Vampyr: Complete Guide

A guide to Vampyr's central dilemma (who, if anyone, to feed on), how XP, district health and citizens work, how to build Jonathan Reid for combat, and how your choices shape the four endings. Story spoilers are kept light.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the September 2018 difficulty-modes update (the last major patch). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Choose your difficulty knowingly. Story Mode de-emphasises combat; Normal is the original experience; Hard Mode makes combat much tougher and gives less XP from kills, pushing you toward feeding.
• XP comes mostly from people. Embracing (feeding on) citizens gives by far the most experience. Combat and investigations give much less.
• You only level up when you rest. XP is spent on skills at hideouts when you sleep. Sleeping also advances time and changes the city.
• It's possible to finish without embracing anyone, but it's much harder. Consider Story Mode for a pacifist run on your first try.
• Healthy citizens have better blood. Curing their illnesses with medicine raises the XP you'd get if you embraced them.
• Learn every hint. Talking to people and investigating unlocks hints about each citizen, which raise the value of embracing them and open dialogue options.
• Embraces change districts. Removing key citizens can drop a district's health until it becomes hostile.
• Keep medicine and serums stocked. Craft them at hideout workbenches.
• Your choices determine the ending. The number of citizens you embrace is a major factor.
• Choices stick. The game relies on autosaves, so you can't simply reload a moment ago after a bad decision. Think before you bite.

The Setup

London, 1918. You are Dr. Jonathan Reid, a surgeon newly turned into a vampire (a "Vampyr"). You're taken in by Dr. Edgar Swansea at Pembroke Hospital and pulled into the city's supernatural politics, involving the aristocratic vampire Lady Ashbury, the vampire-hunting Priwen guard, the Skals (feral undead), and the mystery of the epidemic sweeping London. Key figures include your sister Mary Reid, the entity Myrddin Wyllt, and the antagonist known as the Red Queen.

Difficulty Modes

The September 26, 2018 update (the game's third update) added two modes alongside the original. You pick one when you start a new game.

Mode | What changes | Who it suits

Story Mode | De-emphasises combat so the narrative carries the game | Pacifist (no-embrace) runs, players here for the story and choices

Normal Mode | The original launch balance | A first run where you're willing to feed a little, or a careful pacifist run

Hard Mode | Combat is much tougher and killing enemies gives less XP, so you lean harder on embracing citizens | Second playthroughs, "monster" runs

The difficulty choice interacts directly with the moral system: Hard Mode deliberately pushes you toward feeding, while Story Mode removes most of the pressure to do so.

Planning Your Run

Decide what kind of Jonathan Reid you're playing before the first district gets complicated. Three workable plans:

Plan | Embraces | How to make it work

Pacifist | None | Do every investigation and optional fight for XP, keep all districts healthy, craft plenty of serums, and consider Story Mode. Expect bosses to be hard on Normal

Selective | A few, under the good-ending threshold | Pick citizens whose hints reveal them as genuinely harmful, cure them first, unlock all their hints, then feed. Watch their district's health afterwards

Monster | Many | Feed on healthy citizens with all hints unlocked for the biggest XP gains. Removing a district's most connected figures hits its health hardest, so expect districts to fall hostile and the darkest ending

Whatever you choose, the order of operations for any embrace is the same: unlock hints, cure illness, check district health, then rest.

Core Systems

Citizens and the Embrace

• Around 60 named citizens live across London. Each has a background, relationships and a daily routine.
• Mesmerise lets you lure a citizen somewhere quiet to feed. Each citizen needs a certain Mesmerise level; you raise it by progressing the story.
• Blood quality depends on the citizen's health and how many of their hints you've uncovered. Cure illnesses and unlock hints before feeding for maximum XP.
• Embracing is permanent and has consequences: the citizen's relatives and friends react, and their role in the district is lost.

District health

London has four districts: Pembroke Hospital, Whitechapel, the Docks and the West End.

• Each district has a health score based on its citizens' wellbeing.
• Sick citizens, embraced citizens and some story choices lower it.
• If a district's health drops far enough it becomes hostile: citizens disappear, enemies increase, and shops and quests can be lost.
• Heal citizens regularly (check the district view for who's sick) to keep districts stable.

Resting and time

• Resting in a hideout spends your XP on skills and advances to the next night.
• Each rest causes citizens to potentially fall ill and district health to change.
• Before resting, heal sick citizens, finish time-sensitive dialogue, and decide whether you want to embrace anyone.

Crafting

• Collect components across the city and from enemies.
• Craft medicine for specific illnesses, serums for yourself (healing, blood and stamina support), ammunition and weapon upgrades at hideout workbenches.
• Excess serums and ammo go into your stash and refill your stock when you die (fixed in the second update).

Combat

Combat is third-person melee with a dodge, stamina and a blood bar.

• Health: your life.
• Stamina: attacks and dodges; run out and you're vulnerable.
• Blood: fuels vampire skills; replenish by biting stunned enemies, using blood-absorbing weapons, or with serums.

Weapons

Type | Examples | Strength

Melee (main hand) | Machete, Hacksaw, Clay's Hatchet, Liston Knife, Scythe, Barbed Cudgel, Truncheon | Your main damage and stun source; one-handed weapons leave room for an off-hand, two-handed ones hit harder

Off-hand | Stake, Priwen Stake | Stun enemies to set up bites

Firearms | Revolver, Lupara, Milton's Shotgun | Ranged damage, finish runners

Weapons come in quality grades (Used, Common, Good, Remarkable); a few named weapons such as Clay's Hatchet and Milton's Shotgun are unique. Upgrade the ones you like at a workbench, and check each weapon's tooltip for its special effect (stun, bleed or blood gain) before committing upgrade parts.

