Or, as the developers put it in the game menu, a ‘challenge of recycled assets’
With patches rolling out all the time, staying caught up withVampire Survivorshasn’t been easy, but it’s been fun pretty much every step of the way. The new content in patch 0.9feels a bit on the light sidefrom the outside looking in, yet when you actually try it out, it’s memorable. The biggest addition is Boss Rash, an arena-based survival mode. If you can survive 15 minutes, you’ll be able to unlock a wonderfully strange new character.
Before you can enter Boss Rash, you’ll first need to unlockHyper Modeon the five regular stages — Mad Forest, Inlaid Library, Dairy Plant, Gallo Tower, and Cappella Magna. Hyper Mode will open up once you slay the boss that appears at the 25-minute mark on these stages; if you’ve been an avidVampire Survivorsplayer, you should be good to go.
I already had every Hyper Mode ready to go before patch 0.9 showed up, but to make Boss Rash appear, I needed to play a match and then quit out. That did the trick.
Before I go into any more specifics, there’s one good-to-know tidbit to cover.
Going forward, save data will be located in %APPDATA%/Vampire_Survivors_Data — this change is meant to “avoid Cloud conflicts and issues on Steam Deck.”
Spoilers below
If you want to be as efficient as possible (and you’re feeling confident),try playing Boss Rash with only one weaponusing the “Max Weapons” toggle — that’s the criteria for the new character,Gyorunton, who wields aBracelet. It looks like a long-lost Pokémon!
As much as I like this colorful character design, I’m not sold on the projectile Bracelet, which evolves into a Bi- and then Tri-Bracelet without needing to pair it with an item.
Vampire Survivorspatch 0.9 also brings two new arcanas:Twilight Requiem(unlocked by reaching level 99 as Dommario) andGemini(reach level 99 as Pugnala). The formergenerates explosionswhen certain weapons expire, and the lattercreates a counterpartfor Peachone, Ebony Wings, Phiera Der Tuphello, and Eight the Sparrow.
Boss Rash is the clear highlight. The final moments are challenging, even with a beefed-up character. You’ll have to face multiple reapers —even the big boss— all at once in an uncomfortably tight space. Granted, for egg-hoarding grinders out there, it’ll be a breeze. But I narrowly made it to the 15-minute mark with revives lending a last-second hand.
