10 Games Like Vampire Survivors That Will Eat Your Free Time

Vampire Survivors turned the entire gaming world upside down. A solo developer, a $3 price tag, and a deceptively simple formula: walk into monsters, collect gems, pick upgrades, survive. No complex inputs. No demanding mechanical skill. Just pure dopamine as your character evolves from a helpless wanderer into a screen-clearing force of nature. The genre it spawned, often called “bullet heaven” or “survivors-like,” has exploded since poncle’s breakout hit first appeared in 2022.

With Vampire Crawlers, poncle’s official spin-off, launching on April 21, there has never been a better time to explore what the bullet heaven genre has to offer. Whether you have played Vampire Survivors to death or just discovered it, these 10 games capture the same magic while adding their own twists.

1. Brotato

Developer: Blobfish | Released: 2023 | Price: $4.99

Brotato takes the survivors-like formula and cranks the absurdity to eleven. You play as a potato. You can wield up to six weapons at once. And instead of continuous waves, each round lasts about 20 seconds before dumping you into a shop where you buy weapons, stats, and items.

That shop phase changes everything. Every run becomes a tightly designed build puzzle. Do you stack six copies of the same weapon for insane scaling? Spread across weapon types for versatility? Go all in on a single stat like attack speed or crit? The 62 unlockable characters each push you toward wildly different strategies, and the short round structure means a full run takes about 20 minutes. Perfect for “just one more” sessions.

If Vampire Survivors is a slow snowball, Brotato is a controlled avalanche from minute one.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: Same horde-killing dopamine, faster pace, deeper itemization, and a shop system that makes every decision feel impactful.

2. 20 Minutes Till Dawn

Developer: flanne | Released: 2023 | Price: $4.99

What if Vampire Survivors asked you to actually aim? 20 Minutes Till Dawn answers that question with a Lovecraftian survival roguelite where you manually shoot your weapon while dodging increasingly dense swarms of eldritch nightmares. It is the closest thing to a “hardcore” Vampire Survivors.

The upgrade system here is phenomenal. You pick abilities on level up that combine into builds far more creative than the base concept suggests. Lightning that chains between frozen enemies. Bullets that split into homing projectiles. Summons that scale with your fire rate. The synergies are deep enough that theory-crafting builds becomes half the fun. And at just $4.99, it is one of the cheapest ways to lose an entire weekend.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: Familiar formula with manual aiming that adds skill expression. Build synergies are endlessly creative and satisfying to discover.

3. Halls of Torment

Developer: Chasing Carrots | Released: 2024 | Price: $6.66

If Diablo and Vampire Survivors had a baby raised in the depths of hell, it would look like Halls of Torment. The pre-rendered isometric art style channels the dark fantasy of late-90s RPGs, and the monsters are genuinely unsettling. This is the grimmest game on this list, and it wears that darkness well.

Beyond aesthetics, Halls of Torment introduces meaningful item progression. You unlock equipment between runs that fundamentally changes how your character plays. Traits and blessings add another layer of customization. Boss encounters provide genuine challenge moments that break up the horde-slaying rhythm. The game also features multiple distinct environments, each with their own enemy types and hazards. The recent Boglands expansion added even more content to an already generous package.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: The darkest and most atmospheric survivors-like available. Deeper progression than most games in the genre, with real RPG elements layered on top.

4. Soulstone Survivors

Developer: Game Smithing Limited | Released: 2025 | Price: $14.99

Many fans consider Soulstone Survivors the peak of the bullet heaven genre. It is easy to see why. The sheer depth of builds available here is staggering. Dozens of character classes, each with unique skill trees. Hundreds of abilities that combine in unexpected ways. A massive skill tree for meta-progression that takes dozens of hours to fully explore.

Where most survivors-likes give you a handful of choices per run, Soulstone Survivors buries you in options. You are constantly tweaking, optimizing, and discovering new synergies. The visual spectacle is also incredible. Late-game runs fill the entire screen with spell effects as you melt thousands of enemies per second. If you want the deepest, most mechanically rich survivors-like on the market, this is it.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: The most build variety in any survivors-like, period. If you love theorycrafting and min-maxing, Soulstone Survivors will keep you busy for hundreds of hours.

5. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor

Developer: Funday Games | Released: 2025 | Price: $12.99

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor proves that a survivors-like spin-off of an established franchise can be more than a cash grab. Funday Games took the beloved DRG universe and built a genuinely excellent auto-shooter around it. You pick one of four dwarf classes, each with their signature weapons and abilities from the original game, and fight through procedurally generated caves teeming with alien bugs.

The standout feature is mining. You do not just fight in these caves. You mine through them. Digging through terrain for resources, discovering hidden chambers, and carving your own paths adds a layer of exploration that no other survivors-like offers. The production values are noticeably higher than most games in the genre, with polished 3D graphics and satisfying weapon effects. The 1.0 release in September 2025 delivered a complete, content-rich experience.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: Familiar survivors-like gameplay elevated by mining mechanics, excellent production values, and the charm of the DRG universe. If you liked our best roguelike list, this one earns its spot.

