HoloCure - Save the Fans!: Complete Guide

A practical guide to HoloCure, the free Hololive fan game in the Vampire Survivors style: how a run works, weapon and item priorities, collabs, permanent upgrades, side content, and Time Mode leaderboards.

Researched September 2026 — current as of update 0.7 (released 2024-11-15) with the February 2025 balance patches (update 0.8 is in development per the December 2025 dev blog). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

It is free and unofficial. HoloCure is a fan game by KayAnimate featuring Hololive talents. There is nothing to buy.
You only control movement. Weapons fire automatically. Your job is positioning, picking upgrades, and using your character's Special at the right time.
Every level-up offers a choice. Pick weapons, items or stat boosts. Early on, prioritize a few strong weapons over a wide spread.
Max weapons unlock collabs. Two specific weapons at max level can combine into a collab weapon through a Holozon box. Collabs are where runs get powerful.
HoloCoins are your meta-currency. Spend them in the shop on permanent stat upgrades and to roll the gacha for new characters. As of the February 2025 patch, coin gain from clearing stages and hard stages was greatly increased.
Unlock characters through the gacha and level their Fandom by playing them. Higher Fandom levels improve that character.
Try each character's main weapon. Every idol has a unique starting weapon and Special; some are ranged pokers, some melee brawlers, some coin farmers (Pekora and Marine got coin buffs in 2025).
Stamps are powerful run modifiers. They changed a lot in 2024 to 2025 (the Rock Hard Stamp is now automatic in Time Mode, and the Greed Stamp got a cooldown).
Holo House is your hub for side activities. It arrived in 0.6, and 0.7 added three new areas: the Usada Casino, Ckia's Forge and the Tower of Suffering.
Update 0.8 is coming with balance changes, new mechanics and reworked achievements. The developer stated no character nerfs are planned.

Stages and Modes

Every stage run lasts 20 minutes and ends with its final bosses.

Stage	Unlock	Final bosses
1 Grassy Plains	Default	Fubuzilla, Smol Ame
2 Holo Office	Clear Stage 1	Mikodanye, A-chan
3 Halloween Castle	Clear Stage 2	Shubangelion, Spiderchama
4 Gelora Bung Yagoo	Clear Stage 3	Udin, Area 15
5 Fantasy Island (0.7)	See in-game	Nanora, Pekodam
1H Grassy Plains (Night)	Clear Stage 2	Adds Halloween Bae
2H Holo Office (Evening)	Clear Stage 1H	Adds Harusaki Nodoka
3H Halloween Castle (Myth)	Clear Stage 2H	Adds Halloween Myth
4H Gelora Bung Yagoo (Night) (0.7)	See in-game	Adds Goriela

Mode	What it is
Stage	Survive waves and beat the final boss at 20:00
Endless	Waves never stop and fan stats keep scaling until you die; good for testing a build's ceiling
Time	Leaderboard mode: defeat 4,000 enemies as fast as possible with standardized upgrades and items disabled

How a Run Works

Pick a character and a stage (normal or hard variant once unlocked).
Fans swarm you in waves; defeating them drops EXP. Level up to choose new weapons and items.
Mid-bosses and bosses appear at set points. Bosses often drop Holozon boxes, which can upgrade a weapon, give an item, or offer a collab if you qualify.
Survive until the stage ends (or the final boss is defeated) to clear.
Your Special charges over time and in combat. It is a big, character-specific power. Save it for bosses or dense waves rather than firing it instantly.

Anvils

Anvils appear during runs. Use them to enhance a weapon or item, adding bonus stats. Put anvils into your main damage weapon unless you are close to a collab and need a level.

Weapons, Items and Collabs

Common weapons

HoloCure's shared pool has 17 basic weapons: BL Book, Bounce Ball, CEO's Tears, Cutting Board, Elite Lava Bucket, EN's Curse, Fan Beam, Glowstick, Holo Bomb, Idol Song, Owl Dagger, Plug Type Asacoco, Psycho Axe, Sausage, Spider Cooking, Wamy Water and X-Potato, plus each character's unique main weapon.

