Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors

Developer: poncle, Nosebleed Interactive | Publisher: poncle | Release Date: 2026 | Genre: Deckbuilder / Dungeon Crawler / Roguelite | Website: N/A | Purchase: Steam

After turning the extremely simple act of walking around while weapons fire automatically into one of the most addictive games around, poncle could probably have played things safe with a straightforward sequel to Vampire Survivors. Instead, the studio teamed up with Nosebleed Interactive for Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors, a spin-off that replaces the hordes of real-time enemies with first-person dungeon exploration and turn-based card battles.

It sounds like a dramatic departure, but anyone who has spent hundreds of hours unlocking characters, evolving weapons, opening treasure chests, and watching numbers fill the screen in Vampire Survivors will feel at home almost immediately. Vampire Crawlers looks different and demands more direct input, but it retains the escalating power, absurd combinations, constant unlocks, and dangerous “just one more run” quality that made its predecessor so difficult to put down.

The game begins by taking a familiar Vampire Survivors location and shifting the perspective from the original overhead view into a first-person dungeon crawler. Players explore grid-based environments reminiscent of classics such as Eye of the Beholder and Shining in the Darkness, but instead of directly swinging weapons or casting spells, every battle is fought using cards.

Players begin in a small village hub where they can select a Crawler, purchase permanent upgrades, inspect unlocks, and choose which dungeon to enter. The story is once again mostly an excuse for the gameplay, and the game maintains the same deliberately silly tone as Vampire Survivors. There are returning characters, familiar locations, bizarre item descriptions, and just enough lore to reward fans without slowing the pace with lengthy exposition.

Once inside a dungeon, movement takes place one square at a time. Players turn in ninety-degree increments, follow corridors, open treasure chests, smash light sources for gold, and decide which encounters to tackle before confronting the boss guarding the route onward. The first-person perspective gives familiar stages such as the Mad Forest, Inlaid Library, Dairy Plant, and Gallo Tower a completely different feel while retaining their recognizable enemies and visual themes.

The dungeons are procedurally arranged, although the overall structure is straightforward. Each floor contains regular encounters, treasure, breakable objects, occasional events, and a boss. Relics gradually add more information to the map, including enemy positions, treasure locations, and other useful details. 

This does mean the dungeon crawling is not particularly deep. There are no elaborate environmental riddles, complex navigation puzzles, or sprawling mazes in the style of Legend of Grimrock. Most floors are ultimately there to connect battles and rewards. However, this simplicity fits a game that wants players moving quickly from one burst of progression to the next rather than spending an hour mapping dead ends on graph paper.

Combat is entirely turn-based and card-driven. At the beginning of each turn, players draw a hand from their deck and receive a set amount of mana. Cards can deal damage, generate armor, heal, apply status effects, boost other attacks, or temporarily summon the abilities of a Crawler. Once the player ends the turn, surviving enemies retaliate.

The system is easy to understand but quickly grows more elaborate. Every card has a mana value, and the key to dealing ridiculous amounts of damage is playing cards in ascending numerical order. Following a zero-cost card with a one-cost card and then a two-cost card increases the combo multiplier. Continue the sequence correctly, and even an ordinary weapon can begin producing the kind of excessive damage numbers associated with a fully evolved Vampire Survivors build.

This Combo Stack system is the heart of Vampire Crawlers. Players can take as much time as they need to inspect the hand and calculate the ideal sequence, but cards can also be played as fast as the mouse or controller buttons can be pressed. The result is a turn-based game that can feel surprisingly frantic. Once a build is running smoothly, entire hands can be unloaded in seconds, causing enemies to disappear beneath a blur of attacks, multipliers, armor gains, status effects, and experience gems.

Early battles are very simple because hands are small and mana is limited. Playing cards in numerical order is often the obvious decision, which can make the opening hours feel less strategic than established deckbuilders such as Slay the Spire or Monster Train. However, the system becomes far more interesting as additional cards, mana, Crawlers, gems, Arcana, and passive effects are unlocked.

