Vampire Crawlers Turns Vampire Survivors Into a Deckbuilding Roguelite

Vampire Survivors sold tens of millions of copies by making you feel unstoppable. Vampire Crawlers asks what happens when you slow that chaos down and hand you a deck of cards instead.

The first official spin-off from poncle launched today on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. It is also a day one Game Pass title.

Same Universe, Completely Different Game

Where Vampire Survivors was about quick reactions and screen-filling explosions, Vampire Crawlers is about planning. You explore dungeons in first person, fight enemies in turn-based card battles, and build your deck as you go. The familiar weapons, enemies, and evolution formulas are all here, but they work through a mana-based card system instead of real-time action.

The core hook is the Turboturn system. Card order matters. Playing cards in the right sequence builds combo multipliers that can turn a modest hand into a screen-clearing chain of damage. It captures the snowball feeling of Vampire Survivors but through strategy rather than reflexes.

You still level up during runs, unlock new cards, and combine them into evolved versions using the same recipes from the original game. Between runs, a hub town lets you spend currency on permanent stat upgrades.

Critics Are on Board

Reviews have been strong across the board. Vampire Crawlers sits at 80 on Metacritic and 82 on OpenCritic. GameSpot gave it an 8/10, calling it “pixel-perfect pandemonium.” Nintendo Life matched the 8/10, praising the satisfying combo system and deep unlock pool. Windows Central scored it 4.5 out of 5. Kotaku went further, calling it “better than the original.”

Not everyone agrees. PC Gamer felt the card system can feel broken “not often enough in a fun way,” and some early players have flagged the steep learning curve compared to Vampire Survivors’ pick-up-and-play simplicity. A handful of launch bugs have also been reported, though patches are expected.

Where to Play

Vampire Crawlers is available for $9.99 on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Game Pass subscribers (Ultimate and PC tiers) can play it at no extra cost starting today. The game is Steam Deck verified with full controller support.

Co-developed by poncle and Nosebleed Interactive, this is the first time the Vampire Survivors universe has expanded beyond the original game and its DLCs. Whether it signals a broader franchise push or stays a one-off experiment will likely depend on how players respond to the genre shift.

If you loved Vampire Survivors and want more from that universe, this is worth trying. If you are curious about the original game first, check out our list of games like Vampire Survivors to see what else scratches that itch.

Looking for more card-based roguelites? Our best roguelike games in 2026 roundup has plenty of picks.