One of the less talked about additions to Vampire Survivors is the ability for players to change a character's appearance. Many of the characters have alternate skins the player can switch. As with all things Vampire Survivors, this needs to be unlocked first, but this guide will help players unlock this feature.
Long-time players of Vampire Survivors will probably have this ability unlocked; it's entirely possible for players to do this without even being aware. Beginning players have a few hours of playing ahead of them before they unlock this new feature. This guide will also include how to change skins once the feature is unlocked, as doing this is not something the game makes clear.
Mindbender
Unlocking the ability to change a character's appearance requires obtaining the Mindbender relic. This is one of the harder relics to acquire in the game. It's not as simple as finding a coffin, getting a character to a certain level, or surviving a set amount of time in a certain stage. No, the player is awarded the Mindbender after filling 50 entries in the game's Collection. The items in the collection are the weapons, relics, arcanas, passive items, and pick-up items found in the game. This is basically a list of all the items the player has unlocked.
New players should start with the simple items to unlock. There are several weapons in the game that are unlocked by default. Collect these weapons on a run to add them to the Collection. Unlocking a new character, and then using them on a run, is another means to fill entries in the Collection. Pick-up items are easy to collect during a run; these are the items dropped after destroying a light source (like the candles in the Inlaid Library). A higher Luck gives the player a better chance of getting better pick-up items.
Changing Character Skins
Once the player has obtained the Mindbender and unlocked the ability to change character skins, they can do so in the character select screen. All the standard (non-secret) characters except Mortaccio, Cavallo, Ramba, O'Sole, Ambrojoe, Divano, and Gallo have an alternate appearance. Krochi is the only character with two available skins. Only one of the secret characters, Red Death, has an alternate form. It is unknown if any other characters will be given a new skin, but with the amount of new content periodically added to Vampire Survivors it is entirely possible.
As stated above, the character select screen is where players can change a character's skin. Clicking on one of the characters puts their portrait at the bottom of the screen. The characters with available skins will have two tiny boxes under their picture; Krochi has three. One box is white, the other is black. These can be hard to see, as they tend to blend in with the character's portrait. By clicking on the portrait at the bottom of the screen the character can change that character's skin; doing this will cause the white box to turn black and visa-versa. This change remains until the player manually changes the skin back to the original.
Vampire Survivors was released on Dec. 17th, 2021, for the PC and macOS.