Vampire Survivors has quite a few secret characters that are not immediately unlockable and are hidden behind secret achievements you must obtain to be able to purchase them. Here’s the list of all Secret Characters in Vampire Survivors.
How to Unlock All Vampire Survivors Secret Characters
Vampire Survivors has several unlockable characters, many of which will pop up on the character select screen with their unlock conditions stated for you. But in addition to the silhouetted characters shown to you, Vampire Survivors includes another 18 secret characters it never tells you about. Here are all of Vampire Survivors secret characters and how to unlock them.
Many of the secret characters in Vampire Survivors can be unlocked using cheat codes (or “spells” as the game calls them). To unlock the Secrets menu and enter cheat codes, you’ll need to obtain the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane by defeating Sketamari on the Bone Zone stage, or alternatively click on the Yellow Sign’s icon (sixth relic icon with the pink background) seven times within the collection menu. Each character will have their own cheat code to enter, which you can view on our Spell Casting guide.
1. Exdash Exiviiq
There are two ways to unlock Exdash. The first (hardcore) way is to pick up Clovers off the ground as you play and to hope that one of them will yield the Exdash unlock. Odds are 1/65535 and is a hell of a grind. However, do not worry, there is a shortcut, or a cheat code so to speak. When you are in the main menu, you need to type in “x-x1viiq” (without the ” “) and if successful, you will hear a sound effect.
2. Toastie
Toastie is the second secret character in Vampire Survivors, and the pre-requisite is to have Exdash unlocked first.
“Uppercut a non-red Reaper” is the riddle that hints at this secret character’s unlock conditions.
To unlock Toastie, you need to defeat a Stalker or a Drowner. After one is defeated, the character will briefly show up in the bottom right of the screen (for around half a second) and during that time, you must simultaneously press the Down Arrow (↓) key and the Enter key (a sound Jingle will be heard to announce that you have succeeded). In our experience, to make sure that we guessed the timing right, we kept pressing them repeatedly for those few seconds after the Stalker/Drowner was killed, and the operation was a success.
Now, the hard part about this is killing a Stalker or a Drowner. However, we’ll show you the easiest way for the current 0.5.2 patch.
How to Defeat a Stalker in Vampire Survivors
Stalker is a green version of the Red Death and shows up randomly at the Dairy Plant stage and at The Bone Zone. This character follows the player around for a minute or two and can sometimes speed up or slow down, so be careful to not get caught off-guard.
In Dairy Plant, there’s a low chance that he’ll spawn at the start of the round, but a somewhat higher chance at the 8th and 12th-minute mark. However, in The Bone Zone stage, he is guaranteed to appear at 10 minutes so this might be a more suitable and less time-consuming option in our opinion.
The easiest way to kill it is to have a Pentagram, or Gorgeous Moon (by evolving the Pentagram with the Crown), or to just save a Rosary drop when you see it. If you choose to hunt for this achievement on the Dairy Plant stage, you can even use the spawned minecarts – just make sure to bait the Stalker to the tracks.
A good thing about Gorgeous Moon is that it’s visually known when the ability will go off, so you can prepare yourself on time. Pentagram can be timed using the in-game timer, but just make sure to note the interval at which it’s going off (it will depend on your cooldown reduction %).
How to Defeat a Drowner in Vampire Survivors
It’s only necessary to defeat either a Stalker or a Drowner for this achievement, but we’ll cover both, just in case.
The procedure to defeat a Drowner (Blue version of Red Death) is basically the same, the difference being the location of this character. He spawns at the bottom part of the Gallo Tower and is raising the water level gradually, attempting to drown the player. You can expect to see him after a Giant Enemy Crab is defeated after 25:00. There’s no need to fear (much) since he doesn’t kill you instantly like his green and red counterparts. At The Bone Zone stage, he spawns at 20:00. It’s entirely up to you to choose where you want to challenge him.
3. Leda
The riddle to this secret character’s unlock is “Investigate the bottom of Gallo Tower”.
Leda is a secret character that’s unlockable in the Gallo Tower stage after you defeat him. He is not visible on the map, so you are probably wondering “how do you find Leda?” However, this is fairly simple, it’s just somewhat time-consuming.
