Some players ofVampire Survivorsand this is especially true for long-time players, felt the game was getting a little stagnant. There’s only so many times a player candestroy Green Acres on Hyper Modebefore it starts getting repetitive. The arcanas are a new game mechanic that adds a little variation to the game. Arcanas are represented by cards; each card has its own Roman numeral and design to make identifying them a bit easier.
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These cards can be used to change the rules of the game in new and interesting ways. Some add an effect to certain weapons. Some randomly alter the properties of weapons to either give a bonus or a penalty. The options given to players via these arcanas will have players coming back to playVampire Survivorsagain and again to try different combinations of weapons, accessories, characters, and arcanas.
Updated June 06, 2025, by Jeff Drake:Some arcanas inVampire Survivorsare limited in their effectiveness, while some are overpowered to the extreme. They are all useful, though - some are just more useful than others. Since this article’s publication, the number of arcanas available to players has almost doubled. A few of these new arcanas add new dimensions to the game that will have players trying out new character builds for months. This update adds six new arcanas to the list and ranks them accordingly. As of the writing of this update, there is a new Arcana in beta titled Tragic Princess. This Arcana will not be included since it will almost certainly be changed before being introduced into the game. Tragic Princess reduces the cooldown time for the Santa Water, Garlic, Lightning Ring, and Carrello if the character remains in motion.
Updated August 14th, 2022, by Jeff Drake:There have been six arcanas introduced intoVampire Survivorssince the last update to this article. Almost all of these new arcanas are good enough to at least rank somewhere in the middle of this list. One easily made the top three - very easily, in fact. Even the new arcanas that don’t seem too useful are actually very powerful when combined in the right build. The new Gemini arcana is especially powerful when used with the new character Cosmo Pavone.
Unlocking The Arcanas And How They Work
So far, there are fourteen arcanas available, but each one has to be unlocked separately. The first step is tofind the Randomazzo relicin theGallo Tower stage. Finding this relic will unlock the arcana system and give the player their first card, the Sarabande of Healing. Tounlock the rest of the arcanas,the player needs to get Krochi, Giovanna, Gennaro, Lama, Immelda, Poppea, and Arca to level 99 during a run.
If the player has the arcanas option turned on, they will get to choose from all unlocked arcanas at the start of a stage. After this, players will be given a choice from three randomly selected Arcana cards from the bosses that appear at 11 minutes and 21 minutes into a stage, respectively.
21Disco Of Gold - XV
Disco of Gold is a useful arcana for players in need of increasing their gold reserves. Gold is now such an important part of the game that stages have a merchant who sells Golden Eggs for permanent increases to a character’s stats. These Golden Eggs are not cheap.
This arcanaheals the character when they pick up gold. More importantly, Disco of Goldcauses all money bags to trigger Gold Fever. During Gold Fever, enemies drop gold coins when killed. Players should increase the character’s Luck to increase the chance of money bags to drop from light sources. Make it to minute 31 in Inlaid Library to unlock Disco of Gold.
20Sarabande of Healing - VI
This is every player’s first arcana, and will probably be most players' least favorite they’ve used them all. On paper, Sarabande of Healing sounds great. Itdoubles all healing and damages nearby enemies an amount equal to the healing. This works well at the end of the stage when powerful enemies are closing in and Floor Chicken is an option upon leveling up.
This applies to all healing. The Floor Chicken, Bloody Tear, Soul Eater, Celestial Dusting, and Recovery all have their healing doubled by this arcana. Eventhe Revive ability restores the character to full healthinstead of only restoring half.
19Heart of Fire - XIX
This is the perfect arcana for players that like using the Fire Wand. The projectiles of the Fire Wand and Hellfire, as well as all light sources,explode upon impact. The damage of these explosions is a little underwhelming, and the blast radius could be a bit bigger considering this Arcana only affects one weapon.
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Another bonus of this arcana is thatwhen enemies physically damage the character there’s a small explosion. This explosion doesn’t harm the character, and is extremely handy when strong enemies start overwhelming the character’s weapons.
