Vampire Survivors Regen Tank Build — VI Sarabande + Pummarola Strategy

Build Concept

Use VI Sarabande of Healing (doubles healing + deals damage equal to healing to nearby enemies) as the spine. Stack regen passives until "just walking" melts enemies. Damage taken becomes an attack opportunity — a unique scaling system unlocks.

Recommended Character: Zi'Assunta Belpaese

She has a +1 Recovery passive and an ability that spawns extra chests. As an evolution character with stacked regen passives, she's the textbook pick. Alternates: Pieter Moonspell (+50% HP, +0.5 Recovery) or Suor Clerici (+1 Armor, +30 HP).

Build Overview

Weapon	Role	Evolution Material
Soul Eater (Garlic evolution)	Contact lifesteal damage	Pummarola
Thousand Edge (Knife evolution)	Main DPS	Bracer
Unholy Vespers (King Bible evolution)	Surround control	Spellbinder
Pummarola	+0.2/s Recovery	(passive)
Crown	+0.1s i-frames	(passive)
Hollow Heart	+10% Max HP	(passive)

Stacking Healing Sources

Source	Effect	Pickup Timing
Pummarola	+0.2/s Recovery (max +1.6/s)	Earliest priority
Crown	Armor + i-frames	Mid-run
Hollow Heart	+10% Max HP, more healing	Mid-run
Silver Ring	Boost Might + healing-related stats	Late
Food	Instant HP + VI effect damage	Throughout

VI Sarabande doubles all healing, so every source above effectively doubles. Max-Pummarola alone gives +3.2/s auto-regen, melting trash mobs continuously.

Arcana Pick Order

Time	Arcana	Role
0:00	VI Sarabande of Healing	Foundation: heal-to-damage conversion
11:00	III Hidden Anathema (Darkana)	Food gives cumulative stats — doubles regen sources
21:00	XXI Wandering the Jet Black (Darkana)	Adds explosions scaled by total healing

The XXI Darkana directly converts cumulative healing into damage, making it almost unfairly synergistic with this build.

Game Plan

Early (0:00-10:00) — Healing Foundation

Take Garlic and Knife as priority
Max Pummarola, Crown, Hollow Heart
Pick up food even at full HP — VI converts the wasted healing into damage

Mid (10:00-20:00) — Evolutions and Stacking

Soul Eater (Garlic + Pummarola)
Thousand Edge (Knife + Bracer)
Unholy Vespers for area control
III Darkana doubles food value

Late (20:00-30:00) — Crush Phase

XXI Darkana adds explosion damage
Zi'Assunta's extra chests bring more evolutions
Just walk around in the middle — Red Death dies automatically

Recommended Stages

Mad Forest or Dairy Plant are textbook. Dairy Plant has plentiful food (milk), maximizing III Darkana synergy.

Warnings

Garlic before Knife: contact lifesteal seeds the regen loop
Pick up food at full HP: VI converts it to damage anyway
Don't over-stack Armor: the build relies on damage-taken loops; reducing damage taken to zero kills your scaling