Skip to content

Vampire Crawlers Evolution Chart: Every Recipe & Fusion

Short answer

Find an Evolution statue (red orb), then sacrifice the weapon + the right item type with an Evolution Gem. The specific card doesn't matter, only the type: any Tome works for Holy Wand. All 18 recipes are below.

Evolutions are Vampire Crawlers' power spike. You take a base weapon, sacrifice the right item card, apply an Evolution Gem, and get back a holographic-foil monster with a bigger mana cost and much bigger numbers. The catch: the game makes you memorize the recipes: at least until you find the Grim Grimoire (location at the bottom).

Weapon icons at a glance

Axe weapon icon Knife weapon icon Garlic weapon icon King Bible weapon icon Fire Wand weapon icon Clock Lancet weapon icon Cherry Bomb weapon icon Bone weapon icon Attractorb weapon icon Bracer weapon icon

Icons from the official wiki; every evolution below starts from one of these weapons.

The cheat sheet

Important: for evolutions, the item type matters, not the exact card. Holy Wand needs "a Tome": Empty, Light, Weighty or Ancient all work.

Evolution Weapon + Item Mana Damage Effect
Bloody Tear Whip Heart 2 40 Heal 2 on Crit
Holy Wand Magic Wand Tome 2 160 Prioritizes attackers
NO FUTURE Runetracer Armor 3 15 Bounces and explodes
Thousand Edge Knife weapon icon Knife Bracer 3 200 Crit
Hellfire Fire Wand weapon icon Fire Wand Spinach 3 225 Knockback
Thunder Loop Lightning Ring Duplicator 4 150 Hits again at end of turn
Death Spiral Axe weapon icon Axe Candle 3 160 Crit
Soul Eater Garlic weapon icon Garlic Pummarola 3 20 Heal 2 and Disarm
Unholy Vespers King Bible weapon icon King Bible Spellbinder 2 120 Knockback
Heaven Sword Cross Clover 3 100 Crit
Gorgeous Moon Pentagram Crown 1–5 Erase Moonrise
Phieraggi Phiera Der Tuphello + Eight the Sparrow Tirajisú 4 350 —
Valkyrie Turner Shadow Pinion Wings 2 25 Valkyrie's Inferno
Mannajja Song of Mana Skull O'Maniac 5 79 Raw Mana
La Borra Santa Water Attractorb 4 150 Burns enemies at end of turn
Vicious Hunger Gatti Amari Mask 2 100 May turn enemies into coins
Vandalier Peachone + Ebony Wings — 5 500 Knockback and Big Bird
Spirit Disturbance Unearthly Bolt Tirajisú (any) 6 425 Crit Explosion, Roaring, Afterlife

One card people expect on this list and will not find: Cherry Bomb has no recipe. It is not a primary weapon and not a secondary for anything, so the Evolution gem never offers it. The Cherry Bomb evolution players remember, Yatta Daikarin, belongs to Vampire Survivors; in Crawlers the card's payoff is the Bombard gem (Cherry Bomb, explained).

Bloody Tear evolution icon
Bloody Tear: Whip plus a Heart.
Holy Wand evolution icon
Holy Wand: Magic Wand plus any Tome.
Thousand Edge evolution icon
Thousand Edge: Knife plus Bracer.
Phieraggi evolution icon
Phieraggi: Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow, plus a Tirajisú.

Vandalier is a true union, two weapons fused, no item needed. Phieraggi is also a two-weapon union, but it still demands a card from the Tirajisú group plus the Evolution gem, don't show up without a Tirajisú. (Insider detail from the official wiki: Phieraggi's card says 350 damage, but it actually fires 5 projectiles × 72 = 360.)

Spirit Disturbance is the 18th recipe and the Death Parade (v1.6.1) addition: Unearthly Bolt (2 Mana, 80 damage, prioritises attackers, Crit Explosion / Afterlife) + any Tirajisú card + an Evolution gem → Spirit Disturbance (6 Mana, 425 damage, Crit Explosion / Roaring / Afterlife). The wiki still files the card under "???" in its colour lists, which is why cards-mechanics calls it uncategorised (that's its colour bucket), not the recipe, which is now documented. (Source: Official Vampire Survivors Wiki, Crawlers:Evolutions.)

What the effects mean

  • Knockback: chance to push an enemy back a row, out of melee range.
  • Disarm: chance to cancel an enemy's attack (some enemies resist).
  • Erase: destroys enemies outright and grants bonus XP.
  • Moonrise: each play strengthens the effect and adds +1 Mana cost, resetting after 5.
  • Valkyrie's Inferno: damage builds up as you keep playing cards.
  • Raw Mana: creates a Wild card that generates Mana when played.
  • Big Bird: clears all birds for a burst of damage.
  • "May turn enemies into coins": RNG effects like this scale with your Luck stat.

How to actually evolve a card

  1. Find an Evolution statue: identical to the Mana statue except the orb is red (Mana statues glow blue). If none of your cards are compatible, it hands you a compensatory item instead.
  2. Pick the weapon to evolve. The game shows you the result, the sacrifice, and the final Mana cost before you commit.
  3. Sacrifice the item. Only the sacrificed card's gems are lost: gems in the card you keep are inherited, so socket your best gems into the card you're keeping.

One more rule that changes your Gem timing: the base card only needs a free socket, it does not have to be empty, and you can't socket Gems into Evolved cards that have only one socket. Decide on Gems before committing a card as an evolution candidate.

Why bother? Compare: Magic Wand is a 0-cost card dealing 30 damage. Holy Wand costs 2 Mana and deals 160: a 5.3x damage jump for 2 mana, and it still prioritizes enemies about to attack you.

These are the game's unions, fusions and combinations: the same table, three different names players use.

Which evolutions should you make first?

Ranked by value-per-sacrifice, from the recipe table's own numbers:

  1. Holy Wand (Magic Wand + Tome): 30 → 160 damage is the biggest jump in the entire table (5.3x), and Magic Wand is a starter card you already own.
  2. Hellfire (Fire Wand + Spinach): 225 damage, the highest single hit available at 3 Mana.
  3. Thousand Edge (Knife + Bracer): 200 damage with Crit on a 0-cost base card; Knife is free to run until you evolve it.
  4. Soul Eater (Garlic + Pummarola): the damage is tiny (20), but Heal 2 + Disarm on every play is the survival package that carries fragile decks.
  5. Unholy Vespers (King Bible + Spellbinder): 120 damage with Knockback at only 2 Mana; the cheapest efficient evolution in the table.

Grim Grimoire: stop memorizing recipes

The Grim Grimoire tracks every evolution you've discovered. To get it:

  1. Go to the Library and clear the zone once: this unlocks the West Wing.
  2. Enter the West Wing on difficulty 3 (new, meaner enemies).
  3. Find the shiny bookshelf, bash into it a couple of times until it breaks, and collect the Grim Grimoire.

After that, the pause menu shows all known evolutions and cycles through every compatible item combination for you.

Sources

Gem and socket rules (the part guides get wrong)

When you evolve a card, sockets and gems are handled asymmetrically:

  • The base card only needs a free socket: it does not need to be empty.
  • Gems already socketed in the base card are inherited by the evolved card.
  • Gems in the sacrificed card are lost.

So the correct play is: socket your best gems into the card you're keeping, and sacrifice a bare copy. Doing it the other way round throws the gems away: the single most common way players waste a Rare gem.

Related: all gems and rarities · Blacksmith sockets · Power Ups