Choice is at the very core of Vampyr. Both the story and combat are influenced by the decisions you make, but one of the most important comes in the form of your various supernatural abilities. Earned by spending experience (blood) in your upgrade menu, these powers can easily give you an edge in fights. However, picking the right one can be a daunting task as every single one can be upgraded multiple times.
Here’s a breakdown of what the best powers are in the game and which ones you should invest your hard-fought experience in. We will be breaking this down into defensive and offensive spells since both are quite important.
Offensive
- Claws: This is one of the best outright damage abilities in the game. When activated, Jonathan will swipe upwards and inflict a ton of damage, potentially staggering a target. It can do 220 base damage, but if upgrade with the damage tree it’ll inflict 720. This makes it a fantastic follow up attack after you do a few quick strikes with your primary weapon. We suggest picking the lower skill tree because the Stunning effect is quite potent.
- Shadow Mist: Are you sick of those pesky vampire hunters shooting you from afar? Well pick up the Shadow Mist and you can deploy a potent AoE (Area of Effect) spell right underneath them. Not only will this do a ton of damage when it hits, but the spell will knock most enemies to the ground. This is quite helpful for fighting ranged fighters or dealing with swarms of enemies. It can create the space you need to isolate targets. As for upgrades we suggest picking the lower skill tree if you are having issues rationing your blood. It will reduce the damage but give you a nice mana regeneration skill.
- Fast Regeneration: Biting your foes is nothing new for a vampire, but with this ability upgraded you can gain back a ton of life. While we decided to ignore increasing the damage output of our bite, being able to heal yourself can make the difference in a fight. However, don’t dump a ton of points into this skill unless you are going all in on biting enemies. Just upgrade Fast Regeneration until you’re getting 20% of your health back with each chomp.
- Abyss (Ultimate): Introducing the best single damage spell in the entire game. Upon activation, Abyss will lift a target into the air and impale them on a bunch of huge shadow spike. This will take a nice chunk out of anyone’s health bar, if not kill them outright. Abyss has strong range and you can cast it on someone who is moving. What makes this spell so good is once they’re lifted into the air, you can still inflict damage on them with your weapon and other abilities. This gives you a free five-second window to absolutely devastate high-value targets such as bosses.
Defensive
- Autophagy: Autophagy is perhaps one of the most important skills in Vampyr. When triggered, Jonathan will trade a portion of his blood for health. This might not appear to be game changing, but in a game where enemies hit very hard, being able to quickly recover is key. There is also a very short cooldown for Autophagy, allowing you to spam it until you have full health. Always upgrade this ability, as it will certainly save you from seeing the Game Over screen.
- Blood Barrier: When cast, Jonathan will summon a ring of blood around him that will absorb one strike from a foe. You won’t use this a ton in most combat scenarios, but it’s nice to have against bosses. Since many of these baddies have lunge attacks, it’s a nice way to ensure you won’t get instantly killed out of nowhere. We didn’t need to upgrade this skill beyond the third level, so just consider having it as a backup plan if you mistime a dodge.
- Shadow Veil: Shadow Veil is a decent disengage tool that allows players to quickly escape losing fights. With a very low Blood cost, being able to vanish allows users to slip away unnoticed. This skill is also great for boss fights if you need to gain some space and heal. However, like Blood Barrier, you probably will only need to invest a few hundred blood into this ability.
Remember, you can always reset all of your abilities in the upgrade screen, so feel free to experiment and try out new builds. As for Jonathan’s basic stats we recommend increasing his health, stamina, syringes, and blood in that order. Stamina is especially important because you can run out quickly and are left open to attack.
Every skill in Vampyr is useful, however, the ones listed above we found are the most consistent. All of these spells offer a nice balance of offense and defensive skills that will let you adapt to different battles. Just make sure to pick which skills suit your playstyle or currently build for Jonathan.