Vampire Survivors' free Darkasso update is now available on Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox, and mobile devices.

"It's been a while since we added a new major feature, so we tried not to spoil the contents of this patch immediately," Poncle teased in the patch notes. "Hope it worked to keep the contents a bit of a surprise."

New additions include nine new extra achievements, a new challenge stage and relic, two new "special character skins", and five new Arcanas to spice up your experience.

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Chaos and comedy. Death and rebirth. Luck and, uh, running out of luck. A good roguelike doesn't treat the player like other games do. Roguelikes won't guide you helpfully along a path, or let you cinematically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're more likely to dangle you deep between the jaws of defeat and fumble the rope until you go sliding down defeat's hungry gullet. This is their beauty, and it's a part of why we keep coming back for another go. Next time everything will go right. Next time you'll find the right pair of poison-proof loafers, the perfect co-pilot for your spaceship, a stash of stronger, better ropes. Next time.

Here's our list of the 19 best roguelikes on PC you can play in 2024.

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Chaos and comedy. Death and rebirth. Luck and, uh, running out of luck. A good roguelike doesn't treat the player like other games do. Roguelikes won't guide you helpfully along a path, or let you cinematically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're more likely to dangle you deep between the jaws of defeat and fumble the rope until you go sliding down defeat's hungry gullet. This is their beauty, and it's a part of why we keep coming back for another go. Next time everything will go right. Next time you'll find the right pair of poison-proof loafers, the perfect co-pilot for your spaceship, a stash of stronger, better ropes. Next time.

Here's our list of the 19 best roguelikes on PC you can play in 2024.

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Vampire Survivors has met Contra and given birth to the glorious Operation Guns DLC. Aside from adding a slew of new weapons to the main game, the adventure mode is chock-full of new levels, secrets, and achievements. Here's how to knock out each of the 28 achievements without pulling your hair out trying to find Simondo.

How to complete each achievement in Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns

1. Find and destroy the Metal Alien in Attack Aggressively
   • How to Complete: The Metal Alien will appear after 10 minutes. Survive until then, and the foe will be marked on the map.
   • Reward: Unlocks level Bullet Biters

2. Survive for 15 minutes in Bullet Biters
   • How to Complete: This one is self-explanatory. Stay alive for 15 minutes.
   • Reward: Unlocks level Neo City Chaos

3. Defeat the M78 after 10 minutes in Neo City Chaos
   • How to Complete: The M78 will appear after 10 minutes. Stay alive until then, and it will be marked on the map.
   • Reward: Unlocks level Operation: Gun City

4. Defeat Big Bot Gordea after 10 minutes in Operation: Gun City
   • How to Complete: Big Bot Gordea will appear after 10 minutes. Stay alive until then, and it will be marked on the map (now I have a craving for a gordita).
   • Reward: Unlocks level Run & Gun

5. Find a new ally in Run & Gun
   • How to Complete: Go to the coffin marked on the map and free your ally.
   • Reward: Unlocks level Alien Revengeance

6. Defeat Taka after 25 minutes in Alien Revengeance
   • How to Complete: Taka will appear after 25 minutes. Stay alive until then, and it will be marked on the map.
   • Reward: 10,000 gold coins

7. Find a Weapon Power-Up
   • How to Complete: These are most easily obtained on the Attack Aggressively level as they're near the spawn point.
   • Reward: Unlocks character Lance

8. Evolve the Long Gun
   • How to Complete: Bill starts with the Long Gun. Collect a Weapon Power-Up, max out the Long Gun, and collect a chest to get the evolved weapon.
   • Reward: Unlocks character Lucia

9. Find Ariana in Attack Aggressively
   • How to Complete: Ariana can be found napping in a coffin. Check the map for her exact location.
   • Reward: Unlocks character Ariana

10. Survive for 20 minutes in Attack Aggressively
    • How to Complete: Don't accept Death's collect call for 20 minutes on the first level to complete this achievement.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Brad

