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These cards can be used to change the rules of the game in new and interesting ways. Some add an effect to certain weapons. Some randomly alter the properties of weapons to either give a bonus or a penalty. The options given to players via these arcanas will have players coming back to play Vampire Survivors again and again to try different combinations of weapons, accessories, characters, and arcanas.
Updated June 20, 2022, by Jeff Drake:Some arcanas in Vampire Survivors are limited in their effectiveness, while some are overpowered to the extreme. They are all useful, though - some are just more useful than others. Since this article’s publication, the number of arcanas available to players has almost doubled. A few of these new arcanas add new dimensions to the game that will have players trying out new character builds for months. This update adds six new arcanas to the list and ranks them accordingly. As of the writing of this update, there is a new Arcana in beta titled Tragic Princess. This Arcana will not be included since it will almost certainly be changed before being introduced into the game. Tragic Princess reduces the cooldown time for the Santa Water, Garlic, Lightning Ring, and Carrello if the character remains in motion.
Updated August 14th, 2022, by Jeff Drake: There have been six arcanas introduced into Vampire Survivors since the last update to this article. Almost all of these new arcanas are good enough to at least rank somewhere in the middle of this list. One easily made the top three - very easily, in fact. Even the new arcanas that don’t seem too useful are actually very powerful when combined in the right build. The new Gemini arcana is especially powerful when used with the new character Cosmo Pavone.
Unlocking The Arcanas And How They Work
So far, there are fourteen arcanas available, but each one has to be unlocked separately. The first step is to find the Randomazzo relic in the Gallo Tower stage. Finding this relic will unlock the arcana system and give the player their first card, the Sarabande of Healing. To unlock the rest of the arcanas, the player needs to get Krochi, Giovanna, Gennaro, Lama, Immelda, Poppea, and Arca to level 99 during a run.
If the player has the arcanas option turned on, they will get to choose from all unlocked arcanas at the start of a stage. After this, players will be given a choice from three randomly selected Arcana cards from the bosses that appear at 11 minutes and 21 minutes into a stage, respectively.
21 Disco Of Gold - XV
Disco of Gold is a useful arcana for players in need of increasing their gold reserves. Gold is now such an important part of the game that stages have a merchant who sells Golden Eggs for permanent increases to a character’s stats. These Golden Eggs are not cheap.
This arcana heals the character when they pick up gold. More importantly, Disco of Gold causes all money bags to trigger Gold Fever. During Gold Fever, enemies drop gold coins when killed. Players should increase the character’s Luck to increase the chance of money bags to drop from light sources. Make it to minute 31 in Inlaid Library to unlock Disco of Gold.
20 Sarabande of Healing - VI
This is every player’s first arcana, and will probably be most players’ least favorite they’ve used them all. On paper, Sarabande of Healing sounds great. It doubles all healing and damages nearby enemies an amount equal to the healing. This works well at the end of the stage when powerful enemies are closing in and Floor Chicken is an option upon leveling up.
This applies to all healing. The Floor Chicken, Bloody Tear, Soul Eater, Celestial Dusting, and Recovery all have their healing doubled by this arcana. Even the Revive ability restores the character to full health instead of only restoring half.
19 Heart of Fire - XIX
This is the perfect arcana for players that like using the Fire Wand. The projectiles of the Fire Wand and Hellfire, as well as all light sources, explode upon impact. The damage of these explosions is a little underwhelming, and the blast radius could be a bit bigger considering this Arcana only affects one weapon.
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Another bonus of this arcana is that when enemies physically damage the character there’s a small explosion. This explosion doesn’t harm the character, and is extremely handy when strong enemies start overwhelming the character’s weapons.
18 Game Killer - O
This arcana is a strange one, and forces the player to do one of two things. The Game Killer arcana stops the player from receiving experience. The experience gems now act as projectiles when picked-up; targeting the nearest enemy. A player wanting to get this arcana at the start of a stage should play Porta, Amrbo Joe, or Clerici. These three characters have massive starting bonuses that decrease with level.
The other alternative is to wait to get this arcana until the character can survive without much worry, then get Game Killer. The problem is, by this point the player doesn’t need another weapon. This is a fun novelty arcana, but a novelty nonetheless. This is unlocked by defeating the boss of Cappella Magna.
17 Lost & Found Painting - XVII
This is an interesting arcana with a ton of potential. The Lost & Found Painting changes the duration of the character’s weapons every ten seconds; this change ranges from -50% to +200%. This gives weapon effects an average of +75% duration. Some of the best weapons in Vampire Survivors are affected by this arcana.