Larger hands create more possible sequences, while cards that duplicate, reduce costs, restore mana, or alter the next card introduce opportunities for much longer combos. Some builds revolve around carefully maintaining ascending values, while others break the rules entirely by cloning the same card repeatedly or generating enough resources to continue long after the original hand should have ended.

Weapons from Vampire Survivors return as cards. The Whip, Magic Wand, Knife, Axe, Cross, King Bible, Santa Water, Garlic, Runetracer, Lightning Ring, and many other familiar tools have been adapted to the new format. Their basic identities remain recognizable, but their effects have been redesigned to suit turn-based encounters and enemies arranged across lanes.

Some weapons strike the nearest target, others hit every enemy in a row, and a few spread damage across the entire group. Support cards such as Spinach, Empty Tome, Clover, and Armor provide temporary boosts, healing, defense, or improvements to cards played afterward. Building a successful deck therefore involves more than simply choosing the attacks with the largest numbers.

Weapon evolutions also return. Combining the correct cards or meeting their specific conditions transforms them into stronger versions with more dramatic effects. Discovering these combinations provides the same satisfaction as it did in Vampire Survivors, especially when an evolution suddenly turns a struggling deck into something capable of deleting bosses in one enormous chain.

The Grim Grimoire relic keeps track of discovered evolutions and unions, which is extremely helpful once the available card pool begins to expand. As with the original game, players can experiment and uncover combinations naturally or consult the in-game record after discovering them. The growing list of blank entries provides another strong incentive to continue playing and trying unfamiliar cards.

Gems add another major layer to deck construction. Cards can eventually receive sockets, and gems placed inside them modify what happens whenever the card is played. One gem might add armor, another could increase damage, clone the card, trigger an additional effect, or alter its relationship with the combo system.

The right gem can completely change the value of an otherwise average card. A cheap attack that seemed useful only for starting combos might become the centerpiece of a build after receiving a cloning or mana-related effect. Players can also increase the number of sockets on cards, allowing multiple effects to stack together.

As more systems become available, Vampire Crawlers embraces the same philosophy as Vampire Survivors: balance is less important than allowing players to create something hilariously overpowered. A successful run can escalate from cautiously chipping away at skeletons to playing a chain so long that a boss is defeated several times over before the animations finish.

The Overkill system actively rewards this excess. Once a boss has lost all its health, players can continue playing cards and pile on additional damage for extra gold. Later relics raise the cap even further, turning the end of a boss battle into an opportunity to test just how badly the current deck can break the game.

This is one of the most entertaining parts of Vampire Crawlers. Most card games encourage players to achieve just enough damage to win efficiently. Here, restraint feels almost contrary to the spirit of the experience. If a boss has one point of health remaining and the player still has a sequence capable of dealing thousands, the obvious response is to keep going.

Crawlers serve as both playable characters and cards. Each begins with a particular weapon and passive ability, which influences the direction of the opening deck. As progress is made, players can eventually bring multiple Crawlers into a run. Their cards can then be played during combat to activate temporary bonuses such as increased damage, additional experience, healing, or other useful effects.

Mixing characters creates another form of build customization. A Crawler who improves a particular card color or weapon type can be paired with others who compensate for weaknesses or amplify the same strategy. Unlocking new characters therefore provides more than cosmetic variety, even if some naturally feel more powerful or flexible than others.

As in Vampire Survivors, many characters are unlocked by completing specific challenges rather than simply buying them from a menu. Players might need to reach a particular level with someone, defeat a certain enemy, discover a coffin, use a card repeatedly, or satisfy a deliberately obscure condition. This gives the large achievement list a practical purpose, as many achievements directly unlock new content.

The village hub expands as relics and other discoveries are brought back from the dungeons. The blacksmith allows cards to be improved, the Arcana tent introduces powerful run-altering effects, and permanent upgrades can be purchased using the gold accumulated during expeditions. These include familiar bonuses such as increased Might, Recovery, Luck, Duration, additional mana, larger hands, rerolls, skips, and banishes.

