Vampire Crawlers crawls onto iOS and Android on 12 October
poncle is bringing its card-battling Vampire Survivors spin-off to phones next week, with iOS and Android getting the game at the same time.
What has changed
poncle has confirmed that Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors arrives on iOS and Android on 12 October, with both versions unlocking at 9:00 BST. The studio's card-battling dungeon crawler has been available on PC and consoles since April, and this is the first time it will run on phones.
This is the turn-based branch of the Vampire Survivors family rather than another bullet-heaven rerun. You build a deck, chain cards into Combos and try to leave each floor overpowered instead of outrunning a screen full of enemies. poncle's own description puts the focus on stacking ability inputs so turns resolve without waiting on animations.
Where you can already play it
The game is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, and it is included with Xbox Game Pass. The Steam release launched at £9.99, $9.99 and €9.99, which makes it one of the cheaper ways into the Vampire Survivors universe, and the mobile versions are expected to sit in the same bracket.
Our opinion
Vampire Survivors always felt like a game you wanted in your pocket, and its spin-off has taken an oddly long route to get there. A turn-based card game is a far better fit for a phone than the frantic original, because nothing about it depends on twitch reflexes or a controller. Playing a run in five-minute gaps on a train is exactly the shape this design wants.
The risk is that mobile arrives without the thing that makes the desk version work: a clear sense of progression that survives being put down for a week. If poncle keeps the run structure tight and the monetisation boring, this could quietly become the version most people play. If it arrives with timers and stamina, the goodwill from Vampire Survivors will not survive the first update.