Even though Vampire Survivors wasn't the first game of its kind, its massive popularity has essentially established it as the benchmark against which all other similar games are defined. Vampire Survivors sets a high bar to clear considering it's one of the best Android games out there, but if you've plowed through the new Whiteout update and got your achievements back up to 100%, there are a few alternatives that you might enjoy. And if you're looking for a new gaming phone to play them on, we've got you covered there as well.

1 Magic Survival

It wouldn't be wrong to call this article "10 games like Magic Survival" because it's the OG that made the genre famous and the direct inspiration for the gameplay of Vampire Survivors. Whereas VS eschews the story entirely, Magic Survival sets itself in a brooding post-apocalyptic future that unleashed magic in a jaded world. Instead of weapons inspired by Castlevania, they're more magical and elemental. Much like Vampire Survivors, you have to collect experience gems dropped by mobs to power up your magic which gets supercharged at level seven with three potential evolutions to choose from based on how you play. The money you earn in-game can be used to buy permanent improvements to your character to help you get through the increasingly grueling levels. Also similar to Vampire Survivors, Magic Survival is light on the advertising, so don't worry about being bombarded with ads.

2 Brotato

Brotato gameplay

In Brotato you play as a potato, and you're the only thing standing between the world and hordes of purple aliens. Like Vampire Survivors, you can only equip up to six weapons. Unlike Vampire Survivors, there's a lot more variety to choose from. You can wield anything from a stick to a flamethrower and lots of other things in between (SMG all day). One of the freshest mechanics in Brotato is the ability to combine identical weapons to make a new, enhanced weapon, freeing up one of your weapons slots. You gain experience points from killing aliens, which will let you level up your physical stats, and you gain money by picking up drops from dead aliens which will let you purchase new weapons and items. Racking up achievements unlocks new potatoes with new buffs and nerfs to help you survive the waves. And since this is a premium release, you won't have to worry about ads!

3 Super Wizard

One thing that's great about the VS gameplay loop is the variance in attack types, with melee and ranged attack strategies both receiving constant rewards and upgrades, coupled with the lack of a fire button making for an entrapping feedback loop. Super Wizard embodies this extremely well, putting you in control of a wizard fighting off endless hordes of enemies with a variety of spells. Killing enemies sees you level up, which grants access to both new abilities and upgrades to your existing ones. Overall, the attack progression is satisfying, the enemies are creative in a retro kind of way, and Super Wizard is honestly a game that's tough to put down.

4 20 Minutes Till Dawn

A more grounded example of what Vampire Survivor's gameplay loop entails, 20 Minutes Till Dawn is a VS-inspired game that focuses on gunplay. Instead of an autofiring mechanic, you have to pull the trigger. You can opt to either auto-aim or you can jump in twin-stick shooter style. The difficulty curve on 20 Minutes Till Dawn is a bit higher than some of the other games on the list but it encourages you to experiment with your play style until you can find your groove.

5 Zombie Survivors

Zombie Survivors promotional art

The minimalist graphics of some VS-inspired games have the potential to look uncanny and even regressive, but you quickly learn a game presents itself this way to compensate for the huge number of enemies that appear on-screen at once. Zombie Survivors, conversely, has a modern cartoonish art style alongside a more wanton destruction philosophy. Your character is armed with multiple firearms and edged weapons, all of which stack on top of each other, swelling your destructive capacity as the enemies grow in strength and number. There is a slight problem with the melee attacks in that they are too infrequent to be reliable when things get desperate, but the game's quirky presentation and gunplay more than compensate. Add to that cool enemy designs and boss fights. What's not to like?

6 Bardbarian

A slight deviation from the formula, Bardbarian follows the principle of the VS gameplay loop but alters the execution. You take control of a bard facing down an army of goblins, your only defense being the power to summon others to fight on your behalf. While this does make for an amusing spectacle, the fact that your attacks are coming from the area around you instead of from exactly where you are can make precision an impossibility. This is mainly because your party members are constantly changing positions around you, making it frustrating as the difficulty curves up. A creative and amusing premise let down slightly by its shaky execution, but you'll have fun with it as long as you make sound investments before things get real.

7 Marine Survivors

MArine Survivor gameplay

Back to the retro style, Marine Survivor is easily the most old-school feeling VS-like on this roundup. You take control of a space marine and must survive an increasingly dense horde of hostile aliens with explosive weaponry. A familiar problem arises in your starting weapon being slow and unsatisfying, a slow-firing one-hit kill that doesn't auto-aim like other games of this type. You have to align your shots manually with the same finger you use to move, which is as awkward as it sounds, particularly when beset from all sides. That being said, the game's creative and destructive weapons do make up for this, being a blast to use. This one takes a while to get going, but it is definitely worth the extra effort.

8 Legend of Slime: Idle RPG

While not a true-blue VS-like, Legend of Slime embodies many of the qualities associated with an idle wave-based mobile game. You control a little blue slime and must progress forward at all costs, mowing down adversaries as you go. The gameplay presentation resembles a runner game, but in practice turns out very much like a VS-inspired title. Both movement and combat are completely idle; the interactive element is to pour the cash your enemies drop into your stats, increasing your attack damage, health, and health regeneration. In many ways, this is the antonym of VS-like gameplay, a system where you control the level-ups directly rather than the movement. Legend of the Slime presents itself well and balances challenges without becoming too easy. Give it a try if you're looking for something a little different.

9 HeroSurvival

If I were asked which game on the Play Store encapsulates the VS gameplay loop the best, it would be Hero Survival. The setup is what you would expect; you are in a field and must fend off endless waves of enemies with an assortment of weapons and magic spells. This game doesn't hide its intent to sucker you in with instant gratification, upgrades are semi-constant, and chests containing further loot are found scattered throughout the area and occasionally give you a magnet that acquires all the XP points on the map. Your offensive measures feel great to use, and the enemy sprites evoke early Castlevania titles, putting me in the mood for the best arcade games on Android. HeroSurvival is very well put together and devilishly addictive.

10 Lonely Survivor

Wrapping up with another mage-themed VS-like, Lonely Survivor places you in control of a mage attacked by countless enemies. You must rely on various spells to defend yourself from hostiles, using fireballs, lightning bolts, damaging shields, and more, all upgraded by defeating enemies. This is another example of a very hard-to-put-down game, with its positive reinforcement, hypnotic waves of enemies, and the dopamine hit provided by a shield that kills everything it touches instantly. As good as the game is, the usual appeal of a VS-like is the boundless map with zero constrictions, but the boss fights in this game place you in enclosed arenas until the boss is dead, which does affect the pacing a bit. But overall, this game is extremely enjoyable.

Shoot and loot is the name of the game with the best Vampire Survivors clones

The public's intoxication with single-stick survival games is far from over, so there are lots of options out there if you're looking for an alternative to Vampire Survivors. Besides the infinite replayability that's baked into the rogue-like genre, many of these VS alternatives are getting just as many updates as VS, so if you haven't checked them out for a few months, you might be surprised at what you find (I'm looking at you Magic Survival and Brotato). Make sure to check out these brilliant Android tablets and use a wider screen to render more foes, and why not look at some great tablet-optimized apps on Android while you're at it? This subgenre is blowing up right now, so if you have any suggestions for what should be classed as a great VS-like, we would love to hear about them.