The Vampire Survivors DLC, Operation Guns, lives up to its name with a slew of guns and other weapons. While each of them is fantastic for slaying undead and aliens alike, obtaining the weapon evolutions is your winning ticket for completing levels and tasks. To do so, players will need to make use of the new Weapon Power-up items in addition to the usual combos. Here’s how to evolve each weapon.
How to upgrade each weapon in Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns
- Long Gun -> Prototype A
- Long Gun + Weapon Power-up
- Homing Miss -> Multistage Missiles
- Homing Miss + Weapon Power-up + Duplicator
- Blade Crossbow -> BFC2000-AD
- Blade Crossbow + Weapon Power-up + Clover
- Sonic Bloom -> Wave Beam
- Sonic Bloom + Weapon Power-up + Armor
- Short Gun -> Prototype B
- Short Gun + Weapon Power-up + Bracer
- Spread Shot -> Prototype C
- Spread Shot + Weapon Power-up + Empty Tome
- C-U-Laser -> Pronto Beam
- C-U-Laser + Weapon Power-up + Tirajisu
- Firearm -> Fire L3GS
- Firearm + Weapon Power-up + Candelabrador
- Diver Mines -> Atmo-Torpedo
- Diver Mines + Weapon Power-up + Attractorb
- Metal Claw -> Big Fuzzy Fist
- Metal Claw + Weapon Power-up + Hollow Heart
After getting the initial weapon upgrade, I haven’t seen a need for the Weapon Power-up on subsequent runs in terms of being a necessary ingredient. Once it’s in the grimoire, you should be good to go with other characters, maps, etc. That being said, it’s still a good idea to collect them as they’ll give +1 to a random equipped weapon in addition to a Revive.
As for procuring the upgrade, I found it easiest to pick the corresponding Contra character that starts with the weapon you want to upgrade and load into the “Attack Aggressively” level. There are two Weapon Power-ups fairly close by you can pick up. As for the Passive Power-up, make sure to save a slot for the item you need, and don’t be afraid to use your Rerolls or Banishments. Once the weapon and passive item are upgraded, it’s only a matter of getting a chest to drop with the evolution.
It shouldn’t take too long to find each weapon evolution this way, and you’ll then be set up for success in other modes. One last tip is to avoid collecting too many of the base Operation Guns weapons when trying to unlock the evolutions. This way, you’ll avoid the chance of burning a Weapon Power-up on an evolution you didn’t want.
