The peculiar places and spooky scenery of Vampire Survivors all come with their own quirks. For example, the dubious Dairy Plant has plenty of pressure plate traps and Il Molise is a lush locale filled with dangerous philodendrons.
Though in truth, the general gameplay doesn’t change much outside of the Challenge and Bonus levels, there are nevertheless secrets to be found and baddies to be beaten back. There are also a handful of extra-secret challenge stages that can only be accessed through arcane means. Below, we’ll rank all the currently available stages, based on aesthetics, farming potential, and general vibes.
Updated September 24, 2023 by Jacob Whaling: Vampire Survivors is constantly being updated with new items, characters, stages, and more. We’ve updated this list to make note of a few new stages that have been added, and see how they rank against the others.
15 Il Molise
This first bonus level is unlocked by making it to twenty-five minutes and beating the boss on any standard level. Il Molise is a garden of ever-growing greenery that looks great but has very little to do. The map’s plant life does not move, and the reaper spawns early at fifteen minutes.
Despite these drawbacks, it can be quite fun to luxuriate in the relaxed locale and rack-up experience. Other than that, there is one more thing to do when playing Il Molise: unlock the stage’s hidden character, a tree named Peppino.
14 Inlaid Library
Though the Inlaid Library is a more manageable level when you first start playing and comes with a bumping disco track, sadly, the gameplay in this stage can be repetitive. This is because the Library is essentially an endless hallway, and you have limited maneuverability and few decisions to make.
Since bookshelves block you in from above and below, the whip is the easy choice when it comes to weapons. After that, all that’s left is to decide which way you will walk. Wander to your left, and you’ll eventually find the Grim Grimoire, but continue to the right and you’ll encounter the Stone Mask and Giovanna’s Coffin. Once you’ve got your hands on these, all that is left to do is reach level forty and move on to the next level, the Dairy Plant.
13 Mad Forest
As with the first level, the Mad Forest is a little bland in terms of gameplay – this is because you will find yourself playing it the most when you are still learning the ropes. The forest comes with no modifiers, but the lush vista sure is prettier than most of the other levels.
The forest also comes with the most passive upgrades of any map. If you like using Spinach in your builds, then the Mad Forest might be your favorite level, as there are four Spinach upgrades to be picked up. There’s also an interesting hidden character whose unlock involves following a trail of pies within this level.
12 Green Acres
In terms of enemy types, Green Acres is the most varied stage in the game. This stage draws its waves randomly from every other stage’s monsters. Minotaurs, mummies, and moon jellyfish all enjoy strolling through these open fields. But in terms of map variation, it’s exceptionally bland; Nothing but flat green grass for miles.
Seeing ghosts and fishmen side-by-side may keep the level from getting too boring, but outside this novelty, there’s nothing else to see. So, once you’ve watched the weird wildlife and picked up the Magic Banger, it’s time to move on to greener pastures.
11 Dairy Plant
This industrial level is where the games begin to heat up. Here, you’ll need to start keeping an eye on the ground, lest you step on a yellow button and spawn in a ring of monsters.
The map is also a maze of scattered walls that the lucky Minotaurs get to ignore and walk straight through. Because of this, it’s easy to get penned in by the wall and monsters, making the Dairy Plant one of the harder levels. And yes, the Minotaurs are the source of all that milk – it’s best not to think about it.
10 Cappella Magna
The Cappella Magna, or Great Chapel, is a giant cathedral filled with fallen angels and grim reapers. Like the other levels, it comes with a coffin to find, hidden passives, and some item pickups, if you are willing to traverse its tight hallways.
The chapel’s operatic theme and brilliant stained-glass windows make it a dramatic stage for the game’s almost final boss, The Ender. But you’ll have to make it to the thirty-minute mark if you want to be treated to the cutscene of five reapers merging together into the ultimate reaper.
9 Moongolow
The Moongolow bonus level is an undersea palace, swarming with Moon jellyfish and Giant Crabbinos and complemented by ethereal music. It instantly stands out for other levels as you start the stage with almost all the passive items in the game placed around you and ripe for the picking.
This is also the first time you will encounter the merchant, who provides endless upgrades if you have the gold. This stage is perfect for trying new builds and the first time you meet the time limit of Moongolow, you’ll be sent to a hidden level for an ultra-useful relic.
