Arcanas were introduced into Vampire Survivors in a recent update with the purpose of allowing the player to alter the rules of the game in small but interesting ways. So far these Arcanas mostly deal with improving certain weapons in new ways, but there are a few that improve other aspects of the game. For example, the Awake Aracana gives the player three extra Revives, and makes the character stronger for each Revive used.
What's great about these Arcanas is how they've given the player more options when putting a build together. Weapons that aren't that effective are made overpowered in the extreme when the right combination of Arcanas is used.
Updated on November 22, 2022, by Jeff Drake: The release of Version 1.0 of Vampire Survivors has finally filled out the arcana list. This can always be expanded upon later, but for now, every card on the arcana list has a power. There's also been more than a few new characters introduced into the game since this article's original publishing. Some of these new characters can exploit the arcana system to ridiculous levels. This update adds five additional entries to the list of best arcana builds in Vampire Survivors that use the newer arcanas or characters.
15 Golden
The Golden build has become a little more necessary due to the inclusion of the merchant, and those oh-so-tempting golden eggs (for 10,000 gold). This build requires the Big Trouser character to be really successful, though any character with a high Greed bonus will work.
This build's first arcana should be Disco of Gold. The Clover, Spinach, Tiragisu, Empty Tome, Attractorb, and Stone Mask are needed, as are the Greatest Jubilee, Lightning Ring, and Phieraggi weapons. Turn on limit breaking and focus on making Phieraggi as fast as possible.
14 Gemini Build
Pairing the Cosmo character with the Gemini arcana produces some interesting results. Cosmo gets a free pair of weapons - Peachone and Ebony Wings. These don't count against its weapon maximum, and Cosmo can still get Peachone and Ebony Wings while playing. Gemini also gives a duplicate of Peachone and Ebony Wings. This allows Cosmo to have three pairs of Peachone and Ebony Wings with only two weapon slots.
Gatti Amari is a good weapon to pair with the birds due to it benefiting from the Gemini arcana. The only required passive item is the Stone Mask (for Gatti Amari).
13 Maximized Area
This build exploits the effects of the Boogaloo of Illusions arcana when combined with either Minnah or Concetta. This will allow the player to maximize the area of their weapons. By the time the run ends, almost certainly at the 30-minute mark, the player's projectile should be filling the screen.
The best weapons to use with this build are the Axe, Whip, Fire Wand, and Song of Mana. The Garlic and Santa Water are also smart choices with this build. The Candelabrador, Silver Ring, and Torrona's Box are required passive items, the other three slots are free for the player to fill as they wish.
12 Gem Explosion
One of the newest arcanas in the game is Game Killer. This arcana turns the experience gems into projectiles. This stops the character from leveling up, so it's best to wait and get this arcana with the second choice. The gem projectiles do considerable damage to compensate for never gaining experience.
The best weapon to combo with Game Killer is the Gorgeous Moon (Pentagram). This will kill all enemies on screen and then act as a Vacuum to shower the screen with gems.
11 Magnet Build
The last arcana in Vampire Survivors is Blood Astronomia, which creates a damaging zone around the player the same size as the player's Magnet radius. This is one of the best arcanas in the game. The weapons in this build are Garlic, Song of Mana, Pentagram, Clock Lancet, and Laurel. The Attractorb and Duplicator passive items should be selected as well.
This build gets even stronger with the Out of Bounds arcana. This makes the Clock Lancet incredibly overpowered. The best characters to exploit this build is Poe or any of the characters that give extra projectiles - like Cavallo and Ambrojoe.
10 The Immortal Devil
This build gives the player the most Revives possible in Vampire Survivors, which almost ensures that the player will make it to the 30-minute mark of any stage. This build only has three mandatory components. The first component is the character named Krochi. This character's passive bonus grants two free Revives.
Combine Krochi with the Awake Arcana to give him three extra Revives. The final component of this build is the Tiragisu accessory, which grants two Revives. When this build is complete the player will have seven Revives, this can be increased to eight if the Revive power-up is purchased. This doesn't guarantee victory, but it definitely puts a thumb on the scale.
9 Dommario In The Dark Night
The Chaos in the Dark Night Arcana changes the speed of the character's projectiles. This change ranges from -50% to +200%, so the average bonus will be +75%. This effect resets every ten seconds, providing a different bonus to projectile speed. Not many weapons ignore weapon speed bonuses. This makes this a versatile Arcana.
This build has Dommario as the character. Pasqualina also works with this build, but her passive bonus to projectile speed is lower than Dommario's. The weapons in this build are King Bible (Dommario's starting weapon), Runetracer, Magic Wand, Axe, Santa Water, and Laurel. The Laurel is there purely to protect Dommario due to his slow movement speed. The Bracer accessory is the only one required in this build. This boosts projectile speed further and counters the penalty of the Arcana.
8 Soul Eater's Delight
Poe seems to be an underused character in Vampire Survivors. His starting weapon, Garlic, is nice; however, it's also underpowered. The Garlic weapon becomes less and less effective as the clock gets closer to the 30-minute mark. Evolving Garlic into the Soul Eater is a tremendous improvement, but it's still a bit underpowered.
The Sarabande of Healing Arcana doubles healing, and damages nearby enemies an amount equal to the healing. The two weapons this works with are the Soul Eater and the Bloody Tear (evolved Whip). The player should get the Whip, and evolve the Garlic and Whip, as soon as possible.
7 Immolating Arca
The Heart of Fire Arcana causes the fireball projectiles from the Fire Wand and Hellfire weapons to explode upon impact. This Arcana also causes an explosion centered on the character when they take damage. This doesn't damage the character. This makes the Fire Wand a more reliable weapon.
This build uses Arca for the character due to his starting weapon being the Fire Wand. The other main weapons are Song of Mana, and Magic Wand, though the goal should be to evolve the Fire Wand. Arce reduces cooldown times for his weapons. Get the Empty Tome accessory to further decrease weapon cooldown times. The Canelabrador accessory should be taken to make the fireballs as large as possible.
6 Poppea's Painting
Poppea is generally one of the best characters to use. Her passive ability increases weapon duration by 1% per level, with no maximum. By the end of a stage, her weapons' duration is ridiculously long. This build is designed to exploit extended weapon durations for maximum effect.
The Lost & Found Painting Arcana alters the duration of weapons from -50% to +200%. This resets every ten seconds. The weapons in this build are Song of Mana (Poppea's starting weapon), King Bible, Santa Water, Runetracer, Clock Lancet, and Phieraggi. The main accessories are Spellbinder, Empty Tome, Bracer, Skull O'Maniac, Duplicator, and Attractorb.