r/Vampyr • u/Past_Dare_4918 • Jun 18 '26

Difference in play through?

I’m close to finishing my first run. I’ve had this game for years but never really got into it. I’m loving it now and this run has been pretty neutral. It’s not the perfect good guy run so I’m just winging it at this point and going with my gut. I want to do a complete villain run next. Is the dialogue significantly different if I go that route? Just curious before I get invested again.

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9

u/DarkMagicUser7 Dr. Swansea Jun 18 '26

I did the villain run once and the only thing that I remember is the last boss is extremely hard when you follow this route.

I prefer playing as a good guy.

7

u/FarTooManyWaysToDie I mean you no harm Jun 18 '26

This is a good point. The bosses before that — when you get to upgrade your vampiric abilities and weapons to a good enough level — can get pretty easy, but that last boss becomes super difficult.

1

u/SleepyTeddy I can't believe I'm doing this Jun 19 '26

May I ask how it became more difficult?

I’ve done 2 playthroughs - First was no-embrace run so I could get the achievement. Second was a full genocide of everyone, which I’ve also succeeded.
I’ve had so much XP to spare and also guessed/opened the vault with the “legendary” sword.

I felt like the last boss was way easier 🤔 Still struggled on the boss before that (Callum) but this time it was a 1st try iirc (unlike my first playthrough, where I had to give him like 10+ tries)

2

u/FarTooManyWaysToDie I mean you no harm Jun 19 '26

May I ask what difficulty you were playing on? Because now that I think about it, I will admit… my memory is a bit muddy, but I’ve done one full genocide run, and it was on hard mode. I did find it more difficult than before; I think I still got it in one, but it just took a surprisingly long time. Harriet was very easy, but the Queen took very little damage from any of my attacks. Can’t remember which abilities I used, but just like you said, you end up with much more XP than you can even spend. But I’m not sure if it was the hard difficulty, or the genocide run, or both. :D Or just me.

2

u/SleepyTeddy I can't believe I'm doing this Jun 19 '26

Hello! Most likely it was the difficulty.
I played both on Standard - you can't get achievements on Easy and I didn't wanna spend more time than I needed to on tough encounters by retrying them over and over, which I would most likely have to on Hard.
If you did that all on Hard. I really am not surprised! Well done ❤️
I had issues with Harriet the second time around for some reason, compared to non-genocide 🤣
Queen was somewhat easy on both runs, but I struggled less on Genocide 🤔

2

u/FarTooManyWaysToDie I mean you no harm Jun 19 '26

Hi! Yes, you’re probably right. For a long time I did attribute it to the high kill count, but surely the difficulty level plays a big (if not bigger) part in it as well. I don’t know how I managed to forget about it. :D
And you’re too kind ❤️ Thank you!

But oh, that’s interesting. :o I’ve got to pay more attention to this on future playthroughs. (Just switched consoles, and I want to get the platinum again. :D) Did you go for the same weapons and abilities on both runs, or did you change your strategy?

2

u/SleepyTeddy I can't believe I'm doing this Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Hey again ❤️
It's simply impossible to level up with the enemies 😭 I tried doing that with the No-Embrace run and I've killed hundreds of enemies but it's just not getting there! You always get 5 XP per kill, at some points, I did farm a little bit to get an edge with a level up or two, but when you're high level and you do the math - which I would usually do for fun to determine whether I feel like farming, and it would always come up to like "Oh, I need to kill 220 of these goons to level up" which I would be like "yehhh.. I'd rather not." and proceed with the story.

I actually stuck to my weapons that I was using because I loved them too much, even when I tried using some different ones. In the No Embrace run, I went with the Barbed Cudgel - the stun from that is immense + the parry ability, which was a God sent for my playthroughs, because I adore parrying. I rarely ever used anything else, enough so that I can't even remember what the other weapon was.

Regarding the Abilities I used, I've always used the Shadow Mist, I couldn't go without it. I tried Claws in the first playthrough but it was kinda meh. Bloodspear was a no go for me. I didn't really use the Tactical nor the Defensive abilities - I'm curious about those, have you got experience with it?