11. Evolve the Homming Miss
    • How to Complete: The Homing Miss evolves when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and a Duplicator. Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Stanley

12. Evolve the Blade Crossbow
    • How to Complete: The Blade Crossbow evolves when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and a Clover. Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Sheena

13. Evolve the Sonic Bloom
    • How to Complete: The Sonic Bloom evolves when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and Armor. Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Browny

14. Defeat Kimkoh
    • How to Complete: The Kimkoh is most commonly found in Chapters 5 and 6. They are brown, squatty creatures with red eyes.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Newt

15. Defeat Big Fuzz in the Northeast of Neo City
    • How to Complete: Big Fuzz is the alert you'll receive in Chapter 3. Head to the portal that contains him when you receive the alert. The fight itself isn't difficult as you only need to avoid his telegraphed attacks and nuke him.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Bahamut

16. Find Probotector in Run & Gun
    • How to Complete: Go to the coffin marked on the map and free your ally.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Probotector

17. Rescue Zi'Assunta in Bullet Biters
    • How to Complete: Go to the coffin marked on the map and free your ally.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Zi'Assunta

18. Rescue Lama in Neo City Chaos
    • How to Complete: Go to the coffin marked on the map and free your ally.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Lama

19. Rescue Dommario in Operation: Gun City
    • How to Complete: Go to the coffin marked on the map and free your ally.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Dommario

20. Rescue Krochi in Alien Revengeance
    • How to Complete: Go to the coffin marked on the map and free your ally.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Krochi

21. Defeat Simondo
    • How to Complete: Simondo is found in the Neo City Chaos level. He'll appear around the 15-16 minute mark inside the warehouse with the door to Big Fuzzy.
    • Reward: Unlocks character Simondo

22. Evolve the Short Gun
    • How to Complete: The Short Gun evolves when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and the Bracer. Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon.
    • Reward: 10,000 gold coins

23. Evolve the Spread Shot
    • How to Complete: The iconic Spread Shot evolves when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and the Empty Tome. Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon.
    • Reward: 10,000 gold coins

24. Evolve the C-U-Laser
    • How to Complete: The C-U-Laser evolves when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and a Tirajisu. Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon.
    • Reward: 10,000 gold coins

25. Evolve the Firearm
    • How to Complete: The Firearm evolves when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and a Candelabrador. Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon. I do love a good play on words.
    • Reward: 10,000 gold coins

26. Evolve the Diver Mines
    • How to Complete: The Diver Mines evolve when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and an Attractorb. Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon.
    • Reward: 10,000 gold coins

27. Evolve the Metal Claw
    • How to Complete: The Metal Claw evolves when you have it, a Weapon Power-up, and an Empty Heart (calm down, emo kids). Level the weapon and passive item up, find a chest, and collect the evolved weapon.
    • Reward: 10,000 gold coins

28. Reach level 80 in Alien Revengeance
    • How to Complete: This one is tough and should probably be tackled last. Turn yourself into the Horseman, Death, and slaughter everything in your path until you reach level 80. You have 30 minutes, which goes by quickly. I recommend using Simondo, as he's an untouchable beast once he's leveled up.
    • Reward: Unlocks level Planar Bazaar

The post All achievements in Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns appeared first on Destructoid.

The Vampire Survivors DLC, Operation Guns, lives up to its name with a slew of guns and other weapons. While each of them is fantastic for slaying undead and aliens alike, obtaining the weapon evolutions is your winning ticket for completing levels and tasks. To do so, players will need to make use of the new Weapon Power-up items in addition to the usual combos. Here's how to evolve each weapon.