Weapon style	Examples	Good for
Orbiting/aura	BL Book, Spider Cooking	Constant close-range protection
Directional	Fan Beam, Glowstick, Owl Dagger	Punching through lines of fans
Area denial	Elite Lava Bucket, Holo Bomb	Crowd clearing
Bouncing/random	Bounce Ball, X-Potato, Psycho Axe	Coverage in all directions

Collabs

A collab requires two specific weapons, both at max level.
When you qualify, a Holozon box can offer the collab, replacing both weapons with a stronger combined one.
The in-game glossary shows every recipe once discovered. Plan your first few weapons around a collab you want.

There are 25 collabs. A handful of easy, popular ones to plan around:

Collab	Recipe
BL Fujoshi	BL Book + Psycho Axe
Elite Cooking	Elite Lava Bucket + Spider Cooking
Idol Concert	Glowstick + Idol Song
Light Beam	Fan Beam + Glowstick
Frozen Sea	BL Book + Wamy Water
Dragon Fire	Fan Beam + Plug Type Asacoco
Snow Flower Sake	Glowstick + Wamy Water
Absolute Wall	Bounce Ball + Cutting Board
MiKorone	Elite Lava Bucket + X-Potato
Rap Dog	Idol Song + X-Potato

Notice how BL Book, Glowstick and Fan Beam each appear in several recipes; opening with them keeps more collab doors open.

Super Collabs

A Super Collab combines a finished collab with a specific item (per the HoloCure wiki):

Super Collab	Recipe
True Infinite BL Works	BL Fujoshi + Hope Soda
Jingisukan	Elite Cooking + Uber Sheep
Idol Live	Idol Concert + Idol Costume
Holy Fire	Dragon Fire + Gorilla's Paw
Snow Queen	Snow Flower Sake + Sake

If you are aiming for one, take the matching item early; it is useful on its own anyway.

Items

Items are passive boosts. Well-known examples: Body Pillow (a shield that refreshes every 15 seconds), Full Meal (all healing doubled), Piki Piki Piman, Uber Sheep (drops food nearby every 10 seconds), Hope Soda, Idol Costume, Halu, Gorilla's Paw, Nurse's Horn, Face Mask, Credit Card, Injection Type Asacoco, Energy Drink, Blacksmith's Gear, Just Bandage, Knightly Milk, Focus Shades, Headphones, Membership, Super Chatto Time!, Sake, Limiter, GWS Pill and Study Glasses.

Several are double-edged (strong bonus with a drawback). Read each tooltip before grabbing it. Examples from the wiki:

Item	Effect	Watch out for
Gorilla's Paw	ATK x1.2	Lose 20% crit chance
Halu	More regular fan spawns	Fans are 5% stronger
Membership	+30% ATK, take 10% less damage	Costs HoloCoins
Limiter	+100% pickup range	None; great quality-of-life pick
Credit Card	Enhancing costs 20% less, anvils appear 20% more	Only good if you use anvils
Nurse's Horn	30% chance to life-steal 2 HP; emergency heal below 15% HP	Sustain, not damage

Super items can appear in Holozon boxes. As of the February 2025 patch, the chance of getting another super item decreases after each one you gain in a run, so do not count on stacking them.

A Sample Run Plan

This is a general framework that works for most characters on a normal stage:

Run phase	Goal	What to pick
First minutes	Survive and clear fans fast	Level your main weapon, add one area weapon
Early mid-run	Commit to a build	Add the second half of a collab recipe; take pickup range or speed if offered
First boss	Get Holozon boxes	Save your Special for the boss; use anvils on your main damage source
Mid-run	Complete your first collab	Push both recipe weapons to max; Hold them if needed
Late run	Scale damage and defense	Second collab, defensive items (shields, healing), crit and haste stats
Final boss	Burst it down	Special on cooldown during the fight, keep moving in wide circles

If a run goes badly early, finishing it anyway still earns HoloCoins, so do not quit on the first mistake.

Permanent Progression

Upgrade	Where	Priority
Stat upgrades (HP, ATK, SPD, crit, pickup range, and more)	Shop	High; cheap early ranks are very efficient
New characters	Gacha	Medium; variety matters for achievements and fun
Fandom levels	Earned by playing a character	Automatic; play the ones you like
Starting options (rerolls, eliminates, holds)	Shop	High; they make every run more consistent
Outfits	Shop and side content	Cosmetic

Rerolls, Eliminates and Holds let you control level-up choices. They are some of the best-value shop purchases because they turn random runs into planned builds.