From the start of the level, you need to move down approximately 32-40 tiles (or in other words, pass the starting point repeatedly 32-40 times since the level is constantly repeating). As you get closer to his location, darkness will surround you more and more, and ominous music will start playing. Make sure to slow down when your visibility is hindered since Leda is very slow and might not be able to catch up to you, which then turns this into a wild goose chase. However, do not let him get too close as he packs quite a punch. He also has nearly 70,000 HP so the fight might take some time.
4. MissingNo
The riddle for this secret character is “With the most adverse fate in Green Acres, run off the edge of the world”.
We have made a separate, detailed guide on how to unlock MissingNo here by editing your game files, which was the old way to unlock this secret character. If you attempt this route, make sure to back up old files without worries before trying this out!
But there is now a regular way to unlock MissingNo, meaning you don’t need to go through the intimidating process of messing with your game files! To unlock MissingNo, you’ll need to:
- Unlock the Yellow Sign in the secret The Holy Forbidden stage.
- Unlock the Green Acres Challenge Stage by unlocking Hyper Mode for two stages.
- In the Green Acres stage, run down-left diagonally.
- To avoid spoilers, we’ll just say to defeat as many enemies as you can once things start to get…weird.
5. Red Death
The Riddle for this secret character is “Settle the score with the Reaper”.
We have made a separate, detailed guide, on how to unlock Red Death here. To unlock the Red Death, you must first kill the Red Death. There is an alternative way to defeat Red Death using the MissingNo. This could be considered cheating for many since MissingNo isn’t usually available through normal means.
The first step would be to open the Start, click on MissingNo, and check his Max Health stat line. If it’s a negative value, you can proceed with the game, but if it’s a positive number, you need to enter the game and immediately exit to the main menu. Then click the Start button again. MissingNo will be automatically selected since we’ve just played with him. Check his Max Health stat line. If it’s positive, hit Escape on your keyboard, and click Start again. Rinse and repeat until you get a negative value on his Max Health stat line.
The reason you are doing this is that when you have a negative value on MissingNo’s Max Health stat line, it means that you cannot take any damage, and therefore cannot die by the hand of the Red Death. The optimal stage for this is the Inlaid Library.
In essence, what you should do in this case is to just not move the character at all when you start the game. This is done because Red Death’s HP grows significantly with each level that we obtain (65535 per level). This is why you should just wait and remain at level 1 if possible. When Red Death shows up at the 30-minute mark, you are free to collect all of the XP around you and level as many weapons as possible.
And that’s it! Have a seat and relax until the first Red Death is defeated. It might take some time to deal the necessary damage, but it’s only important to defeat the first Red Death because you will certainly see more of them coming with each minute (and the new ones will have HP equal to your current level x 65535). Also, in case your MoveSpeed value is negative, don’t worry – it just means that your movement controls will be inverted. Missingno is quite a chaotic character indeed. Because this fight will last way past the 31-minute mark, you will be unlocking the related achievement.
6. Boon Marrabbio
The Riddle for this secret character is “Follow the trail after pillaging Pummarola and Skull O’Maniac from the Mad Forest”.
With the new 0.6.0 update, Boon Marrabbio has been added as a secret character. We have covered this in an in-depth guide, which you can access here.
But in short, to unlock Boon Marrabbio, you’ll need to
- Unlock the Yellow Sign in The Holy Forbidden secret stage.
- Collect 100 floor chickens (doesn’t need to be in a single run).
- Pick up Skull O’Maniac and Pummarola in the Mad Forest or choose them when leveling up.
- Follow the pies.
- Defeat the shadowy secret boss.
7. Smith IV
The riddle for unlocking this secret character is “Sometimes you just need to ask for help”.
After you unlock Exdash and Toastie, there is a combination you need to perform. Here’s how to pull it off exactly:
- Go to Main Menu.
- Type SPAM on your keyboard (no need for shift/caps lock).
- Go to Character Selection.
- Type SPAM again.
- Go to Stage Selection.
- Type SPAM again.
- Quickly select a stage and your Arcana (doesn’t matter which one you choose).
- Upon entering the stage type HUMBUG and hit the Enter key. A Jingle sound should play to indicate success.
- Leave the run and open the character list.
- Congratulations, you have another ghost on your team.
8. Minnah Mannarah
The Riddle for this secret character is “Deal with the consequence of stealing cheese from the Dairy Plant”.