How to upgrade each weapon in Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns

• Long Gun -> Prototype A
  • Long Gun + Weapon Power-up

• Homing Miss -> Multistage Missiles
  • Homing Miss + Weapon Power-up + Duplicator

• Blade Crossbow -> BFC2000-AD
  • Blade Crossbow + Weapon Power-up + Clover

• Sonic Bloom -> Wave Beam
  • Sonic Bloom + Weapon Power-up + Armor

• Short Gun -> Prototype B
  • Short Gun + Weapon Power-up + Bracer

• Spread Shot -> Prototype C
  • Spread Shot + Weapon Power-up + Empty Tome

• C-U-Laser -> Pronto Beam
  • C-U-Laser + Weapon Power-up + Tirajisu

• Firearm -> Fire L3GS
  • Firearm + Weapon Power-up + Candelabrador

• Diver Mines -> Atmo-Torpedo
  • Diver Mines + Weapon Power-up + Attractorb

• Metal Claw -> Big Fuzzy Fist
  • Metal Claw + Weapon Power-up + Hollow Heart

After getting the initial weapon upgrade, I haven't seen a need for the Weapon Power-up on subsequent runs in terms of being a necessary ingredient. Once it's in the grimoire, you should be good to go with other characters, maps, etc. That being said, it's still a good idea to collect them as they'll give +1 to a random equipped weapon in addition to a Revive.

As for procuring the upgrade, I found it easiest to pick the corresponding Contra character that starts with the weapon you want to upgrade and load into the "Attack Aggressively" level. There are two Weapon Power-ups fairly close by you can pick up. As for the Passive Power-up, make sure to save a slot for the item you need, and don't be afraid to use your Rerolls or Banishments. Once the weapon and passive item are upgraded, it's only a matter of getting a chest to drop with the evolution.

It shouldn't take too long to find each weapon evolution this way, and you'll then be set up for success in other modes. One last tip is to avoid collecting too many of the base Operation Guns weapons when trying to unlock the evolutions. This way, you'll avoid the chance of burning a Weapon Power-up on an evolution you didn't want.

The post All weapon evolutions in Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns appeared first on Destructoid.

Vampire Survivors - still vampire-free before you ask - has surprise-launched its brand-new Laborratory update - a "hyper realistic holiday themed" content drop so mindblowingly spectacular, developer Poncle is even going as far as to herald it a "AAAA" release.

The free Laborratory update (yes, with two 'r's) plunges players deep into the dark halls of a science lab - a "former pinnacle of weapons science, now overtaken by the forces of evil and a corrupted milk magician" - where one new character, one new secret character, three new weapons, and two new stages, including a bonus go-karting stage (because of course), await.

It's an update that - and I'm quoting the developer directly here so don't blame me if your sky-high expectations aren't met - "pushes Vampire Survivors to such wild new heights that Poncle are calling it their first 'AAAA' update". Expect such "industry-defining innovations" as "fully rendered running animations, mind-blowing train physics... and doors that open."

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Over the past while a few games have had post-launch patches, the exemplars being Starfield and Stardew valley, which have post-launch patches of different kinds and for different reasons. We take some time on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast to talk about this patch of patches, and what it was like in the good ol' days, where a broken game came out and stayed broken, gosh darn it!

Nate isn't here today, which means I can make fun of him for owning fish, or whatever it is he does, but in his stead James steps up with an RGB lighting-themed game where I have to guess what accessories people stuck lights on to turn into gamer accessories. This is because Razer stuck RGB lights on a pandemic mask and are in trouble over it now. Naughty Razer. Plus, we talk about the games we're playing right now, and dish you up some juicy recommendations at the end of the show.

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Unveiled last night at the IGN x ID@Xbox Digital Showcase, Vampire Survivors has received a free new update called Laborratory (yes, with two 'r's). It includes one new character, one secret character, three weapons, one stage, and a bonus go-cart racing stage. But perhaps most importantly of all, Poncle say they'll answer the question that's been on everyone's lips: "Why is it called Santa Water?". This is something that's puzzled me since the game's inception, and therefore, I will be thrusting myself back into the game where there are, in fact, no vampires at all. I need to know.

