Vampire Survivors Character Spotlight: Bayo-.... er.... Pugnala

a overview of Bayo-.. Pugna.... the hot witch character YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!! and some tips to help play her

The Stats

all joking aside, Pugnala starts with +20% Movespeed. That makes her one of the faster characters, Red Death still easily beats her, but her Movespeed affords Pugnala very good mobility. but where her real strength lies is with her other stat of choice. Might. Pugnala gains 1% Might every time she levels. this leads to a 'snowball' effect as she levels up, just getting stronger and stronger as she don't have a cap on her Might gain. because of this, Pugnala is potentially one of the strongest characters in the game, her Movespeed and Might allowing her to level quickly. that said, she does have a bit of a weak starting game due to.....

The Weapons

Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight The Sparrow are a bit of a misleading pair of 'weapons', as when fired, the animation clearly shows her firing off a red and blue bullet in each diagonal direction. but Pugnala is really just using four guns. she just fires them REALLY fast. leveling both of Pugnala's weapons is a bit of a pain, as both have eight levels and aren't the hardest hitting weapons. but they make up for it with Amount, Pierce, and Projectile Speed as they level. at eight, both will be doing +10 to base damage, +50% Projectile Speed, +2 to Amount, and +6 to Pierce. with her Movespeed and increasing Might, Pugnala lays down a impressive suppression fire as the run goes on.
for your effort of leveling Pugnala's weapons, with Tiragisu, you can evolve them into Phieraggi, as well as opening up a weapon slot. you lose all the red and blue bullets and get in their place four lasers that rotate clockwise around Pugnala, firing in a pulse pattern with a good chunk of Pierce backing them up, +7, but leaving a small area around her open. now that's the base amount of lasers fired off. with each revive you have, another laser is added. with just Tiragisu, Pugnala will have six going. the more Revives, the more lasers pulsing off, maxing out at ten. with Endless Tome, the pulsing can be reduced till the lasers are constant. and it can be done just by maxing out Endless Tome. get some Area going as well and you'll have a pretty impressive light show that mows through enemies decently, with tanker enemies being the only ones that stand a chance to reach Pugnala at the center as Phieraggi strips HP off them like Pugnala is peeling a orange.

Why and why not (pros and cons)

Why Pugnala?
pure and simply, Might. Pugnala is one of the first characters to have a growing stat. it being Might. her weapons, and any Might based weapon, become powerhouse weapons as she levels. coupled with her Movespeed, Pugnala handles pretty much any run, except Inverse, very well even with not being as tanky as some of the other characters. Pugnala also introduced people to skip leveling. where one uses up their skips to gain some extra levels, and therefore, extra stats for characters that gain a percentage every time they level. try it with The Queen on a Wicked Season Inverse run sometime.
Why not Pugnala?
for everything Pugnala brings to the table, she has a pretty bad starting game. her weapons each have five starting base damage. and with them firing diagonally, she's pretty open to attack from the other directions on top of her having to be mobile not only for avoiding enemies, but to make sure her line of fire is on them as well. plus it takes a bit to evolve her weapons, both needing to be at level eight as well as getting Tiragisu, which can be a bit of a RNG crap shoot now with VS having two expansions under its' belt. and even with Phieraggi, the pulsing way it fires off does let enemies work their way to Pugnala. and if they get past her firepower, they're open to attack freely cause of the small zone around her not covered by her evolved weapon. that last one is a small thing. but worth keeping in mind if luck isn't on your side and you haven't got the weapons you want for your build yet

How to get

Pugnala is one of the first 'coffin' characters to be found. her coffin can be found in the northeast corner of the Mad Forrest stage. it is possible to find it on your own, but getting the Milky Way Map will help you out a lot, as it marks her coffin's location on the map with a question mark. it's guarded by gargoyle looking enemies that are pretty tough and I think you have to fight, but don't quote me on that. I got Pugnala a while ago and can't remember if I had to fight them or not.
when found and collected, Pugnala can be unlocked for 1000 gold before scaling
I normally don't include the Forbidden Spells of Morbane. they're kind of a cop out in my opinion. but I'll include this one cause I find it humorous. the spell to unlock Pugnala is "flymetothemoon'