18Game Killer - O
This arcana is a strange one, and forces the player to do one of two things. The Game Killer arcanastops the player from receiving experience. Theexperience gems now act as projectileswhen picked-up; targeting the nearest enemy. A player wanting to get this arcana at the start of a stage should play Porta, Amrbo Joe, or Clerici. These three characters have massive starting bonuses that decrease with level.
The other alternative is to wait to get this arcana until the character can survive without much worry, then get Game Killer. The problem is, by this point the player doesn’t need another weapon. This is a fun novelty arcana, but a novelty nonetheless. This is unlocked by defeating the boss of Cappella Magna.
17Lost & Found Painting - XVII
This is an interesting arcana with a ton of potential. The Lost & Found Paintingchanges the duration of the character’s weaponsevery ten seconds; this change ranges from -50% to +200%. This gives weapon effects an average of +75% duration. Some of the best weapons inVampire Survivorsare affected by this arcana.
Among the weapons affected by the Lost & Found Painting are; King Bible, Song of Mana, Santa Water, Clock Lancet, and Runetracer. When combined with the Spellbinder accessory and a character that boosts duration, like Poppea, the character’s weapons can haveridiculously long durations.
16Boogaloo of Illusions - XVIII
Boogaloo of Illusions changes the Area of the character’s weapon every ten seconds. This change ranges from -25% to +50%. This stacks with other changes to Area; for example, from the Candelabrador passive item. Thesize of some weapons can get comically largewith the right combination of character, items, and Boogaloo of Illusions.
One great thing about this Arcana is that most of the weapons inVampire Survivorsscale with Area. This makes it one of the more versatile arcanas. Get Concetta to level 99 to unlock Boogaloo of Illusions.
15Chaos in the Dark Night - V
With the right build and character, Chaos in the Dark Night is absolutely unstoppable. This arcanaalters the speed of the character’s projectilesfrom -50% to +200% every ten seconds. This gives the projectiles an average boost of +75%. When the bonus is near +200% the projectiles fly across the screen at speeds that would make Sonic jealous.
When combined with the Bracer accessory (at level 5) the projectile speeds will never be reduced below 100%.Use this arcana with weapons like the Runetracer, Magic Wand, Bone, Cherry Bomb, and Cross. Dommario and Pasqualina aregreat characters to usewith Chaos in the Dark Night, as they boost projectile speed an additional +40% and +30% respectively.
14Silent Old Sanctuary - XX
This arcana is a must when using the weapon limit option. This is due to the Silent Old Sanctuary giving thecharacter’s weapons a +20% Might and a -5% to cooldown times for every unused weapon slot. Obviously, this arcana is better when the player uses the weapon limit option to limit themselves to two or three weapons.
Silent Old Sanctuary also gives the player a+3 to Reroll, Skip, and Banishtotals. This is incredibly useful when the player has a specific build in mind. Unlock this arcana by surviving for 31 minutes in the Dairy Plant.
13Tragic Princess - III
The Tragic Princess arcanareduces the cooldown time of the Lightning Ring, Thunder Loop, Garlic, Soul Eater, Santa Water, La Borra, and Carrelloas long as the character stays in motion. This cooldown time reduction is most noticeable with the Lightning Ring and Thunder Loop.
Thisshould be combined with the Empty Tomepassive item for an even bigger reduction in cooldown times. This combo of arcana and passive item can have the Lightning Ring and Thunder Loop firing continuously. The Garlic and Sarabande of Healing arcana work well with Tragic Princess. Get Porta to level 99 to unlock this arcana.
12Jail Of Crystal - XIV
Jail of Crystal enhances the Magic Wand, Holy Wand, Runetracer, NO FUTURE, and Eight the Sparrow weapons so that their projectiles have achance to freeze the enemy. This is useful, but there are limitations to this arcana that kept it from ranking higher. For starters, the chance of freezing is not overly high. It’s tied to Luck, and a character needs 300% Luck for guaranteed freezing with every projectile.
The duration of the freeze time is tied to the duration of the weapon. This means the freeze effect doesn’t last as long as it does from sources like the Clock Lancet or Orolongion. Even with its drawbacks this Arcana is still one of the better choices at the start of a stage. Unlocking Jail of Crystal requires getting Pasqualina to level 99.
