Surviving for 30 minutes in Vampire Survivors is tricky. Past the 20-minute mark, the difficulty begins ramping up precipitously and begins to reveal any flaws in the player's build. Players can sail by with a poor build-up to a certain point, typically around 22 minutes into a stage, but rarely past 28 minutes.
Many players have certainly tried the "Survive for One Hour" challenge and failed. There is a build that will not only let players survive for 60 minutes but survive indefinitely. Check the time stamp on the above image. This build lasted 431 minutes in Hyper Mode Green Acres before it was decided that was long enough and the stage was intentionally ended. For reference, the longest survival time on the official Vampire Survivors leaderboard is 254 minutes in Mad Forest.
4 The Character
This build uses Divano Thelma as the character. The primary reasons for this are that Divano starts with the Laurel, a +5 to Armor, and a +1 to Recovery. The goal of this build is to maximize recovery and healing. When this is combined with the evolved Laurel, the Crimson Shroud, the character can heal much faster than the enemy (even Death) can hurt them.
3 Primary Weapons
The weapons necessary for this build to work are the Crimson Shroud, Clock Lancet, Soul Eater, and Bloody Tear. The other two weapons slots are up to the player to fill. The Crimson Shroud will prevent Divano from taking massive amounts of damage.
The Soul Eater and Bloody Tear are needed for their healing properties. The Clock Lancet is used to reduce the number of attacks Divano will take.
2 Primary Passive Items
The only passive items that are absolutely necessary for this build are the Pummarola, Hollow Heart, Empty Tome, and Spellbinder. The player is free to fill the rest of the passive item slots as they wish. The Attractorb and Spinach are always smart picks.
The Metaglio Left and Metaglio Right passive items are also necessary to evolve the Laurel, but these are pick-up items that should be obtained after the six passive item slots are filled. Don't wait too long to get these last two items though; they are placed a long distance apart from each other and take a while to fully level.
1 Final Thoughts
Players should refrain from evolving the Clock Lancet; doing this will cause the Pale Death to appear, and once that happens the character will inevitably die in a matter of seconds. If the player has time they should get the Silver Ring passive item - just don't get the Gold Ring.
For players who have yet to kill Death and unlock Mask of the Red Death as a playable character, this build should be able to easily accomplish that task. The best weapons for using this build to kill Death are Thousand Edge and La Borra. Players using Arcanas should pick Sarabande of Healing and Out of Bounds. The third Arcana selection is up to the player; pick one that complements the secondary weapons.
Vampire Survivors is available now on PC and macOS.