Vampire Crawlers Tier List: Best Characters, Teams & OP Builds¶

Most tier lists rank Crawlers by how they feel in a good run. This one ranks them by what the card text actually prints: Mana cost, unlock gold, trigger color and Duration: the four numbers that decide whether a Crawler pays for itself. Every figure below comes from the full roster; where a value is missing, the Crawler is marked unranked instead of guessed.

The Gorton Bell Inn: every ranking below starts with the price and Duration printed here.

How this tier list is scored¶

Five dimensions, all visible in game:

The baseline is a Crawler at its printed values, with no Duration Power Ups and no combo multiplier. That keeps the comparison reproducible: no "it popped off in one run" stories.

The tiers mean:

• S: irreplaceable on at least one axis, and useful on the others. You build the run around them.
• A: best-in-class at one job, but a cheaper card covers most of it.
• B: strong when your colors line up; replaceable.
• C: one narrow plan, or the price is the problem.

The tier list at a glance¶

S tier: the five run-defining Crawlers¶

Crawler	Mana	Gold	The number that earns the tier
Gallo Valetto	1	2,000	+25% coins on play, plus +10% per Wild across 5 triggers: up to +75%, and he starts with Clock Lancet (Secrets). The only flat coin multiplier in the roster.
Krochi Freetto	1	1,250	+10% Revival on play and +5% per Wild across 10 triggers. The only Crawler with a direct Revival effect: the repeatable in-deck answer to a 333+ Red Death hit.
MissingN0	0	6,666	Duration 170 on "draw 2 per red card" = up to 340 cards from one Crawler. As lead he adds +8 Magnet, which turns that into draw 10 per red (Stats).
Antonio	0	Free	+10% damage per red × 5 = +50% for the battle, plus +3 Armor, for 0 gold and 0 Mana.
Arca	0	300	+3 Mana on play, then +1 per purple × 5: 8 Mana from a 0-Mana card that costs 300 gold.

S is not "the five biggest damage numbers". It's the five cards you cannot replace with a cheaper card. Gallo is the only flat coin multiplier, Krochi the only Crawler that recharges Revives, MissingN0 the only 170-Duration engine, Antonio the best free card, and Arca the cheapest mana battery. Lama out-damages Antonio, but a 1-Mana 500-gold damage card is replaceable, and a free 0-Mana +50% damage card is not.

A tier: best-in-class at one job¶

A tier is where the damage and hand engines sit. Each one is the best at something, but each has a cheaper substitute: Pasqualina is a 100-gold version of Poppea's Hand effect, Poe does most of Pugnala's draw for 300 gold, and Lama is raw damage you can also get from a Might Power Up.

B tier: strong when your colors line up¶

Crawler	Mana	Gold	The number that earns the tier
Porta	0	500	+25% splash (the highest flat splash on a 0-cost) and +1 Mana per red × 5 = 5 Mana: offense and curve in one 0-Mana card.
Cavallo	0	500	+2 projectiles on play and +1 per yellow × 2 = 4 total for 0 Mana: the best 0-Mana Amount burst.
Mortaccio	1	300	The same 4 projectiles as Cavallo for 300 gold (200 cheaper), but costs 1 Mana and needs 444 Skeletons.
Dommario	1	800	Crawlers trigger 2 more abilities on play, plus 40 damage per purple × 3 = 120: a team-wide trigger extender for 800 gold.
Pugnala	1	800	+20% damage and draw 1 per yellow × 3 = 3 cards: the draw engine that keeps a six-card Red Death cycle moving (Builds).

B cards are not weak; they're conditional. Cavallo and Mortaccio need an attack card worth multiplying, Pugnala needs yellow cards, and Dommario's value is invisible on the card unless you count the two extra triggers he gives every Crawler in play.

C tier: one job, or the price is the problem¶

Crawler	Mana	Gold	The number that earns the tier
Ramba	1	700	+3 projectiles on play and +1 per purple × 2 = 5 total, the highest projectile count in the pool, but no draw, defense or economy.
Concetta	1	800	+5% splash per red × 10 = +50% on top of the 10% base: the joint-longest Duration in the 1-Mana pool (with Krochi), but splash is worth almost nothing against one boss.
Christine	0	1,000	-1 Mana on the next card is the real reason to run her. Her Disarm meets Red Death's 95% resistance, so 3 purple triggers average 0.15 disarms.
Troubler	2	5,000	Discard 1 → a Coin per discarded card, and each of 5 discard triggers creates another Coin: a real gold engine, but 5,000 gold and a discard deck before it beats Gallo's flat +25%.
Imelda	0	10	+15 XP and +1% Growth per yellow × 5 = +5%: the best first-hour pick for unlocks, and no combat stats at all.

