Rise from your grave after centuries-long sleep, thirsty for blood and hungry to regain your former glory. Play

As a vampire, you need to hunt for blood in nearby settlements to regain your strength and quench your thirst. Build and customize your castle, invite friends to join your clan, and convert humans to vampires to grow your empire. Engage in real-time combat and compete for world domination with PvP and PvE challenges.

Make allies online, fend off holy soldiers, and wage war against other players in a world of conflict.

Claim your throne and live the fantasy of becoming the next Dracula!

Stunlock Studios revealed that V Rising is leaving Steam Early Access on May 8, 2024.

“After two years of Early Access, we’ve managed to really polish and worked hard on optimizing the game for its full launch,” said Rickard Frisegård, CEO of Stunlock Studios. “We made the most of that time, and we think fans will enjoy an improved experience that really pushes boundaries. We’re excited for both our dedicated fans and newcomers to get their teeth into V Rising and drink it in when it fully releases on May 8th.”

Since launching in Early Access, countless messages have been sent providing an invaluable resource of feedback to help the devs create the finest version of V Rising possible. The upcoming 1.0 patch makes big changes allowing players to fully express themselves while creating a satisfying finale to the main story. Some of the new content coming in the patch includes a whole new system that allows you to customize your armor's appearance, enhanced equipment sets with 10+ new looks, weapons with enhanced abilities, and necklaces that come with alluring power but come paired with a little extra risk!

It’s time to discuss a topic that players have been frequently requesting ever since first setting boot on the untamed soil of Vardoran. Players have long since been asking for more options in player expression, from a need to show your unique slaying style to a desire to specialize your gear with more focused and themed stats to match your combat preferences. From the decadent countesses to the ghoulish necromancers, you’ve wanted to show what makes your Vampire unique from your distinguished peers. In today’s update, we delve into the practicals, visuals, and aesthetics of everything equippable!

To Go Even Further Beyond

As we’ve mentioned in earlier blogs, the full release of V Rising has us looking at the end of the player journey in the world of Vardoran. Rising to face the greatest foe to date, the ultimate rival, you’ll need every edge you can get. That means advancing beyond what we were once capable of and finding innovative means to conquer the threats swarming in from realms beyond.

Tapping into ancient powers and unlocking their secrets, we’ll craft an entirely new tier of armor and weapons to elevate yourself into feeling your true mastery of the Vampire arts. This is the apex of your journey, and it should feel that way. For this reason, we’re adding a higher equipment tier and adjusting the sets and rarities of the later equipment to give a smooth and satisfying progression.

In addition to obtaining higher tiers of armor, legendary weapons will undergo comprehensive rebalancing across three tiers. This update also introduces a groundbreaking tier of artifacts, featuring specific and distinctive weapons for each weapon type. These weapons won’t just be unique in their names and statistics, but they’ll entirely modify the way you play with advanced weapon skills.

… but wait, there’s more!

Endgame PvP battles often involve competition for the Shards, buildings you can place in your castle and provide powerful stats and buffs to friendly Vampires who attune to these powerful monuments. To get ahold of one of these coveted items, a properly prepared Vampire needs to acquire them from powerful top tier V Blood Bosses or steal it from another Vampire’s stronghold.

So, why are we talking about the shards in this lovely update all about equipment if they’re a bunch of fancy buildings?

It’s because they’re not buildings anymore. Shards will now be a necklace item with powerful stats and buffs and will also provide a unique ultimate ability that overwrites your currently equipped one. On a PvP server or server with the appropriate settings, this necklace will be one-of-a-kind! That means to use it, you’ll have to risk it. There will also be a running timer on the shard, and recharging it will require going out into the world and replenishing its energy at events that spawn in the final zone. It’s our hope that this encourages a more active and exciting experience for everyone while also providing interesting perks and innovative gameplay for Vampires who like to play it a bit more friendly. You might not like PvP, but you probably DO like a novel piece of gear with exciting abilities!

The Vampire Court: Knights, Warlocks, and Assassins

So, we’ve heard you! 

