Vampire Survivors has a host of useful powerups to purchase in the main menu. These upgrades can increase how much XP you earn in a run, or the amount of coins you make. And some, like Amount, have a larger impact on your odds of success than optional upgrades like Banish.
But there’s more than just usefulness to take into account when buying powerups. There’s also a specific, optimal order to buy these powerups in to save you a bit of cash.
In this guide we’ll highlight the Vampire Survivors powerups and which order you should buy them in.
How buying powerups works and optimal order
Powerups have their own sub-menu in the Vampire Survivors main menu. Here, you’re able to buy powerups or refund all the coin you’ve spent on powerups thus far — to purchase upgrades in a different order or spend the coins on new characters.
Powerups like Amount and Revival are single purchases, while others have multiple levels, each corresponding to a higher tier of boost. Whenever you purchase a powerup upgrade, the price of all other powerups goes up. And since some powerups are more expensive than others, there is an optimal order that you want to buy these upgrades in — usually from most to least expensive.
Here’s the optimal order for purchasing powerups in Vampire Survivors:
- Revival
- Amount
- Curse
- Growth
- Reroll
- Cooldown
- Armor
- Luck
- Might
- Recovery
- Greed
- Area
- Speed
- Duration
- Move Speed
- Magnet
- Max Health
- Banish
- Skip
The total cost as of patch 5.2: 211,430 coins
Following this order can be the difference between having all the upgrades and thousands of gold left over or not being able to purchase all of the upgrades at all.
However, if you’re just starting Vampire Survivors, this upgrade path might not be the best way to set yourself up for success. While Revival and Amount are both good, they’re both very expensive starting options if you don’t have any coins. And Curse is going to make the game harder for you, so you can save the upgrade for last (even if it’s suboptimal to your coin).
No matter what you select, just make sure that once you have 50,000-100,000 coins you return to this guide and follow the order listed above.
All powerups
If you’re new to Vampire Survivors and unsure what some of these powerups do, the below chart will help you do some research before you buy. Here are all the powerups in Vampire Survivors as of patch 5.2:
Vampire Survivors Powerups
Powerup | Optimal order | Effect | Max rank | Change per rank |
---|---|---|---|---|
Powerup | Optimal order | Effect | Max rank | Change per rank |
Revival | 1 | Revives the player at 50% health | 1 | One additional revive |
Amount | 2 | Fires one additional projectile | 1 | One additional projectile |
Curse | 3 | Increases enemy speed, health, quantity, and frequency | 5 | 10% |
Growth | 4 | Gain more experience | 5 | 3% |
Reroll | 5 | Reroll the shop options once per rank | 4 | One additional re-roll |
Cooldown | 6 | Weapons take less time between activations | 2 | 2.50% |
Armor | 7 | Reduces incoming damage | 3 | One less damage |
Luck | 8 | Chance to get lucky increases | 3 | 10% |
Might | 9 | Increase damage | 5 | 5% |
Recovery | 10 | Recovers health per second | 5 | 0.1 |
Greed | 11 | Gain more coins | 5 | 10% |
Area | 12 | Increases effect size | 2 | 5% |
Speed | 13 | Projectiles move faster | 2 | 10% |
Duration | 14 | Weapon effects last longer | 2 | 15% |
Move speed | 15 | Character moves faster | 2 | 5% |
Magnet | 16 | Pick up items at an increased range | 2 | 25% |
Max health | 17 | Increases health | 3 | 10% |
Banish | 18 | Remove an item from all further shops | 4 | One additional banish |
Skip | 19 | Skip the level up shop and get experience instead | 3 | One additional skip |