Vampire Survivors Is Free For One Day Only

Two years after it came out, people are still obsessed with Vampire Survivors, the arcade battler roguelike which, despite its name, does not actually feature any bloodsuckers. Anyone who hasn’t already picked up the hit PC game can now nab it for free, though, thanks to the Epic Games Store’s 2024 holiday giveaway.

December 19 marks Vampire Survivors’ launch on the Fortnite maker’s Steam competitor, alongside all five of the game’s DLCs, including the Contra mashup and the recently released Castlevanaia crossover. Each set adds a bunch of new abilities, enemies, and gameplay wrinkles to the compulsively replayable formula, and can be picked up via a current 15 percent off sale for just $10 total. Not a bad deal if you don’t mind installing the Epic Games Store launcher and playing there (Vampire Surivovrs is also free-to-play on mobile and just $5 on every other platform).

But the Vampire Survivors giveaway is just the start of Epic Games’ annual (and fruitless?) attempt to take some PC gaming market share away from Valve. It’s available only for the next 24 hours, at which point it’ll be replaced by another free game, though what exactly that will be remains a mystery at the moment. The rest of the Epic Games Store’s winter sale will continue through January 9.

For anyone who hasn’t already fallen under Vampire Survivors’ spell, it’s basically Balatro for shoot ‘em ups. Instead of targeting enemies or controlling attacks, you simply move an 8-bit character around, collecting orbs and selecting power-ups as they auto-attack their way from lowly peasant to godlike warrior, at which point death shows up to end your run. It sounds simple enough, but try it once and before you know it you’ll be up way past your bedtime hooked on the magic of the 2022 GOTY contender.