Vampire Class: 600 Diamonds for Lifesteal on Any Melee Weapon — and a Blood Meter Nobody Can Agree On

The Vampire is the class for players who want to stop buying Medkits. It is 600 Diamonds, it arrives with a Vampire Scythe and a Vampire Cloak, and from Level 1 onward it turns melee hits into health — on any melee weapon, not just the scythe it hands you.

This page is about the parts of the Vampire that the weapon guides leave out: what the level counters actually cost in swings, why the published numbers imply a lifesteal percentage nobody publishes, and one question that decides whether this class has a floor or a ceiling.

At a Glance

The one-line version: the Vampire is not a glass cannon and not a support class. It is a melee class whose entire defensive kit is "keep swinging" — which makes it one of the strongest classes in the game for a player who enjoys melee, and one of the hardest for a player who does not. PC Gamer puts it plainly: good for solo and co-op, "but incredibly difficult for players uncomfortable with melee combat."

The Starter Armour Is Below Iron — Which Is the Good News

Every source agrees the Vampire spawns with a Vampire Cloak. Almost every source also agrees, on this site at least, that the Vampire Cloak is weaker than the Iron Body — roughly Leather-tier protection, sitting one rung below the Iron Body on the armour ladder described in our Iron Body and Thorn Body pages.

At first glance that looks like a flaw in a 600-Diamond purchase. It is the opposite.

The game's armour rule, which the fandom wiki and rblxguide both state and which this site uses throughout the armour pages: once a piece of armour is equipped it cannot be unequipped — not even by dying and reviving — and it can only be swapped for a strictly better piece. Applied to classes, the consequences are:

• A Brawler spawns in a Leather Body, the weakest armour in the game. That sounds like a handicap, but it is the cheapest possible starting state: there is nothing to un-equip and nothing locking them out of a better piece.
• A Cyborg spawns in an Alien Armour that the Thorn Body outranks, so they are committed for the run unless they craft upward.
• A Vampire spawns in a Vampire Cloak that the Iron Body also outranks — so, like the Brawler, they start in a state that costs them nothing and blocks nothing.

So buying the Vampire does not trap you in weak armour. It is only a trap in one specific case, and that case is the next section.

The Blood Meter: Three Published Numbers and an Owner Nobody Names

The Vampire does not heal per hit. It banks healing: you keep landing melee hits, a meter fills, and when it tops out it pays out in one chunk. Every source agrees on the shape. None of them agree on the size, or on what is holding the meter.

Three numbers, and a fourth split: the scythe page attaches the meter to the weapon, the thorn-body page attaches it to the armour, and the wiki attaches it to a third thing entirely. What all three agree on is the behaviour that matters — the heal arrives in a lump, not a trickle, so the Vampire is built around disengaging with a full bar rather than topping up continuously.

The question this leaves open, and it is a big one: if the blood meter lives on the cloak, then the moment you upgrade to an Iron Body — which is exactly what the armour rule tells you to do — your healing may quietly disappear along with the armour. If it lives on the class, an Iron Body costs you nothing.

No source we can find states which it is. We are not going to pick one and present it as fact, because the difference between "upgrade your armour" and "upgrade your armour and lose your sustain" is the difference between a good class and a trap class. What we can say is that the two readings are both compatible with everything published so far, and that a Vampire who swaps into an Iron Body and finds the healing gone has not done anything wrong.

Note also that the Iron Body is the standard mid-run target for most players, and it is reachable from the Pelt Trader's fourth rung. If you are going to be a Vampire long-term, establish which of these is true before you spend a Bear Pelt.

How the Levels Actually Tick: Two Counters, One of Them Arithmetic

Every level past the first requires two things at once — a healing counter and a damage counter. That is easy to skim past and worth reading properly, because the two counters are not independent.

Level 2 needs 450 HP healed and 5,000 damage dealt. Level 3 needs 1,000 HP healed (or 900) and 10,000 or 15,000 damage dealt. The healing counter is a percentage of damage dealt — that is what lifesteal means — so the question "which counter finishes first?" is really "what percentage is the lifesteal?"

