Vampire Survivors‘ Adventure Mode just dropped, adding a new reason to drop a couple dozen more hours in. Unlocking it is a little weird and inconsistent between players, but it is a fun time when it’s playable.
Although described as a “narrative” mode for the reverse bullet hell, the story’s regulated to a short text box shown when selecting a stage. You don’t even have to play as the story’s protagonist and can choose from a limited roster of the game’s cast. Unlocking some of these is important to the story, with others having odd requirements.
Unlocking characters in A Garlic Paradise
A Garlic Paradise is a light-hearted tale of the elderly Poe embarking on a journey to find the titular Garlic Paradise. As overpowered as Poe’s default garlic weapon can get, his lower starting health can lead to more deaths that would have otherwise been avoidable.
Thankfully it’s easy to get most of the playable characters by his second stage and all by the third. To simplify things, I’ll start with non-stage-specific characters before going into the ones locked to certain stages.
The tree Peppino is the first potential unlock that isn’t stage-specific but is possible to obtain within the first stage. All players need to do is evolve the garlic weapon, which is conveniently Poe’s default weapon. Here’s everything needed to evolve it:
- Max-level Garlic (Poe starts with this)
- Pummarola (red heart upgrade that recovers a certain amount of HP per second)
The garlic is now the Soul Eater, and Peppino is unlocked! Zi’Assunta’s a bit more involved but not by much. The easiest way to unlock him is by evolving the Vento Sacro which requires:
- Bloody Tear (evolved whip with hollow heart upgrade)
- Max-level Vento Sacro
Together these evolve into Fuwalafuwaloo, which is as useful as it is a mouthful to say. Once it’s obtained, Zi’Assunta becomes playable.
Other characters are even easier to unlock, with it being possible to get six in stage two: A Rough Awakening. For most of these characters, the only requirement is finding their default weapon in the stage, and these are all by the stage’s starting area.
- Gennero’s knife is northwest
- Imelda’s magic wand is northeast
- Pasqualina’s runetracer is southwest
- Antonio’s whip is southeast
Unlocking the other characters doesn’t take much more effort either, with six potential unlocks in stage two: A Rough Awakening. Pugnala’s in a coffin to the northeast, labeled as a question mark on the map and in-game is presented as an arrow with the coffin’s symbol. Last but not least, O’Sole the dog’s only requirement is surviving for 15 minutes.
The only character locked to stage three, titled Risky Woods, is Dommario. He’s a lengthy trek south in a coffin by a Greed upgrade, and getting him also unlocks the next stage.
Once he’s unlocked, there’s a decent chance you unlocked all the characters in this adventure. It’ll probably only take a few hours, and you don’t even need to see all the stages!
Unlocking characters in World of Light and Dark
Vampire Survivors’ other base game adventure, called World of Light and Dark, is where it takes time to unlock everyone. It took me a while getting everyone, but honestly, it’s a venture worth taking.
Unlocking Suor Clerici is pretty simple. She’s in a coffin located in the southwest corner of the stage Deep Lore, and it takes no time getting to her since the stage is small. Giovanna is a similar story since she’s located in another coffin east of the player’s starting position in Inlaid Library, but is more of a trek. There isn’t any need to worry about missing her as the stage is a never-ending hallway.
Pugnala is also in this adventure and is also located in another coffin. Also like A Garlic Paradise, she’s in an open forest way to the northeast of the player’s position. I’m not sure if it was just me or if it’s by design, but I had a harder time getting her here than in A Garlic Paradise.
The ball with character unlocks gets going on the stage after the Mad Forest, called Gallo Tower. Here it’s possible to unlock three more characters, but it’ll probably take a couple of runs to get everyone.
Krochi’s probably the easiest character to get in Gallo Tower. He’s in a coffin located south of the starting area and surrounded by crosses.
Further south of him is a weapon called the Song of Mana. Picking this up unlocks Poppea and the Song of Mana for all characters in the adventure.
Concetta is the last character in Gallo Tower, and unlocking her is odd. You need to travel north for a while, and when the coffin is located directly east, you need to go just west toward a glowing mirror. The coffin Concetta is in is just through this magic mirror.
Yatta Cavallo’s coffin is similarly confusing to find on first impression but isn’t too bad. He’s located in the Astral Stair, whose gimmick initially seems to be that its doors send players wherever. Thankfully it’s far simpler than that as each door sends you to another room directly east and there’s a north and south end.
Where you need to go is the last door on the left when walking north. After taking two more doors on the eastern end of a room, you should end up in a room full of chairs that come to life. The south end of this room is where you’ll find Yatta Cavallo’s coffin.
There’s finally Zi’Assunta in Cappella Magna, otherwise known as World of Light and Dark’s last stage. He’s just a decent trek south of the player’s starting position, so it’s a matter of surviving until you get to him.
With that, all characters in Vampire Survivors‘ base game Adventure Mode are unlocked! Getting everyone isn’t too hard, but it is a time investment.