Among the weapons affected by the Lost & Found Painting are; King Bible, Song of Mana, Santa Water, Clock Lancet, and Runetracer. When combined with the Spellbinder accessory and a character that boosts duration, like Poppea, the character’s weapons can have ridiculously long durations.
16 Boogaloo of Illusions - XVIII
Boogaloo of Illusions changes the Area of the character’s weapon every ten seconds. This change ranges from -25% to +50%. This stacks with other changes to Area; for example, from the Candelabrador passive item. The size of some weapons can get comically large with the right combination of character, items, and Boogaloo of Illusions.
One great thing about this Arcana is that most of the weapons in Vampire Survivors scale with Area. This makes it one of the more versatile arcanas. Get Concetta to level 99 to unlock Boogaloo of Illusions.
15 Chaos in the Dark Night - V
With the right build and character, Chaos in the Dark Night is absolutely unstoppable. This arcana alters the speed of the character’s projectiles from -50% to +200% every ten seconds. This gives the projectiles an average boost of +75%. When the bonus is near +200% the projectiles fly across the screen at speeds that would make Sonic jealous.
When combined with the Bracer accessory (at level 5) the projectile speeds will never be reduced below 100%. Use this arcana with weapons like the Runetracer, Magic Wand, Bone, Cherry Bomb, and Cross. Dommario and Pasqualina are great characters to use with Chaos in the Dark Night, as they boost projectile speed an additional +40% and +30% respectively.
14 Silent Old Sanctuary - XX
This arcana is a must when using the weapon limit option. This is due to the Silent Old Sanctuary giving the character’s weapons a +20% Might and a -5% to cooldown times for every unused weapon slot. Obviously, this arcana is better when the player uses the weapon limit option to limit themselves to two or three weapons.
Silent Old Sanctuary also gives the player a +3 to Reroll, Skip, and Banish totals. This is incredibly useful when the player has a specific build in mind. Unlock this arcana by surviving for 31 minutes in the Dairy Plant.
13 Tragic Princess - III
The Tragic Princess arcana reduces the cooldown time of the Lightning Ring, Thunder Loop, Garlic, Soul Eater, Santa Water, La Borra, and Carrello as long as the character stays in motion. This cooldown time reduction is most noticeable with the Lightning Ring and Thunder Loop.
This should be combined with the Empty Tome passive item for an even bigger reduction in cooldown times. This combo of arcana and passive item can have the Lightning Ring and Thunder Loop firing continuously. The Garlic and Sarabande of Healing arcana work well with Tragic Princess. Get Porta to level 99 to unlock this arcana.
12 Jail Of Crystal - XIV
Jail of Crystal enhances the Magic Wand, Holy Wand, Runetracer, NO FUTURE, and Eight the Sparrow weapons so that their projectiles have a chance to freeze the enemy. This is useful, but there are limitations to this arcana that kept it from ranking higher. For starters, the chance of freezing is not overly high. It’s tied to Luck, and a character needs 300% Luck for guaranteed freezing with every projectile.
The duration of the freeze time is tied to the duration of the weapon. This means the freeze effect doesn’t last as long as it does from sources like the Clock Lancet or Orolongion. Even with its drawbacks this Arcana is still one of the better choices at the start of a stage. Unlocking Jail of Crystal requires getting Pasqualina to level 99.
11 Awake - IV
The Awake arcana is unlocked after the player gets Krochi to level 99. Much like Krochi’s passive bonus, this arcana grants the player +3 Revives. If Krochi uses this arcana and the player has purchased the Revive power-up they will have six Revives. That’s enough extra lives to finish any stage, even on Hyper Mode.
Each Revive used increases the character’s Might, Area, Duration, and Speed by +5%, their maximum health by +10%, and adds a +1 Armor. This bonus includes every Revive; even those granted via the power-up or passive bonuses. Awake doesn’t synergize well with the other others; despite this, it’s still a great arcana.
10 Twilight Requiem - II
Twilight Requiem causes some weapons to explode when their duration expires. The King Bible, Unholy Vespers, Peachone, Ebony Wings, Runetracer, Shadow Pinion, Bone, and Celestial Dusting are the affected weapons. These explosions are quite powerful; which is why this arcana is so highly ranked.
If the merchant is unlocked, the player can purchase the Bone and Celestial Dusting immediately at the start of a run. Even though the Unholy Vespers never expires it will still cause a periodic explosion. Reaching level 99 with Domario unlocks Twilight Requiem.