C is not "bad". It's "buy it for one job". Christine is a 0-cost discount enabler, Troubler is a dedicated coin deck, Imelda is an unlock accelerator, and Concetta is a wave-clear card. None of them should be your first 1,000 gold.

Best crawler by job¶

If you only need one slot filled, this is the short list:

Best teams: what to run at each stage¶

A team is a leader plus two Crawlers. The leader adds their stats and four cards to the starter deck; the other two add one card each (Characters). That makes the lead a stat pick, not just a card pick. All three teams below assume you have three Crawler slots: budget 3,500 gold per missing slot for the Crawler Slot Power Up (Power Ups).

Early game: Antonio + Imelda + Pasqualina (110 gold)¶

This is the cheapest three-Crawler team you can build before your first boss, and the curve is deliberately 0-0-1: Antonio and Imelda start the chain for free, Pasqualina extends it at 1 Mana. Their trigger colors, red, yellow, purple, don't compete for the same cards, so every color in your starter deck advances something.

The jobs are split cleanly: Antonio is the damage (+50% over five red cards), Pasqualina is the hand engine (+2 Hand = two more chain steps), and Imelda is the unlock accelerator (+15 XP, +5% Growth). Imelda is C on raw power and S for the first hour: that's the point of a stage-specific team.

Swap: once Gallo Tower is cleared and you can pay 2,000 gold, replace Imelda with Gallo. You lose the XP and gain +25% coins for the rest of the run.

Mid game: Gallo + Arca + Poppea (3,300 gold)¶

The engine is a triangle. Arca is a 0-Mana battery: +3 Mana on play plus 5 more from purple triggers funds the early turns for Gallo and Poppea. Poppea adds +4 triggers to both of them, so Arca's purple triggers and Gallo's Wild triggers fire more often. Gallo converts each of those Wild triggers into +10% coins on top of his +25%, and his Clock Lancet start gives you the freeze tool early.

The colors don't overlap, Arca wants purple, Poppea wants yellow, Gallo wants Wild, so no card is fighting for the same trigger slot. That's why this is the best progression team: it makes Mana, cards and gold at the same time.

Swap: for a dedicated coin deck, Poppea → Troubler (5,000 gold) once you already run discard cards. If 1,000 gold is too much, Poppea → Pasqualina (100 gold) for a cheaper +2 Hand.

Late game / Red Death: Krochi + Pugnala + Gallo (4,050 gold)¶

Red Death attacks when its eyeball counter hits 6 (one eye per card or pass), hits for 333+, resists 95% of Disarm, and has 1,000,000 HP (Secrets). The team answers each number: Clock Lancet freezes at five eyeballs, Pugnala draws 3 cards from yellow triggers to keep the six-card cycle running, Krochi refills Revives after the big hit, and Gallo's +25% coins becomes damage through Coin Count.

There is one honest disagreement between the site's own pages: Builds runs Krochi lead, while Secrets prefers Gallo lead for the better stats. My call: Krochi lead for the first kill (safer revive timing while you're learning the eyeball counter), Gallo lead for a farmed kill (more stats, and Coin Count is the win condition). A non-lead Krochi still adds one card and his +10% Revival on play, but you give up his leader stat block and four-card starter.

The OP build: Coin Count one-shot¶

The most powerful build in the game isn't a Crawler: it's a conversion. Coin Count deals damage equal to your current gold, and the Overkill → Ultimate Ultra Overkill → Ovenkilt chain turns kills into coins (Gold Farming). With Gallo's +25% (up to +75%), you can bank millions before the boss and one-shot Red Death's 1,000,000 HP.

The Crawler shell is Gallo lead + Arca + Poppea: Gallo makes the gold, Arca funds the Tomes, and Poppea extends both engines. The deck is Tomes, Attractorb, Clock Lancet and 3–4 permanent Wilds, with Coin Count as the win condition (Secrets).

Common tier list mistakes¶

Most bad rankings come from one of these reads.

Overrated:

Crawler	The tempting read	What the numbers say
Christine	"Disarm locks down the boss"	Red Death resists 95%; 3 triggers ≈ 0.15 disarms. Her 0-cost discount is the real value.
Concetta	"Duration 10: the biggest in the pool"	10 × 5% = +50% splash. Against one boss, splash damage is close to zero.
Imelda	"Free XP, must be good"	+15 XP and +5% Growth are account progression, not run power. No damage, armor or draw.
Troubler	"Coin engine = infinite money"	5,000 gold, 2 Mana, and a discard package; 1 coin per discard is small next to Gallo's flat +25%.

