Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors launches today on Game Pass at no extra cost, and you should play it. It’s a card-based dungeon crawler that takes the Vampire Survivors DNA — screen-filling chaos, absurd power scaling, “one more run” addiction — and reshapes it into something that feels genuinely new. $9.99 on Steam, free if you have Game Pass.
What Is Vampire Crawlers?
Poncle, the studio behind Vampire Survivors (one of the highest-rated games on Steam with over 200,000 reviews at 97% positive), didn’t make Vampire Survivors 2. Instead, they built a first-person, turn-based, card-driven dungeon crawler set in the same universe. Each run drops you into a multi-floor dungeon with a starting deck. You draft new cards, upgrade them with gems, and chain together combos that feel like you’ve broken the game by run three.
The shift from real-time bullet hell to tactical card play sounds like it shouldn’t work. Somehow it does. Kotaku called it “a spin-off that’s better than the original,” and after 13 hours with it, I understand the take. The dopamine hit of Vampire Survivors — watching numbers explode and enemies evaporate — translates perfectly into card combos. Play a card, watch half the room die, draw more cards, repeat.
Reviews and Scores
Metacritic sits at 80 (Generally Favorable) based on 10 critic reviews so far:
- Loot Level Chill — 100: “almost impossible to put down… might be the best the genre has to offer full stop”
- Destructoid — 90: “the roguelite itch is scratched just as well as ever”
- DualShockers — 90: “a strong contender for my 2026 Game of the Year”
- Windows Central — Highly Recommended: “yet another addictive pixelated masterpiece”
Not every review is a love letter. The consistent criticism: mechanical depth plateaus. Once you’ve seen the core loop, you’ve seen it. Some reviewers wanted more variety in dungeon layouts and enemy encounters. Fair point. But at $10 (or free on Game Pass), the value proposition is absurd.
How It Actually Plays
You pick a character — each one has a different starting deck and a unique signature card. You enter a dungeon. Each floor has rooms with enemies, shops, and events. Combat is turn-based: play attack cards, defense cards, utility cards. Draft new ones after fights. Use gems to power up favorites.
The loop hooks fast. A typical run takes 20-40 minutes. You die, you unlock something permanent (new characters, cards, stat upgrades), you try again. Sound familiar? It’s the Vampire Survivors formula, just slower and more deliberate. The card synergies get wild — one reviewer mentioned builds so broken they felt like exploits. That’s the sweet spot Poncle was aiming for.
Runs great on Steam Deck and handhelds, by the way. Windows Central tested extensively on the ROG Ally X and called it “a perfect handheld game.” Turn-based means no input lag issues, no frame-rate anxiety. Play it on the bus, play it in bed, play it when you should be sleeping.
Price and Where to Play
$9.99 on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. That’s it. No deluxe edition, no season pass, no battle pass nonsense. Poncle kept the same pricing philosophy as Vampire Survivors — charge almost nothing, deliver something that feels worth ten times more.
On Xbox Game Pass (Ultimate and PC Game Pass), it’s available today, April 21, at no additional cost. If you’re already subscribed, this is a zero-dollar game from the studio that made one of the most addictive games of the decade. Hard to argue with that.
Also confirmed for Switch 2 down the line, plus iOS and Android mobile versions coming later.
Verdict: Claim It Immediately
Vampire Crawlers does what few spin-offs manage: it justifies its own existence. It’s not Vampire Survivors with cards stapled on. It’s a genuinely good deckbuilding roguelike that happens to share a universe and a design philosophy with one of the best indie games ever made. Metacritic 80, reviewers calling it a GOTY contender, and it costs nothing if you have Game Pass.
If you like Balatro, Slay the Spire, or Vampire Survivors itself, this is an instant download. Even if you don’t normally play card games, the Vampire Survivors chaos-energy translates well enough that it’s worth the 20 minutes to find out.
Play it now before your backlog swallows you whole. Double Fine’s Kiln hits Game Pass on April 23, and Hades 2 already landed on the service this month. April 2026 is stacked.
More Free and Cheap Games to Play
- Best Free Steam Games 2026 (Ranked by Hours of Fun) — Warframe, Path of Exile, Dota 2, and more
- Free Games This Week (April 18) — Epic freebies, Steam weekends, Xbox Free Play Days
- Is Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Worth $30/Month? — Tier breakdown so you don’t overpay
