V Rising beginner’s guide – our 10 best tips and tricks

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✓ At a glance
  • Collect and store everything you can and use your tools to their full effect to optimize gameplay.
  • Keep an eye on the day and night cycle and plan your goals and strategy accordingly.
  • Always strive to increase your power by upgrading equipment, castle, and spells. If you’re ever stuck, check what’s next in the main questline.

Starting out in V Rising can be a daunting task even if you’ve played similar games before. The game has plenty of quirks that set it apart and you can feel that you’ve made a wrong step in the beginning. A beginner guide can help alleviate some of the problems that can arise when starting out in V Rising. Fortunately, there is plenty of room for error, but having an optimal start and being mindful of some elements can go a long way. 

Collect everything

You’ll find plenty of resources along the way after leaving your tomb. Hundreds of bones, and plenty of wood, stone, and plant fibre from incidental hits along the way. Try not to leave anything behind if you can help it. After establishing your initial base, it will be easy to store everything in chests. They are cheap and easy to make, and you’ll soon find that the more you bring back with you, the easier it will be to progress.

Pick a good castle location

If you play on a PVP server, picking a good defensible location can be paramount to securing your base. Look for a high-ground position with funnels to protect from raids by other players. You can study the map beforehand and pick out your preferred spot, then rush to it to put down roots. 

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Screenshot of V Rising's video game map interface displayed as an ancient parchment, featuring a detailed layout of a fantasy town and an instruction to choose a location to start.
There are two ingress points when you finish the tutorial area. Captured by Videogamer

While defensibility is less important on a PVE or solo server, you should still think about finding a good base location. In this case, look for a place that is well connected and has access to good farming spots and teleports. Travel times can be an issue early on, so look for a spot that won’t take you all night to get back to. You’ll be able to relocate your castle later as you progress, but cutting down on travel is good when you’re just starting out.

Build, upgrade, and expand

V Rising is a survival game at its core. Building structures, collecting, and refining resources will take up a lot of your time which in turn allows you to progress through the game. It’s good to have a plan on what and where you want to build, but V Rising is pretty lenient when it comes to remodelling. You can salvage a structure for 100% of its cost, making it easy to relocate and expand (press and hold Space while in the Build menu). 


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Screenshot of V Rising showing a character in a dark, eerie courtyard, equipped for battle with various weapon icons displayed on the screen.
It doesn’t take much to set up a beginner base with floors and palisades. Captured by Videogamer

Always look for what you can build next, as that is likely to unlock some new aspect of the game for you. Similarly, if you enjoy the aesthetics of the game, take your time to slowly build and expand your castle. Properly set up rooms will provide additional bonuses to productivity down the line, so it pays to specialise. 

Use the right tools for the job

Your weapons double as tools with different specialisations for resource gathering. While all weapons can gather any resources within the same tier, they provide faster yields if used appropriately.

  • The sword is best used to cut plants.
  • The axes are best used to cut down trees.
  • The mace is best suited to breaking rocks and ores.
  • The spear is best used for hunting creatures. Note that this applies to animals (ie, farming hides for leather), not humanoids.

By using the proper tool during farming, you’ll ensure higher and quicker yields, therefore being able to return with more resources with less time spent. Always try to keep your weapons up to date and at the highest tier you can craft. 

A character mines copper ore in a dark, misty forest within the V Rising game interface displaying health, items, and a mini-map.
Use the Mace to farm Copper more efficiently. Captured by Videogamer

Manage combat and your abilities

When it comes to combat, you can use any weapon that you prefer. Each of them provides a different fighting style, as well as different abilities at higher tiers. Combat management can mean the difference between efficiently clearing a large camp or respawning in your coffin after a defeat.

Master the art of pulling and positioning, and you’ll find it easy to win even against groups of enemies. Pay attention to your health – in-combat healing options will become available later in the game. Watch for ranged attacks and melee attack wind-up times, then dodge out of the way.

During a fight, make full use of your vampire abilities, spells, and weapon attacks. Most abilities come with a cooldown, so keep tabs on which one is up and use it to its full potential. For example, use the Shadowbolt from range to pick off an opponent or the Blood Rite if you’re cornered to block and reflect damage on your enemies. Once you start beating bosses and drinking their blood, you’ll be able to unlock new vampire powers and spells.

✓ Pro tip
  • Prepare for boss fights by clearing the surrounding area of any enemies first. That will make it easier to maneuver and allow room for mistakes.
In-game screenshot from V Rising showing a character amidst a night-time battle scene with highlighted circles and game interface elements.
Clearing the area made the boss fight easier. Captured by Videogamer

Use blood type bonuses

Blood type bonuses are closely tied to your vampire’s performance each night. Naturally, you’ll need blood to sustain yourself, and different enemies “taste” different, providing a hefty bonus. Each of them has their use and you can plan around your goals to seek out specific prey. Note the percentage next to a creature’s blood type – that represents the potency of their blood. The higher the percentage, the more effects you’ll get when you feed on them.

