How to Evolve Your Weapons in Vampire Survivors
In order to evolve a weapon in Vampire Survivors, you’re going to need three things: a weapon, its passive item, and a treasure chest.
To start, you’re going to need to level the weapon you intend to evolve up to Level 8. You will begin with a single base weapon to start, and as you level up your character, you will have opportunities to select from pools of new weapons to unlock.
In order to upgrade your weapon, you need to use these opportunities to select the weapon you already own. This will level it up.
You are also going to need the weapon’s associated passive item. These are items that you can select to unlock upon level up, similar to weapons, however they provide bonuses to your character’s stats.
Know what passive item you need for your weapon to evolve it, and keep a sharp eye out for it during level-ups. Every passive item ties to a weapon, however not every weapon has a passive item, and those that don’t do not have evolutions.
Evolved weapons are very similar to their base weapon counterparts, however they often deal more damage, have shorter cooldowns, or larger areas of attack.
Vampire Survivors Weapon Evolutions
Axe
Passive Weapon: CandelabradorEvolution: Death Spiral
Shoots out nine scythes that slowly spin around the player and damage enemies they hit.
Cross
Passive Weapon: CloverEvolution: Heaven Sword
Like the Cross, this sword acts as a boomerang, but moving with a quicker speed and with more than double damage.
Fire Wand
Passive Weapon: SpinachEvolution: Hellfire
Projects meteors that deal very high base damage, but move relatively slowly. After some time, the meteors will begin to pass through walls.
Garlic
Passive Weapon: PummarolaEvolution: Soul Eater
Encases your character in a black glow that damages any enemy that steps into it. It has a greater area than Garlic.
Gatti Amari
Passive Weapon: Stone MaskEvolution: Vicious Hunger
Summons large eyeballs that damage enemies they collide with.
King Bible
Passive Weapon: SpellbinderEvolution: Unholy Vespers
Floating symbols orbit around the player and damage any enemies they contact. It has a longer duration and a larger area than the King Bible.
Knife
Passive Weapon: BracerEvolution: Thousand Edge
An endless barrage of fast-moving knives are spewed in the direction your are moving or facing.
Lightning Ring
Passive Weapon: DuplicatorEvolution: Thunder Loop
Lightning strikes random enemies, leaving lingering area-of-effect damage circles, then strikes again shortly there after.
Magic Wand
Passive Weapon: Empty TomeEvolution: Holy Wand
Fires an attack of missiles that home in on the nearest enemy. Attacks can be made more frequently and are faster.
Pentagram
Passive Weapon: CrownEvolution: Gorgeous Moon
Instantly kills the enemies on the screen, but leaves pickups behind.
Runetracer
Passive Weapon: ArmorEvolution: NO FUTURE
Shoots lasers in random direction that bounce around the play area, exploding at each collision.
Santa Water
Passive Weapon: AttractorbEvolution: La Borra
Rains holy water from the sky that spawn blue flames that damage enemies. Flames are larger and stays around longer.
Shadow Pinion
Passive Weapon: WingsEvolution: Valkyrie Turner
Emits waves of sparkles that slow down permanently. Cooldown is shorter while the area is greater.
Song of Mana
Passive Weapon: Skull O’ManiacEvolution: Mannajja
Leaves a trail of moving flames behinds you that hurt enemies. If you stop, they will all fire directly ahead of you.
Whip
Passive Weapon: Hollow HeartEvolution: Bloody Tear
Leaves a trail of moving flames behinds you that hurt enemies. If you stop, they will all fire directly ahead of you.
Once you have both your Level 8 weapon and its passive item attained, you need to complete one more task to evolve. You must collect a treasure chest. These are dropped by bosses that spawn at the 10-minute mark of most stages. Additionally, all chests in Dairy Plant and Il Molis will work for evolutions, regardless of when you find them.
The Glowing Bat’s chest in Made Forest may be your best option, as that enemy spawns just one minute into the run, and you are able to use it to evolve a weapon. Chests that normally contain Arcana (which spawn at the 11 and 21-minute marks), will still contain their usual Arcana. You can not use them to evolve.
When you evolve, you will lose your original starting weapon, but Vampire Survivors is generous in that it lets you keep your passive item, so you can still benefit from those bonuses while you slay with your newfound toy.
If you’re interested in learning more about Vampire Survivors, consider checking out some of our other Vampire Survivors guides.
