Why is this so hard?

[Hawk]

I have time in other games in this "genre" namely Brotato and Holocure and for me atleast Vampire Survivor is by far the hardest of the three. Brotato and Holocure I've beaten many times now. Brotato adds in shooting enemies which makes dodging even more important. Since I haven't unlocked Hyper Mode in VS both games are much faster. And yet I'm lucky if I get even fifteen minutes into a Vampire Survivor run before I die.

I can't figure it out. The only thing I can think of is the lack of healing in VS versus those two and the slower speed making it harder to dodge.

[Glacialis]

At the beginning, the ting that helped me click was skills like garlic and the bible.
With a few levels these skills really help to stop monsters getting close to you. They also helped me to level really fast in the early levels.
Next is to find which skills sync with each other and then start to focus on these for seriously upgraded firepower.
I've only played about 10 hours but i've found this helped me beat the first level at least.

[Hawk]

Originally posted by Glacialis:

At the beginning, the ting that helped me click was skills like garlic and the bible.
With a few levels these skills really help to stop monsters getting close to you. They also helped me to level really fast in the early levels.
Next is to find which skills sync with each other and then start to focus on these for seriously upgraded firepower.
I've only played about 10 hours but i've found this helped me beat the first level at least.

Yeah, I try to do all that, I just typically get overwhelmed about the ten to fifteen mark. I try to focus on the key weapons/items like Spinach but the only stage I've beaten IIRC is the Library and that was just with Runetracer spam. But in the first stage once the waves of giant bats and werewolves hit I get got.

I really don't get it. I must be doing something wrong. I can load up Holocure, Snkrx or Brotato and knock out a win so I don't suck at these games I think.

[Vatzfu]

the game begins like that for everyone, just keep the gold you can get on the levels and use them to improve the stats on the main screen - try to avoid the curse one until later - and you'll be able to do longer runs and unlock more stuff. Also check the "unlocks" section for tips on how to open weapons/buffs/ relics

[Matthew]

You get evolved weapons after 10 minute and it makes it easy to survive. It is generally better to focus on getting 2 or 3 weapons up to rank 8 quickly than it is to have 6 weapons all only at low ranks.

Garlic or bible can be good to survive early, but santa water is one of the more reliable attacks long term. Evolved water has good AoE coverage and does really good damage.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

As stated, it gets easier the longer you play. However, in general bullet hell games are not really meant to be easy, hence the name.

[๖คፈɬเς Ꮄน∂Ꮛ]

The game's actually fairly easy. You probably just need to do a couple things different and then you'll see better results.

[Narxes081206]

Keep working at Mad Forest until you've unlocked the Library, then move there. The Library is much easier than Mad Forest and you'll start to get more gold and unlock more passive upgrades.

[Godwoken Dovahkiin]

Early game is supposed to be hard, you don't have much weapons unlocked, gold for power ups or knowledge of weapon evolution. Also Mad Forest for some reason is a harder map compared to Inlaid Library. Once I unlocked Inlaid Library I used it to easily farm unlockables.

IMO for new players, the key to survive early game is defensive weapons. These weapons are there to keep the enemies away from you one way or another. The ones I used:

Garlic, this thing will make the early game easier for you, it falls off quickly and becomes unreliable later on. At least it's evolution gives you a bit of healing.

King Bible, slow early but better later on. Especially when you evolve it. With the right passives the enemies wont be able to touch you ever. And if you combine it with Santa Water then you're pretty invincible except against bosses.

Santa Water, slow early as well but enemies will die fast later on as you can stand still with it's evolution. You can also stand on the circles as you move around with them for extra protection.

I suggest using Garlic with either of the other two weapons mentioned so it's easier for you a bit. After you've gotten better then use King Bible and Santa Water. Later on you won't need defensive weapons as you master the attack weapons and your movement.

Personally I take just King Bible, it synergizes a lot with the passive items I use as usually I build for projectiles. So duplicator, bracers, spinach, candelabrador, empty tome and spell binder. Other weapons I use is Magic Wand, Axes, Fire Wand, sometimes lightning ring, runetracer or cross.

[assgoblin86]

It's hard until you start unlocking permanent upgrades. Go for amount first then revival. They're expensive and require some grinding but they're easily the most useful/powerful

[Vudak]

I remember reaching a point probably around the 13-15minute mark in my first hours of playing where there seems to be a point I just couldnt keep up in damage output, through either me trying things and evolving a weapon or maybe unlocking some of the upgrades or characters I managed to get over that peak and I never really had any difficulty again after that, just a lot of fun testing stuff / mixing and matching / exploring.

You will likely make it past your little roadblock naturally - might just feel like you're treading water a bit, if you feel REALLY stuck - then i'm sure people could tell you what sort of build to aim for. I can't help but feel thats a bit against the fun of the game though, outside of a small video i saw on youtube - I went into the game blind and revelled in chipping away at the games mysteries.

[prudenut]

Just get more permanent upgrades and relics and try out diff characters. Most of the weap evos are good, except for garlic.

[Hawk]

I've since beaten Mad Forest and came within ten seconds of beating the Factory before I couldn't keep enemies off me any longer. What I think has helped is instead just grabbing whatever I like the most I've been trying to focus on the evolution's. Something like Brotato has synergies but nothing like Evo's (afaik) and I think that was tripping me up. It feels like by the end of a VS run you need the evolution's just to keep enemies off you.

[AN]

Before you break the game the important thing is to hit certain timings where you have a tool that will allow you to beat wave you are about to hit. The progress through each match is very choppy, especially on the very first map where you are relatively exp starved and there are a few waves you're meant ot mostly dodge instead of kill and get stronger from.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Garlic and pummarola will help for a new player, the former reduces knockback resistance and the latter gives health regen and is the evolution item for garlic. Combined you get Soul Eater which has a bit of life steal when it kills someone, and destroys the skeleton wave with ease.

Empty Tome is useful in every build and seeing as you have access to the library should be obtainable.

The King Bible has high knockback and at the same level as garlic will be slightly inside the garlic's AOE, great for keeping mobs back but not so much for killing them.

Eventually you won't need either Garlic or King Bible once you figure out which evolved weapons you like and work well with each other.

[botjockey]

Try to get the relics and/or coffins on each level. Once you unlock Power-Ups on the title screen, level those up. Look at online guides for what item combination unlocks advanced weapons, once you pick up the Grim Grimoire you'll be able to reference the unlocked combinations on the pause screen.
Use the Unlocks menu on the title screen to figure out what you need to do to fill the Collection.

Good luck!