Vampires Live Abilities Guide !
Abilities Overview
Abilities are a very important part of Vampires Live and are used when Completing Missions or Fighting. As your character increases in level, more powerful abilities become available.
In Vampires Live, abilities are grouped into three categories:
- Physical
- Sensory
- Transformations
For example: If I have 3 clan members and 5 Physical, 2 Sensory and 7 Transformation Abilities then when fighting, my clan will only use 3 Physical, 2 Sensory and 3 Transformation Abilities. The extra abilities are NOT used.
Abilities have the following components:
- Attack: Used to calculate your Attack points when Attacking
- Defense: Used to calculate your Defense points when Defending
- Cost: Purchase Price (can be sold for 50% of cost)
- Upkeep: ** IMPORTANT ** The amount that it costs to maintain that ability per income cycle.
Abilities Strategy
The upkeep costs associated with abilities make them one of the most important strategic elements of the game. Deciding when to buy abilities and which abilities to buy can significantly impact your long term success in the game.
Upkeep versus Income
The primary purpose of building a large income stream is to enable the purchase and upkeep of abilities. However, most higher level abilities have an upkeep cost that directly reduces your income stream. This lost income can never be recovered and it occurs every income cycle which means that a total upkeep cost of 5,000 per income cycle would result in losing at least 120,000 per day in lost income. Upkeep costs are commonly calculated as a % of your income stream. I personally like to keep my upkeep at no more than 10-20% of my income - but this can vary depending on your playing style.
Slow Down - Build Income
If you find that upkeep costs are having a significant impact on your income, then it may be time to slow down your character leveling and allow your income to build. This problem will only get worse as you advance in level and the costs grow geometrically (and your opponents are much stronger). This problem is compounded when you realize that each level that your character advances would require you to purchase up to 15 additional abilities (5 of each) assuming you want to maximize your fighting potential.
Purchase Strategically
When deciding which ability to buy, you need to carefully consider the abilities Upkeep, Attack and Defense and whether it is even necessary to upgrade your abilities. Assuming you can afford to buy the ability, cost should not be a factor in your decision making as it is only a one time expenditure. Keeping in mind the reduction in income from upkeep, it does not always make sense to buy the best available abilities.
If you are winning most of your fights with your current abilities, then it may make more strategic sense to not increase your upkeep and allow your income to build at a faster rate.
Maximize Your Fighting Potential
Because the game allows each clan member (up to 5 per level) to use 1 of each ability type when fighting, you should always make sure that everyone has at least 1 ability from each category that can be utilized in a fight. It does not have to be the best available ability, but they should at least have something to fight with.
Attack and Defense
Each ability has an attack and defense score that is used to calculate the results of a fight. Only the attack score is used when you initiate an attack while only the defense score is used when you are attacked. If you are losing fights that you initiate, it may make sense to purchase abilities that increase your attack score in order to increase your chance of success. Conversely, if you are losing when you get attacked, you may want to increase the defensive point value of your abilities.
Doubling up on Abilities
If you look closely at the attack and defense values for the different abilities, you will find that some of them are more attack orientated or defense orientated. This means that you may find it makes sense to "double up" on certain abilities in order to maximize both your attack and defense potential. This makes strategic sense because the game automatically chooses the best available attack abilities when you are attacking and the best available defense abilities when you are defending.
For example, if I have 10 clan members and 10 Stealth (Atk 2, Def 2) plus 10 Thick Skin (Atk 1, Def 4) then when I attack, I will be utilizing the 10 Stealth because their attack value is greater than that of the Thick Skin (2>1). However, when I defend, I will automatically use the 10 Thick Skin because of their higher defense value (4>2).
It is important to remember that there is no "perfect" strategy for acquiring abilities. These are just guidelines that every player can adapt to fit their own playing style.
Abilities Table
The following is a complete list of all abilities available in Vampires Live including those that can be received as Loot for completing missions. Please note that promotional abilities are not included because they can not be acquired within the game.
| Category | Ability | Level | Cost | Upkeep | Attack | Defense |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | Fangs | 1 | 300 | 1 | 0 | |
| Physical | Sharp Claws | 1 | 700 | 1 | 1 | |
| Physical | Stealth | 2 | 1,000 | 2 | 2 | |
| Physical | Thick Skin | 4 | 1,500 | 1 | 4 | |
| Physical | Frenzied Strength | 5 | 2,000 | 3 | 3 | |
| Physical | Regeneration | 7 | 5,000 | 2 | 5 | |
| Physical | Infection | 10 | 12,000 | 500 | 6 | 4 |
| Physical | Ungodly Speed | 15 | 100,000 | 2,000 | 12 | 10 |
| Physical | Vampiric Flight | 20 | 150,000 | 3,000 | 8 | 19 |
| Physical | Consume Prey | 25 | 200,000 | 4,000 | 18 | 10 |
| Physical | Control Mind | 30 | 450,000 | 6,000 | 15 | 20 |
| Physical | Ungodly Strength | 38 | 650,000 | 10,000 | 22 | 18 |
| Physical | Rabid Fangs | 5 | Loot | 4 | 2 | |
| Physical | Berserk | 12 | Loot | 300 | 7 | 1 |
| Sensory | Sense Danger | 1 | 250 | 0 | 1 | |
| Sensory | Smell Prey | 1 | 800 | 1 | 1 | |
| Sensory | Unearthly Hearing | 3 | 1,800 | 0 | 4 | |
| Sensory | Unholy Reflexes | 6 | 6,000 | 500 | 3 | 4 |
| Sensory | Sense Prey | 9 | 15,000 | 1,000 | 4 | 7 |
| Sensory | Read Minds | 16 | 125,000 | 2,500 | 8 | 16 |
| Sensory | Unnatural Instinct | 23 | 300,000 | 5,000 | 14 | 15 |
| Sensory | Ungodly Senses | 32 | 600,000 | 8,000 | 17 | 19 |
| Sensory | Smell Fear | 8 | Loot | 200 | 3 | 3 |
| Transformations | Raven | 1 | 20,000 | 50 | 3 | 3 |
| Transformations | Beast | 1 | 40,000 | 100 | 4 | 5 |
| Transformations | Bat | 5 | 60,000 | 200 | 4 | 6 |
| Transformations | Shadow Form | 8 | 90,000 | 800 | 5 | 9 |
| Transformations | Ghoul | 17 | 400,000 | 2,000 | 10 | 12 |
| Transformations | Demon | 22 | 1,000,000 | 10,000 | 20 | 24 |
| Transformations | Necromancer | 31 | 2,000,000 | 30,000 | 28 | 26 |
| Transformations | Archfiend | 40 | 5,000,000 | 100,000 | 34 | 33 |
