Tips for Beating Boss Monsters in Vampire Crawlers

6 days ago 3

Published Apr 21, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

Scott Baird is a contributor with over a decade's experience writing about video games, along with board games and tabletop RPGs. Scott has previously worked for Dexerto, Cracked, Dorkly, and Gamepur.

Like Vampire Survivors, Vampire Crawlers pits the player against numerous boss monsters that are spread throughout the stage, all culminating in a fight against a singular, powerful opponent.

There's a big difference in how the two games handle their boss fights. In Vampire Survivors, the player has freedom of movement, meaning they can carve a path through the enemy hordes to keep away from the boss that's pursuing them. In Vampire Crawlers, there's no fleeing, meaning the player needs to stand their ground and face the beast head-on.

Vampire Survivors First-Person Spin-Off Release Date Revealed (And It's Coming Soon)

Poncle has announced the release date for Vampire Crawlers, the first-person Vampire Survivors spin-off, and it's launching on PC and consoles soon.

One of the best things about Vampire Crawlers is that it doesn't hold the player's hand, letting them feel smart as they uncover its mysteries. Unfortunately, this also applies to the boss monsters, who have a special mechanic that's poorly explained, leaving the player to fend for themselves.

Thankfully, there are ways to take down the Vampire Crawlers bosses, especially if the player picks certain items and uses specific characters during their runs.

This guide was written using the pre-release review build of Vampire Crawlers, so some details may change with future patches.

The Glowing Eyes are the Key to Defeating Vampire Crawler Bosses

All bosses in Vampire Crawlers, save for the final one, are faced at the end of a battle with regular enemies. You'll know which monster on the minimap is the boss from the little horns it has. It's a good idea to clear out the rest of the floor first, in order to gain experience points, improve your deck, and upgrade individual cards.

As the boss fight goes on, you'll notice a large form in the back slowly approaching. Once it reaches the front, a series of glowing eyes will appear in the top center of the screen, signifying that the boss fight has begun.

As expected, the Vampire Crawlers bosses deal a ton of damage and have mountains of hit points. What makes them terrifying is a unique gimmick that involves the eyes. See, every time the player uses a card or skips to the next turn, one of the eye symbols fills in. Once the last eye fills in, the boss will get a turn and can attack the player or put a debuff card in their hand.

Those expecting to unleash nasty, unlimited combos against the Vampire Crawlers bosses are going to be in for a rude awakening. The eye actions give the bosses the chance to inflict tons of damage onto the player, meaning you'll die before being able to finish the combo.

Save the Wild Cards you find in each dungeon for the boss encounter. These grey cards contain items that can be found in breakable torches. Wild Cards can extend combos without meeting the number requirements and are extremely useful.

While the eyes might seem annoying, they are intended to help the player. See, you're not supposed to just deal damage to the bosses in Vampire Crawlers. You need to inflict status effects on the bosses as they're about to attack, using the eyes as the timer.

Using the screenshot above, you can see that all but two of the eye symbols are filled out, meaning that you can play two more cards before the monster attacks. You can use this information in a couple of different ways, and you will have to change things, depending on what's in your hand.

Ideally, you'll want to hit a boss monster with Knockback, Disarm, or Freeze with a card that's used on the last eye symbol. If these hit, then the boss won't be able to use their extra attack, giving you a chance to build a new combo. The cards that give these effects are listed further below.

The other option is to build lengthy combos around Armor cards, as these provide temporary hit points that are absorbed first. It's advised to take Armor cards throughout the run, and put Wild Card gem symbols on them, meaning they can also be used as part of a combo, which will let you tank most or all of the hit, and then you can continue the chain.

You need to go big with the boss monsters, as taking too long in any battle will cause one of the Reapers to show up and annihilate you. This means that you can't chip damage your way to victory — you still need to be hitting hard alongside the status effects.

Best Cards & Gems for Facing Vampire Crawlers Bosses

The bosses get deadlier over the course of Vampire Crawlers, meaning that acquiring cards/weapons with status effects is vital. Possibly the best option is the Unholy Vespers, which can be made by mixing the King Bible red card with the Spellbinder yellow card. Not only does this evil book deal damage, but it has guaranteed knockback and only costs 2 mana, making it the ideal choice when the eyes are nearly all open.

Similarly, the Soul Eater is another great choice, being made from Garlic and Pummarola. This is also a 2-mana weapon, which inflicts Disarm on the enemy, preventing them from performing their action, assuming it's used just as the final eye opens.

Finally, inflicting Freeze on the enemy is one of the best status effects in the game. The Clock Lancet has a guaranteed Freeze effect, and putting it higher up the chain increases the number of foes it affects. Unfortunately, the random nature of Vampire Crawler's gameplay means Clock Lancet isn't guaranteed, unless you pick a certain character.

When it comes to Gems, prioritize any Wild Cards or mana reduction for the status effect weapons! Ideally, you'll want them to be as cheap as possible or able to continue combos after use, so that you'll always have access to them when needed, and can keep your damage multiplier going.

Even if you can't get the Unholy Vespers or the Soul Eater during a run, the Holy Bible and Garlic still have a chance of using their status effect — it's just not guaranteed.

Best Characters for Facing Vampire Crawlers Bosses

The bosses in Vampire Crawlers don't become a headache until the last quarter of the game, meaning Crawler choice isn't super important until later on. Once you reach the last two dungeons, you'll want to consider your character more carefully.

It bears mentioning that there's a power-up that lets you bring two additional Crawlers on a run! It resembles a little caravan and is expensive to max out, but it is worth it. Once it's fully upgraded, you can have a party of three Crawlers for your run.

Krochi is the best choice for a boss run, because he comes with free uses of Revival, and can gain more. Revivals are extra lives that fully heal you, meaning you're essentially adding extra health bars on. The boss fights in Vampire Crawlers are grueling, and Krochi is the best choice for surviving them.

Gallo starts out with the Clock Lancet, meaning you'll have a weapon that can slow down bosses at the right time. He also has experience points and gold modifiers that will make runs easier. The downside is that he's unlocked fairly late in the game, meaning he's only useful for the final two dungeons.

Mortaccio is a strong contender for the best Crawler in the game, but that's mostly due to how useful he is in the earlier dungeons. He's still a great character to have for the later dungeons, as his Bones are cheap and deal a ton of damage, while his amount-increasing ability makes them more fearsome over the course of a run.