Syringe

Item overview

Syringe is a Shady Merchant purchase that halves maximum HP and gives marked attacks a chance to steal life. To unlock Vampire, obtain it and actually trigger life steal during combat.

• Life steal
• Shady Merchant
• Vampire unlock

Acquisition

Buy from Shady Merchant after unlocking him at base.

Cost to survival

Maximum HP is reduced by 50%.

Unlock condition

Trigger life steal; purchasing the item alone is insufficient.

Strengths

• Adds life steal to an eligible attack.
• Provides a route to unlocking Vampire.

Weaknesses

• The maximum-HP reduction shrinks the margin for mistakes immediately.
• Healing is chance-based and can arrive too late to prevent a lethal hit.

When to pick it

You are preparing the Vampire unlock and can keep landing hits safely.

When to skip it

Your current health buffer is already too small to survive nearby enemies.

Priorities

1. Keep a working weapon before buying the item.
2. Mark an eligible attack and fight where you can retreat.
3. Confirm life steal has activated and check the achievement.

Builds and combinations

VampireThe life-steal objective unlocks Vampire’s melee bat swarm.Finding the Shady MerchantFind and unlock the merchant who sells Syringe.PistolKeep an eligible working attack while pursuing the healing proc.Character unlocksCheck the Vampire objective after life steal activates.

Buying Syringe is the first step of the Vampire unlock. Equip it so its marks reach an eligible weapon or throwable, then land hits until life steal occurs. A purchase followed by immediate extraction without a healing proc leaves the objective unfinished.

Prepare the weapon before accepting the HP reduction. More frequent hits give more chances for life steal to occur, but chance-based recovery is no substitute for avoiding a hit that would kill you.