Screenshot from V Rising showing a character's blood type screen with stats and a mystical forest background.
Brute blood type offers excellent sustainability in combat. Captured by Videogamer
  • Creature blood: Increases speed, durability, and sun resistance, making it good for general travel and exploration.
  • Worker blood: Increases mounted speed and resource gathering, making it amazing for farming.
  • Brute blood: Increases damage and in-combat healing, making it great for sustained fighting.
  • Rogue blood: Increases critical strikes and movement, making it great for quick-burst combat.
  • Warrior blood: Makes you tankier, stronger, and reduces cooldowns for weapon skills, making it a good all-around combat buff.
  • Scholar blood: Increases spell power, reduces their cooldown, and provides spell life leech, perfect for a heavy caster build.
  • Mutant blood: Lowers blood drain, increases all resistances and even has a chance to turn the victim into a mutant. It can completely change your playstyle.
  • Draculin blood: Increases speed during the night, damage against wounded opponents, healing from Blood Mend and adds an extra Bite. A true vampire power fantasy.

Travelling and exploration

During the early game in V Rising, you will spend a lot of your time travelling around the map. Take this opportunity to familiarize yourself with the layout and explore different camps. Each one you find will be marked on your map, along with brief tips on the types of resources you can find there. Therefore, exploring as much of the map of the zone you’re in during the first few nights will be extremely helpful later in the game. 

In the beginning, you will have to do most of the exploration on foot. Consider getting a Creature blood type to get faster movement speed. After beating the first boss, Alpha the White Wolf, you will unlock Wolf Form vampire power, which will increase your movement speed out of combat. Later, when you reach Dunley Farmlands, you’ll be able to grab a horse for even faster travel speeds (horses can gallop by pressing E). 

A screenshot of V Rising showing the character in wolf form in forested landscape with user interface elements, including a mini-map, health bar, and skill icons.
Wolf Form is the best way to travel early in the game. Captured by Videogamer

Lastly, don’t forget to make use of Vampire Waygates. These fast-travel points will get you instantly from one to the other, or back to your coffin. However, bear in mind that you can’t transport most resources through fast-travel. They are best used to get near your planned farming location, then go back to your base on foot (or other means) after you’re done.

✓ Pro tip

You will unlock a Castle Waygate through a quest. Building it will give you easy waygate access from within your castle.

Mind the day and night cycle

As expected from a vampire game, there’s a day and night cycle in V Rising. On default settings, nights last around twice as long as days. During the day, staying under the sun’s rays will build up and start dealing damage as long as you’re exposed. You can dash into the shadows of the surrounding terrain to escape. Obviously, during the night there are no such limitations.

To keep tabs on the day and night cycle, you can always refer to the clock located in the upper right section of your UI. It will tell you exactly how much time you have in each cycle, so you can plan accordingly. For example, avoid starting a lengthy fight if the sun is about to come up.

Set goals for each day and night

Connected to the above point, it’s very helpful to try and set a goal for every upcoming day and night cycle. For example, you can use the day to farm up nearby resources while utilizing shade. Or you can stay in your castle, expanding and building with the help of Mist Braziers. Then, you can set up resource production and organize your coffers while waiting for sundown.

Screenshot of a V Rising game interface showing character equipment, statistics, and an upgrade panel for a "Castle Heart" with timers and power levels.
Upgrading your Castle Heart increases your power and reach. Captured by Videogamer

Once it’s nighttime, you’ll be all set to fulfil your next task. For best efficiency, try not to deviate from your goal. If you want to hunt down a specific boss, don’t stop and fight every patrol along the way. Don’t farm resources that you don’t immediately need. Focus on the task at hand. Then, after the boss is down and you got what you came for, check how much time you have until daybreak and use it for miscellaneous tasks along the way back to your base. You can use the same approach to any activity – farming, seeking blood types, exploration, etc.

Follow the main questline

Our last tip may seem obvious, but it bears repeating. If you’re ever stuck on what to do next, just take a glance at the upper left corner of the screen. There, you’ll see your next task in V Rising’s questline, which is always followed by a useful new unlock. Progressing through the quests will make you stronger, give you new recipes and buildables, and offer options to get further in the game. While getting into a loop of farming and killing can be enticing, make sure that you work towards these goals which will open up new options for you. With that, you’ll be able to visit new areas and zones, fight new enemies and bosses, and unlock new resources.

About the Author

Miljan Truc

Miljan has been into gaming since the days of Sega Mega Drive and Amiga. During his gaming career, he has raided at a high level, coached other players, and written about games since 2016.

V Rising

  • Platform(s): PC
  • Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Massively Multiplayer