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Vampire Crawlers Secrets: How to Beat Red Death (the Reaper)

Short answer

Yes, Red Death can be killed: 1,000,000 HP, hits for 333+, attacks every 6th card. Run Krochi (Revive refills), keep Clock Lancet for the 6th-card Freeze, never break combo, and finish with Coin Count or Decimate. Reward: the secret Crawler MissingN0.

When you beat a dungeon's final boss, the run isn't over: descend one more level and Red Death (players call him the Reaper) appears to end it for you. His opening hit deals 333+ damage (more with Curse active), which one-shots basically every build. Most players die here and never know the fight is winnable. Here's the actual method, tested by the IGN wiki crew. He is not in the boss HP tables: those stop at each dungeon's final stage boss.

What you're up against

Fact Number
Red Death HP 1,000,000
Attack damage 333+ (scales with Curse)
Disarm resistance 95%
Attack trigger Every 6th card played (eyeball counter)
Low HP behavior Switches to a 5-card attack cycle

The eyeball counter (the eyes above the boss) is the whole fight: Death gains an eyeball every time you play a card or pass your turn. At six eyeballs, he attacks. Clock Lancet (Freeze the front row) skips his turn entirely: that's your survival tool, not HP or Armor.

The team

  • Krochi Freetto (lead): mandatory. He recharges your Revives; at high combo, one play tops you back to 5. Unlock him by killing 6,666 enemies, then buy him at the Inn (1,250 gold).
  • Pugnala Provola: good starter deck, Might on play, card draw on yellow triggers.
  • Third slot (you want 3+ Crawler slots for this):
  • Gallo Valetto: starts with Clock Lancet, and his Greed bonus funds your gold engine. If you take him, make him lead over Krochi for the better stats.
  • Christine Davain: Disarm on purple cards. Not reliable (95% resist) but it helps.
  • Lama Ladonna: pure damage bolster.
  • Clerici: in-round healing, if you've boosted Max HP with Hearts.

Arcana: Chain Link (combo persists between turns, more consistent) or Mana Syphon (max Mana grows as you play cards, faster engine start). Toggle Curse off. Both Arcana sit in the Arcana combos pool; you only need the one.

The deck

Core (2–3 copies each):

  • Clock Lancet: the Freeze. Every six cards you play, one of these must be ready.
  • Tomes (any tier): Mana generation.
  • Bracer / Attractorb: at high combo these draw your entire deck in one turn.
  • 3–4 permanent Wild Cards: Friendship Amulet, Parm Aegis, Bracer-with-Wild-gem. They keep the combo alive between cost jumps.

Damage options:

  • Coin Count: deals damage equal to your current gold. With the Ovenkilt relic and Gallo's Greed, you can bank millions before the fight and one-shot him.
  • Decimate gem: 10% of target's current HP per cast: 100,000 → 90,000 → 81,000... consecutive casts decay.
  • Duplicator / Spinach / Candle: plain stat damage to speed the grind.

Actively avoid:

  • Skull O'Maniac: the XP is nice, but it scales Red Death's HP.
  • Mild gem: ends your combo. Seal it.
  • Birds / Thunder Loop / Hat Trick: passive damage breaks your Freeze timing, even though the best builds page leans on them.
  • Spellbinder: normally great, but here you want Krochi and Pugnala cycling back to hand. (Workaround: Call Crawler gem.)

Deck thinning matters: Banish cards you don't need (Banishing skips the reward but removes it from the run's pool), prefer Gem rewards (don't grow the deck), take self-destroying cards (Crown, Stone Mask, Hollow Heart), or just Skip for XP. A thin deck means you reliably draw your combo pieces.

The fight itself

  1. Cycle your deck to build combo: Bracer (0) → Wild → Empty Tome (0) → Attractorb (1) → any 2-cost → Clock Lancet. That's six cards with the Freeze landing exactly on Death's sixth eyeball.
  2. Never let the combo break: a broken combo means rebuilding while Death's counter ticks.
  3. Keep two Wilds + one Clock Lancet in hand at all times; dip below that and Attractorb to refill.
  4. Save Krochi for when Revives run low: one high-combo play refills them all.
  5. Watch for the 5-eyeball phase at low HP: your Freeze window moves up one card.
  6. End your turn before cards crack. Playing the same cards repeatedly without ending your turn makes them crack, then shatter, and every shattered card spawns a Trickster (Purple Death). Fighting Red Death and Trickster at once is how runs die. (Chain Link makes ending the turn safe, combo carries over.)

Win, and the reward appears in the Village after the run: MissingN0, the 6,666-gold, 170-Duration draw machine. Separately, the Uncrackable Gem, which makes cards resist breaking, drops from The Trickster, not Red Death; Steam's own achievement description says so.

Killing the Reaper: the other Deaths

  • Trickster / Purple Death / Purple Reaper: spawns from shattered cards. Weaker than Red Death, but a terrible tag-team partner for him.
  • Blue Death (Blue Reaper): spawns if you pass too many turns without playing anything. Don't stall.
  • Deeper loops: every time you dig down after killing Red Death (the run's final boss / last boss), you take +100% Curse and fight another, harder Red Death. The run ends when you stop choosing to Revive.

Sources

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