Developer: Poncle, Nosebleed Interactive
Publisher: Poncle
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Verified
Rrp: £8.99 (Steam) and £9.99 (Epic)
Released: 21st April 2026
Available on: Steam and Epic
Played Using: An Xbox One Control Pad
Approximate game length: 30+
Having played the demo of this game (as seen in Steam Next Fest 2026 Part 1) I knew without a doubt that I was going to enjoy this game once it was out. It combines two things that I can’t seem to get enough of which is deck building and dungeon crawling. However, this game doesn’t simply do that and call it a day. Instead they’ve added all several types of meta progression that you unlock as you go.
I decided to leave it a few weeks before playing the full game. Since I arrive to most games late, I felt it best to allow time for the developers to be able to apply at least one patch before I jump in. This is because many developers will use that first week or so to apply hotfixes to issues they didn’t encounter in playtesting.
Each run starts in the Village where you pick the Crawler (the Survivors from Vampire Survivors) you’ll be taking with you, in the beginning you’ll only have a few to pick from but you’ll quickly unlock more. Each Crawler has their special ability that will activate when they are first cast as well as another passive ability that triggers when a certain card type is played.
The cards have a casting cost, which is deducted from the mana you have which replenishes at the start of each of your turns. You can increase your store of mana by playing cards that generate it such as spell books.
So far so standard for a game in the deck building genre. However, Vampire Crawlers does something interesting with the casting cost of cards. You see, if you can cast your cards in ascending order they grow more potent and build up a larger combo. The limiting factor being how much mana you have available, but there are ways around that, such as mana generating cards or cards that cost a negative amount.
New cards and gems (which I will cover in a moment) are unlocked as you level up which is done through defeating the enemies in the dungeon. With each level up you’re given a choice of three cards or gems of which you can only pick one. That card is then added to your hand and can be played immediately for no cost. You may notice that some cards are depicted having a little hole(s) in the top left, this is where gems come in. Gems can be applied to a card that will cause it to have a passive effect when it’s played such as increasing your luck stat, drawing a card etc. This can really change the game for you and allow for repeated loops if you plan it right, though doing this comes at a cost… you’ll see.
Something to keep in mind though is that if you evolve an item with a gem in it that gem is lost.
So, for those that didn’t play Vampire Survivors the weapons you collect can evolve into more powerful versions. This is done by finding another card that’s required for the evolution and then defeating a boss or mini-boss. A good example of this being the Bloody Tear that requires the Whip and a heart card. Once you’ve done that you get the normal reward options but one of them will be the weapon evolution, which, when selected will consume all the cards required.
Unlike Vampire Survivors, there isn’t a limit on how many evolved weapons you can have, your only limits are how much mana you have and how many floors are left before your run ends.
As you explore the dungeons and defeat enemies you gain money. If you manage to successfully complete the run by defeating the dungeon, that money will be taken to the Village where you can spend it on meta upgrades or potentially other Crawlers you have unlocked.
While in the dungeon you will see two sets of stats, one on the left side of the screen and another on the right. The stats on the left are your combat stats. These can be increased during combat by cards that you play and will reset once the fight is over. The stats on the right don’t relate to combat directly, these are more general and include things like experience gain, money gain, luck and revives. Any improvement you make to these stats are permanent for the run that you are on.
I highly recommend this game, there are a ton of features I’ve not mentioned because discovering them is half the fun. If you’re on the fence about it there is a demo available to play which, if you decide to buy the full game, will transfer your progress over (including achievements if that’s what you are into).
