Vampire Survivors update rolls out new dark arcanas, but the best part is a retired guy in his rocking chair

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The latest Vampire Survivors update has dropped a decent stack of new stuff to do, focusing on five new Arcana cards to activate that'll give you strange new ways to play the game. Most of the update focuses around a new challenge stage and the aforementioned new arcanas—the Darkanas.

The Darkasso update includes nine new achievements, a new challenge stage, a new relic, two new character skins, and five new arcanas. Poncle notes that the five new arcanas are "considered experimental and subject to change."

The new character skins are a new kind of "special skins" that in addition to changing appearances also alter their base character's stats and weapons. They're rewards for completing the two base game Adventure modes once—if you've already done that just open the menu.

The Darkanas sound kind of hysterical: One makes you spit out exploding projectiles every time you take damage, and the amount of health you've recovered over the run increases the damage of the projectiles. Love to take damage on purpose.

The prior big update to Vampire Survivors was Operation Guns, a straight-up crossover with Contra that's as silly and enjoyable as it sounds. There are rideable jetbikes.

You can find more about the Vampire Survivors Darkasso update on Steam. That's also where you can find the instructions on how to unlock all the new stuff.

Vampire Survivors is a ridiculous, purposefully lo-fi and absurd roguelike about building combos of silly weapons to mow down waves of stupid looking monsters, none of which are vampires. It was our Best Roguelike of 2022, and got an 87% review. Surely, by now, most of you have played it, since it only costs $5.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.