Vampire Survivors Character Spotlight: Imelda

a overview of Imelda with some observations and tips to help play her

The Stats

Imelda's most important stat is Growth. Every five levels, she gains 10% up to 30% when she hits level 15. With the Crown, her Growth can reach 80%. This allows her to gain levels faster then other characters until The Queen is unlocked, and even then she needs eighty levels to match Imelda in the Growth department.

The Weapon

Imelda uses the Magic Wand. It fires blue bolts at the closest target then targets the next closest target. It has eight levels and is great support weapon as it gains damage (20 to base damage), more bolts (three of them), and a little cooldown (and I mean a little at 0.2 seconds).
Evolving the Magic Wand, with Empty Tome, turns it into the Holy Wand and it turns Imelda into a roaming turret unloading streams of blue bolts. This allows Imelda breathing room as she levels up her weapon and passives while removing the need to target enemies coming her way.

Why and why not (pros and cons)

Why Imelda?
Imelda is very good for people wanting to speed up getting their builds up and running. The Magic Wand provides so much support for any build one wants for her that keeping Magic Wand leveled along with the rest of the build will only help it get completed faster along with her Growth bonus.
Why not Imelda?
Due to how enemies swarm to your character, she can get overwhelmed quickly early on. And the Magic Wand works best with some distance between Imelda and what is being shot at while other weapons give her the breathing room to do Imelda's thing, which is gain experience.
And the Magic Wand is a bit confusing till you figure out what stats affect it indirectly (Area/Might/Speed if you're wondering). Duration is right out.

How to get

Imelda is the second character most people get. She's unlocked for ten gold.

Tips and builds

Tips
Try to level Magic Wand along whatever weapons you want in a build to keep them equal. The Magic Wand is a workhorse of a support weapon and shouldn't be left behind as you work on your build. Speeding up your leveling can be accelerated with the Crown (added 50% Growth) and Endless Tome (40% cooldown).

Machine Gun build
Weapons: Knife, Bible, Lighting Ring, Rune Chaser, Fire Wand
Passives: Empty Tome, Bracer, Spellbinder (one level if Banish has been unlocked), Duplicator, Spinach
The Machine Gun build pumps up Magic Wand's amount and projectile speed so Imelda achieves victory by filling the area she's fighting in with lead. Endless Tome reduces the cool down, all weapons firing more often, while Bracer speeds up the killing of enemies as Duplicator gives more shots fired as well. Bible adds a great defense, as when leveled, it gains speed/amount/area with some duration tossed in for good measure. one level of Spellbinder is all that's needed to evolve Bible into Unholy Vespers, so banish it at level 2 so Bible/Rune Chaser/Fire Wand aren't sticking around longer, slowing the build down

Bomb Bombs Bombs build
Weapons: Santa Water, Rune Chaser, Cherry Bomb or Bible, Ax, Pentagram
Passives: Empty Tome, Attractorb, Armor, Candelabra, Crown, Bracer
Bombs Bombs Bombs let Imelda just blow EVERYTHING up, as it has a least four weapons that bomb the area around Imelda while Magic Wand provides cover between explosions. If you haven't unlocked Cavallo or the merchant yet, use Bible in place of Cherry Bomb, giving more defense for the build. Make sure to level Pentagram ASAP. Pentagram's notorious for wiping experience AND elite chests. but when it hits Level 8, that chance is greatly reduced. And evolving Pentagram brings the Gorgeous Moon, which helps in both enemy clearing and experience gathering. And Ax really shines when evolved into Death Spiral, which acts like a fragmentation bomb centered on Imelda and Santa Water becomes La Borra. With La Borra Shuffling, Imelda becomes pretty much untouchable while No Future and Cherry Bomb clear groups outside of La Borra

In conclusion

I'm a bit partial to Imelda. I used her to unlock everything in the game and I've tried every major build with her. And for a long time, she was considered THE leveling character till people figured out how valuable Curse was for leveling builds and Lama stepped into that spot. She can still level with the best of them and she makes very good use of her Growth for builds focused on her.
Though other characters have pushed the leveling gain beyond what Imelda brought to the table, those builds can easily be fitted to her and she's still a lot of fun if you want to just hose down everything that looks at her sideways with the Magic/Holy Wand. And few weapons support builds like Imelda and the Magic Wand do. She may not hit the hardest or is the fastest, she is quite the work horse and will help any run you want to do.

Thumbnail art made by Red Claw

[Cuthla]

Floofy Blooper, thanks. I went back and fixed it.

[Floofy Booper]

I believe the first passive in the Bombs Bombs Bombs build is actually called Empty Tome, not Endless Tome

[Cuthla]

Vermillsix, it does. also affects Fire Wand as well. but all the other weapons work better with less Duration. Fire Wand and Runechaser are in the build to soften up enemies coming in and to get them firing more often to take advantage of the power they bring

[Vermilisix]

You probably don't need to banish Spellbinder for the machine gun build. Duration affects Runetracer.

[Cuthla]

glad I could help. Imelda's a lot of fun, IMHO.

[Deafgentleman]

Thank you so much!! Your words got me buying it lol