Updated April 24, 2026
We've added the Grim Grimoire section and updated the evolution mechanics to reflect the release version of the game.
In Vampire Crawlers, you can combine cards together to create powerful evolved weapons that deal far more damage than their base forms. Most evolutions require a specific Base Card paired with a matching Item Card, while special recipes called Unions fuse multiple weapon cards into a single evolved form. Below, you'll find every evolution currently in the game, along with the exact cards needed to unlock them.
All Vampire Crawlers Evolutions List
Here's a full list of all known evolutions in Vampire Crawlers:
| Base Card + Item Card | Evolved Form |
|---|---|
 Whip + Hollow Heart Also works with: Forever Heart |  Bloody Tear Deals AoE damage and heals in case of a crit hit. |
 Knife + Bracer |  Thousand Edge Deals damage to all enemies in the front row. |
 Magic Wand + Empty Tome Also works with: Light Tome, Weighty Tome, Ancient Tome |  Holy Wand Shoots projectiles that target enemies bound to attack. Scales heavily with Mana Chain multipliers. |
 Axe + Candella Also works with: Candle, Candelabrador |  Death Spiral Creates a permanent rotating shield that damages enemies continuously. |
 King Bible + Spellbinder |  Unholy Vespers Deals AoE damage and knocks back enemies for one row. |
 Fire Wand + Spinach Also works with: Sprig o' Spinach |  Hellfire Shoots powerful fireballs that also knockback enemies. |
 Garlic + Pummarola Also works with: Pummadora |  Soul Eater Improves Garlic's area damage and Disarm. |
 Santa Water + Attractorb |  La Borra Inflicts around 360 damage (depending on your buffs) and burns enemies after each turn. Scales well with Mana Chain. |
 Runetracer + Armor Also works with: Golden Armor, Rainbow Armor, Hero's Armor |  NO FUTURE Creates explosive projectiles that deal massive burst damage on contact. |
 Lightning Ring + Duplicator |  Thunder Loop Deals 150 damage (depending on your buffs). Attacks again at the end of the turn. |
 Cross + Clover |  Heaven Sword Deals 100 damage with a chance of dealing Crit damage. |
| Song of Mana + Skull O'Maniac | Mannajja |
| Pentagram + Crown | Gorgeous Moon |
 Gatti Amari + Stone Mask |  Vicious Hunger Deals 100 base damage. May turn enemies into coins. |
| Shadow Pinion + Wings | Valkyrie Turner |
 Peachone + Ebony Wings |  Vandalier Deals 500 damage with a chance of Knockback. Big Bird: Disperse all active birds dealing increased damage. |
 Eight the Sparrow + Phiera Der Tuphello + Tirajisú Union recipe: all three cards are consumed. |  Phieraggi Deals 350 damage and combines the firepower of both base guns into one evolved weapon. |
How to Upgrade Cards - Evolution Process
- To evolve a weapon card in Vampire Crawlers, you need a Base Card with an empty Gem socket and the required Item Card or Item Cards.
- Once you have everything in your deck, head to an Evolution Statue (a dark statue holding a red Evolution Gem) to trigger the evolution, or open chests and boss rewards that may grant you an Evolution Gem.
- When you evolve, the Base Card is consumed and replaced by the evolved form, while the Item Card stays in your deck.
Related: Vampire Survivors Crawled so Vampire Crawlers could Run
Tips for Getting Evolution Gems in Vampire Crawlers
Evolutions are the backbone of any strong Vampire Crawlers run, so it's worth building your card selection around them from the start. These tips will help you evolve cards faster:
- Pick up the Item Card that pairs with your chosen weapon early: Item Cards like Hollow Heart, Bracer, and Empty Tome are also useful on their own, so grabbing them early never hurts.
- Don't use in combat Item Cards with "Destroyed after use" description: you won't be able to use it for evolution. One example is Hollow Heart.
