Vampire Survivors Darkanas Guide: Unlock All Cards (No DLC Required)
A complete guide to the unlock conditions and methods for all Darkanas (Darkasso) in Vampire Survivors.
This guide focuses on practical steps and strategies based on actual gameplay to help you easily unlock them.
I - Sapphire Mist
Unlock Condition: Reach -85% Cooldown with Space Dude.
Start a run on Space 54 with Space Dude. Keep your Max Weapons at 1, select Arcana XX - Silent Old Sanctuary, and pick up 5 Empty Tomes to easily reach -85%.
III - Hidden Anathema
Unlock Condition: Eat as much as you can.
When playing as Gazebo, overhealing by at least +30 HP with Floor Chickens grants a permanent stat boost. You need to keep eating Floor Chickens until these stats are maxed out.
Hitting chicken-type enemies in The Coop with fire-based attacks has a chance to turn them into Floor Chickens. Pick Gazebo, head to The Coop, grab the Fire Wand or Flames of Misspell, reduce your Cooldown, and devour as many Floor Chickens as possible.
You'll know you've likely hit the goal when picking up a Floor Chicken only restores health without showing a stat-up animation.
V - Pale Diamond Incursion
Unlock Condition: Find 10 Golden Treasure Chests from Zi'Appunta's ability in a single run.
Zi'Appunta is unlocked by evolving Ammo Appalachia into Gunastrophe (requires max Bracer). She spawns unique explosive objects on the map that have a chance to drop treasure chests.
The goal is to touch these explosive objects and spawn 10 Golden Treasure Chests in a single run. You don't even need to open them for it to count.
Here is a reliable strategy:
- Start a run on Il Molise in Endless Mode, and choose Arcana XX - Silent Old Sanctuary.
- Take only Song of Mana as your weapon. For passive items, choose Bracer, Clover, Empty Tome, Candelabrador, Spellbinder, and Skull O'Maniac.
- Keep moving around to trigger the explosive objects and spawn chests.
Make sure not to open the Golden Treasure Chests, as they will give you weapons you don't currently have.
I forgot to count exactly how many Golden Chests I had spawned, but I unlocked it successfully when I ended the run at 32 minutes.
Note that Golden Chests modified by Darkana XIII - Call of a Mad Moon apparently do not count toward this unlock.
VI - Moonlight Bolero
Unlocked automatically when you obtain the Darkasso relic.
X - Hail from the Future
Unlock Condition: Trigger a Weird Souls Purifier with Santa Ladonna.
Start any stage with Santa Ladonna, evolve the Santa Javelin into Seraphic Cry by maxing it out alongside Clover, and then pick up a Rosary.
XII - Crystal Cries
Unlock Condition: Trigger a Starry Heavens with She-Moon Eeta.
Start any stage with She-Moon Eeta, evolve the Glass Fandango into Celestial Voulge by maxing it out alongside Wings, and then pick up an Orologion.
Orologions will spawn much more frequently if you have Arcana XII - Out of Bounds or Darkana X - Hail from the Future active.
XIII - Call of a Mad Moon
Unlock Condition: Reach +999% Luck with Chula-Reh.
Head to West Wood with Chula-Reh, pick up a Clover, and you should unlock this naturally as you level up.
A dice rolls periodically to boost his Luck, and when it lands on a 6, she gains a +777% Luck bonus for 30 seconds. As long as your Luck crosses the 999% mark during this window, you're good to go.
XVIII - Victorian Horror
Unlock Condition: Survive 30:00 in Inverse Green Acres with no active weapons.
You need to survive for 30 minutes in Inverse Green Acres using a character that starts with no attack capabilities.
Passive items are completely fine. You can also pick up Treasure Chests and Floor Chickens.
If Candybox or Arma Dio appear in your level-up choices, it's safe to select them as long as you immediately hit the Skip button.
This is apparently much easier with DLC characters, but if you don't own them, you can use Big Trouser, Cosmo Pavone, or Torino and rely on retaliation damage to kill enemies.
I managed to do it with Cosmo Pavone, so here is the detailed breakdown.
- At the start of the stage, select Arcana IX - Divine Bloodline.
- Buy an extra Arcana from the Merchant and select Arcana XX - Silent Old Sanctuary.
- Early on, intentionally bump into weak enemies like bats to gather gems. Fill your passive slots with Hollow Heart, Armor, Spinach, Spellbinder, Empty Tome, and Torrona's Box.
- Absolutely do not pick up any weapons. Use Banish or Skip on them. Also, avoid picking up Treasure Chests for now.
- If Arma Dio or Candybox appear, select them and immediately hit Skip to save your Banish rerolls.
- For your 3rd Arcana, choose Arcana VI - Sarabande of Healing.
- For your 4th Arcana, choose Arcana 0 - Game Killer.
Ideally, you want to pick up Game Killer only after all your passive items are max level. If you grab it by mistake early on, use the surrounding Treasure Chests to level them up the rest of the way.
If managing the Arcana timings feels too difficult, you can always just buy your 4th Arcana from the Merchant.
By the late game, you can stand mostly still and kill enemies via retaliation, but if your HP starts getting low, move around to detonate your stockpiled gems.
By the 22-minute mark, my Cosmo Pavone had reached 1488 HP. Absolutely tanky!
XXI - Wandering the Jet Black
Unlock Condition: Reach 665 Max Health with Bat Robbert.
Bat Robbert has a passive ability that increases his Max Health whenever he drops to critical health.
Start a run on a stage like Mad Forest and follow these steps:
- Select Arcana IX - Divine Bloodline at the start of the stage.
- Intentionally bump into enemies to deal retaliation damage.
- When leveling up, prioritize Hollow Heart first, then Victory Sword.
- Whenever you reach critical health, he will automatically heal and increase his Max Health. Repeat this until you hit 665.
The time it takes depends entirely on how quickly you find the Hollow Heart. By following this strategy in Mad Forest, I reached 712 Max Health in just over 2 minutes with a Level 3 Hollow Heart.
Word is that 3 more Darkanas will be added in the upcoming version 1.15 update.
