Glitches are an integral part of video game history, particularly retro games. Vampire Survivors celebrates its own retro-inspired visuals with the inclusion of missingNo, a kind of ‘playable glitch’ character that pays homage to the original Pokémon games, as well as old-school glitches in general. Just as with retro glitches, however, the mechanics of how to unlock missingNo in Vampire Survivors can be somewhat tricky to work out.

Luckily for you, we’ve never been ones to back down from a challenge. Read on for a full guide on how to unlock this code-breaking character.

Vampire Survivors: How to unlock missingNo

Step 1: Head to Green Acres with Hyper Mode and Hurry Mode enabled

To be fair to Vampire Survivors, it does give you a clue in the Forbidden Scrolls of Morbane as to how you unlock missingNo, which reads as follows: “With the most adverse fate in Green Acres, run off the edge of the world.” The Green Acres part here makes perfect sense. But the part that will likely trip you up is the “most adverse fate” element, which translates to you needing to enable both Hyper Mode and Hurry Mode for the stage before diving in.

Hyper Mode for Green Acres is unlocked by default when you unlock the stage itself, while Hurry Mode can be unlocked after you’ve collected the Sorceress’ Tears Relic from Gallo Tower. It’s also worth noting that you’ll need the Yellow Sign Relic as well before you can unlock missingNo.

Step 2: Head south-west

Screenshot by PC Invasion

From your starting location in Green Acres, head diagonally southwest, and keep doing so for quite a while. Once you reach your destination, you’ll have to take on some powerful enemies with few opportunities to level up, so it’s a good idea to do so before you fully commit to this step. Get yourself a few good weapons and accessories, then head south-west for as long as you can.

Step 3: Defeat 128 LV128 Golden Bats

Once you’ve gone far enough, the screen will dissolve into a kind of bizarre glitchscape and a swarm of LV128 Golden Bats will descend on you from all sides. It’s worth noting that this is the only place in the game you can encounter this enemy, so if you’ve had an empty spot in your Bestiary for a while, these guys will fill it.

They’re fairly challenging foes with a lot of health, so keep your distance and whittle them down slowly with your chosen weapons. Once you’ve defeated 128 of them, you’ll hear Vampire Survivors’ ‘secret unlocked’ jingle, and the stage will slowly revert back to normal.

Step 4: Purchase missingNo and enjoy!

Once you’ve finished your run, missingNo will now be available to purchase on the character select screen. He’s one of the more expensive characters in the game, particularly if you’ve unlocked a lot of them, so you may need to do some gold farming before you can afford to pick him up.

Once you do, he’s one of the most interesting characters in the game. His starting weapon is random each run, either the Axe or Death Spiral, and all of his stats are randomized each run too, meaning you never know what you’re gonna get once you’ve unlocked missingNo in Vampire Survivors.