Holo House and Side Content (0.7)

Holo House: your hub, where side activities live (added in 0.6).
Ckia's Forge: one of the three Holo House areas added in 0.7; visit it once it unlocks to see what it offers your runs.
0.7 systems: Prisms, Support Items and Fan Letters were added alongside Hololive JP Gen 3 and Gen 4, plus two stages (Fantasy Island and Gelora Bung Yagoo (Night)).
Usada Casino: a casino minigame area. The February 2025 patch increased starting holoChips from 100 to 500.
Tower of Suffering: a demanding jump-climbing challenge. November 2024 patches smoothed the opening jumps and removed an unavoidable fall.
The Usada Casino includes a math minigame (its operator symbols were switched to images in November 2024).
Treat side activities as a break from runs: they are fun, but the fastest way to get stronger is still clearing stages for HoloCoins and spending them in the shop.

Time Mode and Leaderboards

Time Mode is the leaderboard mode. The leaderboard was re-enabled on 2025-02-18 with an adjusted score calculation.
On 2025-02-27, the Rock Hard Stamp was removed from Time Mode drops and is now applied automatically to all Time Mode runs, to keep competition fair. This stays in place until 0.8, which will bring further Time Mode stamp changes.

Character Notes from the 2024 to 2025 Patches

These are directional changes from official notes, not a tier list:

Pekora: main weapon damage up, doubled coin gain from Gambler and Special, coin gain scales with Skill Damage.
Marine: base coin gain from the main weapon's max effect reduced, but now scales with Skill Damage; Pirate Captain coin drops also scale.
Noel: Gyudon's HP gain reduced to +2, with more ATK per 20 HP.
Coco: main weapon damage up; "Marked" bonus damage increased from 30% to 50%.
Korone: Special damage up, with a chance to stun for 3 seconds.
Towa, Okayu, Mio, Flare: damage buffs to main weapons and/or Specials.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Taking every new weapon. You run out of slots and nothing hits max level. Commit to a collab path.
Ignoring pickup range and speed. Slow characters with tiny pickup range fall behind on EXP.
Firing your Special on cooldown. Save it for bosses and swarms.
Skipping shop rerolls/eliminates/holds. They are the difference between random and reliable builds.
Standing still. Fans surround you fast; keep circling.
Grabbing drawback items blind. Read the tooltip.

Advanced Tips

Plan two collabs from the start. Choose opening weapons that feed two collab recipes so every weapon level has a purpose.
Use Eliminate on clutter. Remove weapons and items that do not fit your build so the good ones show up more often.
Hold key picks you want next level.
Kite in large circles to group fans into tight clumps, then hit them with area weapons or your Special.
Coin characters first. When saving for shop upgrades, Pekora and Marine are strong coin farmers after the 2025 buffs.
Hard stages give much more HoloCoin since the February 2025 patch; move to them once you can clear normal comfortably.

FAQ

Is HoloCure really free? Yes, it is a free, unofficial fan game on Steam.

Is HoloCure affiliated with Hololive? It is a fan game featuring Hololive talents; it is not an official Cover Corporation product.

When is update 0.8 coming? No date as of September 2026. The December 2025 dev blog confirmed active development, many balance changes, new mechanics and reworked achievements.

How do I unlock more characters? Spend HoloCoins on the gacha in the shop.

How do collabs work? Get two specific weapons to max level, then open a Holozon box (usually from a boss). The in-game glossary tracks recipes.

How long is a stage? 20 minutes, ending with the stage's final bosses. Endless Mode keeps going with scaling fans; Time Mode is a race to 4,000 defeated enemies.

Which collab should I go for first? Pick one whose two weapons you like anyway. BL Fujoshi (BL Book + Psycho Axe) and Elite Cooking (Elite Lava Bucket + Spider Cooking) are simple, and both lead on to Super Collabs.

Why can't I find the Rock Hard Stamp in Time Mode? Since 2025-02-27 it no longer drops there; it is applied automatically to every Time Mode run.