Our reading of the published pairs:

Two things follow. First, the heal counter is a fixed fraction of the damage counter at every level, which is exactly what you would expect if a single hidden percentage drives it. Second, that fraction lands at 9–10%, and nobody publishes the number. Which brings us back to the Assassin: on that class we could show that its critical-hit chance is not published anywhere and refused to invent it. The same rule applies here. The 6.7% row is the odd one out, and it is the most-published Level 3 row — worth knowing when you read a tier list written from it.

What the damage counter costs in swings. The Vampire Scythe does 45 damage on a 0.7-second swing. Taking those two published numbers:

• 10,000 damage = about 222 swings = about 2.6 minutes of continuous, uninterrupted, every-swing-hits melee.
• 15,000 damage = about 333 swings = about 3.9 minutes of the same.

That is our arithmetic on published figures, not a sourced claim, and it assumes every swing connects against one target with no misses and no interruptions. Even so, the conclusion is durable: the damage requirement is a few minutes of work, not a wall. The wall is that all of it has to be you, melee, while you are standing still enough to swing — and the healing counter is a fixed multiple of the same damage.

Where Sources Disagree

Level 3 damage: 10,000 vs 15,000. PC Gamer and 99-nights-in-the-forest.com give 10,000. The wiki, Sportskeeda and Spot.Monster give 15,000. That is an even 2:2 split, so we publish both and do not choose. It is not a cosmetic difference: at 10,000 the Level 3 requirement is a little over two minutes of scythe swings; at 15,000 it is nearly four.

Level 3 healing: 1,000 vs 900. Four sources give 1,000 and one gives 900. On a straight count that looks settled, but see the table above — it is the 900 figure that sits at a clean 9%, the same fraction the Level 2 pair implies, which makes it the internally consistent number even though it is the minority one. We are not adopting it. We are pointing out that counting sources and checking ratios give different answers here, and the honest position is that the Level 3 healing requirement is not established.

The lifesteal percentage. Not published by any source we can verify. Every guide says the Vampire heals; none says how much per hit.

Night speed. "Run faster at night" is agreed, the percentage is not published by any source. Do not borrow the Assassin's +10% — that number belongs to a different class.

A source we do not use, and why. The wiki at 99nightsintheforest.wiki publishes a large stack of Vampire mechanics as "hidden requirements" and data-mined stats: 5–8% lifesteal at Level 0, 12–15% at Level 3, a Blood Well, +20% walk speed and +10% attack speed at night, a "Red Outline" that shows enemies through trees, an over-heal shield of 50 damage, half-speed health regen during the day, +10% damage against Entities, and a Blood Amulet. None of it has a second source, three of those numbers contradict the figures the same page publishes in its own table, and one of its "requirements" (10,000 melee damage for Level 2) contradicts its own stated Level 2 requirement of 5,000 on the same page. We list it here rather than silently ignoring it, because its numbers are the ones that float around tier-list comments. None of it appears in this article as fact.

Vampire vs Necromancer: the Two 600-Diamond Sustain Classes

At 600 Diamonds you are choosing between the Vampire and the Necromancer, and our own best class by role page puts both of them in the slot it calls "sustain". They are not the same purchase, and the Necromancer page has its own version of this comparison.

If you are playing solo, the Vampire is the more reliable of the two, because its sustain depends only on your own hands. If you are on a large camp that already clears the map, the Necromancer is the one that takes pressure off everyone. The trade-off is the whole decision.

Is It Worth 600 Diamonds?

Tier lists split on this class, and the split falls exactly where you would expect — on whether the player fights in melee.

Compare that with the Necromancer, which five published 2026 tier lists all put in S — and note that the Vampire's disagreement is not about strength but about fit. PC Gamer's own verdict is the honest version of the argument: the Level 3 lifesteal "feels great, but doesn't mean you can charge into massive mobs and forgo kiting." The B-rank writers are describing a player who wants to be handed a class and play at range. The S-rank writers are describing a player who wants to be in the middle of a fight and stay there.

Our verdict: if you already like melee — if you are the one who runs at the cultists with a Morningstar — the Vampire is one of the best Diamonds you can spend, and the Level 1 perk means you can keep using whatever melee weapon you like rather than being pinned to the scythe. If you buy it hoping for a tanky ranged class, it will feel like a downgrade, and that is on the purchase, not the class.