8 Gallo Tower
The tower is basically the sequel to the Inlaid Library, with its layout vertical instead of horizontal. This means the Axe, the Song of Mana, and their evolutions work especially well here. It helps that the upbeat Song of Mana theme is a pleasure to listen to while you evaporate the competition with the Mannajja.
Apart from that, the tower is home to explosive traps, dragon shrimp, and two useful relics to collect. This level is also filled with secrets since three powerful characters can be unlocked by journeying in the darkness at the bottom of the tower and defeating the boss within.
7 Tiny Bridge
Tiny Bridge is a unique challenge stage that is unlocked by getting to level 80 in Inverse Gallo Tower. These stage is extremely narrow, only allowing you to move left or right. The Hyper Mode of this stage offers a 80 percent bonus to gold gain, making it nearly as good as the Bone Zone for farming gold.
Due to its unique layout, Tiny Bridge can be difficult to do well on. Weapons that deal damage horizontally will perform much better, like the Whip or Knife. However, flying enemies will attack as you progress, so you won’t want to completely neglect vertical attacks.
6 The Bone Zone
In the zone of bones, only coins can be found as pickups. The Bone Zone also comes with a bonus to the amount of Gold you earn, making it the best stage to grind gold. The challenge is then finding other ways to heal your character while you’re filling your pockets.
The Bloody Tear and Soul Eater both find extra use here, while the Mannajja is exceptionally useful in slowing the ever-increasing speed of the bone baddies. This is also the level where you find the salacious Scrolls of Morbane, which allow you to enter cheats to skip unlocks.
5 Bat Country
Bat Country is a challenge stage that unlocks after reaching level 80 in Inverse Mad Forest. As its name suggests, the only enemy type that appears in this stage are bats. You will be repeatedly swarmed by bats from all sides, so having weapons with wide area clear capabilities is a must.
Additionally, Bat Country inficts a 75 percent experience gain reduction, meaning you’ll level up much more slowly. However, to compensate, the high number of enemies that appear evens out this reduction, so you may not actually notice that much of a difference. There are two relics that can be unlocked in this stage, including the Chaos Malachite that lets Mortaccio transform upon reaching level 80.
4 Boss Rash
The last challenge stage is unlocked by having beaten the twenty-five-minute mark bosses for all standard stages. After that, you can take on Boss Rash’s boss rush mode. Until halfway through the level, you’ll be able to respawn the last wave by pressing a red pressure plate, which can be useful to collect treasure chests.
You can also use the blue plate to skip to the next round, with the final boss being a unique dragon enemy, the Tri-Anchors. The Mad Groove Arcana is especially useful here as it can pull in pickups and passive items that are otherwise out of reach.
3 Mt. Moonspell
Mt. Moonspell is a massive stage added in the Legacy of the Moonspell DLC. While it may not be the best for farming, exploring the map for the first few times is a great experience, with tons of hidden secrets to discover and new items to unlock.
What makes Mt. Moonspell so great is how different it is compared to other stages. Typically, non-DLC stages are a small set of repeating tiles that you can explore endlessly. However, Mt. Moonspell changed this formula, adding explorable locations and things to discover.
2 Lake Foscari
Lake Foscari was added with the Tides of the Foscari DLC, the second DLC expansion for Vampire Survivors. Similar to Mt. Moonspell, Lake Foscari continues the trend of a massive open explorable area with several secrets to uncover as you slay hordes of monsters.
Hyper Mode in Lake Foscari grants 100 percent extra gold, making it just as good as the Bone Zone for farming gold. If you’re getting tired of killing skeletons, Lake Foscari is a great, more visually appealing alternative.
1 Abyss Foscari
Abyss Foscari is the second map added in the Tides of the Foscari DLC. While this map is not nearly as fun to explore as Mt. Moonspell or Lake Foscari, it does offer one of the best places to farm Golden Eggs.
There is a semi-hidden spot in Abyss Foscari that endlessly spawns Moon Atlantean enemies, which always drop a Golden Egg when defeated. If you have enough survivability and damage, you can farm these enemies for their Golden Eggs as long as you want, endlessly powering up your character. This alone makes Abyss Foscari one of the best maps in all of Vampire Survivors.