Underrated:

Crawler	The dismissing read	What the numbers say
Arca	"Just a starter mana card"	8 Mana for 300 gold from a 0-cost card: the cheapest way to cast 2-drops every turn.
Antonio	"Free, so he's a tutorial card"	+50% damage and +3 Armor at 0 Mana; no other free card returns that much.
Poppea	"+1 Hand, that's it?"	+4 triggers to every Crawler in play; in the Gallo/Arca team that's four extra triggers for Gallo's coin effect and four for Arca's Mana.
Dommario	"40 damage is low"	+2 triggers to all Crawlers for 800 gold, 200 less than Poppea, plus 120 damage.
Porta	"Cavallo does more projectiles"	+25% splash and 5 Mana on a 0-cost card; the Mana is what lets you play the projectiles.

The Duration trap¶

Duration is the most overrated number on the card. The formula is Duration × per-trigger effect, and then you ask whether the effect compounds:

• Concetta: 10 × 5% splash = +50% splash: area only, dead against a boss.
• Gennaro: 5 × 60 damage = 300 damage: one-off, but it kills things.
• Pasqualina: 2 × +1 Hand = +2 Hand: compounds every turn you keep the chain.

A 10-Duration card can be worse than a 2-Duration card. That's why Pasqualina is A and Concetta is C.

Just outside the list¶

Unscored: no usable number, or not on your platform¶

Crawler	Published data	Why not ranked
Leda	2 Mana, 666 unlock cost, Duration 10, no trigger; "Deal X damage… Discard X"	X is undefined on the roster and the wiki: there is nothing to score. Data insufficient.
Divano	In the game files	Unobtainable, so there's no run data.
Ambrojoe	0 Mana, 6 Duration, 10 damage per discard	Switch 2 card label (not platform-exclusive): can't be tested on PC, PS5 or Xbox.

Cut: below C on the same five dimensions¶

Crawler	Published data	Why it's cut
O'Sole	1 Mana, 1,000 gold, +3 projectiles, +5% Luck per red × 4	Ramba gives 5 projectiles for 700 gold; O'Sole only wins if you specifically need Luck.
Giovanna	1 Mana, 800 gold, +20% Luck, draw 1 per purple × 6	Good draw, but Poe gives 3 draws at 0 Mana/300 gold, and Pugnala adds +20% damage for the same 800.
Clerici	1 Mana, 800 gold, heal 3 + 1 per blue × 6	9 HP from one card against a 333+ hit; Recovery and Armor cover it without spending a card slot.

FAQ¶

Who is the best character in Vampire Crawlers?¶

Gallo Valetto, if you want one answer: +25% coins (up to +75%) is the only Crawler multiplier that funds every other purchase, and he starts with Clock Lancet. If your goal is the Red Death kill instead, Krochi is mandatory: his +10% Revival on play and +5% per Wild are the only repeatable in-deck answer to a 333+ hit.

What is the best team in Vampire Crawlers?¶

It depends on the stage. Antonio + Imelda + Pasqualina for the first 110 gold; Gallo + Arca + Poppea for progression; Krochi + Pugnala + Gallo for Red Death. The constants are a 0-cost starter, a Mana source, and one card that turns the engine into damage or gold.

What is the best crawler for gold farming?¶

Gallo: +25% flat plus +10% per Wild across five triggers, which is up to +75% on every coin pickup. Troubler is the alternative only if you already run discard cards; at 5,000 gold he costs 2.5× Gallo, and the coin-per-discard payoff needs a discard deck before it competes.

What is the most OP build in Vampire Crawlers?¶

Coin Count + Gallo + Ovenkilt. Coin Count deals damage equal to your current gold, and the Overkill/Ovenkilt chain can bank millions before the fight: enough to one-shot the 1,000,000 HP Red Death. The Crawler shell is Gallo lead + Arca + Poppea; the deck is Tomes, Attractorb, Clock Lancet and permanent Wilds (Gold Farming, Secrets, Combo Guide).

Is MissingN0 worth 6,666 gold?¶

At Duration 170, yes: draw 2 per red card is up to 340 draws from a single Crawler, and as lead his +8 Magnet turns it into draw 10 per red. It's an endgame sink, not an early buy: the gold is better spent on Gallo, Krochi and Pasqualina first.

Sources¶

• Official Vampire Survivors Wiki: Crawlers: Characters
• Official Vampire Survivors Wiki: Duration
• IGN: Vampire Crawlers Stats Guide
• IGN: How to Beat Red Death
• IGN: Combo Guide: Basics and Tips and Tricks

Numbers cross-checked against the wiki's character table on 3 November 2026. Prices and Durations match the values recorded on Characters.

Also searched as: vampire crawlers best character, best team, best crawler, op build: same ranking.