For a deeper build puzzle, play Brotato; for a longer loot grind, Halls of Torment; to aim yourself, 20 Minutes Till Dawn; for 3D movement, Megabonk; for more of the same for free, HoloCure; for terrain you can dig, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. Our own Harvest Havoc adds a battle map you paint yourself and has a free demo on Steam.
Vampire Survivors took a very old idea — one character against an endless crowd — and stripped the controls down to a single verb: move. Your weapons fire on their own. You walk, you pick up experience gems, you choose one upgrade from a short list, and twenty minutes later the screen is a storm of garlic auras, whips and holy water while hundreds of enemies dissolve around you. That loop spawned a whole genre. People call it survivors-like, bullet heaven (the screen is full of your bullets instead of the enemy's, the reverse of a bullet hell), or simply "auto-shooter roguelite".
This guide is for players who finished a few Vampire Survivors runs and want the same feeling somewhere else. Every pick below is a PC game we are confident about, with the developer and the year it first came out. We explain what each one is, why a Vampire Survivors fan would enjoy it, and where it breaks from the formula — because the best follow-ups are not clones, they change one thing you didn't know you wanted changed. One entry is our own game. It is clearly marked, and it is not at the top.
What makes a survivors-like work
Strip away the art and almost every game in this genre shares five parts. Knowing them makes it easier to see what each game on the list is doing differently.
- Automatic attacks. Weapons fire on a timer. Your skill lives in positioning: where you stand, which way you kite the crowd, when you dive in for a chest.
- A level-up draft. Every level offers a small choice of new weapons or upgrades. Over a run these choices add up to a build.
- Combinations. Certain pairs unlock something stronger — in Vampire Survivors a maxed weapon plus the right passive item evolves into a new weapon. This is where the "aha" moments come from.
- Escalating density. The enemy count keeps climbing until the screen is mostly monsters. The fantasy is turning that wall into confetti.
- Meta-progression. Gold or a similar currency buys permanent upgrades between runs, so a failed run still moves you forward.
A survivors-like that feels "off" usually has a weak link in that chain — a draft with no interesting combinations, or a density curve that never reaches the power-fantasy peak. The games below all get the chain right, and each one bends a different link.
8 games like Vampire Survivors
01 Vampire Survivors
Developer poncleFull release 2022Early access 2021
The reference point, listed for completeness. A standard stage runs for thirty minutes, after which Death himself arrives to end the run. Gothic pixel art, a huge cast of characters, secrets hidden in almost every stage, and weapon evolutions that you unlock by pairing a maxed weapon with a specific passive item and then opening a chest.
If you have only played the first stage or two, there is far more here than it looks: hidden characters, stage modifiers and an enormous list of unlockables that keep changing how a run plays.
Everything else on this list is measured against it.
02 Brotato
Developer BlobfishFull release 2023Early access 2022
You are a potato holding up to six weapons at once, surviving short timed waves in a single arena. Between waves you visit a shop and spend the materials you collected on weapons and items. A standard run is twenty waves.
Runs are shorter and the decisions are denser. Many characters come with hard rules — big bonuses paired with real drawbacks — so picking a character is already half your build.
The shop replaces most of the level-up draft. You plan an economy, not just a build, and you can reroll and lock items. It feels closer to an autobattler crossed with an arena shooter.
03 Halls of Torment
Developer Chasing CarrotsFull release 2024Early access 2023
A survivors-like dressed as a late-1990s action RPG: pre-rendered-looking sprites, dark dungeons, and equipment you find on the floor and bring back to town. Abilities level up through traits, and items you extract carry into future runs.
If what you love about Vampire Survivors is the slow climb of power across many runs, Halls of Torment adds loot on top of the usual permanent upgrades. The heavier, slower feel suits players who grew up on dungeon crawlers.
Movement is weightier and fights are less chaotic in the early minutes. Gear slots give you a second layer of build-crafting beyond the level-up choices.
04 20 Minutes Till Dawn
Developer flanneFull release 2023Early access 2022
Survive twenty minutes of Lovecraftian monsters in the dark. You pick a character and a gun, and every level-up offers upgrades that stack into synergies — elemental effects, summons, shot modifiers.
The run length is short enough to play on a lunch break, and the upgrade trees are tight, so you quickly learn which combinations snowball.
You aim your own gun. That one change turns it into a twin-stick shooter at heart — your hands are busier, and good aim is rewarded. There is an auto-aim option if you want the classic feel.
