At the recent Triple-I Initiative indie showcase, poncle announced Vampire Survivors (Free) for PS5 and PS4 due this Summer and also detailed the Vampire Survivors ‘Operation Guns’ DLC. This is a collaboration between Vampire Survivors and Konami’s Contra series. It launches on May 9th, but we’ve just had a pretty big free update go live for the game on iOS, Android, Switch, and Steam. This update was revealed alongside the Contra DLC, but we didn’t have details on the contents officially. This new free update titled the Vampire Survivors Laborratory update brings in two new stages, two new characters, two new weapons, one new passive, and more. If you’re curious about the full patch notes with spoilers (be warned), read this. I’ve included some of the names of characters and other things below the trailer. Watch the Vampire Survivors Laborratory update trailer below:

The Vampire Survivors Laborratory update brings in the Laborratory Challenge stage, Santa Ladonna and Gyoruntin character, Carlo Cart Bonus stage, and more in this update. You can use spells to unlock them or unlock them the usual way. If you’ve not played the game recently, read my co-op impressions of the Steam version here and my Nintendo Switch review here for details on the recent updates and versions. You can also read my Steam Deck review of Vampire Survivors from its 1.0 launch here, Legacy of the Moonspell DLC review here, iOS review here, Tides of the Foscari DLC review here, and Emergency Meeting DLC review here. We featured it as our Game of the Week as well when it launched. You can grab Vampire Survivors on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Check out our forum thread here for more discussion and impressions around the game. Have you been playing it recently and what do you think this new update?

Update: Added new trailer and patch notes.