When Can You Start Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns?

Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns is out now for everyone, and if you're interested in getting started, then you might be wondering when you can begin your adventure! I started my run across this new DLC by restarting my save file to answer this very question.

By definition, you should be able to start Operation Guns immediately upon beginning your new save. The map Neo Galuga is unlocked, and it gives you the capability to unlock the DLC-exclusive characters and weapons, but the catch is that in order to begin all of that, you'll first need to find Bill's coffin to unlock him as a character and his weapon.

Finding the coffin isn't particularly difficult, but considering the fact that Neo Galuga is quite large, it's a tall order to do if you don't have the Milky Way Map. With that bit of information in mind, I strongly suggest you unlock that first before you start your Operation Guns gameplay. If you're wondering where to unlock the Milky Way Map, it's simple: go to Dairy Plant and find the relic in the world by following the arrow that guides you to it. Once you do, you can go to Neo Galuga and find the map by following the arrow — until you have the Milky Way Map, you can't read the Neo Galuga one.

It's worth noting that the enemies in Neo Galuga feel a fair bit stronger than the beginner areas in the base game, so while you could feasibly survive until minute 11–14 in the first maps, Neo Galuga will start getting very difficult at the three-minute mark, making it harder to advance and get enough gold to get permanent unlocks. I'd advise getting some gold and upgrading some of your base stats before you try to face Neo Galuga, though this is more of a suggestion than a hard rule — you should be able to go into Operation Guns much quicker, and better players than me will likely have an easier time surviving there.

If you want to delve into the Adventure Mode that's included in Operation Guns, then you'll also need to arrive at the Dairy Plant, after which point you'll unlock all of the Adventure Modes that are available for DLC. It's worth noting that I don't view this as a good starting point, as you'll have a limited arsenal and too many DLC weapons, making finding the evolutions difficult, but by the time you reach the Dairy Plant, you should be able to start your journey across that, too.

Finally, I'll be heading into mild spoiler territory for this next bit regarding the evolutions. Essentially, it'll be impossible to advance past a certain point in evolutions until you have unlocked Krochi Freetto and survived 20 minutes with him to unlock the Tirajisú. One of the weapons that you need to evolve in order to unlock more Operation Guns characters will require this passive item, though you can unlock Krochi by having defeated 100,000 total enemies. You can unlock the Tirajisú by surviving 20 minutes with him, so it's not technically a hard stop to your advancements, though you'll need to take a break from Contra characters momentarily.

All in all, I suggest you play a bit of the base game and unlock some items before you jump into the Operation Guns DLC. Unlock most of the passive items to make discovering each evolution easier, thus, making it feel more complete; it sucks to start enjoying the DLC and having to venture into the base game to get the items you need.