- Don't buff a card you wish to evolve: You need an empty gem socket on your card to evolve it. Slotting any stat gem into a weapon blocks the evolution entirely.
- Time your chest openings carefully: Once you open all chests on a floor, your evolution opportunities are gone until you defeat the boss and advance. If you're close to getting the Item Card you need, keep fighting and leveling up before opening those chests.
- Focus on finding chests and defeating bosses: This is the fastest way to get Evolution Gems.
- Prioritize stronger evolutions for your character's kit: Arca's Fire Wand cost reduction makes Hellfire a natural pick, while characters with Spellbinder synergy benefit the most from Unholy Vespers.
How to Get the Grim Grimoire in Vampire Crawlers
The Grim Grimoire is one of the most valuable Relics in Vampire Crawlers because it functions as a built-in recipe tracker for all weapon evolutions and unions in the game. You can find Grim Grimoire in the Inlaid Library, so make sure to explore every room and break every interactable object as you move through its floors. Once you pick up the Grim Grimoire, the effect is permanent for that run, and the tracker becomes available from the pause menu.
How to Use Grim Grimoire
To use Grim Grimoire, open the pause menu during a dungeon run to see the full list of evolution recipes you have discovered so far. The menu highlights cards you already have in your deck, which means you can instantly tell which evolutions are within reach without leaving the run. This is a huge advantage when you are juggling multiple potential builds and trying to decide which Item Cards to keep and which to skip.
RELATED: Vampire Crawlers Beginner's Guide
Vampire Crawlers FAQ
To build a combo, play your cards in ascending mana cost order (for example: 0, 1, 2, 3). Each successive card in the chain multiplies the effectiveness of the next one. You can use Wildcard cards to bridge gaps in the chain and extend your combo even further, potentially reaching multipliers of 20x, 30x, or beyond.
Unions are special evolution recipes that combine multiple weapon cards into a single, more powerful evolved weapon, rather than the standard Base Card plus Item Card format. The clearest example is Phieraggi, which fuses Phiera Der Tuphello, Eight the Sparrow, and a Tirajisú card into one powerful gun evolution. Union recipes consume every listed card during the fusion, so they are more demanding to set up than standard evolutions.
No, it's a standalone spin-off. While it features the same characters, weapons, enemies, and lore from Vampire Survivors, the genre is completely different. Vampire Crawlers is a first-person dungeon crawler deckbuilder rather than a bullet-heaven roguelike, and Poncle has described it as the first in a planned series of Vampire Survivors spin-offs.
Yes. All the progress you made in the Vampire Crawlers demo, including unlocked characters, upgrades, and previous runs, carries over to the full game. Players who spent time in the demo did not have to start the release version from scratch.
Evolutions in Vampire Crawlers work differently from Vampire Survivors. You need a Base Card with an empty gem socket paired with the correct Item Card, or the set of cards required for a Union recipe. When you trigger an evolution, the Base Card is consumed and transformed into the evolved form, while the Item Card stays in your deck. You can trigger evolutions by finding Evolution Gems in chests or boss rewards, or by visiting an Evolution Statue (a dark statue holding a red Evolution Gem) during your run.
The Turboturn is Vampire Crawlers' signature combat mechanic. Unlike traditional turn-based games, you don't need to wait for animations to finish before playing your next card. This lets you play faster and chain card combos at full speed without interruption.
That covers every evolution currently available in the release version of the Vampire Crawlers game. While you explore the full game, check out the Best games like Vampire Survivors, here on PGG.
Nebojša Prijić is a Managing Editor at Pro Game Guides with over 25 years of experience in journalism, screenwriting, and copywriting. He previously worked as Editor-in-Chief of Maxim Serbia magazine and the IGN Adria website. Nebojša is an old-school gamer who loves real-time strategies, shooters, and RPGs, but most of all, he plays Roblox and mobile games with his son. He remembers the first Diablo, PC games on a single floppy disk, and playing Mortal Kombat on the keyboard.