Vampire Survivors – Arca Character Spotlight

An overview of Arca with some observations and tips to help play him.

Arca Character Guide

The Stats

Arca seems to have put his foot down when it came time for him to pick a stat to focus on. And being the stubborn guy he is, Arca said he was doing both Might and Cooldown. Both help out Arca greatly as he starts with 10% Might and gains 5% cooldown every 10 levels til he hits level 30. Those two open up some decent versatility for him. which he needs badly cause of….

The Weapon

Ah, Fire Wand. Fire Wand is one of the more powerful weapons in the game. It starts out doing 20 base damage with three slow fireballs fired at once to a random target. As it’s leveled up, the damage is heaped upon it, gaining 10 base damage every level. Fire Wand gets faster as well, its’ base speed going up 20% on levels 3, 5, and 7.

Evolving the Fire Wand, with Spinach, turns it into Hellfire. It still fires randomly, but packs even more punch then it was doing before evolving. It does lose speed and amount, but gains in Area and pierce, the now meteors plow their way through groups of enemies with ease. And there’s a little knockback (1) tossed in for flavor.

Why and Why Not (Pros and Cons)

Why Arca?

Look at him! he’s cool. He’s Alucard from from Symphony Of The Night, right down to to the three fireballs he can toss like the Hellfire spell. Ascetics aside, his choice of stats make him very versatile as Might helps out with damage for most the weapons and cooldown allowing for faster weapons fire for all weapons. The 50% Might and 40% cooldown from Endless Tome and Spinach go along ways for him.

Why not Arca?

Ever wonder why Alucard and Dracula teleport away and try to blast you in the back with the Hellfire spell? Cause you can see it coming from a mile away! Fire Wand suffers from this as well as being just as slow. add in how it randomly fires at targets makes it really hard to take advantage of all the damage it has. Arca can be being chased by fifty enemies and Fire Wand thinks that tree way over yonder is what it needs to reduce to ash. even evolved, it still fires randomly, making Fire Wand/Hellfire unreliable and Arca needing to get a second weapon fast.

How to Get

To get Arca, you need to level Fire Wand up to level 4. then unlock him for the base cost of 500 gold, before scaling.

Tips and Builds

Tips

Like Gennaro, get a second weapon fast. Fire Wands’ random fire makes it a good support weapon, but it carrying a build just isn’t happening unless cooldown can be gotten way down. as a support weapon, Fire Wand is great. the power it brings is much needed for runs, especially on stages with a lot of tanky enemies, like Mad Forrest with the werewolves and Capella Magna with all the devils and suits of cursed armor.

Pierce build

• Weapons: Knife, Ax, Runechaser, Magic Wand, Cross.
• Passives: Armor, Attractorb, Bracer, Candelabra, Endless Tome, Spinach.

The Pierce build utilizes Arca’s Might and Cooldown while allow the Pierce from all the weapons to provide coverage and clearing, outpacing the level scaling as weapons are leveled and evolved. Since Fire Wand is already being super random, Cross and Runechaser is added to give Fire Wand some equally random friends, as well as provide some protection for Arca due to how their firing patterns work. Knife allows for single target fire, Ax even more power, and Magic Wand pot shoting anything getting too close.

And as weapons evolve, the build gains more and more pierce. Hellfire, No Future, Death Spiral, and Cross have some of the best pierce for weapons while Holy Wand and Thousand Edge bring limited pierce but high firing rate to fill out the build for both decent leveling and overall fun as Arca fills the screen with firepower while hiding a boss killing weapon in all that chaos.

Focused Might build

• Weapons: Knife, Ax, Bible, Runechaser, Whip.
• Passives: Armor, Bracer, Candelabra, Hollow Heart, Spellbinder, Spinach.

Focused Might is a variant Boss Killer build that allows Arca to fully utilize his Might with weapons that have high damage output, being able to focus down elites/bosses, and sustainability. Arca’s bonus to cooldown is put on the back burner, but still helpful as even a small amount of cooldown comes in handy, in favor of Duration.

Runechaser and Bible work wonders with enemy clear, so having them lasting longer per time fired lets them work their magic longer and also lets them start overlapping firings as Spellbinder gives them duration lasting longer then their cooldowns. Now normally if I’m running a build with Bible in it, I tend to leave Candelabra out as Bible gets enough Area from just leveling it. but in the Focused Might build, you want Bible out there some. It’s hits decently hard, killing weaker enemies while softening up the tankier ones as Whip and Knife help to take out what gets past the Bible.

And when all weapons are evolved, Arca has a steady stream of firepower going off that allows him to drill his way through waves no matter how many or how tough they are. Death Spiral, Thousand Edge, and Unholy Vespers cutting a path and Bloody Tear giving some HP on crits to tide Arca over between floor chickens. No Future allows Arca to retaliate anything that does manage to touch him while Hellfire thins numbers all around

In Conclusion

Playing with Arca is a little like playing Symphony Of The Night, in terms of style and what he brings to the table. Yeah, the Fire Wand isn’t the greatest starting weapon (it’s a much better support weapon), but he uses it and any other weapon well with his combination of starting stats. and for a while, he had the best cooldown in the game before Christine was added. so if you want someone who’s decently versatile with that cool factor going for them, Arca’s your man.