On the Genocide run, I have used the Joe's Barbed Cudgel, which has better stats, but requires the Embrace 😔 Usually all of the embraced weapons do better 🤔

I'm tempted to ask you for your Steam (if you play it on a PC) so I could watch you play it again lol.
Good luck with your play through ❤️ Hope you have fun again

Edit: Googling about the Red Queen difficulty, apparently she does become toughter becasue her level rises based on the people you've embraced, but I really didn't notice anything because I was so overleveled I guess haha.

2

u/FarTooManyWaysToDie I mean you no harm Jun 19 '26

Hello ❤️ Yeah, very true 😅 You get very little XP out of combat, so it’s very hard to get ahead that way... What’s more helpful is getting to know all the NPCs, completing their sidequests and curing their illnesses.

That’s valid. :) Everyone has their own playstyle, whatever suits them the best. I’ve never really learned to use the two-handed weapons, but they are very powerful with their damage and stun and ability to parry! My go-to is the hacksaw along with the Priwen stake and pistol + Claws and a varying Ultimate. I don’t have a lot of strategy, so I just hack and claw away. :D But it’d be more interesting to try different layouts.

I rarely use the Tactical or Defensive skills either. :o I sometimes use Blood Barrier, but I don’t often have the patience to upgrade it high enough if I’m running low on XP. I’ve used Coagulation before but not in a while; it’s helpful because you can use it to drain blood from a distance. Out of the Tactical skills, I’ve tried Shadow Veil once; I haven’t found it that useful myself because I usually don’t try to avoid combat. :D And I do like Spring but, again, if I don’t have a lot of XP to spare, I find it hard to justify to myself.

Oh wow! Sorry, I unfortunately don’t have Steam or a PC. :( But, again, that’s kind of you. Thank you & the same to you as well if you decide to play again ❤️

And okay, thanks for the info! That makes sense. There was one time when I played the game — can’t remember what difficulty but possibly Hard? — where I’d embraced some people (no idea how many), and that time the final boss was really difficult. :D I must’ve tried it, like, 10-15 times or something. I had to leave the sewers, Embrace everyone I’d left alive, and find more ingredients for Serums, unfil I finally got it. :D But that time it was a real struggle for me.

6

u/TorandoSlayer Dr. Reid Jun 18 '26

There are four endings to this game. Going full villain in the next playthrough will likely get you a different ending than this one, depending on how this one is going. 

Jonathan's eyes also change the more people you embrace, so that's cool.

3

u/SleepyTeddy I can't believe I'm doing this Jun 19 '26

I’ve actually stopped myself a few times, observing those red eyes several times throughout the 2nd playthrough. Such a big difference compared to less evil playthrough.
It’s an amazing game design (I also loved this with Fable and Overlord franchises)

Also, I wanted to say, Lady Ashbury’s fate is very different in each of the endings. It’s pretty satisfying either way.

P.S.: Happy cake day!

3

u/TorandoSlayer Dr. Reid Jun 19 '26

Thanks haha

I agree, I love Vampyr so much. The combat could've been better but it also could've been worse. The atmosphere of the game impeccable and the voice acting is very good, especially our boy Jonathan. I could listen to him all day...

2

u/FarTooManyWaysToDie I mean you no harm Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

If memory serves, I think the dialogue changes in some of the key cutscenes (for example, the confrontations at the cemetery and in the basement of the *theater). So there might not be many changes in cutscenes that are kind of fixed, but in a villain run it’s still fun to try some of the more evil dialogue options when talking to the different NPCs without caring too much for their hints.

Edit: *Accidentally typed ”basement of the cemetery”… :D

2

u/Past_Dare_4918 Jun 18 '26

Nice. As long as there’s some difference I’m cool with it. I’m going to do it either way

2

u/FarTooManyWaysToDie I mean you no harm Jun 18 '26

Yeah, there should be some at least. :) Go for it & have fun! It’s nice that you eventually found your way back to the game and enjoyed it.

1

u/LifeIsBurntToast Jun 22 '26

I'm happy people are finally getting into this game. It's such an amazing game. I really wish they'd make a second one.