I played Rune Dice a month ago, and it was the most addicting game that I played in 2026 so far. It was a great game, but it’s hard to keep that title when you’re going up against the creator of Vampire Survivors. That’s right, poncle has released Vampire Crawlers. It’s a card battling, dungeon crawling, roguelite that takes place in the same world as Vampire Survivors. I just couldn’t put it down.
You start off with just the forest map, one character, and one deck of cards. You run around the map, and there are random spots that indicate battles, chests, and other chance events. Throughout your run, you can also acquire and upgrade cards, increase your levels, and rack up large amounts of coins. Once you beat a boss, you move on to the next floor, and the map gets harder.
The battles are the bread and butter of the game. Each battle pits you against horses of enemies from Vampire Survivors. Each turn, you get to pick cards from your hand that deal damage or do other effects. These cards are a variety of attacks and relics from Vampire Survivors like King Bible and Garlic. The game also takes a page out of the Slay The Spire playbook by incorporating things like Block and AP.
The game starts off rather tame, but gets chaotic quickly. Plus it has a ton of content, just like Vampire Survivors. When you beat the first stage of the Forest map, you unlock the library map. But you also unlock the second stage of Forest, which is harder and takes more time. It took me five hours and nearly ten runs to complete the third stage of Forest. I died so many times, but I never wanted to give up.
By that point, I had collected so many coins that I spent in the power up shop. All the power ups combined with the newly acquired cards, characters, and relics made future runs even crazier. In classic Vampire Survivors fashion, the more runs you do, the more shit you unlock. After ten hours, you’re swimming in unlocks, but you’re still just getting started.
I’ll be honest, I think I like the gameplay here more than in Vampire Survivors because Crawlers is way more engaging and interactive. In Vampire Survivors, all you’re doing is rubbing around the map while choosing upgrades and evading enemies. The game does the attacking and effects for you. You actually need to strategize in Vampire Crawlers. Every turn you need to focus on what cards to play and what combos you need.
For instance, playing a card that costs 0 points will give you a buff to any card that costs 1 point. Then playing that card gives you a buff to a 2 point card. You need to pay attention to combos, how your deck is built, upgrades, gems, and the enemies themselves. The game is way more engaging than just running around an infinite map for 30 minutes. That’s the main reason why I love this game so much, and why I keep going back to do more runs.
If you love Vampire Survivors, you’ll understand all the references in the game and maybe you’ll want to try it out. The gameplay will be a bit hard to learn at first if you haven’t played similar games, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly. If you love games like Slay The Spire, you’ll love Vampire Crawlers even if you never played Vampire Survivors. Plus the game only costs $10, poncle knows what the fans want.
10/10