Skills

Category | Skills

Aggressive | Bloodspear, Claws, Shadow Mist

Defensive | Blood Barrier, Coagulation

Tactical | Spring, Shadow Veil

Ultimate | Abyss, Rage, Blood Cauldron

Miscellaneous | Autophagy

Passive | Body Condition, Physical Prowess, Hard Biting, Blood Capacity, Big Thirst, and more

Build suggestions

• Blood caster: Bloodspear and Blood Cauldron for ranged damage, Blood Capacity and Big Thirst passives, and a stake off-hand to set up blood-restoring bites. Great for bosses.
• Melee brawler: Claws for blood-on-hit, Physical Prowess and Body Condition, a two-handed weapon and a stake for stuns and bites.
• Survivalist: Coagulation for self-heal, Blood Barrier to absorb damage, and Spring for mobility.

Combat tips

• Stun, then bite. Stakes and some heavy attacks build stun; a bite on a stunned enemy restores blood and deals damage.
• Manage stamina. Never empty your stamina bar in front of an enemy.
• Kite groups. Use Spring and ranged skills to split groups up.
• Ultimates are fight-winners. Save them for bosses and big groups.
• Priwen hunters are dangerous in groups and carry fire weapons; take them out quickly.

Endings and Choices

According to Wikipedia's summary, there are four endings, driven largely by how many citizens you embrace and by your final decisions involving Lady Ashbury.

Citizens embraced | Outcome (spoiler-light)

Fewer than 5 | The hopeful branch. Reid can persuade Lady Ashbury to live; this branch splits into two endings depending on your final choice with her

5 to 9 | A tragic ending for Lady Ashbury

10 or more | The darkest ending: Reid is portrayed as a monster indifferent to humanity

• Minimal embraces lead to the more hopeful outcomes.
• Many embraces and hostile districts lead to darker endings.
• Key story choices (including several boss outcomes and who lives or dies) also shape the epilogue and what happens to individual citizens and districts, even when the headline ending is the same.
• Count carefully. The thresholds are low. If you want the good ending, treat every embrace as one of only four you can afford.

Because Vampyr leans on autosaves, the practical way to see other outcomes is a second playthrough. If you want to experiment, back up your save folder before a big decision.

Walkthrough Advice (Spoiler-Light)

• Early game: explore Pembroke Hospital thoroughly, meet every citizen and heal everyone you can. Unlock hints before you consider feeding.
• Whitechapel and the Docks: the city opens up. Keep district health up and stock medicine.
• Mid game: your Mesmerise level rises with the story. Decide early whether you'll feed and on whom (many players choose citizens with clearly awful backgrounds after learning their hints).
• West End: a wealthier, political district with major story beats.
• Late game: bosses get tougher; save your best consumables and skill points for them.

PC Settings and Update History

Vampyr received three post-launch updates in 2018 and none since. Features worth knowing:

Update | Date | What it changed for players

First update | July 2, 2018 | Walk can be held or toggled; switching lock-on targets with the mouse wheel; fixes for several stuck quests and dialogue locks

Second update | July 26, 2018 | Camera can move during dialogue (WASD); reworked Auto-Lock targeting option; excess serums and ammo go to the stash and refill your stock on death; performance fixes

Third update | September 26, 2018 | Story Mode and Hard Mode, optimisation fixes, Nvidia Ansel screenshots on PC

Targeting tip: with Auto-Lock set to On, the mouse can switch targets unless that binding is already used (default: mouse wheel up/down); with it Off, only the dedicated switch-target binding works. If lock-on feels erratic with a mouse, try the other setting.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Feeding before learning hints. You lose XP and story options.
• Ignoring sick citizens. District health collapses faster than you'd expect.
• Resting without preparing. Each rest can make citizens ill or unlock consequences.
• Neglecting upgrades. Weapons fall behind enemy scaling quickly; keep upgrading.
• Spending blood carelessly. Plan skill use around how you'll refill blood.
• Assuming all embraces are "free". Relatives and district services can be lost.

Advanced Tips

• Mesmerise the right target at the right time. A citizen may only be available at certain times or places.
• Stack hint bonuses. Cure illnesses and unlock hints to maximise the XP of any embrace.
• Use a blood-absorbing weapon to keep your blood skills rolling without biting.
• Level Claws or Coagulation early for sustain on Normal and Hard.
• For a no-embrace run, clear every optional fight for XP, finish all investigations, and pick Story Mode if combat walls you.
• Watch district readouts before the final chapters to avoid losing a district right before the end.

FAQ

Can you beat Vampyr without killing anyone? Yes. It's intentionally hard on Normal because you'll be underleveled; Story Mode makes it much more approachable.

How many endings are there? Four, based mainly on how many citizens you embrace and on final choices involving Lady Ashbury.

What happens if a district becomes hostile? Citizens vanish, more enemies appear, and you can lose shops and quests there.

Why does embracing sick citizens give less XP? Blood quality depends on health. Cure them first for more XP.

When do I level up? Only when you rest at a hideout; XP earned is spent on skills there.

What was added in the difficulty update? Story Mode and Hard Mode (September 26, 2018), plus optimisation fixes and Nvidia Ansel support on PC.

Sources

• Vampyr on Steam
• Vampyr Steam news (updates and difficulty modes)
• Vampyr on Wikipedia
• Vampyr Wiki (Fextralife): Skills
• Vampyr Wiki (Fextralife): Weapons