Vampire Crawlers Guide: How to Unlock All 15 Relics
Master Your Runs by Tracking Down Every Secret Gameplay Modifier
Quick Answer: Relics serve as permanent game modifiers that drastically alter your runs and upgrade your village. Your primary focus should be securing the Gem Hammer, Stardust Anvil, and Polentír to jumpstart your gem and Arcana builds as early as possible!
The Basics of Relic Hunting
Forget about constantly equipping and swapping gear. Relics provide persistent, automatic buffs and mechanics the second you pick them up. You will spot them as glowing, sparkly nodes hidden across different dungeon floors. Grabbing these should be a top priority during your playthrough. If a particular mechanic makes the game too easy, you can always visit the village Museum to switch specific relics off and bump up the difficulty.
Complete Relic Locations and Effects
Exploring every nook and cranny is key, as some zones harbor more than one secret. Here is the complete breakdown of where to hunt and what each discovery actually does for your roster.
| Relic Name | Where to Find It | What It Actually Does |
| Milky Way Map | Available by Default | Displays enemy spawns and crucial map details on your minimap. |
| Rilevatore | Available by Default | Reveals weapon effectiveness against various targets. |
| Combo Stack | Tutorial Completion | Grants a combo multiplier when you play cards in ascending mana order. |
| Overkill | Teeny Bridge | Allows you to keep wailing on dead bosses for bonus coin drops. |
| Stardust Anvil | Teeny Bridge | Unlocks the Blacksmith’s Workshop and introduces gem slots for your cards. |
| Gem Hammer | Mad Forest | Enables the core mechanic of slotting gems into your deck. |
| Grim Grimoire | Library West Wing | Appends a handy cheat sheet of weapon unions and evolutions to your pause screen. |
| Guiding Light | Inlaid Library | Highlights destructible light sources directly on your minimap. |
| Polentír | Furious Forest | Opens the Fortune Teller’s Arcana tent back at your village. |
| Lapidary Loupe | Gallo Tower | Unlocks the Jeweler vendor for managing gem tiers. |
| Sorceress’ Tears | Gallo Tower | Adds a world map ‘Hurry’ button to accelerate attack and enemy animations. |
| Arcana Finder | Library Sanctum | Injects Arcana chests into your dungeon runs, allowing multiple active Arcanas. |
| Bomba Infernale | Dairy Plant | Instantly obliterates every enemy on the first floor of a previously beaten stage. |
| Ultimate Ultra Overkill | Curd Refinery | Pushes the Overkill damage threshold higher for massive boss payouts. |
| Ovenkilt | Cappella Ultima | Applies the Overkill bonus to the final enemy of any encounter, but strips gold rewards from chests. |
Which Upgrades Should You Grab First?
You will eventually snag all fifteen, but locking down certain modifiers early will completely change your trajectory and power scaling.
The Foundation: Gems and Arcanas
Securing the Gem Hammer in the Mad Forest and the Stardust Anvil from the Teeny Bridge is absolutely essential. These two items unlock the Blacksmith and activate your ability to augment cards with gems. Snagging these quickly ensures your deck scales up in power much faster right out of the gate.
Right after that, hunt down the Polentír in the Furious Forest. This opens up the Fortune Teller’s tent so you can access Arcanas. These massive modifiers define the absolute best builds in the game. Once you grab the Arcana Finder from the Library Sanctum later on, you will start finding extra Arcana chests during your runs to stack absurd synergies. If you are struggling to track down these specific stages or just want to optimize your pathing, check out our walkthrough on exploring every dungeon in Vampire Crawlers.
Getting Rich with the Overkill Chain
Farming currency is a breeze once you combine Overkill, Ultimate Ultra Overkill, and Ovenkilt. Be careful with Ovenkilt, though. While making the last enemy in a wave drop a ton of coins sounds great, it completely removes gold from chests. Keep this turned off at the Museum until your specific build no longer relies on chest loot to survive.
Quality of Life Pickups
Do not sleep on the Grim Grimoire or the Sorceress’ Tears. The Grimoire slaps a full evolution recipe list right on your pause menu, which is a lifesaver when you are trying to remember obscure weapon combos. Meanwhile, the Sorceress’ Tears speed up the game’s animations. It might not sound like a huge deal, but that world map ‘Hurry’ button saves massive amounts of time during marathon sessions.
The Starting Baseline
You actually start the game with a few innate tools. These form the core system that everything else builds upon:
- Milky Way Map: Gives you complete radar awareness from day one.
- Rilevatore: Provides immediate feedback on weapon damage so you can adjust your tactics on the fly.
- Combo Stack: Earned immediately after the tutorial to boost your damage scaling through clever mana management.
Managing and Disabling Your Modifiers
Head over to the village Museum when you want to tweak your active roster. Every collected item lives here. Simply hover over an entry to disable it. Just be incredibly careful not to accidentally turn off your Gem Hammer or Stardust Anvil while you are actively relying on a gem-heavy deck!
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