9 Wicked Season - XIII
This interesting arcana will alternately double the character’s Growth, Luck, Greed, and Curse - in that order. This boost lasts for ten seconds before moving to the next attribute. Wicked Season also increases these attributes by +1% every two levels.
This arcana works best with characters that come with a passive bonus to any of the affected attributes. Gains Boros, and Big Trouser are great characters to pair with this arcana, Big Trouser, Wicked Season, and Disco of Gold can net the player a hefty sum of gold on a run.
8 Out Of Bounds - XII
This arcana turns one of the least-used weapons, the Clock Lancet, into one of the strongest weapons in the game. Out of Bounds causes an explosion around enemies that have been frozen. Now the Clock Lancet does damage as it freezes enemies. We’re not talking about a little damage either; this weapon can kill bosses quickly.
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Out Of Bounds also affects the Orologion pickup item that freezes all enemies temporarily. It also makes Orologions more likely to be dropped from light sources.The freezing caused due to the Jail of Crystal also produces explosions. Reach minute 31 in Gallo Tower to unlock Out of Bounds.
7 Mad Groove - VIII
After reaching minute 31 in the Mad Forest stage, the player will have access to this powerful arcana. Lasting 31 minutes in any stage is tough, but it can be done. Mad Grove has the interesting power of transporting all the stage items to the player. This doesn’t seem very powerful; that is, until a player tries this Arcana.
All passive items are brought to the player, taking away the need to rush from one corner of the map to the other. Any pick-up items from light sources and experience gems littered across the map are also transported to the player, making the game a lot easier.
6 Beginning - X
The Beginning increases the Amount (of projectiles) by +3 for the character’s starting weapon, and adds +1 to Amount for the Bone, Cherry Bomb, Carrello, and Celestial Dusting if they are not the starting weapon. Without the merchant, this arcana would be ranked a lot lower. However, because all the listed weapons can be purchased at the start of a stage, and immediately gain an extra projectile, it’s in the top five.
Combine this arcana with a character that also grants their weapons an extra projectile, like Mortaccio or Cavello. Beginning would have ranked higher if not for the fact several characters have starting weapons unaffected by changes to Amount. Beginning is unlocked by getting Antonio to level 99.
5 Waltz of Pearls - XI
From this entry onward, the listed arcanas are so powerful they are dangerously close to game-breaking when used with the proper build. The Waltz of Pearls causes the projectiles for the Magic Wand/Holy Wand, Fire Wand/Hellfire, Cross/Heaven Sword, and Carrello to bounce up to three times. Essentially, thisarcana makes these weapons behave like the Runetracer’s projectiles, while still retaining whatever properties or bonuses they normally possess.
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If the player can get all the above weapons, along with the Duplicator accessory, with a character that give bonus projectiles (like Mortaccio) this arcana enables the player to set the controller down and enjoy the light show.
4 Iron Blue Will - VII
This arcana functions very similarly to the Waltz of Pearls; the only difference is the weapons affected. The projectiles of the Knife/Thousand Edge, Axe/Death Spiral, Phiera Der Tuphello, Eight The Sparrow, and Carrello all bounce up to three times.
Iron Blue Will is ranked higher than Waltz of Pearls for two reasons. First, the weapons boosted by this Arcana generally have a faster rate-of-fire and do slightly more damage. Second, this arcana can be combined with the next one on the list to completely break the game. Only Death will be able to get close to the character.
3 Gemini - I
Let’s get this out of the way, it’s weird this arcana isn’t Roman numeral II. That aside, this is hands-down one of the best arcanas in Vampire Survivors - provided the associated weapons are obtained. The Gemini arcana gives the Ebony Wongs, Peachone, Vandalier, Phiera Der Tuphello, Eight The Sparrow, Phieraggi, Gatti Amari, and Vicious Hunger a twin; effecively doubling their damage potential. This effect is also applied to the Nduja Fritta Tanto pick-up item.
One interesting combo is to pair this arcana with Cosmo Pavone. Cosmo starts with a free Ebony Wings and Peachone. These hidden starting weapons get the twin as well.
2 Slash - XVI
The Slash arcana turns some of the least effective weapons in Vampire Survivors into absolute death-dealers. This enables critical hits for the following weapons; Knife/Thousand Edge, Whip/Bloody Tear, Axe/Death Spiral, and the Heaven Sword. All critical hit damage is also doubled by this arcana.
When combined with the Clover and Spinach accessories, the damage output of the character gets scary. Even bosses will fall in one or two seconds due to the boosted critical hit damage. Use this with characters that boost Might, like Antonio, Lama, and Leda.
