Warhammer Survivors only launched on November 10, 2026, and it has already muscled its way into Steam’s top sellers. That is no small feat for a $7.99 game. If you have just picked it up, or you are still deciding, this Warhammer Survivors beginner’s guide will get you through your first runs without the painful trial and error most new players go through. I have pulled together the systems that actually matter: how evolutions work, which weapons and champions to start with, and how the gold grind really pays off.
What Is Warhammer Survivors?
Warhammer Survivors is a bullet-heaven roguelite from Auroch Digital, the studio behind Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, made in partnership with poncle, the team behind Vampire Survivors. That partnership tells you almost everything you need to know. You pick a champion, your weapons fire automatically, and you steer through endless waves of enemies while grabbing experience, levelling up, and building a screen-clearing loadout. Death is not the end. It is the plan. Every run earns gold that makes your next run stronger.
The twist is that it is two games in one. You choose between the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the Age of Sigmar universe before each run, and each side has its own champions, weapons, stages, and enemies. On the 40K side you will cut through Tyranid swarms, Orks, and the Death Guard. On the Age of Sigmar side, Skaven hordes, the Gloomspite Gitz, and the Blades of Khorne are waiting for you. Across both, there are more than 40 playable champions and over 75 weapons to find. It launched on PC (Steam and GOG), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and mobile, and it is on Xbox Game Pass from day one. It is also Steam Deck Verified, which matters more than it sounds. This is exactly the kind of game you play in short bursts on the couch.
How to Play Warhammer Survivors: The Basics
If you have played Vampire Survivors, the loop will feel familiar within about thirty seconds. If you have not, here is the whole game in a paragraph. You move with the left stick or WASD. Your weapons fire on their own, so your job is positioning: keep moving, herd enemies into your damage zones, and sweep up the experience gems enemies drop when they die. Level up and you get to choose a new weapon or a passive upgrade. Survive as long as you can, and when the run ends, and it will end, you keep the gold you earned.
A few things that are easy to miss in your first runs. First, movement speed is a survival stat, not a luxury. If you cannot outrun the swarm, your weapons do not matter. Second, break things. Crates and scenery drop gold and pick-ups, and the gold is what funds your permanent progression. Third, look for the glowing Warhammer paint pots on the battlefield. They unlock new character forms and secrets, and they are the difference between a roster of three champions and a roster of forty. Finally, do not stand still to admire your build. The horde never stops coming, and standing in one place is how a good run ends at minute twelve.
How to Evolve Weapons in Warhammer Survivors
This is the single most important question new players Google, and it is the system that separates a run that dies at minute fifteen from one that melts the boss at minute thirty. Evolving a weapon turns it into a much stronger version with a new name, new effects, and usually a huge area of effect. There are 38 evolution paths across the two universes, and the rules are the same for almost all of them.
To evolve a weapon, you need three things. First, upgrade the weapon itself to its maximum level. Usually level 8, although a few weapons cap out earlier. Second, have the matching passive item in your inventory. Third, open a chest. Chests drop from mini-bosses, the enemies marked with a distinct green outline, so keep an eye out for them and prioritise killing them. Once all three conditions are met, the evolved weapon appears when you open a chest. Your passive item is never consumed, so you keep its bonus afterwards. A handful of evolutions also need the passive fully upgraded first, so check your build before you commit.
Here are the beginner-friendly evolutions worth learning first, because they use starting weapons and simple pairings:
- Chainsword + Tape Measure → Eviscerator Chainsword. Start with Malum Caedo, grab the Tape Measure passive when it appears, and you have a wide, bleeding melee arc that carries the early game.
- Lasgun + Gauntlet → Meltagun. A great pick for Trooper Bartosz Kozlowski. The Lasgun is already strong thanks to its squad scaling, and the Meltagun turns it into a proper horde shredder.
- Tempest Axes + Sabaton → Whirlwind Axes. Neave Blacktalon’s starting weapon evolves into constant spinning area damage. If you like holding a position and letting the axes do the work, this is your build.
