Vampire Survivors Secrets — Hidden Characters, Stages, and Unlocks You Probably Missed

By the Choost Games team — indie game developers behind Granny's Rampage and Granny's Gambit. We play what we recommend.

Vampire Survivors is packed with secrets that the game never tells you about — hidden characters locked inside coffins, entire stages you can only reach by meeting obscure conditions, relic locations that change how the game works, and even a legitimate secrets menu with cheat codes. Here's everything that's hidden, how to find it, and what it unlocks.

The Secrets Menu (Yes, There Are Cheat Codes)

Vampire Survivors has an actual secrets menu accessible from the main screen. You type in specific codes to unlock characters, stages, and items without meeting the normal requirements. A few notable ones:

Type x-x1viiq to unlock the hidden character Exdash Exiviiq, a joke character with terrible stats but a unique starting weapon. Type tramezzino to unlock Leda, who starts with the powerful Holy Wand. Type intothefireinto to unlock the Inverse stage, which reverses enemy spawns and creates a disorienting mirror experience.

These codes aren't cheating in the traditional sense — they're intentional developer Easter eggs that Poncle built into the game. Some characters unlocked this way are genuinely strong picks for certain builds.

Hidden Characters and How to Unlock Them

Most secret characters in Vampire Survivors require specific conditions that the game never explains. Some of the most commonly missed:

Leda — Available through the secrets menu or by defeating her when she appears as a boss on the Dairy Plant stage. She starts with Holy Wand, making her one of the strongest early-game characters.

Exdash Exiviiq — The joke character. Abysmal stats across the board, but completing a run with Exdash unlocks Toastie, who has even worse stats but gains levels at a ridiculous pace.

Red Death — Defeat the Grim Reaper that appears at the 30-minute mark. This requires a very specific endgame build, usually involving Laurel and Clock Lancet evolutions. Red Death moves at 255% speed, the fastest character in the game.

Smith IV — Found in a coffin on the Inlaid Library stage. You need to reach a specific area of the map and defeat the enemies guarding the coffin.

Gyorunton — Evolve five weapons in a single run with any character. This requires careful passive item planning to have five valid weapon-passive pairs active simultaneously.

Secret Stages You Might Not Know About

Eudaimonia Machine — The final stage, and one of the hardest to unlock. You need to have completed specific conditions across multiple other stages. The stage is a gauntlet that throws everything at you simultaneously.

Holy Forbidden — A stage that combines elements from all other stages. Unlocked after finding specific relics across the other maps.

Inverse — Accessible via the secrets menu code or by meeting in-game unlock conditions. The stage flips the standard enemy wave patterns, creating a genuinely different experience from regular stages.

Boss Rash — A mode where bosses spawn continuously without the normal wave structure. Great for farming evolution chests quickly.

Relic Locations That Change the Game

Relics are permanent unlocks that modify how Vampire Survivors plays. Several are easy to miss because they're tucked into corners of stages that most players never explore:

Randomazzo — Found in the Gallo Tower. This relic unlocks Arcana cards, which are arguably the biggest game-changer in VS. Arcanas fundamentally alter how weapons and passives interact, creating build possibilities that don't exist without them.

Magic Banger — Found in the Green Acres stage. Unlocks the music selection feature. Sounds cosmetic, but certain music tracks actually sync with enemy spawn patterns, which some players use for timing.

Ars Gouda — Found in the Dairy Plant. Unlocks the ability to see item and weapon pool details, effectively removing guesswork from level-up choices.

Great Gospel — Found in the Cappella Magna. Unlocks permanent gold bonuses that compound across runs, making subsequent playthroughs progressively easier.

Secrets That Affect Gameplay Strategy

The 31-minute clock. Every standard run ends at 30 minutes with Death appearing. But if you survive Death (usually by evolving Clock Lancet into Infinite Corridor), you enter a bonus phase. Enemies stop spawning, and you can freely collect gems for massive gold payouts. This is the single fastest way to farm gold for permanent upgrades.

Passive item stacking. The game doesn't tell you this, but some passive items have soft caps beyond their displayed max level. Duplicator, for instance, continues to slightly increase projectile count from passive sources even after its level bar is full.

Curse mechanics. The Skull O'Maniac passive increases Curse, which speeds up enemy spawns and boosts enemy health, but also dramatically increases XP drops and chest rates. High-Curse builds are the fastest way to reach full evolution, but they require knowing exactly which weapons to prioritize.

What We're Building at Choost Games

We're indie devs who live in the bullet heaven genre — we built Granny's Gambit and are finishing Granny's Rampage, a bullet heaven with its own set of secrets and hidden mechanics. If you love the discovery aspect of Vampire Survivors, we think you'll dig what we're doing.

More bullet heaven content: Vampire Survivors Tier List, Vampire Survivors Evolution Chart, Best Bullet Heaven Games.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I unlock the secrets menu in Vampire Survivors? The secrets menu is available from the main screen — just start typing a code. There's no button to press or menu to navigate to. If you're on console, there's an option in the settings to open the code input field.

Can I unlock everything through the secrets menu? No. The secrets menu only unlocks a handful of characters and stages. Most content still requires in-game achievement conditions like defeating bosses, finding coffins, or completing specific challenges.

Does using cheat codes disable achievements? No. Characters unlocked through the secrets menu are fully functional and count toward all achievements and unlock chains. Poncle intended these codes as accessibility options and Easter eggs, not exploits.

What's the fastest way to unlock all secret characters? Focus on coffin stages first — Inlaid Library, Dairy Plant, and Gallo Tower all have coffin characters. Then work on the conditional unlocks like Red Death and Gyorunton, which require specific build strategies.