V Rising is the new star in the survival sky and has already convinced us in Early Access. It is more complex than you might initially think. While it works like any other survival game – survive, manage resources, build bases, fight – it also has many unique and unusual game mechanics. To make it easier for you to start your vampire adventure, we’ve put together helpful tips that the game doesn’t tell you directly.

Protect yourself from the sunlight
In V Rising, we play vampires who don’t glitter in the sunlight but burn directly. Unfortunately, sunscreen doesn’t help against the deadly UV rays – instead, you always have to hide in the shade.

But beware: time flies quickly in V Rising, and the shadows move on quickly. So keep moving outside of your fortress during the day.

Incidentally, the so-called Mist Brazier provides additional shade in your base. You can find it in the construction menu (B) under “Fundamentals” and can build it for 120 stones. For the Mist Brazier to provide shade, you have to feed it bones. You are safe in his shadow as long as he has bones to burn. You can turn off its function at night to avoid wasting unnecessary resources. Click on the brazier and flip the switch.

A day lasts a little more than five minutes, and the night about ten. Make the best use of the day to build out your base so you can hunt under cover of darkness.

Blood types make people.
V Rising’s blood system isn’t just a survival mechanic. And it can also bring you special benefits. Vampires need blood to survive. If your blood value drops to zero, you will suffer damage and should quickly take some of the red juice to you. Rats or Untainted Hearts, for example, serve as a quick snack – but these give you the lowest blood level and therefore no advantages.

The other way to get blood is to find suitable victims. Note that not all enemy types have blood in them. You cannot drain skeletons and undead. Instead, look for animals, miners, soldiers, vampire hunters, and nuns.

Each enemy has a specific blood type that characterizes what benefits are bestowed on you should you drink that blood. In addition, there is the quality of the blood. The higher the percentage and thus the “purity” of the lifeblood, the higher the level of benefits.

You can see the quality of your opponent’s blood if you move the mouse over them. But be careful not to kill your target in battle accidentally. To drain an opponent, you must first weaken them. Then an “F” appears, and you can snap.

Note, however, that the blood types and percentages overwrite each other. For example, if you first drink 65 percent villain blood and later fill up your blood supply with 3 percent warrior blood, you will overwrite all the advantages you got from the first blood.

By the way, you also lose your advantages if you die and spawn again. Your blood falls back to the lowest level. If you revive one of your fellow players, you share your blood with them. For example, if you have 33 percent brute blood, your opponent gets part of it. Be careful that you have enough blood to revive people, and don’t die from the blood transfusion yourself.

Defeat bosses to progress
We recommend that you follow the quests at the beginning to learn the basics of the game and unlock the essential items, weapons, equipment, tools, and building pieces. However, you can quickly get to a point where you need certain materials or workbenches to complete your quest, but you haven’t unlocked them yet.

This is where the bosses come in. You can call up the list of all bosses with the »O« key. Here you can also see which bosses you can currently fight and what rewards they have in store for you. This reward can be special powers, buildings/workbenches, or crafting recipes.

If you want to track a boss, you can go to your blood altar, select a boss and click “Track Blood”. The boss isn’t marked on the map, but you’ll see a trail of blood that’s a bit reminiscent of The Witcher 3’s witch sense. Follow this trail of blood, and it will take you straight to the boss.

Magic and vampire skills
You can put together your deadly arsenal yourself, as it suits you. Boss enemies who carry so-called V Blood leave you with magical skills when they die, which you can now use yourself. These abilities fall into five different categories: Blood, Unholy, Illusion, Chaos, and Frost.

To do this, open the overview of your skills with J. Here you can now choose from all available skills.

Some enemies give you vampiric abilities rather than magic. You can place these on your vampire wheel, which you activate by pressing the left control button. Abilities include shapeshifting, self-healing, various buffs, and more. You can also view these skills via J.

Crafting and research in the castle
The Castle Heart is the generator in V Rising that keeps all workbenches and furnaces running. Therefore, supply it regularly with blood essence, which you take from your opponents. If the number of Blood Essences in the Castle Heart drops to zero, all associated structures will be deactivated, and you will temporarily be unable to craft any more items.