- Poisoned Throwing Knives + Gauntlet → Bladed Vortex. One of the strongest early-game evolutions in the Age of Sigmar side. The blades inflict poison and bleeding, and they leave behind pools that keep damaging bosses and crowds.
- Heavy Bolter Fidelis → Purgator Mirabilis. Morvenn Vahl’s starting weapon evolves into a missile barrage that clears whole screens and melts stage bosses in seconds.
The golden rule: finish a build instead of collecting ideas. Pick two or three weapons, max them out, and get their evolutions. A run with two evolved weapons will always beat a run with six half-levelled ones. You can track everything you have unlocked in the Armoury, which itself is unlocked by finding the Warscroll relic in the Skrappa Spill stage.
What Are the Best Weapons in Warhammer Survivors?
With more than 75 weapons in the game, “best” depends on your champion and the stage, but a few patterns hold up across the whole roster. The Chainsword is the best learning weapon in the game. It needs no setup, hits multiple enemies, and teaches you the core loop, move, herd, swing, without punishing you for a fragile gimmick. The Lasgun is the best long-term investment, because its follower-scaling turns your squad of Cadian shock troopers into a firing line that shreds elite packs while you kite. The Tempest Axes are the most forgiving area weapon, with constant coverage around you. And the pot of Nuln Oil, the joke weapon that is literally a tin of Warhammer paint, is secretly one of the highest-ceiling picks: pair it with the Hourglass passive and it slows and damages whole swarms.
For boss fights, which kick off around the 25-minute mark on certain stages, you want single-target damage. The evolved Heavy Bolter is the classic boss melter, and the Bolt Pistol’s evolution is worth chasing if bosses are the wall you keep hitting. Its critical-hit potential chews through high-health targets before they can box you in. Whatever you pick, crowd control beats raw damage when things get desperate. A weapon that slows or pushes enemies back is a defensive tool, and on a crowded screen that is worth more than another few points of damage.
Best Character for Beginners in Warhammer Survivors
The roster is huge, but your first few runs should start with one of these four. They all have a complete damage pattern from the first minute and a clear evolution to aim for, which is exactly what a beginner needs.
Malum Caedo is the cleanest first-run champion in the game. The Boltgun hero from Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun starts with the Chainsword, and his whole kit is about getting into the middle of the swarm and staying there. If you are new to the genre, start here. Neave Blacktalon, the Stormcast Eternal from the Age of Sigmar side, is the other half of the demo’s starting pair. Her Tempest Axes give you constant area coverage, and the evolution path into Whirlwind Axes is one of the most direct in the game.
Trooper Bartosz Kozlowski is the pick once you understand the follower system. His Lasgun scales with the squad around him, and if the follower system clicks for you, his damage ramps up in a way few other champions can match. High Abbess Morvenn Vahl is the boss-killer. She pilots an armoured Paragon Warsuit with built-in damage reduction, and her Heavy Bolter Fidelis evolves into the Purgator Mirabilis. She is slightly harder to play well, but if you want to beat a stage boss, she is the fastest route.
How to Unlock Characters in Warhammer Survivors
New champions are unlocked with gold between runs, and a few are hidden behind specific challenges, so the roster grows naturally as you play. Spend your early gold on the permanent stat upgrades first, damage, health, and movement speed, and then start buying champions. The cheap unlocks come quickly, and each new champion brings a new starting weapon, which in turn unlocks new evolution paths.
Some champions need a little more legwork. Maleneth Witchblade, for example, is unlocked by finding a paint pot in The Great Parch, the first Age of Sigmar stage. Survive ten minutes with her and you will unlock the Poisoned Throwing Knives, which evolve into the Bladed Vortex mentioned above. There is also a secret character, Major Docheval, who starts with the Long-Fusil. A weapon that does not follow the normal evolution rules at all. Keep an eye on the paint pots and relics in each stage, because the unlocks hidden in the world are usually the most interesting ones.
