Vampire Killer/Gameplay

The Main Character: Simon Belmont

Like in Castlevania 1, the player controls Simon Belmont in Vampire Killer. Simon Belmont is the current member of the Belmont clan to wield the Vampire Killer whip, which was given to him by his father when he came of age. When Dracula was revived by corrupted humans at the end of the 17th century, Simon Belmont journeyed to Dracula's Castle, Castlevania, in order to put a stop to the dark lord's reign once again.

Alongside the Vampire Killer whip, Simon can find and use several other primary weapons, including an Axe, Cross, Throwing Knives, and a Morningstar whip. These are complimented by the sub-weapons and many passive items to be found in the game, including Holy Water, a time-stopping Hourglass, shields, boots that increase Simon's speed, and a ring that grants Simon temporary invulnerability.

Vampire Killer gives Simon two extra lives, for a total of three usable lives per game, with no way to gain more. If you die in Vampire Killer, you return to the start of the current Stage, losing all your items and hearts in the process. Because of this and the game's high difficulty level, dying at all on any Stage after the first four will likely lead to the end of your run.

Controls

Vampire Killer was primarily designed to be played with a keyboard, however, some game functions also support an MSX-compatible controller.

• ← & → or & : Walk left or right on the ground.
•  ↑  or : Jump into the air. Can be paired with a left or right input to jump sideways. Pressing  ↑  or at the base of a staircase will also allow Simon to climb stairs.
•  ↓  or : Crouch, or descend stairs if he's positioned at the top of a staircase.
• space or : Attack with Simon's primary weapon, which is the leather whip by default. Acquiring other primary weapons will change how Simon attacks enemies. During a trade with a merchant, this button is also used to confirm the trade.
• F1: Pause the game, allowing the player to take a break and return to the game later.
• F2: Opens a map of the current Stage, if the player has found one.

Vampire Killer's HUD

The Heads-Up Display (HUD), located at the top of the screen, displays several pieces of important information about the game and the player's status.

• 1: The player's current point score.
• 2: The current Stage.
• 3: The player's current Heart count, which are used for both active sub-weapons and trading with merchants.
• 4: Simon's remaining lives.
• 5: The current Boss's health.
• 6: Simon's health.
• 7: Simon's current primary weapon.
• 8: Simon's key inventory.
• 9: Simon's inventory of passive and active items.

Health and Damage

Unlike in Castlevanias 1 and 3, the damage dealt by enemies to Simon depends on the enemy, rather than the Stage number. Simon's health bar is 64 pixels wide, and the lowest amount of damage Simon can take from any attack is two pixels, effectively giving Simon 32 health in the best of cases. However, the only objects that deal this low of damage are fireballs and skeleton bones - most other enemies deal much greater amounts of damage to Simon upon hitting him.

Object	Damage Value	Notes
Projectiles	1	All projectiles in the game deal 1 damage to the player.
Regular Enemies	2 - 6	The normal enemies you'll find in Vampire Killer's 18 Stages deal a moderate range of damage when making body contact with the player.
Bosses	4 - 6	All the bosses in Vampire Killer deal 4 to 6 points of damage per hit, depending on the boss. Any regular enemies present in a boss fight (the Fleaman in the Frankenstein's Monster fight and the Bats in Dracula Phase 2) deal the regular amount of damage for that specific enemy.
Crushers	16	Only present in Stage 6, Crushers deal damage equivalent to one-half of Simon's maximum health.
Bottomless Pits	32	Any bottomless pits in Vampire Killer cause instantaneous death if Simon falls in one.

For the specific damage dealt by each enemy or boss, please see their respective pages.

Points

The points system in Vampire Killer is purely for swag purposes - no matter how many points you get, you won't be awarded any more extra lives than your starting two. Thus, it's best to prioritize not dying over getting as many points as possible.

Object	Point Value	Notes
Money Bags	1000 or 5000	Moderately-rare items found in candles, chests, and dropped from enemies.
Enemies	100 - 1000	The enemies in Vampire Killer give a wide spectrum of points upon being killed. All projectiles (bones, fireballs, etc.) award 100 points for being destroyed.
Bosses	2000 - 50,000	Every boss in Vampire Killer will award you a large amount of points upon defeating them - you'll also recieve points for each of Dracula's phases.
Merchants	5000	After hitting a Merchant with your primary weapon enough times, they'll flash for several seconds before disappearing from existence.

Merchants

In Vampire Killer, you'll end up finding merchants scattered throughout the game's Stages. Upon hitting them with your primary weapon, they will change colour, which will result in them changing colour.

Merchant	Colour	Meaning
	White	A Merchant's default state.
	Burgundy	When a Merchant turns burgundy, they'll either give or take five hearts from the player's inventory.
	Red	When a Merchant turns red, they'll offer to sell the item they're assigned to sell, for a certain quantity of hearts. Prices can be influenced by whether you've picked up any Black or White Bibles on the current Stage. If you'd like to buy the item, be it a primary weapon, sub-weapon, or passive item, you can press space to confirm. Otherwise, you can let the trade time out by waiting several seconds.
	Blue	Unknown - no change visibly noticible (nor mentioned in the game's manual).