Vampire Crawlers: Early Game Upgrades & Relics Guide

Throwing your hard-earned gold at the wrong upgrades is the fastest way to end up six feet under in the starting dungeons.

Transitioning from real-time dodging to turn-based dungeon crawling is a harsh reality check. Your starting deck is weak, your pockets are completely empty, and relying solely on Antonio will only get you so far against the escalating enemy swarms. I see too many of you dumping your limited coins into the Blacksmith or buying random power-ups that do absolutely nothing to keep you alive.

Now before you waste another run scraping together pennies just to die on the Bridge, read this. You need a highly specific survival roadmap. Here is the exact sequence I use to fix the early game economy, stabilize my loadout, and get the right Crawlers into camp.

The Power Up Economy Trap

The Power Up shop in the village is an absolute minefield. You are going to be tempted to buy a little bit of everything just to see numbers go up. Do not do that. You need a phased approach to your spending.

Thankfully, the game throws you a massive lifeline here. Hitting the refund button on the bottom left of the shop menu gives you all your money back for free. You can re-spec your entire build anytime you want without ruining your save file. If you are stuck on a specific boss, refund your utility stats and dump everything into raw damage for a single run.

For general progression, this is the exact upgrade sequence you should follow.

If you are struggling to understand why extra mana is so critical for the Cooldown upgrade, you need to revisit the combat basics in my Vampire Crawlers Beginner Guide.

The Relic and Arcana Hit List

Ranking every Relic in the game is pointless. Half of them, like the Milky Way Map and the Combo Stack, are handed to you automatically during the tutorial. You need to focus on hunting down the specific Relics that unlock vital village mechanics.

Your very first priority is the Polentír. Once you clear the Mad Forest, do not immediately detour to the Inlaid Library. You need to push straight into the Furious Forest. Exploring this harder variant eventually drops the Polentír, which unlocks the Fortune Teller tent back at your village.

The Fortune Teller gives you access to Arcanas. These are massive passive buffs that completely alter your playstyle. Once the tent is open, you want to target two specific cards.

Your Shield My Liege

This Arcana unlocks after you generate 2,000 total armor across your runs. It allows you to keep your armor values between turns instead of losing them. With this equipped, you can spend your early turns stacking massive defensive walls and then completely ignore incoming attacks while you build an offensive combo chain.

Over the Top

You get this by simply playing Crawler cards 100 times. It forces a Crawler to return to the top of your deck after they leave the field. This guarantees you maintain constant uptime on your most powerful character buffs, ensuring your stats never drop during a prolonged boss fight.

Ditch Antonio Immediately

Antonio is a fantastic training wheel. His whip deck teaches you the basics of single-target damage and armor generation, but he lacks the raw screen clearing potential required for the later floors. You need to expand your roster fast.

Do not worry about the massive 6,666 kill grinds yet. You have two immediate targets that will carry you through the mid-game.

Recruit Imelda to get Pasqualina

Imelda is practically free at the Inn after your first run. Buy her and immediately take her into the Inlaid Library. Your only goal here is to reach level 20 with her. Doing so unlocks Pasqualina Belpaese.

Pasqualina is the first truly broken character you can acquire. Her innate ability boosts your Area stat every time her specific card is played, and more importantly, she increases your hand size whenever you cast a purple card. By stuffing your deck with cheap purple utility spells, you can draw massive hands and set up devastating combo chains without breaking a sweat.

Defeat Mantichana for Gennaro

Gennaro Belpaese is an absolute monster. To get him, you just need to beat the Mantichana, the final boss of the standard Mad Forest.

Gennaro increases your Amount stat and deals bonus damage whenever you play red cards. His starting deck includes Knives and Spinach. All you have to do is spam his low-cost Knives and combo them with Spinach to buff your Might stat. It floods the grid with cheap, highly buffed projectiles that tear through crowds.

If you want a detailed breakdown of the exact requirements for the rest of the cast, I have every single one listed in my Complete Character Unlocks guide.