Tips

• Your weapon is a choice, not the scythe. Level 1's lifesteal applies to any melee weapon, so take the Morningstar or the Infernal Sword if they suit you better. The Vampire Scythe is the starter, not the requirement.
• Disengage to bank the heal. Because the meter pays out in a lump rather than per hit, the value comes from backing off before it fills, spending the heal, and going back in. Running away mid-pursuit is the mistake.
• The first two nights are the weak part. Level 3 is where the healing gets meaningfully better; until then you are a melee class with a middling cloak. Do not judge the class on night 1.
• Kite anyway. PC Gamer's warning is not cosmetic: the sustain does not replace positioning, and it does nothing while you are dead.
• Sort out your armour early, not late. The permanent-armour rule means if an Iron Body is going to delete your blood meter, you will not find out by swapping at night 30.

Pros

• Lifesteal works on any melee weapon, so the class does not lock you into one weapon
• Free healing with no Medkit economy — saving you real coins over a long run
• Faster at night, plus sharper night vision at Level 2
• Excellent solo carry; one of the few classes that can hold a Stronghold push alone
• Permanent class — unlike event gear, the scythe and cloak are yours every run

Cons

• Ranged does nothing for you. No gun, no bow, no ranged lifesteal.
• Your defence is conditional on being in melee range, which is where the damage is
• The blood meter's size, owner and day/night behaviour are all unresolved
• You spawn with below-Iron armour, and the upgrade path may cost you your sustain
• Level 3 is the payoff, which means the early nights of the class are the weak ones

FAQ

What does the Vampire class cost? 600 Diamonds. It sits in the 600-Diamond tier alongside Cyborg, Pyromaniac, Big Game Hunter, Necromancer and the Gunslinger.

What do you spawn with? A Vampire Cloak ×1 and a Vampire Scythe ×1. That is the entire starter list.

Does the lifesteal only work with the scythe? No. Every source states it applies when attacking with any melee weapon. The scythe is what you start with.

What are the Level 2 and Level 3 requirements? Level 2: 450 HP healed through lifesteal plus 5,000 damage dealt. Level 3: 1,000 HP healed (or 900, per one source) plus 10,000 or 15,000 damage dealt depending on the source. Both counters must be filled.

How much do you heal per hit? Nobody publishes it. The published level requirements imply roughly 9–10%, but that is arithmetic on two counters, not a stated figure.

Can I take the Vampire Cloak off? No — armour cannot be unequipped once worn; you can only swap it for a strictly better piece. Iron Body, Alien Armour and Thorn Body all outrank the Cloak, so they can replace it. Whether that removes your blood meter is the question we cannot answer from published sources.

When was the Vampire added? 1 November 2025, in the Hedge Maze update (Halloween Part 3). The same update brought the Carnival mini-games and the Haunted Maze.

Is Vampire better than Necromancer? Different jobs. Vampire sustains you personally; Necromancer sustains through an army that depends on kills happening near you. Solo: Vampire. Big camp: Necromancer.

Sources

• 99-nights-in-the-forest.com wiki, classes list — starter tools and Level 3 healing requirement of 900
• PC Gamer, "All 99 Nights in the Forest classes" — Level 3 damage requirement of 10,000, class verdict
• Sportskeeda, Hedge Maze patch notes — release date and time, all perks and requirements
• Spot.Monster, Hedge Maze update guide — Level 3 requirements
• 99nightsintheforest.wiki — perk names and Level 2 / Level 3 requirement figures (see our disagreements section; other figures on this page were not used)
• Fandom wiki and rblxguide, via this site's armour pages — the permanent-armour rule
• Our own How to Get the Scythe page — Vampire Scythe damage and swing rate
• Our own Thorn Body and Iron Body pages — armour tier order

Related Pages

• All Classes — the Vampire at 600 Diamonds alongside every other class
• Best Class by Role — where the Vampire's sustain ranks, and what beats it for your job
• Necromancer — the other 600-Diamond sustain class, and the direct alternative
• How to Get the Scythe — the two scythes, and the Vampire Scythe's blood bar in full
• Iron Body — the upgrade that may or may not cost you your healing
• Thorn Body — the armour above the Vampire Cloak, and the meter question
• How to Get the Morningstar — the melee you might rather carry as a Vampire
• The Cultist — the strongest place a Vampire's sustain shows up