Vampire Survivors’ new 0.10.0 replace provides a cheats menu, and after utilizing it to unlock some issues I had been caught on, I dearly wish that more games included one.

Vampire Survivors, in the event you haven’t heard of it, is a pleasant sport about leveling up and destroying actually hundreds of monsters in a single run. I’d describe it as roguelike-ish; you decide a beginning character with sure attributes and a selected weapon, and also you’ll stage up that weapon, different weapons, and different objects as you gather gems by defeating enemies. Your weapons fireplace robotically, so that you largely simply have to fret about selecting up expertise and objects whereas avoiding baddies.

The sport launched in Early Entry on Steam late final yr, and has acquired common updates that add issues like new characters, weapons, power-ups, phases, and particular objects, although you sometimes need to unlock them by finishing sure necessities. The sport is an absolute blast, however unlocking every part will be difficult and time-consuming. I’ve already put 40 hours into Vampire Survivors, however the in-game menu tells me I nonetheless have 26 issues I can unlock. Once I take a look at that listing, I generally get demotivated and select to play one thing else.

The new cheats menu — in sport, it’s known as the “Secrets and techniques” menu — would possibly clear up that demotivation in an enormous means. It accepts codes (“spells”) to unlock characters, particular objects (“relics”), and phases, that means that I now can select what I wish to unlock myself and what to simply cheat for. I nonetheless wish to unlock most issues by truly finishing the necessities, however there are some things that I simply haven’t needed to trouble with, and because of this Secrets and techniques menu, I can simply get what I’m much less in.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Cleverly, the builders of Vampire Survivors additionally selected to make the Secrets and techniques menu an unlockable of its personal. You received’t be capable to discover the merchandise that unlocks it till you’ve a great grasp of the sport and have unlocked another issues already. In case you’ve gotten that far, I’d argue which you could make the selection about what to cheat for for your self, and I wish different games would take an identical method.

I’m enjoying Loss of life Stranding proper now, and whereas I like the story, the moment-by-moment gameplay is so sluggish. I wish I might cheat a truck with infinite well being, battery, and a few form of hover means so I might simply make deliveries and see the sport’s story via, however I believe I’m going to need to undergo via hours of irritating traversal to be taught what occurs subsequent to Sam Porter Bridges.

Vampire Survivors’ Secrets and techniques menu doesn’t simply open up unlockables; there’s additionally a spell to spin the UI, which I can respect for fooling around even when it doesn’t sound enjoyable to make use of in any respect. Within the 0.10.0 patch notes, the builders say they’re engaged on more spells, so hopefully there’s more off-the-wall concepts to return. (Huge head mode, perhaps?) I’m not going to spoil learn how to unlock the Secrets and techniques menu or what codes do what, however if you wish to know, right here’s a GameFAQs information.

Vampire Survivors is out there in Early Entry on Steam for $3. It typically works fairly nicely on Steam Deck, the place it’s one of the crucial fashionable games on the platform, although I haven’t been capable of enter any cheat code spells on the hand-held gaming PC — I had to kind in the codes on my MacBook Air.