Permanent progression is generous and constant. Even a failed or incomplete run usually provides gold, achievements, card discoveries, character progress, or another objective to pursue. This is a crucial part of why the game becomes so addictive. It is rare to return to the village without something new appearing or another goal being placed within reach.

The downside is that later difficulty can feel tied heavily to these upgrades. Some dungeons or higher difficulty variants can become punishing until enough gold has been invested in health, mana, recovery, and other improvements. This occasionally creates a wall where success feels less dependent on finding a clever deck and more on repeating easier areas until the underlying statistics are high enough.

Fortunately, replaying stages remains enjoyable for most of the game because there are always different Crawlers, cards, evolutions, Arcana, gems, and challenges to pursue. The process can become repetitive when grinding the last few expensive upgrades or obscure achievements, but reaching that point requires spending a substantial amount of time with the game already.

Arcana cards are another returning system adapted from Vampire Survivors. These provide powerful passive rules that shape the entire run. One might improve armor retention, recycle Crawler cards, strengthen particular card categories, or encourage a specific combo style. Selecting the right Arcana can rescue an awkward deck or turn a strong one into something absurd.

Relics gradually unlock or modify other game systems. Some reveal more information on the map, allow gems to be added to cards, unlock the blacksmith, provide a list of evolutions, increase game speed, or enable Overkill. Most can be toggled off, allowing players to customize the experience or deliberately remove conveniences for a greater challenge.

The ability to increase the game speed is particularly welcome. Early encounters and familiar animations can begin to feel slow after many hours, so accelerating movement and combat keeps repeat runs brisk. It is a small quality-of-life option, but an important one in a game designed around replaying dungeons numerous times.

Difficulty is somewhat uneven. Regular encounters can become trivial once a powerful deck is assembled, only for a boss to suddenly expose a weakness in the build. Some enemies deal unavoidable damage if they are not eliminated quickly, while others punish decks that rely too heavily on one type of attack or lack sufficient armor.

This can occasionally make a run feel more dependent on random card rewards than planning. Rerolls, skips, banishes, and gem manipulation reduce the problem as they are unlocked, but the opening hours leave players with less control over the direction of a deck. A bad sequence of rewards can produce something unfocused, while a lucky set of cards can make the same dungeon almost effortless.

The game is also quite happy to let players discover combinations that effectively play themselves. Once the right cards and gems are in place, turns can become a matter of repeating the same optimal sequence until everything is dead. Whether this feels satisfying or repetitive will depend on how much pleasure the player derives from watching an elaborate machine work exactly as intended.

We generally found the process extremely satisfying. Vampire Crawlers is less about surviving through perfect tactical decisions and more about constructing a deck that snowballs into glorious nonsense. It retains the appeal of Vampire Survivors, where the reward for understanding the systems is not merely winning but becoming so powerful that the game can barely contain the effects.

There is also still plenty of content after seeing the credits. The game features a huge achievement list, secret characters, unusual card requirements, rare gems, hidden bosses, weapon evolutions, and escalating dungeon variants. Completing almost everything requires experimenting with cards and Crawlers that might otherwise be ignored.

Some of the final achievements are considerably more demanding or obscure than the standard progression goals. Reaching an exceptionally high combo or finding and defeating secret threats requires a build specifically designed for the task. These challenges give completionists something meaningful to pursue long after the regular dungeons have been conquered.

The sheer quantity of unlocks is impressive, but it can also make the final stretch feel more like administration. Players may find themselves checking lists, repeating stages for one particular card, or manipulating a build solely to trigger an achievement. This is familiar territory for anyone who completed Vampire Survivors, although the longer run times in Crawlers make failed attempts more costly.

Visually, Vampire Crawlers remains unmistakably part of the same universe as Vampire Survivors. Familiar enemies, weapons, items, characters, and environments appear in chunky pixel-art form, but the first-person viewpoint gives everything additional scale. Skeletons and bats that once disappeared beneath thousands of projectiles now stand directly in front of the player in large groups.