How to Farm Gold Fast in Warhammer Survivors
Gold is the game’s most important resource, and the grind for it is the real meta-game. Everything you earn in a run feeds into the paint pot system, the permanent progression tree that boosts your damage, health, and movement speed for every future run. The fastest way to farm gold is simple: survive longer. Gold drops scale with the enemies you kill, and the late-game waves drop far more than the first five minutes do. A 25-minute run earns dramatically more than three 8-minute runs.
That said, a few habits speed things up. Break every crate and barrel you pass. They hide gold and pick-ups. Grab the magnet-style pick-ups whenever they appear, because a pile of uncollected gems and coins is wasted income. Prioritise the gold and economy upgrades in the paint pot system early, before you start spending on champions. It feels boring, but those permanent stat boosts make every later run longer, and longer runs earn more gold. It is a snowball, and the first few pushes matter most. If you are struggling to get past minute ten, spend a run or two farming the early stages with your best champion instead of pushing a new one. A stronger base makes everything else easier.
Beginner Mistakes to Avoid
Most failed runs in Warhammer Survivors come down to the same handful of mistakes, and all of them are fixable. First, do not spread your upgrades across six weapons. Max two or three and evolve them. Second, do not ignore the green-outlined mini-bosses. They drop the chests you need for evolutions, and skipping them is the number one reason players reach minute twenty with no evolved weapons. Third, do not forget the keyword system: if you pick up a weapon your champion cannot wield, an ally follower joins your squad to use it instead. Followers cannot take damage, so your squad quietly becomes a moving wall of firepower. Use that.
Fourth, respect the bosses. The big screen-filling fights, Ghazghkull Thraka, Vizzik Skour, the Great Unclean One, need the right champion and loadout, and walking into one with no evolved weapon is a short, sad story. Fifth, try the free demo before you buy, and know that demo progress does not carry over to the full game. That is a deliberate fresh start, not a bug. And finally, do not sleep on the two-universe structure. If the 40K stages feel too hard, switch to the Age of Sigmar side for a run or two. Different enemies, different weapons, same gold. Variety is not just fun here. It is a genuine strategy for finding the build that clicks for you.
Is Warhammer Survivors Worth It in 2026?
At $7.99, $7.19 with the launch discount running until November 17, this is one of the easiest recommendations of the year. You get two full campaigns, more than 40 champions, over 75 weapons, and the proven Vampire Survivors engine under the hood, all in a game that runs happily on a Steam Deck. Early Steam reviews sit at Mostly Positive, and the launch-week sales put it right behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Phantom Blade Zero on Steam’s top sellers. It is not perfect, the boss fights can feel harsh and some evolutions are hidden behind systems the game never explains, but for the price of a sandwich, the amount of game here is genuinely silly. If you like the survivors genre at all, buy it. If you have never tried one, the free demo is still up on Steam, and it is the best possible way to find out whether the loop hooks you.
Warhammer Survivors FAQ
How do you evolve weapons in Warhammer Survivors? Max the weapon to its highest level (usually level 8), hold its matching passive item, then open a chest dropped by a green-outlined mini-boss. The evolved weapon replaces the original, and the passive stays in your inventory.
What is the best weapon in Warhammer Survivors for beginners? The Chainsword is the easiest to learn, the Lasgun scales best into the late game thanks to its follower squad, and the Tempest Axes give the most forgiving area coverage. Any of the three is a fine first pick.
How do you unlock new characters in Warhammer Survivors? Most champions are bought with gold earned in runs, while a few are unlocked by finding paint pots and relics in stages, like Maleneth Witchblade in The Great Parch, or by completing secret objectives.
Warhammer Survivors is the rare launch-week hit that is easy to recommend and easy to get good at. Learn the evolution recipes, spend your gold on the permanent upgrades first, and give Malum Caedo or Neave Blacktalon a few runs before you judge the game. The first time your evolved weapon clears an entire screen, you will understand why this little $7.99 game is sitting near the top of the Steam charts. For more beginner guides in the same vein, check out our Battlefield 6 beginner’s guide and our Deadlock beginner’s guide, and if extraction shooters are more your speed, our ARC Raiders best settings and beginner tips guide covers another of this month’s biggest launches. You can also read the full weapon evolution list on KeenGamer or check the game out on Steam.