6. Death Must Die

Developer: Realm Archive | Released: Early Access (2023) | Price: $6.99

Death Must Die blends survivors-like gameplay with an isometric ARPG perspective that feels closer to Diablo than most entries on this list. You choose a hero, then receive blessings from competing gods who each offer distinct power sets. The divine boon system will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has played Supergiant’s games, but the core gameplay loop is pure bullet heaven.

The item system gives each run serious variety. Weapons and armor drop with random stats and effects that can completely redirect your build mid-run. Combining god blessings with the right equipment creates explosive power spikes that make you feel unstoppable. The game is still in Early Access, but the amount of content already available is impressive, and active development keeps adding new gods, heroes, and items.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: The godly boon system adds strategic depth to every run. Strong item variety means no two runs play the same way.

7. Picayune Dreams

Developer: Stepford, Andyland, milkypossum | Released: 2023 | Price: $4.99

Picayune Dreams is the weirdest game on this list, and that is exactly why it deserves a spot. This is not just a bullet heaven. It is a bullet heaven that occasionally turns into a bullet hell, forcing you to dodge intricate attack patterns amid the chaos. The art style is surreal, psychedelic, and unsettling. The music is hypnotic. The whole experience feels like playing a fever dream.

Beneath the strangeness lies a surprisingly deep upgrade system. Weapons evolve in ways you will not expect. Secret interactions between items create wild power combinations. And the game regularly throws curveballs that disrupt the standard survivors-like rhythm. Boss fights demand real dodging skill. Environmental hazards keep you moving. If you are tired of survivors-likes that feel too samey, Picayune Dreams is the antidote.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: The bullet hell twist forces you to stay engaged. Genuinely surprising and weird in a genre that can feel formulaic.

8. HoloCure: Save the Fans!

Developer: KayAnimate | Released: 2023 | Price: Free

HoloCure is a love letter to the Hololive VTuber community disguised as one of the best survivors-likes ever made. You play as characters based on Hololive VTubers, each with unique weapons, abilities, and animations. But you do not need to know anything about VTubers to enjoy this. The gameplay stands entirely on its own merits.

The weapon evolution system is creative, with each character’s kit combining in satisfying ways. The pixel art is clean and expressive. Boss encounters are well designed. And the whole thing is completely free. KayAnimate built HoloCure as a passion project, and that love shows in every frame. If you have never tried it because the VTuber branding put you off, give it a chance. It is legitimately one of the most polished free games on Steam.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: Completely free with no microtransactions. Tight gameplay, great weapon evolutions, and more content than many paid survivors-likes.

9. Boneraiser Minions

Developer: caiys | Released: 2023 | Price: $4.99

Boneraiser Minions flips the script. Instead of being the hero fighting monsters, you are the villain. You are a necromancer raising undead minions to fight off waves of righteous heroes intent on destroying you. Every bone dropped by a slain hero lets you summon a new minion or evolve an existing one.

This reversal changes the gameplay in meaningful ways. You are not attacking directly. You are managing an army. Which minions do you raise? When do you upgrade versus diversify? The class system adds even more variety, with each class specializing in entirely different minion types. Some summon swarms of skeletons. Others conjure giant demons. A few play more like tower defense than traditional survivors-like. With a 96% positive rating on Steam, Boneraiser Minions is one of the highest-rated games in the genre for good reason.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: The necromancer twist makes army management the core mechanic instead of direct combat. Deep, unique, and endlessly replayable.

10. Yet Another Zombie Survivors

Developer: Awesome Games Studio | Released: Early Access (2023) | Price: $14.99

Despite the self-aware name, Yet Another Zombie Survivors brings something fresh to the table: squad management. Instead of controlling a single character, you command a team of survivors. You recruit new members mid-run, assign them weapons, and watch them mow down thousands of zombies together.

The squad mechanic creates interesting decisions that solo survivors-likes cannot match. Do you build a balanced team or specialize everyone into the same damage type? Do you spread upgrades evenly or pour everything into one carry? The 3D graphics give it a distinct visual identity compared to the pixel art that dominates the genre. With 93% positive reviews on Steam, it has found an audience that appreciates its team-based approach to the formula.

If you are looking for more list-style articles, check out our best indie games releasing in April 2026 or our guide to the best roguelikes.

Why Vampire Survivors fans will love it: The squad system adds a team management layer that keeps the familiar formula feeling fresh. Great for players who want to control more than one character.

The Bullet Heaven Genre Keeps Growing

Steam officially recognized “bullet heaven” as a tag in 2025, and the first Steam Bullet Fest is confirmed for summer 2026. What started as a single $3 game from a solo developer has become one of the most vibrant genres in indie gaming. Every game on this list proves that the core Vampire Survivors formula is endlessly adaptable. Whether you want deeper builds, manual aiming, squad management, or necromancy, there is a bullet heaven game for you.

And with Vampire Crawlers launching on April 21, even poncle is branching out from the formula that started it all. The genre is growing, evolving, and showing no signs of slowing down.