After you collect the Yellow Sign, have Arcana VIII – Mad Groove ready. Then head out to the Dairy Plant. When you choose Arcana VIII, all items on the map will be automatically drawn to you. One of these items is the Cursed Cheese. Go ahead and pick it up. A lot of werewolf bosses will spawn. To unlock Minnah, you need to defeat all of them. After this is done, you can leave your run, and Minnah will be selectable.
9. Peppino
The Riddle for this secret character is “Be a Good Boy in Il Molise”.
Available since Patch 0.7.3, Peppino can be unlocked by healing plants in Il Molise stage with O’Sole Meeo’s Celestial Dusting for a total of 100,000.
10. Gains Boros
The Riddle for this secret character is “Find the only one place where flowers bloom in the Bone Zone”.
Gains Boros can be unlocked on the Bone Zone stage. You’ll need to head north in the stage and find the green circle with pulsating flowers just a tad above where the Silver Ring is found. You’ll then need to stand within the circle of flowers and let them heal you until they completely disappear.
11. Big Trousers (Merchant)
The Riddle for this secret character is “Run Away from Moongolow with all 16 accessories mastered.”
To unlock Trouser, you’ll need to pick up all of the 16 passives on the Moongolow bonus stage and max them out. Merchant (Big Trouser) is a game changer, you ought to unlock him, he is very useful to have.
12. Gyorunton
The Riddle for this secret character is “Survive the Boss Rash with just one weapon”.
Gyorunton is a meme character. To unlock Gyorunton, you’ll need to
- Unlock the Boss Rash Challenge Stage.
- Choose the Boss Rash stage.
- Play with only one weapon, don’t pick up any others.
- Survive until 15:00.
13. Cosmo Pavone
The Riddle for this secret character is “With a pure heart and two good friends, visit the fiery balcony in Cappella Magna”.
The fairy will show only for the pure-hearted characters. To unlock Cosmo,
- Obtain the Yellow Sign.
- Unlock Zi’Assunta Balpaese.
- Enter Cappella Magna with a character that has 0 Golden Eggs.
- Collect Peachone and Ebony Wings.
- Head north and pick up the Nduja Fritta Tanto (flamethrower-like item).
- Burn down the gate with the Fritta Tanto.
- Collect Cosmo.
14. Random
The Riddle for this secret character is “Look under previously owned coffins”.
You can learn more about Random in our in-depth guide. But in short, to unlock Random, you need only to simply open a coffin on any normal stage for a second time. Like with finding coffins for the first time, the second coffin will appear as a question mark on the map, which you can follow to your destination.
15. Queen Sigma
Queen Sigma is the ultimate character of this game. You can unlock her by picking up every collectable item in the game. It’s no easy feat, but that’s all there is to it! You’ll likely achieve this naturally by playing the game over time.
16. Avatar Infernas
The Riddle for this secret character is “It is tangible only in the inverted Inlaid Library. Good friends might then show the way”.
Avatar Infernas is a very powerful secret character in Vampire Survivors. To unlock Avatar, you’ll need to complete the following:
- Beat the final boss (The Director in Eudaimonia Machine).
- Enter Inlaid Library with inverse mode on.
- Equip Peachone and Ebony Wings (do not evolve them).
- Kill The Trickster on the far right of the map.
- Interact with the piano.
- Press the keys in the sequence the birds show you.
- Open the nine coffins until you find Avatar.
- Defeat Avatar.
17. Scoraj-Oni
The Riddle for this secret character is “Discover the source of the roaring thunder on the Tiny Bridge”.
Scoraj-Oni is a character that likes to shoot out lightning. You can unlock Scoraj-Oni by unlocking the Tiny Bridge challenge stage, entering the new stage, then running far to the right until you encounter Scoraj-Oni. All you need to do then is defeat him.
18. Rose De Infernas
The Riddle for this secret character is “Her Royal Shadow Lies Behind the 46th Door.”
Many players wondered if new secret characters would be added to Vampire Survivors. As it turns out, a new secret character was introduced in Patch 1.8.0 in the Adventure Mode update (December 2023).
You can check out our in-depth guide on how to unlock Rose De Infernas, but in short, you’ll need to step through 46 doors in the Astral Stair challenge stage (doesn’t need to be done in a single run). After touching the 46th door, a coffin will appear which you’ll then want to approach.
Those are all of Vampire Survivors’ secret characters! We hope that you’ve enjoyed this article. Feel free to explore other Vampire Survivors guides and articles that we’ve posted under the game’s tag. Happy achievement unlocking!
