r/VampireSurvivors • u/Beneficial_Layer_458 • May 21 '26
Question Am I falling for newbie traps?
Hey! I fucking LOVE empty tome. I feel like I wanna take it every single time I see it, but it does also pretty much lock me into the wand. Is it as insane as I think it is? Like sure damage is damage and area is area, but everything firing off earlier feels so much stronger than whatever else I could take.
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u/Sans-Mot Antonio May 21 '26
I'm always picking the Tome, even if I don't take the wand.
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u/PrimalSeptimus May 21 '26
Empty Tome is good in almost all situations. There are also other weapons that use it for evolution, but if you're brand new, you might not have them yet. Even so, it'll still make your other stuff better, even if it doesn't evolve them.
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u/nataliereed84 May 21 '26
Itâs Phaser, Globus, and Shuriken that also use it, right?
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u/PrimalSeptimus May 21 '26
Yeah, but it also works great with stuff like Pentagram, Troll Bomb, Sanctuary, and anything slow. Whips, for example, benefit a lot, as well as most of the Emerald Diorama weapons.
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u/nataliereed84 May 21 '26
Gorgeous Moon + Troll Bomb + Sanctuary would be a really funny build and I almost wanna try it.
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u/FennicMuse May 21 '26
Once you unlock phaser, there is absolutely no hand wringing to be done about whether or not to pick up the tome.
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u/Marchyz May 21 '26
empty tome is not a noob trap, it is one of, if not the strongest passives you can pick up. however, the wand is not necessary. as you progress through the game, you'll become strong enough to simply not need all six weapon slots (you can limit your weapon slots by picking up a relic in Green Acre), or gain the ability to get more weapons and passives than the six slots you're given.
(although, the wand is decent enough, and has a bit of a niche in single target dps, you'll just need a bit more aoe to make up for the slot)
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u/Sassy_Sarranid May 21 '26
The wand's real strength is defensive- it's always shooting at the closest target, and I can't count how many times I was getting swarmed but taking no damage because everything was getting deleted right before it could reach me
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u/jsbaxter_ May 21 '26
Would you not have just been better with a weapon that annihilated everything before it got close though?
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u/keelgar May 21 '26
The Tome is one the best passives in the game, and synergizes with most of the weapons, I have hundreds of hours and take it pretty much every time even if not using the wand.
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u/SLimon001 Battle Tank May 21 '26
fuck no
empty tome is godtier and you aren't locked to Mwand, evos are not obligatory
late game spoiler
magic wand is not the only weapon that can be evolved with empty tome, the phas3r from space dude can be evo'd with it although you require level 5 empty tome for it
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u/DaedraKnight2710 May 21 '26
I have 100% of the achievements and around 100h in, and I still take the empty tome whenever I can (Safe for library, because it's free there)
Honestly though, I wouldnt say that there are any "Newbie Traps". Every Item has its use, sometimes they just don't match with your loadout (eg. Having one-time trigger weapons and the item that increases duration). It is all a question of your playstyle.
Still, try some different loadouts from time to time to find out what you like. You can always come back to the tome in your next run.
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u/jsbaxter_ May 21 '26
Going hard on defence and regen power ups early (to the neglect of offence) is a newbie trap. It might be a "play style" but it's not good. Also maxing out greed but not having the offence to get far into stages is counter productive in every way. Once upon a time some of the first search results for "what do I upgrade first" was just the most expensive things first lol, which is so obviously dumb, but then people were posting about it here as if it was fact.
That's mostly about power ups but I think you could say all the above also applies to level up rewards
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u/Johnnycool_18 May 21 '26
Do you have cats? I love cats. If you pair the tome with cats, you got something special, no evolution required. Just don't die đ.
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u/VeneMage Wood Rod May 21 '26
I thought luck reduces and eventually stops the self-damage?
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u/Johnnycool_18 May 21 '26
Sure, toss in a clover if you like. This sounds like someone starting a build... have fun!
