XP gems by hordes of tough monsters. Then randomly you are surrounded by a wall of plants while some tough unkillable mobs kill you around 10 mins! You make like 100 gold a game and the metaprogression is so expensive! How do you even make progress and start having fun? Grind for hours? Break all torches? You start contemplating uninstall.\n\nFear not my friend! The fun game is there, its just hidden! And here is the secret:\n\n####You get to level 20 in the Mad Forest, somehow, then you unlock the Library. The Library is way easier, you actually have fun, and can easily have 30 min runs and make like 3k gold. This is where the real game begins.\n\nYou can now actually unlock metaprogression and unlock characters ! I had a 30 minute run in my first try, and I had no idea about evolutions!\n\nDisclaimer: If you want and like tough games, ignore this and play as you want!\n\n\nQuick tips for getting to Level 20 in the mad forest:\n\n1. Use Imelda. her weapon is consistent and easy to use. It also evolves with Empty tome, though you will be lvl 20 before evolving.\n\n Also, she gets +XP as passive, allowing you to level faster.\n\n1. No shame in picking up crown (+XP), though most guides will you tell you not to. However, Spinach and Empty Tome will help you more.\n\n1. Pick up Garlic as soon as you see it. Do not level it past level 2 . Now all Bats are free XP (except bosses). Simply walk into them, they cannot hurt you. Simply walk into the swarm of bats for a lot of XP (Unless they are pushing other tough monsters, juke those)!\n\n1. Pick up upgrades for existing weapons rather than pick up new weapons. This is a good idea always, not just for this case.\n\n1. Do not buy PowerUp Greed like most guides say! You can do that with the fat library money. I would recommend a few points in damage. +XP is good but too expensive.\n\n1. Remember, your goal is not to kill any tough monsters, not to get gold, you just need to get to level 20. Kill easy monsters, pick up XP, repeat.\n\n1. If you are full HP, you can push out of the circle of plants if the monsters in there with you are tough.\n\n1. Destroy torches if you are low HP, there is a small chance of spawning a roast chicken that will heal you. Stand close to them to do this.\n\nAfter some metaprogression, come back to this level and take revenge for all the pain!",
"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/VampireSurvivors/comments/wvbb0n/the_absolute_beginnerjust_installed_guide_to/"
},
"comments": [
{
"body": ">Pick up Garlic as soon as you see it. Do not level it past level 2 .\n\nHERESY",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Poe or bust",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Me seeing garlic icon for the first time: Kinda looks like wrinkly balls.\n\nUnlocking Poe: Oh."
},
{
"body": "I thought that too but I’ve been kicking ass with the +30 area character and also the 4th guy with the double projectiles has been kicking ass for me"
}
]
},
{
"body": "The first part or the second part?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "the second part",
"replies": [
{
"body": "On a serious note, I tried Garlic build when I was trying to get out of Mad Forest. Even though some mobs like Skeletons die in 2-3 ticks , it does nothing to tough mobs.\n\nI tried getting garlic in actual games in the library. I died around 25 minute mark because even evolved Garlic simply did not deal enough damage to clear mobs fast enough. I had other evolved weapons.\n\nI checked the wiki and its level up bonuses past the first 2 levels are really stingy. Its very clear its not meant to be a serious weapon, just a helper for newbies.\n\nIt would see much more use if we could remove weapons late game. We could use Garlic early game and then swap out for something else late.\n\nBible does the same thing as garlic: Kill/Knockback things that get too close to you. Bible is not useful until you get some levels + some passives, while garlic is useful immediately. Bible stays super awesome late game with evolution, garlic falls off hard."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "how do you pick it up? why wont it pop up?"
}
]
},
{
"body": "I recently wiped my progress and restarted from scratch. Here are my tips\n\n1. The third available character (with the Runetracer) allows a new run to farm gold quite reliably at the Inlaid Library\n\n2. Don’t spend gold on unlocking new characters. Rather use them on power ups. \n\n3. The most useful upgrade at the beginning is Amount and Cool-down. Just keep farming the library till you unlock them. Always refund and respec — you can do unlimited respec anyway. Always choose the upgrade you want that cost the most first if you don’t want to look up on the optimal purchase order\n\n4. The next goal is to survive long enough to get the map. Once you have the map, unlock the various coffin characters, especially the one with Song of Mana or Punga with the twin guns.\n\n5. Unlock arcana - the stage is easy if you have Song of Mana. The first card to get is Beginning — level the whip guy to level 99. With that most characters can last to 30 min\n\n6. Unlock whatever you want but I suggest the Waltz of Pearls and the Iron Blue Intention arcana.\n\nArcanas are powerful force multiplier so I suggest getting theming asap",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Agree with 90%.\n\n1. Anyone can really farm gold in the Inlaid Library. Yes Runetracer is broken in the closed confines of the library.\n\n I like Imelda as more levels = more gold. Her starting weapon is consistent and easier for Newbies.\n\n1. Meh you get so much gold (compared to PowerUp costs) do what you want. Pugnala is super strong because of Passive. Poppea is strong because its just nice to start with Song of Mana . Funny that Song of Mana is great in every map except Library.\n\n1. Later maps give more %gold (check the modifiers to the left).\n\n1. Hyper mode gives still more gold (Way more!)\n\nWaltz of Pearls makes my laptop lag the f out :lol: . Yes bone also makes me lag. I like Gemini as it makes strong weapons WAY stronger."
