Vampire Crawlers: How to Unlock All 21 Crawlers Fast

Vampire Crawlers sends you back into the Belpaese family's world, but this time the familiar faces from Vampire Survivors have completely new fighting styles built around a card-based combat system. There are 21 characters to unlock, each with their own starting deck and a unique Crawler card effect that rewards building around specific card colors. Some unlock in minutes; others will take you a full evening of grinding. Here's exactly what you need for every single one.

How does the character unlock system work?

Every character except Antonio Belpaese needs to be unlocked through gameplay actions, then purchased with gold at the Gorton Bell Inn (the game's main menu hub). That two-step process trips up a lot of players: completing the unlock condition just makes the character available at the Inn, it doesn't automatically add them to your roster. You still need to pay up.

Each character also comes with a Crawler card that provides a passive effect when played during a run, plus a secondary bonus tied to a specific card color (red, blue, yellow, purple, or Wild). This means your character choice directly shapes which card colors you want to prioritize in your deck.

Gorton Bell Inn roster view

You can bring up to three characters on a single dungeon run, though that party slot expansion requires a Power-Up shop purchase. Once you have it, stacking complementary Crawler card effects becomes one of the strongest strategies in the late game, according to testing documented by DualShockers.

All 21 Vampire Crawlers characters: unlock requirements and gold costs

The table below covers every character, their unlock condition, the gold cost to recruit them at the Inn, and their Crawler card effects. Two sources (DualShockers and TheGamer) were cross-referenced to confirm these values.

Which characters are easiest to unlock first?

The fastest unlocks are the ones tied to actions you'll do naturally in your first few hours. Imelda costs only 10 gold and unlocks after your first run in Mad Forest. Mortaccio (444 Skeletons) and Yatta Cavallo (250 Lion Heads) are enemy-kill unlocks that happen passively while you play through Mad Forest and Inlaid Library respectively. Poe Ratcho needs you to play Garlic 25 times, but Garlic itself unlocks after picking up 5 Floor Chickens, making it an early priority.

The item-based unlocks like Arca Ladonna (Fire Wand 100 times) and Porta Ladonna (Lightning Ring 100 times) take longer but feel natural because you'll spam these cards across dozens of runs anyway. According to TheGamer, the Lightning Ring requires defeating 2,500 enemies first to unlock the card itself, so Porta is a mid-game unlock at the earliest.

Card color system in combat

What's the hardest character to unlock in Vampire Crawlers?

Two characters stand out as genuinely time-consuming.

Christine Davain requires you to reach level 35 in a single run before the Pentagram card even appears. That means stacking Curse aggressively to accelerate your XP gain, which also makes enemies significantly harder. Once you find and play the Pentagram, Christine becomes available at the Inn for 2,800 gold. The DualShockers source notes the original unlock condition as level 40, while TheGamer lists level 35. Given the discrepancy, treat level 35 as the threshold to aim for, but be prepared to push further if needed.

Krochi Freeto demands 6,666 enemy kills and costs 3,000 gold, the second-highest price in the roster. TheGamer's playthrough clocked roughly 12 hours to hit that kill count. The silver lining: Vampire Crawlers throws enemies at you relentlessly, so this accumulates faster than it sounds.

Iguana Gallo Valletto sits at 4,800 gold, the priciest unlock in the game. You need to defeat Gallo himself first, which means clearing all of Gallo Tower. Once you own Gallo Valletto, his Crawler card effect (25% more coins per play) pays for itself quickly in subsequent runs.

How to unlock coffin characters efficiently

Four characters hide inside Coffins scattered through specific dungeon floors: Pugnala Provola (Berserk Wood, floor 3), Poppea Pecorina (Milk Factory, floor 5), Concetta Caciotta (Gallo Tower, floor 3), and Giovanni Grana (Library Sanctum, floor 3). Coffins are marked on the dungeon map, so you won't miss them as long as you explore each floor before moving on.

Pugnala's coffin is guarded by flying skeletons that need to be cleared before you can open it. According to TheGamer, you also need to complete Furious Forest before Berserk Wood becomes accessible, so Pugnala is a mid-game unlock rather than an early one.

Coffin location on dungeon map

Tips for building your roster faster

A few approaches speed up the whole process significantly:

• Stack Curse early. The Curse Power-Up's first rank starts every dungeon at 20% Curse, which satisfies Lama Ladonna's unlock condition automatically and accelerates XP gain for Christine's level requirement.
• Don't reject card evolutions just for Dommario. TheGamer notes that skipping evolutions can speed up coin collection for Dommario's 5,000-coin unlock, but the tradeoff in run power usually isn't worth it unless you're specifically farming coins.
• Heal consistently for Svor Clerici. The 1,000 HP recovery unlock accumulates passively if you grab the Power-Up that heals 1 HP after each battle. Floor Chickens also count toward the total.
• Farm Mad Forest for Skeleton kills. Skeletons appear frequently in the first area, making Mortaccio one of the most painless unlocks in the roster despite the 444-kill requirement.

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