Visions of Mana: How to beat the Vampire boss

Visions of Mana brings back a few familiar bosses, including Vampire, who is easily one of Secret of Mana’s most frustrating, tedious opponents. You must first fight this boss before you can battle the Benevodon of the Moon. This fight seemed to be full of bugs prior to its launch, but that issue is likely to get fixed. For me, Val got stuck in mid-air for about a quarter of the fight. He could attack, cast, and use items, but could not move.

Like Frost Gigas, Vampire is a boss who defends the Benevodon in their particular dungeon in Visions of Mana. Thankfully, although this boss fight can last for quite a while, the Vampire can be overcome. Here’s what you need to know about this battle.

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Tips for defeating the Vampire boss in Visions of Mana

Vampire is back in Visions of Mana, and he's just as annoying as ever! (Image via Square Enix)

Vampire is a Level 40 Demi-Human/Undead boss in Visions of Mana. It is weak to Light Magic, and completely immune to Lunar Magic and Darkness Magic. With that in mind, I went with a Level 41 party of Val, Palamena, and Julei (High Cleric). The first thing this boss is likely to do is summon a swarm of Level 40 enemies - typically Dark Batmos, Doom Sword, and Queen Succube.

To dispatch these, cast Holy Saber on your weapons and take them out. Vampire is also prone to flying high in the air and dive-bombing an AOE portion of the ground. However, there’s a decent amount of lead-up, which makes it easy to evade. Around 60% or so HP, he may start chaining these together, so keep on the move.

Stay on your guard if you see it charging up red energy, since it might use a horrible scream. If you’re caught in it, you take damage and are inflicted with Sleep. He’ll probably take the opportunity to swipe at you or do a free dive bomb onto your sleeping character.

Whether shrouded in darkness or not, you don't want to get Grabbed by the Ghoulies! (Image via Square Enix)

While Vampire has a mean combo attack both in the air and on the ground, that isn't what makes him such a dangerous and annoying boss to fight. He can shroud the arena in darkness, with the only clue to his location being his glowing red eyes. Then he introduces a change to his soundwave attack which comes in waves - a series of circles that you have to dodge. Sometimes he’ll cast it from the sky as well.

This is when Vampire starts lunging at a character. If he connects, he’ll drain a huge chunk of your health and add it back to his in the form of healing, making him one of the most annoying bosses in Visions of Mana. He’ll do this several times throughout the fight. If you don’t move in time, he’ll snatch your health. If you’re inflicted with Sleep, then he’ll do it without any kind of struggle.

As the Vampire fight goes on in Visions of Mana, his soundwave attacks will start moving faster as well, so you’ll have to stay on top of dodging between them to avoid Sleep. If you have an Ability Seed to equip for Anti-Sleep, this is the fight to do it in. Between summoning adds, status ailments, and life drain, this is one of the hardest fights in the game. Success grants you 6,000 Lucre, 35,850 EXP, and the Vampire Corestone.

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Visions of Mana releases on August 29, 2024 on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC platforms. You can learn more about it in our in-depth review.