Another entry in the lineage ofVampire Survivors, Spellbook Demonslayers distinguishes itself as anindie roguelikewith a vibrant pixel art style, an interesting upgrade system in and out of runs, and one of the most infectious soundtracks in the genre.
Related:Games To Play If You Like Vampire Survivors
Though you’ll find a lot of familiar ground in this game if you’re a fan of the genre, it still introduces enough new elements that warrant some explanations —ones that you don’t really get. So if you want to be prepared to fight off the demon hordes, here are some things you need to know before starting Spellbook Demonslayers.
7Suit Your Moves
The game has a few options when it comes to controls, allowing you to pick your movement and aiming styles to better mesh with your playstyle. If you’re feeling particularly whimsical or have to switch between two-handed play to one, say, you’re able to even switch these control styles on the fly with the bumper buttons or the Q and E keys on the keyboard.
Mouse/Stick is the option that affords most precise way to play, especially if you’re playing on a controller, since it allows you to control your aim and movement separately. If you prefer a more classic VS style, the automatic aiming mode picks your targets for you. Arguably the most unwieldy is the movement based option, which fires the aimed ability in the direction you’re facing.
6Experiment With Upgrades
Spellbook Demonslayers has a pretty robust meta upgrade system, bought with Astral Flowers that are mostly dropped by Elite enemies you encounter in a run. There are many power-ups to choose from, so you should experiment with different combinations to find the most fun and effective ones. This is easy to do, since you can refund all your Astral Flowers at will with no loss.
Related:The Top Indie Games On The Nintendo Switch, Ranked
These are separated by category into Upgrades, Mutation, and Unbinding. Upgrades are straightforward, giving you buffs that allow you to stay alive longer or deal more damage. Mutation allows you alternate options for Aura Evolutions, and Unbinding increases the level cap of your Auras, increasing their upper limit of power.
5Evolution Ins And Outs
Evolution works differently in this game than a lot of other entries in the genre. For starters, there are no prerequisites for evolving weapons. Once they reach level six, you can evolve them — giving them a new name, new animation, and a significant boost in power.
Auras, which are analogous to the stat buffs not tied to weapons in other VS-likes, can also be evolved. When they reach level four, they gain a new functionality. If you bought the corresponding Mutation to that Aura, you can spend a reroll to get an alternate evolution for that Aura.
4Customize Your Difficulty
Spellbook Demonslayers allows you to make enemies tougher and make runs more difficult, by allowing you to adjust parameters like their health, damage output, and movement speed. You can also affect things like the clock speed and increasing the kills required for Shrine activations.
Increasing the difficulty in this manner accrues Malice, which in turn grants you all sorts of buffs as well. If you think you may take the heat, increase your Malice score — especially if you’re achievement hunting, since it’s tied to certain achievements. You can also control the speed of the player and enemies, but that doesn’t affect Malice.
3Dash Basics
A useful toolif you’re in a jam or if you need to get into positionto start some trouble, the dash allows you to do a burst of rapid movement. This can get you out of even the trickiest spots, since you’re invincible for the duration of the dash. This is highlighted by the word DODGED whenever you dash through something that would have damaged you.
Related:The Coolest Invincibility Power-Up In Games, Ranked
This is tracked by the chevrons on the bottom left side of your screen. Named Mana, this depletes when you use the Dash, and slowly refills until it’s ready to use again.
2The Venn Diagram Of Victory
An important secondary objective, Shrines add an interesting twist to the VS genre, since they effectively reward you for staying in one area. This is something you may or may not be inclined to do, depending on how fast you’re mowing down baddies.
Staying in a Shrine’s aura (the slowly shrinking circle around it) and killing the listed amount of enemies, gives you all sorts of rewards. These depend on the nature of the Shrine in question, Allowing the aura to shrink down to zero causes it to disappear, leaving you with nothing. The only exception to this is Corrupted Shrines, which will just keep shooting at you until you deal with them.
A neat thing about Shrines is that more than one can spawn at any time, with overlapping fields of operation. You should take advantage of this by standing in the overlaps, so that you can advance the kill meter of multiple Shrines at once — and likely reap multiple rewards in the process.
1The Map Is Not Infinite (Or Even Very Big)
Playing Vampire Survivors and games like it have probably acclimated you to infinitely scrolling maps, giving you all the room you need to maneuver around the waves of enemies. You may also be used to maps so big that they at least feel infinite. Aside from uncommonexceptions like Brotato, this tends to be the status quo.
Spellbook Demonslayers is another of those exceptions. Though each of its maps are quite roomy, you can reach their boundaries pretty easily if you just pick a direction and start moving towards it. Keep this in mind when you’re dodging enemies in a straight line for long periods of time, as you could end up at the edge of the map — with a wall of enemies back the way you came.