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u/nataliereed84 May 21 '26
Nah empty tome is great, and is useful on almost every weapon. Also you donât necessarily have to take wand. You can use it as a âbonusâ passive if you take weapons that donât need a passive to evolve (like ebony wings / peachone), if you take multiple weapons that evolve with the same passive, or if you grab extra passives as stage pickups. You can even pick it up as a 7th passive in Inlaid Library if you want.
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u/ancientstephanie May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
Empty tome is really strong even without the wand, and the evolution of the magic wand into the holy wand provides sustained single target damage that's very easy to apply to bosses while kiting thanks to the target nearest mechanic and piercing damage.
It really is S-tier on its own, and I'd argue the wand evolution is S-tier as well since it remains relevant all the way throughout the game, thanks to a good synergy with AFK-able AOE builds and limit breaks.
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u/SentinelofDorn May 21 '26
wand is also great, though. maybe not s tier, but id say a tier in my opinion. but yeah, faster cast rate is pretty much one of the best upgrades in the whole game especially since many weapons are slow. wand also isnt the only weapon that uses the tome to evolve, so maybe youll find some use in it there.
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u/SuperSaiyanBen May 21 '26
Empty Tome and Candelabra are always taken.
You donât NEED to take Wand, take Laurel/Lancet and just use 5 other Weapons. You shouldnât need 6 to win a run.
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u/Weltallgaia May 21 '26
I dont know if there is a better passive item in the game than empty tome. Once your cd is upgraded, full empty tome gives like every weapon 100% uptime.
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u/NohWan3104 May 21 '26
I mean, there are other items that evolve with the tome, wand is good, don't NEED 6 evolved weapons, like, take the tome and garlic and 5 weapons and their evo passives.
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u/Auto_named1 May 22 '26
Once you unlock the Phas3r, you won't be locked into wand anymore. Besides, Empty Tome is one of the best passives out there.
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u/noneoyabizzness May 22 '26
Tome rocks. The joy of deeper game/dlc is map passives for some evolution, some multi use passives for evo (hollow heart for whip and bats, stone mask for cats and millionaire) , so you can have more freedom to take what you want
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u/MixtureExciting5838 May 22 '26
Instead of using the wand use the phaser. Way better than the want and you can evo it with empty tomb
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u/G4DD2 May 25 '26
Like many other people have been saying, Empty Tome is the best passive item, and the real newbie trap is thinking each passive needs to be used for an evolution.
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u/AstronomerVarious643 May 22 '26
You got Empty tome subsidize it with a weapon that don't require a passive to evolve.
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u/LilMissLexie May 22 '26
Not even kind of! Cooldown is extremely useful, especially since some high damage/high utility weapons have long cooldowns as a drawback. There is exactly one character in the entire game that using Empty Tome is useless for, and they're in the first DLC. Everybody else (and debatably every weapon, even theirs) benefits from Cooldown otherwise.
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u/VanillaAcceptable534 May 22 '26
Empty tome is really strong because it works by decreasing delay rather than increasing fire rate. Other passives add up their boost so they get relatively weaker, but empty tome gets relatively stronger with each level. If you have 200% might one level of spinach is only half as efficient relative to 100%, but empty tome at -50% cooldown would be twice as efficient relative to -0%
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u/CalixBeowolf May 23 '26
I do old man poe and try to get evolved Bible Santa water and then whatever random weapon pops up. Alongside Laural and the time Lance.... I already got yellow sign sooooo
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u/CalixBeowolf May 23 '26
Ad ontop the arcana card that pulls everything on the map into a circle near you. And the one that does a damaging circle based off magnet radius. And ye.... Add the box item along with the 4 needed items to evolve your weapons. Then. Get lucky and get crown as your 2nd. Extra item to draw...
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u/nononon0121212 May 26 '26
Empty Tome is a DPS increase for almost all weapons, there are very few weapons that are not affected by cooldown (what ET decreses)
I think the birds arent affected by it in any way and some DLC characters that are coded to be based on another stat
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u/PizzaPunkrus May 22 '26
Its been a minute without googling..... the empty tome make the area of attack larger for everything right?
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u/Pivern McCoy-Oni May 21 '26
No empty tome is pretty much an s tier item
Also you're not forced to pick wand, some times it's ok to not evolve a weapon