How to Use the Vampire Survivors Secrets Guide Without Ruining the Game

You’ve seen the "Secrets" button. It’s sitting there on the main menu, mocking you with a list of cryptic, riddle-like clues that look like they were written by a sleep-deprived monk in the 14th century. Most players ignore it for the first ten hours. Then, the wall hits. You can't survive past 20 minutes in the Dairy Plant, and you're wondering why everyone on Reddit is talking about a ghost named Exdash or a tree that throws souls.

Vampire Survivors isn't just a "bullet heaven" game. It’s a massive, layered puzzle box. Using a vampire survivors secrets guide is basically a rite of passage at this point because, honestly, who is going to figure out that you need to teleport into a mirror in the Gallo Tower without help? Nobody. That’s who.

The game is built on hidden mechanics. Poncle, the developer, loves hiding things behind specific character choices or literal leaps of faith. If you want to see everything the game has to offer—including the bizarre "directer" fight and the myriad of secret characters—you have to embrace the weirdness.

The Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane: Your Gateway to Everything

Before you can even start ticking off the secret list, you need the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane. You get these by killing the Sketamari in the Bone Zone. It's a giant ball of bones that rolls around, growing larger as it absorbs enemies. It’s annoying. It’s tanky. But once it’s dead, you get the "Spells" menu. This is the official vampire survivors secrets guide built directly into the UI.

Once you have the scrolls, you can enter "Cheat Codes," but that's the boring way to do it. The real fun is solving the riddles. Each solved riddle unlocks a unique character, often with stats that break the game’s balance in hilarious ways. Take Leda, for example. You find her by walking south in the Gallo Tower for what feels like an eternity. The screen gets darker. The music fades. It feels like a creepypasta. Suddenly, you’re fighting a giant, grey version of a character you thought was friendly. That's the vibe of this game—it rewards the players who are willing to walk into the dark.

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Navigating the Weirdest Character Unlocks

Most people get stuck on the "ghosts." There are three of them: Exdash, Toastie, and Smith IV. Unlocking them is a nightmare of keyboard inputs and timing. To get Toastie, you have to kill a Stalker or Drowner (the green or blue deaths) and then hit the down arrow and the Enter key at the exact moment he pops up on the screen. It's janky. It’s old-school. It’s exactly why people love this game.

Then there’s Boon Marrabbio. To get him, you have to follow a trail of floor chickens in the Mad Forest after picking up the Skull O'Maniac and Pummarola. If you miss a chicken, you’re done. You’re literally following a breadcrumb trail of fried poultry to fight a shadowy figure.

Why Secrets Matter for Progression

You might think, "Why do I need 50 characters when I only use Gennaro?"

The answer is the Queen Sigma unlock. She is the ultimate goal, the god-tier character that makes you feel like the boss of the game rather than a victim. To get her, you have to complete the entire Collection. Every item. Every evolution. Every secret. You cannot reach the "end" of the game without engaging with these hidden layers.

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• Peppino: The tree character. You unlock him by healing plants in Il Molise with Celestial Dusting. It’s peaceful. It’s weird.
• Gains Boros: A dragon shrimp that scales with growth. You find him in the tiny flower patch in The Bone Zone.
• Mask of the Red Death: The first "big" secret. You have to actually kill Death at the 30-minute mark. Back in the day, we had to use the "clique" method with the Infinite Corridor and Crimson Shroud. Now, it’s a standard part of the late-game loop.

The Stage Secrets You’re Probably Missing

It isn't just about the characters. The stages themselves have hidden zones. In the Inlaid Library, if you walk far enough to the right, you find the Stone Mask. To the left? The Empty Tome. But if you have the vampire survivors secrets guide knowledge, you know that certain stages change entirely under specific conditions.

In the Eudaimonia M. stage, you meet the Producer. He asks if the game was too easy or too hard. Your choice determines which relic you get—the Gracia's Mirror (Inverse Mode) or the Seventh Trumpet (Endless Mode). You eventually need both to unlock the final boss. This isn't just "content"; it's a meta-narrative about the player's relationship with the game's difficulty.

How to Handle the "Inverse" Grind

Inverse mode flips the stages upside down and gives enemies a massive health boost. It’s brutal. But it also gives you a 200% gold bonus. If you’re trying to buy all the PowerUps, you need to live in Inverse mode. Use characters like Big Trouser who scale with greed. He's a secret character himself, unlocked by leaving Moongolow with all 16 passive items leveled to max. It’s a test of patience more than skill.

Practical Steps for Completionists

If you’re staring at a half-empty secrets menu, don't just bash your head against the wall. Strategy matters.

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First, focus on getting the Yellow Sign. You find this in the Holy Forbidden after finishing the Moongolow lunar eclipse event. The Yellow Sign reveals hidden items on every map—the Silver Ring, Gold Ring, Metaglio Left, and Metaglio Right. These are the components for the two most powerful evolutions in the game: the Infinite Corridor and the Crimson Shroud. Without these, killing Death is almost impossible for a standard player.

Second, learn the "maps." Every secret character that requires "walking in a direction" is usually easier if you have the Milky Way Map (found in the Dairy Plant). It puts a guide on your pause screen.

Third, don't sleep on Arcanas. Specifically, "Mad Groove" (Arcana VIII). It pulls all items, stage pickups, and even some secret triggers directly to your character every two minutes. It saves you miles of walking in the Gallo Tower or the Library.

The Reality of the "Final" Secret

The game doesn't really end. Even after you defeat the Directer and the credits roll, Poncle keeps adding "Apocrypha" and DLC secrets. If you own the Legacy of the Moonspell or Tides of the Foscari DLCs, the secrets double. You’ll be looking for hidden caves in Mt. Moonspell or breaking seals in the Abyss Foscari.

The secret to enjoying this game is realizing that the wiki is your friend. There is no shame in looking up the "Spell" codes if a riddle makes no sense. The game is designed to be a community effort, where players share findings and discover that, yes, you really do have to stand in a zone for exactly 30 seconds while being bombarded by jellyfish.

Your Secret Hunter Checklist

1. Kill the Sketamari in the Bone Zone immediately. You need that secret menu to track your progress.
2. Unlock the Yellow Sign by following the path in Holy Forbidden. It’s a one-shot level; if you fail, you just restart it.
3. Focus on Evolutions. You can't unlock secret characters if you can't survive the 30-minute mark. Prioritize the King Bible (Vespers) and the Garlic (Soul Eater) early on for safety.
4. Use the Map. Always pick up the stage relic first. It marks the secret items on your HUD, making the hunt significantly less frustrating.
5. Check the "Unlocks" menu. People often forget this exists. It literally tells you the next logical step in your progression. If you're lost, that's your compass.

Get the Infinite Corridor as soon as you can. It halves the health of every enemy on screen every time it fires. It’s the only way to reliably "clean up" the screen when you're hunting for those deep-stage secrets in the final minutes of a run. Success in this game isn't about fast reflexes; it's about preparation and knowing exactly where the game is hiding its next trick. Once you've cleared the secrets list, the game changes from a survival horror into a power fantasy where you are the bullet hell.