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Vampire Survivors received yet another update this past week. The Space-54 update adds two new characters, four new weapons, a new relic, and a new bonus stage. It also introduces cross-save support between Steam and Android to the Steam public beta branch.

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Poncle has abruptly dropped a new update for Vampire Survivors with a trailer that includes some well-timed Final Fantasy references. Just a few. The Space54 update is available today.

Is the update at all related to Final Fantasy? Hmmm, no. It doesn’t look like it. However, for some reason, the team decided to release a trailer alongside it that is a shot-for-shot remake of the 1997 Final Fantasy VII trailer. Well, as shot-for-shot as they can manage with Vampire Survivors.

What? Well, according to the press release I received, an insides says, “Because we had the original trailer on a PlayStation demo disk and watched it on loop so now it’s scored into our brains. Plus the team is extremely hyped for Rebirth. What better way to celebrate than with a trailer of our own?”

As for the actual update, I don’t think you’re going to be seeing any buster swords. It looks to be more sci-fi-themed. This is what Poncle has highlighted for the Space54 update:

7 New Achievements

2 New Characters:

• Bat Robbert – 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.
• Space Dude – Every few seconds fires all weapons regardless of their Cooldown. The cooldown of this ability is affected by the Cooldown stat.

New Weapons:

• Pako Battiliar – May retaliate when losing health.
• Phas3r – Pew Pew! Generates thin damaging zones. High Amount scaling.

New Stage

• Space54 – A cosmic trek through horrors and delights.

New Relic

• Allows to enable random level up choices.

Vampire Survivors is available on basically everything at this point. The Space54 update is free and will be arriving today.

The post Vampire Survivors announces new update with a Final Fantasy trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Vampire Survivors might continue to be suspiciously devoid of vampires, but it does now have a bunch of new cosmic sci-fi bits (clearly last year's Among Us collaboration just wasn't space-y enough), courtesy of its latest free update on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and mobile.

Space 54, as the update is known, introduces a new bonus stage going by the same name - officially described as a "cosmic border-realm between this plane of existence and a sinister, third dimension" - as well as two new characters to deploy.

One of those characters, Space Dude, is the star of developer Poncle's energetic Space 54 trailer (or Space-54, or Space54 - the studio doesn't seem to have entirely made its mind up), and there're also four new weapons, a new relic, and seven new EXTRA achievements.

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Poncle released both a free Vampire Survivors Space54 update for all players, as well as a new teaser trailer inspired by FFVII. The update adds a new stage, as well as characters and weapons.

As usual, the new characters are tied to the new weapons. Bat Robbert comes with Pako Battiliar, a weapon that can counter when health is lost. That character also has a health recovery mechanic whenever health gets below 20%. Space Dude is the other character, which comes with a Phas3r. The Phas3r fires a laser beam through a straight area damaging anything it touches. Meanwhile, Space Dude fires all weapons even if they are on cooldown at set intervals. The new stage is the space-themed Space54, while the relic lets you randomly level up items instead of picking. 

There’s a new trailer Poncle shared with us to see the Space54 update in action.

Next here is the Vampire Survivors teaser trailer inspired by the original FFVII one to celebrate the launch of FFVII Rebirth.

To compare, here’s a copy of the original teaser trailer, which Anamana uploaded.

Vampire Survivors is available for the Switch, Xbox One, PC, and mobile devices, and its free Space54 update is live now. The last paid DLC was the Among Us crossover add-on Emergency Meeting.

The post Vampire Survivors Gets Free Space54 update, FFVII Inspired Trailer appeared first on Siliconera.

Vampire Survivors might not be the first auto-shoot-’em-up ever made, but it has certainly become the blueprint many clones and imitators have followed since its launch in 2021. One game in that mold, Deep Rock Galactic Survival, takes that basic formula and does something different, adding mining, guns, and…

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