}
]
},
{
"body": "I know this post is old, but it got me to level 28 first time! Thanks so much!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "NP. Such a weird issue to have. Devs should switch the first 2 levels. Gardens have their own charm, but is super unfun as the first level."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Late to the party but man. What a fucking post. I bought the game ages ago. Played it. Couldn't really understand the appeal, I mean I did a bit when I got the rare ok run, but I have no idea what I was doing. How things worked. Why I was just getting run after run of being overwhelmed so I dropped it. Until I picked it up again and had the same shitty eh experience so I thought fuck it. Google it. And you were the first link\n\nYou are a shining beacon in fantastic noob guides. Read it. Took it in even though I still didn't understand a little of it and my next run I got to level 20 easy. And then died cos I still wasn't too sure what the heck I was doing. But I played the library. And things just clicked! First run! 28 minutes! Made 4,162 gold. I was fucking unstoppable annihilating everything! It all makes sense now.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Oh yeah! Thank you!!!!!!!"
},
{
"body": "🙏🙏🙏",
"replies": [
{
"body": ":)"
},
{
"body": "Also had no ideas about grimoires. No clue weapons could be upgraded by combining skills. Unreal. Now I'm in love heh 😃"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Thanks, mate! I was struggling for couple of days to basically move forward anywhere but nothing helped. I read your instructions and after one run I can finally go beyond the Mad Forestl"
},
{
"body": "Thanks for the tips!\nMade it to library and also my first 30min run & lvl 100"
},
{
"body": "Cool guide but I need to ask, What's wrong with getting crown? I always get crown in my runs, what damage can earning more exp do?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Early game, getting Crown instead of Spinach or Tome reduces your damage potential. On harder levels, you might hit a wall where you cannot take down tough mobs fast enough.\n\nThough its debatable if anything other than spinach or tome is more helpful than crown. Getting use out of area, projectile speed, duration, etc requires a specific build, and is it not useful without a couple of levels.\n\nAlso, Crown wont help in evolution unless you take the pentagram. \n\nThere are so few passive slots, and later unlocks like stone mark, tiramisu, even Skull/Curse might give better benefits than crown.\n\nPlay a few games without Crown. Are you really hitting levels that much slower?"
},
{
"body": "I've come to the conclusion that Crown means leveling Crown instead of leveling the things you really want to level. If I'm going after one of the more expensive evolutions, and I get Crown early, *and* I stick to a minimalist build, I might max it ASAP, and then use that boost to rush my target evo. But even then I wonder if I'd be better off just rushing my target evo out the gate."
},
{
"body": "You get it instead of a passive that actually does something",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Point invalid, with more xp you get more limit break levels, which are stronger than any passive.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "absolute beginners don't have limit break tho",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Then you have more gold bags, which give you upgrades and faster limit break access ;-)"
},
{
"body": "True"
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I feel crown is best on characters that gain stats per level. Someone like pugnala would be better with crown than spinach imo."
}
]
},
{
"body": "The fun game is not hidden at all. This thing is addicting."
},
{
"body": "Thanks my friend! Enjoying this game already, but always dying at level 10 lol"
},
{
"body": "This actually helped me TONS. On my 1st attempt after reading this I unlocked the library and on my 3rd at the library I got to 30 min but died to the final boss. This is such good advice",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Glad that helped."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Welp after being skeptical I too could fiiiinally get to lvl 20 after unsuccessfully wandering improperly through the forest for 2 weeks. Finally experiencing the library in my first run lasting 28mins after never getting past 15mins, knocking out 8 achievements without even realizing and reaching lvl 74. 🙏 Thank you, I have seen the light!",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Glad to be pf help!"
},
{
"body": "yeah same issue happened to me, i was forcing to clear forest didn't know that the library was easier"
}
]
},
{
"body": "How do you get a ton of gold in the Library. I finally got there but I'm too weak to get very far and I'm not getting near the amount of gold I would get in the first level.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Huh, I dont know what could be going on here.\n\nEnemies are more densely packed in the library but it is a smaller space and the annoying tough enemies are not there so any good AOE character can chew through the library.\n\nDid they change the balance of the levels ? Sorry I havent played in years.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I only played about 6-8 runs in the library when I posted this. I just finished a run yesterday where I got to level 104 and made over 5000 gold. Haha thanks for the tips, they definitely helped me get better."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Thank you! I was looking for something to help the game click and this did it. \nI wasn't committing to runs as much as I should have and the skills you suggested helped massively and has just opened up the rest of the game for me!"
},
{
"body": "This helped so much and now it's actually quite fun to play. Thankyou",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Glad it helped!"
}
]
},
{
"body": "Is there a difference which way you go in the first stage? Any secrets on the first map?\n\nLooks like yes. https://vampire-survivors.fandom.com/wiki/Mad_Forest"
}
]
}