05 Harvest Havoc
Developer ShengyuStudioRelease Coming soonFree demo out now on Steam
An auto-fire action roguelike across five themed arenas — golden wheat fields, frozen tundra, molten lava, sinking sands and the endless void. Weapons lock onto the nearest enemy; you move, dodge and choose upgrades. You can evolve weapons, craft companions, and bank permanent stat upgrades between runs.
Runs last 5–20 minutes, so it sits between Brotato's short waves and Vampire Survivors' half-hour stages. Each arena has its own pacing, which keeps the early minutes from feeling identical.
The odd one: in the shop you can paint your own battle map and then fight on it. It is not out yet — the free demo is the honest way to judge it.
06 Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
Developer Funday GamesEarly access 2024Publisher Ghost Ship Publishing
A survivors-like spin-off of the co-op shooter Deep Rock Galactic. You play one of the dwarven miners, dropped into a cave to mine minerals and fight off the bug swarms, with weapons that fire automatically.
It keeps the auto-fire simplicity but gives you something to do besides stay alive: mining resources in the middle of a fight, and cave levels that push you deeper underground. The source game's humour and weapon feel carry over well.
The terrain is destructible. You dig your own corridors through rock, which turns kiting into tunnel-making — choke points are something you build, not something the map hands you.
07 HoloCure – Save the Fans!
Developer Kay YuFirst released 2022Price model free fan game
A free fan game starring hololive VTubers, built squarely on the Vampire Survivors template: auto-attacks, level-up choices, item combinations into stronger "collabs", and a large roster of characters with their own signature attacks.
It is free, polished and full of content — an easy recommendation if you want more of exactly the same feel without spending anything.
Each character has a unique main attack and special, so the roster matters more than in Vampire Survivors. It also has a side hub with mini-games. You don't need to know the VTubers to enjoy it, though fans will catch many more jokes.
08 Megabonk
Developer vedinadReleased 2025
A survivors-like in full 3D. The core is familiar — automatic attacks, a level-up draft, growing hordes — but the arena is a 3D map with height, slopes and space to move around in.
If the top-down camera started to feel flat, this is the most direct way to get the genre's power curve with a different sense of space.
Movement becomes a skill on its own. Jumping and moving over terrain matter in a way they never do in a flat 2D arena, so positioning feels more like a 3D action game.
Quick comparison
| Game | Aiming | Build system | What's different |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vampire Survivors | Automatic | Level-up draft + evolutions | The template; 30-minute stages |
| Brotato | Automatic | Shop between waves | Short waves, up to six weapons |
| Halls of Torment | Automatic | Traits + equipment | Retro ARPG look, loot |
| 20 Minutes Till Dawn | Manual (auto optional) | Upgrade synergies | Twin-stick feel |
| Harvest Havoc (ours) | Automatic | Evolutions + companions | Five arenas, paint your own map |
| DRG: Survivor | Automatic | Level-up draft | Destructible terrain, mining |
| HoloCure | Automatic | Draft + item collabs | Free; character-driven |
| Megabonk | Automatic | Level-up draft | Full 3D arenas |
Which one should you play next?
Ask yourself which part of Vampire Survivors you enjoyed most, then follow that thread:
- The build puzzle — try Brotato. The shop gives you far more control over what your run becomes.
- The long-term grind — Halls of Torment, for the extra loot layer.
- The action — 20 Minutes Till Dawn if you want to aim, Megabonk if you want to move in 3D.
- The same thing, more of it, for free — HoloCure.
- A different playground — Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor for terrain you can dig, or the free demo of our Harvest Havoc for terrain you can paint.
The genre is light on hardware and most of these games are 2D, but check each store page for current system requirements, supported languages and controller support — those details change with updates, and we would rather not quote them here and be wrong in six months.
FAQ
What does "bullet heaven" mean?
It is a nickname for survivors-like games. In a bullet hell the screen fills with enemy projectiles you must dodge; in a bullet heaven it fills with your own attacks, and the challenge is surviving long enough for that to happen.
Is Vampire Survivors a roguelike or a roguelite?
Strictly speaking a roguelite: runs are randomised and end in death, but permanent upgrades and unlocks carry over between runs. Most games on this list work the same way.
Which survivors-like has the shortest runs?
Brotato's waves are short and a full run is twenty of them. 20 Minutes Till Dawn caps a run at twenty minutes. Harvest Havoc's runs last 5–20 minutes.
Are there survivors-likes where you aim yourself?
Yes — 20 Minutes Till Dawn is the best-known example on this list, with an optional auto-aim if you change your mind.