‘Vampire Survivors’ and The Glory of Floor Chicken
Saying something meaningful about Vampire Survivors is surprisingly difficult given the sheer addiction that playing it brings. Spoken about in 2022 game of the year discussions, making it onto my own personal list, and becoming one of the highest rated Steam games, Vampire Survivors’ massive success has blown away both its creators and the gaming community. It’s the perfect Steam Deck game, which is why it translates readily to mobile devices, and somehow I’m still unlocking its secrets dozens of hours later. But the thing I want to talk about is but a tiny component in the overall well-oiled machine of Vampire Survivors – namely, Floor Chicken.
Floor Chicken is a cheeky reference to the Castlevania games, a series that I have never played, where the player character can break a wall and discover a “wall chicken” sitting on the floor. Apparently this wall chicken in the Castlevania games has become a meme within that fanbase, with a reference to it being snuck into the animated Castlevania show. The absurdity of unsanitary foods in video games is not unique to the Castlevania series, but given the subject matter in Vampire Survivors, Floor Chicken is obviously named to wink and nod at the retro vampire classic.
Lacking this context, I initially thought little of the Floor Chicken present in Vampire Survivors. Floor Chicken is an item that you can collect, as the name suggests, off the ground when running around in the various levels of Vampire Survivors. It functions as a consumable item that replenishes 30 health – one of the rare sources of health restoration for your chosen character in the game. With the exception of the health recovery powerup, you either have to rely on your ability to avoid and prevent damage, or else suffer a fatal end as the infinite hordes of Vampire Survivors’ enemies overtake you. The presence of Floor Chicken partially alleviates that health dynamic.
Since Floor Chicken only drops from light sources that your character destroys, they are functionally quite rare – especially in the early game. The game’s opening stage, Mad Forest, contains patches of torches where you can farm Floor Chicken. These drops are far from guaranteed, as your luck stat can greatly influence the drop rate of Floor Chicken. But you can visually identify safe zones as you move your character about the level, strategically choosing when to collect the Floor Chicken and when to save it for later.
Other levels, like the Inlaid Library, function in more of a corridor fashion than the open-ended directions of the Mad Forest. Therefore, you can pay attention to the time it takes between areas where there are destructible light sources that will yield Floor Chicken and plan accordingly. This level feels significantly different in how you strategize your use of Floor Chicken, and I tend to prefer this kind of level over the boundless expanses of levels in which you can head in any direction, for I am able to destroy entire rows of light sources before doubling back when I need a quick heal.
Of course, as you develop your abilities and power up your characters between rounds of Vampire Survivors stages, you will begin to last longer per stage, increasing your chances of reaching the 30 minute “stage cleared” threshold. For a period during the midgame, Floor Chicken becomes more of an afterthought. You can build your characters up with garlic to ward off enemies, adopt a laurel that will temporarily shield you from enemy damage, and level up your recovery to 0.5 HP per second. Suddenly, your build will keep you alive until hell breaks loose in the final few minutes leading up to the stage clear, and only in those last few minutes does Floor Chicken become tempting once again.
There’s also the other end of the spectrum, where you find yourself having maxed out all of your weapons and upgrades. You’ve set yourself up with massive damage that is so effective that you could practically idle your way through to victory, and now all of the gems you are collecting have been exhausted. Instead of upgrades, the game gives you the choice between gold and Floor Chicken. If you feel confident in the current build, gold becomes the obvious choice, for that resource carries over after the stage ends and you’ve died. But sometimes the Floor Chicken comes in clutch, bringing you up just enough to survive those last few seconds, scraping by.
Floor Chicken thus serves as an item that evolves in the same way as your character over time, and so different players will need it to differing degrees depending on their progress and playstyle. But there’s one additional wrinkle to Floor Chicken that brings it back into relevance: the addition of Arcana modifier cards. Arcana function in Vampire Survivors like randomizers, changing the way that core mechanics function – one of which is the Sarabande of Healing. The Sarabande of Healing effect reads, “Healing is doubled. Recovering HP damages nearby enemies for the same amount.” For Floor Chicken, this changes the game entirely.
Not only does Floor Chicken serve as a literal life saver in key parts of the early and late game of certain characters and stages, but it also becomes weaponized after this Arcana is unlocked. Suddenly, as a double-edged sword of healing and damage output, you can save your strategic Floor Chickens as area of effect attacks. It is not a fundamental game changer, but when near weaponized Floor Chicken, your movements can become a little more aggressive, especially around some of the minor, non-boss enemies approaching you in waves. Weaponized Floor Chicken has been the difference between stage clears in my experience. Luckily this Arcana does not damage the player, which you might expect given that, y’know, it came off the floor.
It is functionally a simple item, Floor Chicken, but like so many masterful elements of design in Vampire Survivors, Floor Chicken serves as a quintessential example of how every system in this game interlocks and mutually reinforces each other. Floor Chicken, like the weapons you upgrade and the coins you collect, isn’t simply a healing item; it is a dynamic resource that, if thoughtfully engaged with, can make the difference between a successful or failed stage clear. There isn’t a single component within Vampire Survivors that fails to meaningfully interact with multiple elements of the game, and that dynamism reflects the degree of thought and care that makes Vampire Survivors such a compelling experience to dump entire afternoons into.
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