Also, remember to upgrade your Castle Heart once you’ve accumulated enough resources to expand your castle’s capacity.

By the way, your workbenches can also be improved. If they don’t stand around freely but are in a room with four walls and a ceiling, they produce 25 percent faster. If they also have the right underground, they require 25 percent fewer resources for production.

You can unlock weapons, equipment, and parts for your castle and the interior. Also, check the research table regularly. If you find books in the world, you can directly unlock their recipes. But you can also research random recipes. You need paper for this.

Look at the map when looking for resources.
If you discover a large resource deposit in the world, you can unfortunately not yet mark it with special symbols on the map where you get which resources are already noted.

Open your map with M and hover your mouse over the areas marked with yellow spots. Here you can see directly which resources and items you can find in this region. If you are specifically looking for paper or copper, this can save you a lot of searching.

Grow resources yourself
You unlock the Graveyard and Rat’s Nest structures as the game progresses. You can use these to farm some resources directly in your base. Your castle cemetery will produce skeletons if you put flowers on the grave, with which you can quickly gain a large number of bones. For example, it would help if you had these bones for your shadow thrower.

The Rat’s Nest is a good source of – you guessed it! Rats can be used as a snack between meals or even save your life in emergencies.

You can also let a boss opponent spawn in the rat’s nest, which will drop a vampire ability as a reward and turn you into a rat yourself. Practical.

Pro-Tip: Don’t place the graveyard or rat’s nest in your vampire’s bedroom. This doesn’t end well.

Give your (broken) gear new life.
Your gear, weapons, and tools wear out over time. If they break, you lose all advantages and can no longer use them. If you have just enough materials in your inventory, you can hover over the broken item and repair it by clicking on the mouse wheel. You can see which resources you need for this on the information screen when clicking on the item.

First, defeat the boss Lydia the Chaos Archer. This unlocks the so-called Devourer, a box that disassembles everything you put into it into individual parts. Practical! If you have already made stronger armor or a weapon, you can disassemble old items into resources again.

Create your army
What would a vampire lord be without subjects? To build up a small army, you need a so-called Servant Coffin per person, i.e., a coffin for your servant. Once you have built this, you go in search of a victim. Different blood types bring different bonuses.

To charm a victim, you need the vampire ability Dominating Presence. If this mode is activated, you can no longer cast conventional spells. Instead, you can use the Vampire Kiss and thus make your victim willing. Carefully lure the servant back into the castle (because he can also die) and put him in the coffin.

Build a throne to send your minions on resource gathering missions. Each mission lasts 24 hours, but it’s worth it. After 90 minutes, you can wake up and equip the servant.

Builds resistance
Being a vampire isn’t easy in a world of sun, holy water, and garlic. Luckily, you can build Sun, Garlic, Fire, Silver, and Sanctity resistance.

You can see how much resistance your vampire currently has in the character menu (TAB). Potions or equipment that you can find in the world help with this. But beware: the potions only provide temporary resistance, so use them wisely.

Other tips
You’ll travel 10 percent faster on a Blood Moon night, and your blood type will increase by 20 percent. Use this advantage to fight particularly stubborn bosses.
There are two buttons on the side of the minimap that you can use to zoom in or out. This makes it easier for you to navigate. You can also unlock the map there so that it rotates with you.
You are faster on horseback. When you find a horse in the world, hold F to claim it.
If you want to halve an item stack, click on the item with the mouse wheel.
Hold down the mouse wheel to activate Push to Talk if you want to communicate with your fellow players or neighbors via voice chat. You open the discussion by entering. Use the /local and /global commands to switch between local and server chat.
The “Compulsively Count” button in your inventory will help you sort items into boxes. This will automatically transfer all items from your list already in the box.
If you walk through the world in wolf form, not all enemy types will attack you. However, human patrols will continue to attack you. Wolves, for example, leave you alone.
Watch out if you find silver coins. These are very useful for trading with roving merchants, but they constantly drain your life energy if you have them in your inventory.