Vampire Survivors drops a bucketload of new content with a Balatro collab and an "expansion within an expansion" — and it's not over yet

Just when I think I couldn’t love Vampire Survivors any more, Poncle goes and does it again. Over the past few days, the studio has dropped multiple surprise updates and announcements, including a free Balatro collaboration and an expansion to the Castlevania expansion. Yes, the expansion is getting an expansion.

Update 1.14 is live now on PC and PlayStation, with a small delay to Xbox (we get it by Friday). Bringing with it a Balatro-inspired mini-DLC called “Ante Chamber”, plus new stages — Mazerella and Westwoods, online co-op, and a mountain of secrets. All of this is free, though you’ll need to own Ode to Castlevania to access its new bonus content.

Let’s break it all down.

Vampire Survivors: Ante Chamber is the Balatro crossover I've been waiting for

Balatro, being another game that captured my attention and my Steam Deck battery last year, has already had its own Vampire Survivors crossover with the Friends of Jimbo update, so it stands to reason Jimbo was also going to come to Vampire Survivors.

The new Antechamber expansion features:

• 4 new playable characters
• 4 new weapons
• A brand new stage
• A remix of Balatro's main theme
• Fresh gameplay mechanic called 'Survarots'

Survarots are a new form of power creep that tweaks your characters' stats and abilities, so much like the Arcana cards, but themed around Vampire Survivors characters. They're currently usable by Secretino and all Ante Chamber characters.

And yes, it's completely free if you already own the game. I've just finished another amazing bullet hell game, Ball x Pit on my Xbox ROG Ally X so I'll be diving into this next, nice to know I'm really making the most of that Z2 Extreme processor, huh?

Online co-op finally arrives

The long-awaited online co-op has been added with update 1.14, if Vampire Survivors isn't already insane enough solo. Players can now level up together, and this is done in a batch mode (so for four players, you level up every four levels, for example).

Vampire Survivors online co-op also adds

• Free Roam: you're no longer locked to the same screen, everyone can move independently (just don't trigger a boss alone)
• Spectator Mode: If you die, you can jump between living players and respawn near them
• Achievements carry over to your own save at the end of a run
• Pause only pauses for you and nobody else
• No speed up function in online play for stability reasons

The only stated limitation with online co-op is that all players need to own the same DLC. Poncle does plan to change this later.

Westwoods

The new Westwoods stage is themed around luck and gambling, with objectives tied to Little Clovers and fortune wheels. You'll need to collect 23 Little Clovers to unlock this new stage, which includes a Party Mode that lets you control up to four characters at once (I cannot fathom how this works).

There's a new Darkana to unlock and a new character.

Mazerella, the labyrinth stage

Mazerella, as the name indicates, is going to be pure navigation hell, a labyrinth-themed stage packed with yet more secrets and unlocks.

You'll need to reach level 80 in the Inverse Dairy Plant to unlock this level.

It's home to more relics, more evolutions, and even more ways to break the game.

Ode to Castlevania expansion gets an expansion

Ode to Castlevania is already absolutely massive, even more so than initially advertised (if you know you know). Well, now it's even bigger and Poncle has added:

• 16 new ssecret characters
• 3 new weapons and evolutions
• 13 new weapon unions
• 1 new adventure (the story mode of the game)
• 12 new music tracks

Once you've completed the main unlocks of the Ode to Castlevania DLC, check the Secrets menu; new conditions for unlocking the bonus characters will appear there.

Hold fire on Xbox

While update 1.14 has been released to all platforms today, we'll need to wait a bit longer on Xbox as the new build needs to be certified, but Poncle has said it hopes this will be available by Friday.

What's next for Vampire Survivors?

Believe it or not, that's not it. As Poncle has teased another two reveals for November, if the Balatro collab wasn't the grand finale, I don't know what is waiting for us next month.

They have, however, given some clues about the next major patch in 2026, which should include a bunch of quality-of-life upgrades, performance boosts, save slots, and "a bit more content."

We know Vampire Survivors never just drops "a bit more content" but this will be end of the Chaos Roadmap so stay tuned!

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