Surprise Indie Hit Vampire Survivors Revives The Cheat Menu In New Update

Vampire Survivors sounds like a stupid game. You pick a character, then load into the game where your only interaction is to move around and choose power ups while your weapons and abilities autonomously slay the hordes of creatures around you. Yet, the $3 game’s simple Roguelite charm and retro throwback has enthralled gamers with its deceptive challenge. In particular, the games numerous unlockable characters require true progression to collect, rather than the almighty credit card. Now with the latest 0.10.0 update, developer poncle has brought back an old-school way to skip the Vampire Survivors grind – a cheat menu.

Cheats can ruin a multiplayer lobby, but in a single-player experience like Vampire Survivors they do have their place. Cheat menus in this context can be viewed as difficulty modifiers. Sure, it takes away from bragging rights to enable godmode to clear a challenging playthrough, but players ought to have the choice to enjoy a game on their own terms as long as others are not negatively impacted.

The new update does not simply give away what it calls the “Secrets” menu, either. Players will need to progress in the game long enough to find the item needed during a run. This ensures new players will have to develop a solid understanding of the game’s systems before bending the rules to their own will. We do not want to give too much away, but the item is found only in one of the game’s later levels.

So, what secrets does this menu unlock? Most of the cheats are used to unlock the game’s growing cast of characters. Another set can be used to move the player to various stages, or levels. The game also includes a variety of relics to be found. The relics are rare items which permanently unlock handy features but of course the Secrets menu can snatch those up for you too. As per tradition, not all cheats are necessarily helpful – one particular code is liable to do nothing but make the player dizzy as it spins the UI around. Gamers would also be wise to give an old Konami standby a go at the main menu. PCGamesN has compiled a handy list of all the game's cheats for those interested.

Secrets are only one part of the new update, of course. The developer has also introduced two new characters, a new relic, and a new Arcana. Like the relics, Arcana modify the player’s experience. Rather than collectible items however, Arcana are selectable from a player’s unlocked pool at various points in a run.

It is impressive to see so much continued development of this game since its introduction in December of last year. Did we mention Vampire Survivors is available for just $3 on Steam? If that is somehow too much cash for an impulse buy, you can get a taste of the game via a web browser demo using an older build of the game. In the future, we would like to see the Secrets menu taken even further with difficulty increasing modifiers introduced as well. Such obstacles may frustrate players, but they can also create incredible and memorable gaming moments.