From the moment you start Vampire Survivors, the odds are stacked against you. Sure, a whip does a great job in smashing through a pesky bat, but once the battlefield is crawling with werewolves, vampires, and skeleton warriors, you’re going to need a more powerful arsenal at your disposal.

To equip yourself for the escalating threat, you’ll come across numerous weapons that can be upgraded and combined with handy items to form powerful tools for dealing with supernatural foes. With several of them equipped, you’ll go from plucky adventurer to a walking storm of metal, curses, and magic who can annihilate anything that gets close to you. Here’s how weapon evolutions work in Vampire Survivors.

How many weapons can you hold?

You’ll be able to have up to six different weapons equipped on your character, as well as six different upgrade items. Remember, each weapon has its own unique strengths, so you’ll want a mix of them to help you create a versatile offense for the legions of enemies that you’ll encounter. Each weapon can also be upgraded to deal more damage and have longer-lasting effects on the battlefield, with these items maxing out at level 8.

Upgrading a weapon requires leveling up your character by collecting gems from defeated enemies, and tougher foes will drop a treasure chest that can also randomly level your death-dealing tool up for you.

How to evolve weapons

The first thing you’re going to want to do is max-out your weapon and obtain the level 8 version as you level up. Next, you’re going to want to have the item that synergizes with that particular weapon, such as the Hollow Heart for the whip or the Duplicator for the Lightning ring. With a maxed-out weapon and the corresponding item–it doesn’t need to be leveled up all the way–you can then focus on a boss monster, defeat it, and grab the treasure chest that it leaves behind.

This will evolve your weapon into its more powerful form, and you’ll still retain the item that helped you transform it. It’s worth noting that these specific chests only drop after 10 minutes, so you’ll need to be quick on your feet as you survive the waves of enemies. If you have multiple weapons that are ready to be evolved, chests will randomly select which weapon gets upgraded to its final form.

Evolved Weapons

Bloody Tear

One of the first evolved weapons that you’ll unlock, Bloody Tear slashes through enemies in a wide horizontal arc, dealing high damage and stealing health that’ll flow right back to you.

• Base weapon: Whip
• Item: Hollow Heart

Holy Wand

The Wand is a useful item to keep nearby enemies at bay, but this upgrade drastically reduces its cooldown period, increases projectile speed, and fires a stream of magic missiles at the closest enemy.

• Base weapon: Magic Wand
• Item: Empty Tome

Thousand Edge

Now that’s a torrent of knives! Thousand Edge is essentially a forward-facing shield of knives that’ll continue firing, blasting enemies with a neverending barrage of blades.

• Base weapon: Knife
• Item: Bracer

Death Spiral

From a few axes to an expanding circle of scythes, Death Spiral does big damage in a massive expanding radius around you.

• Base weapon: Axe
• Item: Candelabrador

Heaven Sword

Not deviating too much from Cross, Heaven Sword hurls powerful blades at enemies and then ricochets backward to deal more damage to enemies in the rear. It has high speed, can knock enemies back, and has a short base cooldown period.

• Base weapon: Cross
• Item: Clover

Unholy Vespers

The King Bible creates a useful shield when its active, but Unholy Vespers keeps that defense running constantly. It has high speed that can shred through any foes who walk into it and it covers a wide area around your hero.

• Base weapon: King Bible
• Item: Spellbinder

Hellfire

Fire Wand evolves into a weapon of mass destruction when it becomes Hellfire, as you’ll be able to fire several flaming meteors around you with this powerful tool.

• Base weapon: Fire Wand
• Item: Spinach

Soul Eater

Garlic is useful for keeping cannon fodder enemies at bay, but with Soul Eater, you’ll get a smelly field that saps combatants of life and transfers that health directly to your character.

• Base weapon: Garlic
• Item: Pummarola

La Borra

The only thing better than a battlefield drenched in holy water, is a battlefield drenched in sentient holy water that’ll follow you around and burn anything in your path with its sacred liquids.

• Base weapon: Santa Water
• Item: Attract Orb

No Future

Runetracer becomes an absolute menace at higher levels, but No Future turns it into a force of nature. It’ll still do damage as it passes through enemies, but there’ll be an explosive reaction on these runes whenever they bounce around the screen.

• Base weapon: Runetracer
• Item: Armor

Thunder Loop

Great for keeping the outer perimeter clear, Thunder Loop proves that lightning can strike twice and with devastating precision to boot.

• Base weapon: Lightning Ring
• Item: Duplicator

Gorgeous Moon

One of the most powerful and useful weapons around, Gorgeous Moon clears the stage of any visible enemies and collects every gem in sight for a quick resource refuel. It has a long cooldown, but you can shorten it with Empty Tome and character upgrades.

• Base weapon: Pentagram
• Item: Crown

Vicious Hunger

For the player looking to turn a horde of angry cats into a powerful weapon that also generates gold, Vicious Hunger is the perfect tool for the job.

• Base weapon: Gatti Amari
• Item: Stone Mask

Mannajja

Mannajja changes Song of Mana’s shape, transforming its vertical area of effect to a more well-rounded circle of pulsing circles that do big damage and slows down any enemies within range.

• Base weapon: Song of Mana
• Item: Skull O’Maniac

Valkyrie Turner

If Hellfire isn’t enough to satisfy your pyromaniac desires, Valkyrie Tuner will add extra heat to your arsenal by allowing you to leave trails of high-damage flames behind you.

• Base weapon: Shadow Pinion
• Item: Wings

Ashes of Muspell

Another great weapon that targets anything chasing you, Ashes of Muspell generates a burst of black flames in your wake.

• Base weapon: Flames of Misspell
• Item: Torrona’s Box (max level)

Infinite Corridor

While Infinite Corridor doesn’t do any damage, its ability to fire piercing beams that freeze enemies around you makes it incredibly useful when the screen gets overpopulated. It’s other ability halves the health of enemies after it has done a full rotation of 12 strikes, setting them up for a quick death.

• Base weapon: Clock Lancet
• Items: Silver Ring and Gold Ring

Crimson Shroud

You’ll need to level both Metaglio items to get this handy item, but once you have it, you’ll be an indestructible warrior who can deal damage back to enemies whenever Crimson Shroud’s special ability activates.

• Items: Laurel, Metaglio Left, and Metaglio Right

Phieraggi

Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight The Sparrow help create a four-way spread of attacks with high-speed projectiles, but the evolved form of these weapons covers all bases. Depending on your items, you’ll be able to unleash a constant spread of lasers that penetrate walls and enemies, and each revival makes the weapon more powerful.

• Base weapons: Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight The Sparrow
• Item: Tiragisu (Must be obtained before Phiera Der Tuphello)

Sole Solution

There’s a universe inside all of us, and in Vampire Survivors, that potential can be realized with Sole Solution as it sends all enemies on screen towards cosmic oblivion.

• Base weapon: Victory Sword
• Item: Torrona’s Box

Vandalier

Anything caught in Vandalier’s two bombing circles is essentially a goner, as this explosive bird is more than happy to carpet-bomb anything around you.

• Base weapons: Peachone and Ebony Wings

Fuwalafuwaloo

An evolved form of an evolved weapon alongside the handy Vento Sacro, this weapon union fills the screen with high-speed whip slashes that cut through enemies and transfer health back to your character. Even better, it’ll cause explosions with each critical hit.

• Base weapons: Vento Sacro and Bloody Tear

Vampire Survivors recently went into its 1.0 version. Here’s everything that’s new.