Vampire Survivors Releases Free Space Update
Highlights
- Vampire Survivors update 1.9 is now available for download free of charge.
- The patch introduces new characters, weapons, and a bonus stage named Space 54, as well as 7 extra achievements and some other changes.
- Vampire Survivors is expected to receive plenty more updates throughout 2024.
Vampire Survivors update 1.9 is now available for download across all of the game’s target platforms. The latest version of Vampire Survivors introduces several new characters, some additional weaponry, and even a bonus stage, among other changes.
Developed by Luca “Poncle” Galante, Vampire Survivors is an award-winning roguelike shooter that took the world by storm following its early access launch in December 2021. Over the following two years, the game received 35 patches, the vast majority of which exclusively consisted of free content. Prior to this newly introduced version, the last such release was Vampire Survivors update 1.8, launched in December 2023.
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Back in January, Poncle revealed he would build on the space theme from the previous patch with Vampire Survivors update 1.9, titled Space 54. That free release has now rolled out to PC, console, and mobile users in late February. Space 54 introduces eight additional achievements to the Steam version of the game, while all the other platforms get seven. The discrepancy is on account of the “EXTRA: Adventures” achievement that originally rolled out as part of the 1.8 Adventures update in December but had skipped Steam on that occasion.
The 1.9 patch also expands the Vampire Survivors character roster with two new survivors: Space Dude and Bat Robbert. The former is a fast fighter who starts with Phas3r, an energy weapon that can be evolved into Photonstorm by using an Empty Tome. Space Dude’s special ability allows him to ignore weapon Cooldowns every couple of seconds, which is a useful tool for maintaining mayhem.
Meanwhile, Bat Robbert is a bit slower and less squishy character who starts with Pako Battiliar, a bat-summoning weapon that can be evolved into Mazo Familiar with the help of a Hollow Heart. Bat Robbert’s special ability is all about survivability, as he’ll automatically recover one-third of his health and even get a max HP boost whenever he falls below 20% health. This talent isn’t tied to the Cooldown stat but recharges each time Bat Robbert fully heals himself.
Vampire Survivors update 1.9 also introduces a new bonus stage that the patch itself was named after. Space 54 is described as a conventional bonus level full of “odd enemies” and valuable items. Poncle has advised players who find the level’s design to be a bit too much to try using the Disable Moving Background option to make Space 54’s visuals a bit less nausea-inducing. This is far from the only patch that the roguelike shooter is set to receive in 2024, with Poncle recently teasing a cryptic Vampire Survivors Chaos Roadmap spanning the entirety of this year and beyond.
Vampire Survivors Update 1.9.0 Patch Notes
New Content Overview
- 7 new achievements
- 8 for Steam users, who are now also getting the Adventures achievement for obtaining the Atlas Gate from the previous patch.
- 1 new bonus stage
- 2 new characters
- 4 new weapons (2 starting weapons + 2 evolutions)
- 1 new relic
- Bug fixes and optimizations
The rest of the changelog contains gameplay spoilers.
Quick Content Walkthrough
- The Bat Stuff
- Defeat a total of 161616 bats, from any stage, to unlock the Pako Battiliar weapon.
- Evolve Pako Battiliar using Max level Hollow Heart to unlock the Bat Robbert character.
- The Space Stuff
- Collect 5 Gold Fingers to unlock Space 54 (enter and exit a run if you’ve already got enough)
- Pickup the Phas3r weapon in Space 54, get it to level 7, and evovle it using Max level Empty Tome.
- At minute 18 in Space 54, locate and collect the Brave Story relic.
- Survive 20 minutes in Space 54 to unlock the Space Dude character.
Cross-Save Now In Public Beta
Available on the Steam public-beta branch and on Android public beta (FAQ here)! Please send us any feedback about the feature, it’s very delicate since we’re talking about save-data, so we’ll take all the help we can get to make sure it’s solid.
Please also let us know if there’s any other service you could find useful. We’ve been investigating cross-platform-DLC (so buy in one place, play anywhere) but it’s the biggest bureaucratic can of worms ever; so, not being a technical problem, I’m honestly not too hopeful we’ll be able to get it done (if you follow gaming news then you probably know very well how protective certain platforms are of any paid content).
Full Content Spoilers
- Stage: Space 54
- Plain bonus stage with plenty of items and odd enemies. Walls stop blocking movement at minute 11:00.
- Might be a bit strong visually, so if it’s bothering you please make sure to see if checking the “Disable Moving Background” makes it better!
- Relic: Brave Story
- Allows to choose Random Level Up choices in Stage Selection. Currently selectable only before starting a run. This will let you try do to runs in which the RNG picks weapons for you when leveling up, good luck!
- Weapon: Phas3r & Photonstorm
- Can be picked up in Space 54, and unlocked for every other run by levelling it up to Level 7. For the base version, Area only affects size horizontally. The evolution fires at least x2 projectiles than the base version, occasionally x5 when dealing a critical hit.
- Weapon: Pako Battiliar & Mazo Familiar
- Can be unlocked anytime just by killing A LOT of bats, across any amount of runs. It fires additional times when the owner receives damage or loses a shield. The evolution fires more projectiles and deals bonus damage depending on the current Max Health bonus of the owner.
- New Character: Space Dude
- Fast character that starts with Phas3r.
- Has a special ability that fires all weapons regardless of their Cooldown every few seconds. The cooldown of this ability is affected by the Cooldown stat.
- New Character: Bat Robbert
- Slightly tanky character that starts with Pako Battiliar.
- Has a special ability: when falling below 20% health, he gains +16 MaxHP (max +400) and recovers 30% health. This ability recharges every time the character is fully healed.
Vampire Survivors
Luca Galante’s wildly popular roguelike indie game Vampire Survivors boasts a retro-arcade look and intense gameplay, in which players must survive against a horde of enemies for as long as possible. Players can unlock characters and earn upgrades during their run through the game’s increasingly challenging levels.
- Released
- December 17, 2021
- Developer(s)
- Luca Galante
- Publisher(s)
- Luca Galante
- Genre(s)
- Roguelike
- How Long To Beat
- 6 Hours
- X|S Enhanced
- No
- File Size Xbox Series
- 1 GB (November 2023)
- Metascore
- 95
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified