•Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors is now available on iPhone and iPad. The deckbuilding roguelike by Poncle, the studio behind Vampire Survivors, released its mobile port today.
The game has emerged as one of 2025’s strongest titles despite debuting in April, arriving before a months-long run of acclaimed releases. According to Polygon, it remains so engaging that the author found themselves returning to it repeatedly after writing about it.
Vampire Crawlers takes the core ideas of Vampire Survivors and reshapes them into something distinct: a turn-based deckbuilding dungeon crawler where players assemble synergistic combinations of attacks, stat boosts, and defensive maneuvers to defeat waves of monsters. Cards grow more powerful when played in ascending order of cost, requiring careful sequencing to maximize damage output.
The system’s depth became apparent over time for the author, who initially struggled with card options before learning how to build decks around longer runs, draft new cards, and modify costs—including creating negative-cost cards that restore mana. Once they discovered a run could be reversed to count down instead of up, consistent high-value combos followed.
The mobile version arrived after fan demand shifted Poncle’s thinking about the platform. In a video interview ahead of launch, producer Tommaso Verde told Polygon that player feedback had been overwhelming.
We hadn’t realized how much players would want a mobile version. We thought all of the people would be playing on PC, console, or maybe on Steam Deck. The overwhelming feedback on this really made us think maybe we should keep our eyes more open on the mobile versions of the games overall.
Tommaso Verde, producer at Poncle
Verde noted that while the studio is now considering mobile more seriously, he could not yet say it had changed their strategy. The port itself still resembles the Windows PC version scaled down to a smaller screen, with gameplay contained in a central box and small navigation arrows. Swipe gestures handle movement, though the author hopes for a future full-screen update.
Poncle acknowledges its games’ tendency to consume players’ time unexpectedly. Verde said the team itself sometimes loses track of time while developing their titles, joking about wanting player safety but admitting uncertainty over whether they actually want people playing constantly.
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