You’ve made it clear: you want to fully embody your Vampire fantasy in V Rising. Many of you have pointed out that sometimes, the night stalker you view yourself as isn’t quite reflected in the world of Vardoran. It’s not just about looks; it’s about gameplay too. Some of you thrive on spell-slinging, others prefer the art of hit-and-run tactics, and then there are those who throw themselves into the fray and hammer enemies into a bloody pulp. Entirely valid! In fact, beautiful, you deserve to be the bloodsucker of your dreams.

As part of the equipment overhaul, every other tier of armor has been expanded. In fact, we’ve added four armor sets with unique stats and appearances for every second tier of armor after bone, represented by the core fantasy archetypes of the primary combat-focused archetypes: brute, warrior, rogue, and scholar. Over the course of your journey, advancing in your crafting will now offer you avenues of specialization. Warrior armor will offer more bonuses to physical damage. Scholar armor will offer more spell damage, and so on.

With 10+ new armor sets, you’ll be more effective in your combat specialty and look even better doing it!

Infinite Impeccable Inspirations

Ah, perhaps even with all these shiny new armor sets, you’re still feeling limited. Maybe you aren’t comfortable being put inside of a box, and your unique flair is something we couldn’t have foreseen in our plethora of styles and options. Perhaps you enjoy mixing and matching sets, or your sinister warlock spellcaster prefers a stylish coat like a duelist’s rather than a flowing satin robe. Do you dress in devilish reds, garish greens, or stick to the timeless elegance of pitch black?

Fear not, nightkin! It’s time to cast off those shackles and embrace your freedom!

The equipment menu has been changed dramatically and now has a collapsible section attached to each armor piece. In this new section, there is a slot where you can place any armor piece, which will overwrite the appearance of anything you’re wearing currently. In this same menu, you’ll find a host of color palettes (currently 31 in total).

Getting the Light Just Right

If you have particularly keen eyes, you might notice some subtle differences in the overall quality of the way the game looks. That’s because we’ve had a massive update to our lighting system! Time to crack open those vampire brains to take in a little technical art talk. Here’s a little peek behind the curtain and what it means for the overall look of V Rising!

Before, we relied on the “atmospheric scattering” of the sky for ambient lighting. This meant that you would encounter a bit of awkwardness here and there, like the inside of your castle being affected by the morning sun and nighttime gloom. We now rely on premade ambient lighting data that we blend in and out depending on time of day and the player’s position. This gives the environments more suitable lighting and helps ground objects in the scene. It’s also more lightweight than the previous system, saving on those precious frames per second!

The changes also have a big effect on the way materials are displayed, which is most noticeable in the textures of metallic objects. While it doesn’t allow for perfect reflections, we can simulate much more realistic-looking metal. Combined with all the new armor sets, this unlocks a whole other layer of appreciation for your fresh Vampire wardrobe.

The Night Fast Approaches

With the winter solstice behind us and the days growing longer, one might be mistaken for thinking the days of the Vampire are behind us… and we will, this once, forgive that ignorance. 2024 will be dense with delight, and this has been only the beginning of what is looking to be the most promising year for V Rising yet! Look forward to the 1.0 update, currently planned to drop sometime in the second half of Q2.

Key Features:

• SURVIVE AS A VAMPIRE. Play as a newly-awakened vampire, stripped from your dark powers. Feed on blood and evade the scorching sun to survive. 
• BUILD YOUR CASTLE. Become lord of your castle as you build and personalize your domain. Fortify and strengthen your base to combat the rising threat from other players.
• CONVERT THE HUMANS. Prey on your victims from the shadows or seduce them to be your vampire servants to assist in your nefarious deeds, laboring at your crafting stations.
• EXPLORE AN OPEN-WORLD. Embark on a blood-soaked journey in a vast open-world inhabited by other players, hostile humans, and supernatural creatures.
• PLAY SOLO OR CO-OP. Play solo or create a clan with friends as you roam the night. 
• RISE IN POWER. Expand your castle, learn unholy abilities, and forge an arsenal of mighty weapons and armor as you rise in power and conquer the realm. 

Currently available through Steam Early Access, V Rising is coming to PC (Steam) on May 8, 2024, followed by PS5 at a later time.