How to defeat The Directer in Vampire Survivors

While you may, understandably, have been expecting a vampire as the final boss of Vampire Survivors, the game throws one last curveball with its choice of final foe, letting the mysterious Directer step out into the spotlight. The master manipulator behind many of the game’s events, you’ll recognize his grasping yellow hands at once. If you’re ready to get your revenge, read on to learn how to defeat The Directer in Vampire Survivors and earn the weapon, Greatest Jubilee.

Vampire Survivors: Squaring up to The Directer and earning the Greatest Jubilee

Setup: The mysteries of Eudaimonia Machine

You’ll face off against The Directer in Eudaimonia Machine, a unique stage unlocked after clearing Capella Magna that changes the first few times you visit it. Initially, the stage will be empty other than The Directer. Approach him and he’ll ask you a question, which you can either answer with “Too Easy” or “Too Hard.” The former answer will award you with the Gracia’s Mirror Relic, while the latter will grant you the Seventh Trumpet.

Both of these Relics unlock additional modes: Inverse Mode and Endless Mode. After receiving one, enter a stage with the mode it unlocks enabled, then exit. Eudaimonia Machine will be available again, letting you enter and claim the Relic you didn’t choose last time. Repeat this process again, and you’ll be able to challenge The Directer to a battle. Simply walk into him, skip through his garbled dialogue, and the battle will begin.

It’s worth noting that all of your Relics, Golden Eggs, and Arcana cards are stolen at the start of this stage, which prevents you from using them against The Directer. The stage also has no opportunities for evolving weapons, so your best bet is to pick a character with a strong standalone weapon, like Queen Sigma or Dommario.

How to defeat The Directer in Vampire Survivors – Phase one

Now we come to the battle proper. In this opening phase, The Directer will move back and forth, occasionally tossing Golden Eggs at you, while small swarms of enemies approach from the edges of the screen. He’s not much of a threat in this first phase, so focus on getting some early levels in and improving your starting weapon. Experience is at a premium here, so we’d recommend maxing your weapon out before investing in any passive items, though of course the hands of fate aren’t always kind enough to let you do so.

Once you’re happy with your weapon, you can get to work on The Directer himself. Your goal here is to destroy the different masks revolving around him, which can be done over time with most weapons. This may require that you get in close, so keep a careful eye on his movement to avoid taking damage from him.

After some time has passed, the background will change and The Directer’s hands will appear on the right-hand side of the screen, where they’ll both throw Golden Eggs at you. When this happens, you’ll need to start keeping track of both sides, as well as the enemies in the stage, to avoid taking damage as you wear him down. Once all the masks have been destroyed, phase two of the battle will begin.

How to defeat The Directer in Vampire Survivors – Phase two

This is where things get intense. Now wreathed in skulls instead of masks, The Directer will start creating continuous damage zones, telegraphed in advance by red bars on the screen and warning sounds, which you need to avoid at all costs. These are generally horizontal, leaving you with a small area in the middle of the screen where you can move left and right. Swarms of eyeball enemies will also spawn in continuously during this phase.

The best strategy here is to move left continuously, as this will let you avoid the eyeball swarms, as well as the arcing projectiles The Directer launches periodically. If you have any Revives left in this phase, The Directer’s yellow hand will drag a White Hand onto you for an instant kill, and repeat this until you have no Revives left. Just push through it, and keep moving left, and eventually you’ll deal enough damage to the skulls surrounding The Directer to destroy them, triggering phase three.

How to defeat The Directer in Vampire Survivors – Phase three

This final phase is more of a formality than anything else. The Directer will spawn in a horde of Red Death enemies to attack you, but thankfully they’re much weaker than their normal stage counterparts, so you can just push on through them and keep pressure on The Directer himself. That’s really all there is to this phase: keep moving, keep dealing damage to The Directer, and you should be able to defeat him without taking much damage yourself, thus putting the final nail in Vampire Survivors’ coffin.

Your rewards

Once you’ve defeated The Directer, you’ll be treated to one of Vampire Survivors’ greatest visual spectacles. The screen will be covered in experience gems and Gold, and you’ll rack up huge amounts of both. (Around 200,000 Gold in fact.) You’ll see many pairs of yellow hands around the edges of the screen, clapping you into the credits with gusto. In addition to the Gold rewards, and the feeling of personal satisfaction, defeating The Directer in Vampire Survivors will also unlock the Greatest Jubilee, an interesting firework-based weapon that has a small chance to spawn in extra light sources for you.

Now that you know how to defeat The Directer in Vampire Survivors, you can roll the credits on one of the biggest surprise hits of the last few years in gaming.

Related: Vampire Survivors Collections Guide 146/146 on Prima Games