Vampire Survivors Releases New Update

Key Takeaways

Vampire Survivors Patch 1.12 brings the Ode to Castlevania DLC with 20+ new characters and 40+ weapons and evolutions.
The collaboration with Konami includes 36 Castlevania song covers and the largest map in the game with unique biomes.
Quality-of-life changes in Patch 1.12 include advanced music selection, map zoom, and memory usage optimizations.

As a long-time gamer and music enthusiast, I find myself deeply immersed in the world of Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania. The collaboration between Daniele Zandara, Filippo Vicarelly, Evelyn Lark, and KEYGEN CHURCH has truly created a magical soundtrack that’s not only catchy but also adds a layer of nostalgia for those who love the Castlevania series.

In a recent announcement, Vampire Survivors unveiled the details for its 1.12 update, along with the crossover DLC dubbed “Ode to Castlevania”. This collaboration between Vampire Survivors and Castlevania has led to one of the more substantial updates for Poncle’s popular indie game, featuring numerous new characters and reworked tunes from Konami’s legendary series that players can now enjoy.

The “Ode to Castlevania” add-on marks the third instance of collaboration between Konami and Poncle in DLC for Vampire Survivors, but it’s not the first time they’ve teamed up. Previously, in May 2024, there was a crossover with the Contra series called “Operation Guns.” This expansion introduced popular characters like Bill Rizer, Lance Bean, and Brad Fang, along with an array of explosive firearms to obliterate swarms of enemies. Weapons such as the Long Gun, Sonic Bloom, and Blade Crossbow could also be upgraded into stronger weapons, offering players additional customization options for their characters.

In the year 2024, the game “Castlevania” teamed up with games like “Dead By Daylight,” but the collaboration with “Vampire Survivors” was one of the most anticipated projects for the latter. As per the update notes, Vampire Survivors Patch 1.12 introduces more than 20 new characters, over 40 weapons and their advancements, and 36 song covers from the “Castlevania” series, such as “Vampire Killer,” “Bloody Tears,” and “Requiem.” The Castlevania stage in Vampire Survivors is currently the largest map and offers various biomes and power-ups for players to gather. However, Poncle mentioned that due to the vastness of the expansion, an Adventure mode for Ode to Castlevania wasn’t available at launch, but left room for potential future additions. The total download size for Vampire Survivors Patch 1.12 and the Ode to Castlevania expansion on Steam is 345 MB, with the DLC accounting for roughly 282 MB.

In about two weeks, Poncle mentioned that the Vampire Survivors game on Switch will be updated to tackle some late-game problems. Alongside the Castlevania collaboration addition, the Vampire Survivors Update 1.12 promises to bring several player-friendly improvements. These enhancements include a more sophisticated music selection interface, the option to adjust map view in the pause menu, and tweaks to decrease memory consumption. Once Update 1.12 is installed, players can look forward to enjoying these changes.

Poncle confirmed that further free updates for “Vampire Survivors” are being developed, as per the Chaos Roadmap for 2024 and 2025. The anticipated collaboration between “Vampire Survivors” and “Castlevania” has now come to fruition, leaving us curious about how this merger will impact both series in the future.

Vampire Survivors Patch 1.12 Notes (October 31, 2024)

At long last, our cherished aspirations have been fulfilled! Castlevania has now officially joined the Vampire Survivors universe. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to KONAMI, poncle’s dedicated team, our collaborators, and every single fan for making this dream a tangible reality!

And remember: it’s big. IT’S BIG.

20+ new characters
40+ new weapons and evolutions
30+ new music tracks
1 HUGE CASTLE

How to jump into Ode to Castlevania

Reach Level 20 in the first stage to unlock Inlaid Library and therefore Stage Selection.
At the bottom of Stage Selection, choose “Ode to Castlevania”.

Problems after getting Ode to Castlevania

Right Click the Steam icon -> Exit Steam
Wait a few seconds.
Restart Steam.
Go to Downloads, see that VS is getting updated to the latest version (1.12)

Gameplay in Ode to Castlevania

All characters from Ode to Castlevania have the ability to find special pick-ups, in any stage. Initially this is limited to Wall Chicken (that is the big brother of Floor chicken of course) but 3 more types of pickups will be unlocked while progressing through the Ode to Castlevania stage.
All characters have at least 1 unlockable Weapon Selector, that can be chosen from Character Selection by clicking/pressing a button on the character’s icon at the bottom of the screen. All Weapon Selectors have to be unlocked; to do that, every weapon in a specific Weapon Selector has to be unlocked first.
There are a lot of bosses in the Ode to Castlevania stage, but you’ll have to actively seek most of them instead of waiting for the right minute for them to appear. You’ll find new icons on the map to help you navigate the stage.
Evolutions are straightforward and work just like in the base game: find the right passive to pair with an active weapon (some might require the passive to be at Max Level).