Tips and builds

Tips
skip level Pugnala once you get her to about level ten, as it will help get her some extra Might, which she needs due to her weapons low damage. it won't be much, but that extra xp and Might she gains will give her a little bit of a leg up and allow for faster build picks. Endless Tome is a must get for passives if you want to evolve her weapons. getting Phieraggi to be constantly going off don't take much, as hopefully you have the Cooldown Power-Up maxed by the time you get her, and the overall damage the lasers do is very nice to keep enemies at bay during a run

FRICKIN' LASER BEAMS!!!!! build
Weapons: Runechaser, four weapons of your choice
Passives: Armor, Duplicator, Tiragisu, three passives of your choice
this build... :P this build is so lazy. but it is fun, as the name suggests, it relies on evolving the guns and Runecharser so Pugnala is running around laying waste to the run. it also makes her a bit tougher as she'll be Armored up while you pick up whatever else you want for the build

No hiding from me build
Weapons: Fire Wand, Garlic, Santa Water, Shadow Servant (requires Tides of the Foscari to unlock, sub in Magic Wand if you haven't unlocked it yet), after evolving guns: Song Of Mana
Passives: Attractorb, Endless Tome, Pummarola, Skull O'Maniac, Spinach, Tiragisu, pick up Silver Ring
Arcanas: Awake, Boogaloo Of Illusions, Chaos In the Dark Night
as the name suggests, Pugnala is hunting down the run instead of trying to survive it. All of the weapons used pretty much benefit from Pugnala's growing Might. with Boogaloo and Chaos, she gains two more growing stats on top of her Might to add to the sheer amount of carnage she'll be dishing out. when fully evolved, there won't be a corner anywhere Pugnala goes that isn't a damaging zone or that even bosses can withstand for very long. just try not to get killed before then. any lost Revives hurts Pugnal's overall damage from Phieraggi. but there is some slack if that happens as everything else should have massive Area, Speed, and Might allowing for a few mistakes to be had here and there

In Conclusion

all the Bayonetta comparisons that came after Pugnala was released didn't stop her from becoming a solid pick to run. with her growing Might making her a very versatile choice, it's no wonder she was used for level runs as she can keep going forever, as long as she can keep ahead of the scaling health of enemies as the run progresses. being a fun character don't hurt as well when you can go in and just mow down everything in her path even before she gets a evolved weapon.
yep. someone handed her the +5 flaming acid spitting sword of pettiness only for her to drop it on the ground with a "How drool." then head onto the battlefield to show people how it's done.
"Let's dance, boys!"


Pugnala thumbnail art done by 서희_ seohui

[Cuthla]

thanks for the comment, PaperPal. and I do play around with Gemini as well. it's just fun to double up of firepower. but only if you're not going to evolve the guns. as her greatest strength is with she gets them evolved and has other weapons allowing Pugnala to be a A.O.E. beast. as for her running Gemini, getting Pugnala both Iron Blue Will and Waltz of Pearls allows bouncing goodness. just be mindful of the Area. Pugnala can easily lag a run out with enough Area

[PaperPal]

A great write up and a much appreciated one! There are a lot of characters in this game that can be hard to figure out, and guides like this are vital.
I think you should mention how she benefits from the Gemini Arcana as well, which doubles her guns so she has 8 in the early game, and keeps the 4 extra guns as backup damage in case anyone gets too close after evolution. I like to do a full Gemini build as well with her, and load her up with other weapons that have twins, like the birds. You're more likely to hit the lag cap before you die with her in a Gemini build, haha!

[Cuthla]

Dupe isn't needed for "No hiding from me". you want to Evolve the guns as soon as you can as their damage pales in comparison to Phieraggi. between the power-up giving one, Tiragisu giving two, and Awake giving 3, Pugnala will hit Phieraggi's max of ten lasers. Dupe still helps out with the other weapons and the guns before Evolve. but you wan to get to the lasers so Pugnala isn't hampered by the X firing pattern of the guns

[Color]

Just a note, Phieraggi also scales with Amount, so Duplicator is good to snag, especially for getting more projectile out of Tuphello and Sparrow before you evo