The retro dungeon-crawler presentation is simple but effective. Environments are made from repeating walls, floors, decorations, and landmarks, which suits the deliberate tribute to early first-person RPGs. It is not technically elaborate, but it is colorful, readable, and packed with the same irreverent charm as the original.

Combat effects become increasingly spectacular as combos grow. Cards slam onto the screen, weapons sweep through enemy formations, damage numbers multiply, and defeated creatures burst into experience gems. Once several evolved cards and gem effects are triggering in sequence, the supposedly turn-based battles can look every bit as chaotic as Vampire Survivors.

The interface contains a lot of information but generally remains readable. Cards clearly display mana costs and effects, enemies show their intended attacks, and later relics make it easier to preview how damage will be distributed. The amount of text and iconography can initially seem overwhelming, but most systems are introduced gradually.

The soundtrack is one of the presentation’s strongest elements. Familiar melodies and energetic new arrangements accompany dungeon exploration and combat, while the main theme was composed by Yoko Shimomura. The music maintains the gothic arcade flavor of Vampire Survivors while sounding more elaborate and adventurous.

Audio feedback is just as effective. Card plays, combo increases, evolutions, treasure chests, experience gems, and unlocks all produce the kind of satisfying sounds that encourage the player to keep going. The constant sequence of chimes and impacts helps transform even routine battles into miniature reward ceremonies.

Controls work well with either a mouse and keyboard or controller. Cards can be inspected and played deliberately, but the interface also supports rapidly throwing them down once the intended sequence is known. Movement through dungeons is simple and grid-based, so there is no need for precise first-person navigation.

Vampire Crawlers is particularly well suited to handheld play. The turn-based combat means players can stop at any moment, while the simple exploration and large interface translate well to a smaller screen. The danger is that a supposedly quick run can still consume a significant portion of the evening.

Compared to Slay the Spire, Vampire Crawlers is less interested in tight deck efficiency and difficult tactical trade-offs. The decks become larger, the effects more excessive, and the permanent progression far more influential. Players looking for a perfectly balanced strategic test may find it too willing to hand out overwhelming power.

Compared to its own predecessor, it requires more thought but less movement. Vampire Survivors is about positioning a character while attacks happen automatically, whereas Crawlers puts every attack directly into the player’s hands. Despite this difference, both games share the same central pleasure: beginning weak, collecting a mountain of upgrades, and ending the run as an unstoppable source of visual noise.

The first-person format also invites comparisons to classic dungeon crawlers, but exploration is deliberately streamlined. Players are not solving complicated riddles or managing a party’s food supply. The dungeon exists mainly as a framework for selecting encounters and gathering rewards, while the card system remains the true focus.

Overall, Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors is a remarkably successful genre shift. It takes characters, weapons, locations, evolutions, and progression systems designed for a minimalist action game and rebuilds them into an addictive card-based dungeon crawler.

The opening hours can be overly simple, card rewards sometimes leave too much to luck, and permanent upgrades contribute to an uneven difficulty curve. Dungeon exploration also becomes routine once the map relics reveal everything, and extremely strong builds can reduce later battles to repeatedly playing the same sequence.

However, these problems did very little to reduce our desire to keep playing. Every completed dungeon reveals another layer, every unlocked relic changes what is possible, and every new card or gem creates another potential combination. The game understands exactly how to make numbers, progress bars, treasure chests, and unlock notifications feel irresistible.

Vampire Crawlers does not merely place a Vampire Survivors skin over a conventional deckbuilder. Its ascending mana combos, Overkill system, Crawler cards, evolutions, relics, Arcana, and permanent progression create something that feels distinct. It is strategic enough to reward planning but fast enough to preserve the manic pace of its predecessor.

Anyone who dislikes deckbuilders is unlikely to be converted purely by the familiar characters, while players seeking the precision of Slay the Spire may find the balance too loose. For fans who enjoyed breaking Vampire Survivors with ridiculous builds and completing its enormous unlock list, though, this is another dangerously generous time sink.