The music of Ode to Castlevania

You’ll find 36 fresh remakes and over 50 classic Castlevania tunes to select from! All the new renditions can be found in the VS playlist on YouTube, except for two tracks scheduled for release on November 7th because of specific circumstances.

Given our own enthusiasm for Castlevania and its melodies, we hadn’t fully prepared for the extent of excitement surrounding the cover versions. However, the level of anticipation surpassed even our expectations!

I started out with the idea of creating 24 music covers, but I reached out to each artist and asked if they could contribute more in their free time. Turned out, they all did, resulting in us having a whopping 36 music covers! What a great collection we’ve put together!

As a devoted fan, I can tell you that when it came to crafting the cover art for this DLC, we aimed to strike a harmonious blend. We wanted to honor classic designs, give them new spins, push creative boundaries, and even throw in a few catchy remixes!

The primary guideline for selecting tracks was simply “tracks that already have an official version suitable for our project, and these versions can be included.” (This decision was a personal preference on my part, Luca.) However, this led us to exclude some tracks that would have been fantastic if remixed in the new styles. Looking back, what we could have done differently is… start the process earlier to allow more time for additional work!

I really couldn’t trade any of the current tracks for a different selection.

While we can’t guarantee it at this moment, our hope is to expand and include additional songs in the future should an opportunity arise.

In the interim, I hope everyone discovers a new preferred track from the less mainstream choices included in this collaboration. A big thank you goes out to Daniele Zandara, Filippo Vicarelly, Evelyn Lark, and KEYGEN CHURCH for putting together such an amazing soundtrack!

More FAQs

Although the main content of the DLCs is consistent, being a collaboration project, there are some variations. For instance, you won’t find Steam achievements and the music covers won’t be part of the paid Soundtrack on Steam. Instead, we will post them on our YouTube channel as usual. To learn more about these differences, please check out the FAQs here: https://poncle.games/ode-to-castlevania-faq

Patch 1.12 Quality-of-Life

Advanced Music Selection There are so many tracks in the game, especially if you have some DLC packs, that the little menu was really struggling to be functional anymore. And it comes from someone who knows the order of the music tracks by memory… so we have added an advanced menu to easily navigate through different albums and music tracks to choose from.
MEGA SEAL After buying any of the Seal Power-ups, you’ll also unlock the Mega Seal panel in the Collection menu. This panel lets you easily seal the content of a whole DLC, or even of the whole base game. Who needs weapons anyway?
Pause Menu Map ZOOM You can now zoom in and out on the pause-menu map. 2024 ho!
Pause Menu Arcana Info You can now get a reminder of what your chosen arcana do. Affected weapons are also highlighted. Another big step for humanity.
New Passives in Preview mode In order to complete the evos for Ode to Castlevania, we needed 2 passive weapons from the future to be available today! So, while the patch to properly unlock them will arrive sometime next year, for now it will be possible to access these 2 new passives, Parm Aegis and Karoma’s Mana, through the Arma Dio’s selection menu.
Memory usage improvements Several optimisations have been made to reduce memory usage, that should help the late-game running better on console and mobile.

Other platforms

As a dedicated gaming enthusiast, I must admit that to ensure our game is available on all platforms simultaneously, we had to make minor adjustments in patch updates. This implies that the game version might vary slightly from one platform to another. Rest assured, we’re putting every effort into bridging this gap and making the experience consistent across all versions, as swiftly as technology allows.

As a dedicated gamer, I’ve got some exciting news for fellow Nintendo Switch gamers! In around two weeks, we can expect an update specifically designed for our version of the game. This patch is aimed at tackling some tricky late-game challenges that have been causing a bit of a stir recently. So, hang in there, friends! The solution is on its way!

The file size of the expansion is around 260MB, which is a lot bigger than our average (all those music tracks add up quickly), so if you’re on mobile you might want to download through wifi.

What’s next

Because this update is quite extensive, our upcoming patch may take a little longer than normal to roll out, but rest assured it will still include free content as usual. To reduce stress related to achievements and offer more opportunities for exploration, we aim to release fewer updates, but they’ll be larger in scope. To learn about the next content update, simply check the updated Chaos Roadmap for details.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone on our annual review later this year, during which we’ll discuss familiar topics such as cross-platform saving, online functionality, and ongoing experiments. At the moment, these features are progressing, though they haven’t yet reached a point where they can be officially launched in full.

As an eager enthusiast, I can’t help but speculate that the upcoming Steam news post will likely focus on some well-timed hotfixes for our colossal expansion.

Appreciation to all for your unwavering backing, and I wish you a delightful experience playing the strikingly bizarre Vampire Survivors: Homage to Castlevania!

2024-10-31 21:54