Vampire (Civ6)

The Vampire is a melee unit in Civilization VI. It is exclusive to the Sanguine Pact secret society in the Secret Societies game mode, introduced in the Ethiopia Pack.
* Attributes:
** +5 Combat Strength vs. anti-cavalry units.
** Cannot be trained with or purchased with or .
** Only up to four Vampires are available per game, each granted by unlocking a new title of the Sanguine Pact governor.
** Has the same Combat Strength as the strongest military unit the player has trained or purchased.
** Cannot form Corps or Armies by any means.
** Cannot earn experience or s.
** Has reduced passive healing rate (-5 HP/turn).
* Abilities:
** Has up to 4 build charges.
** Can construct a Vampire Castle (Consumes a build charge).
** Gains 1 Combat Strength when a unit dies in an adjacent tile.
** Gains 1 Combat Strength when a Barbarian dies in an adjacent tile (capped at 10 Combat Strength). (Units from Free Cities are counted under the total for Barbarians.)
** Retreats back to the when brought down to 1 HP.
** Heals 50 HP when pillaging.
** Reduces the Combat Strength of adjacent enemy units by 5 (with Voivode).
== Strategy ==
The Vampire is a strong military unit that comes in very limited numbers. Their base Combat Strength is dynamically updated throughout the game based on the Combat Strength of the strongest military unit you own, starting at 20 Combat Strength (considering that every civilization starts with a Warrior). Whenever you train a stronger military unit, the Combat Strength of all Vampires you have will be adjusted to match that new Combat Strength value within the same turn.
Vampires can copy Combat Strength values of all land and naval units except Giant Death Robots and Heroes introduced in the Heroes & Legends game mode. Note that they can copy the Combat Strength of Corps/Armies and Fleets/Armadas, but not aircraft, and only if you trained/upgraded them. (For example, if you form a Corps from two existing Swordsmen, your Vampires won't copy the Corps' strength. However, if you train a new Swordsman Corps from the Encampment or upgraded an existing Warrior Corps into a Swordsman Corps, your Vampires will be updated to use the Corps' strength.)
The bonus Combat Strength gained from killed units and Barbarians is calculated separately for each individual Vampire and does not get transferred to others. This means that your strongest Vampire will most likely be the one you got first, since it has spent the most time in combat. You can name your Vampires in order to differentiate between them a little more easily.
The number of Vampire Castles you can build is always equal to the number of build charges each and every one of your Vampires has. If one Vampire builds a Vampire Castle, every Vampire will lose one build charge; if a Vampire Castle gets removed, all Vampires will regain a build charge. Similar to other units with build charges, Vampires can also be used to clear features like a Builder (which will cost 1 build charge), or to remove improvements for free. Vampires that lose build charges due to clearing features do not cause other Vampires to lose build charges as well.
Although you can only have a maximum of four Vampires per game, they are notoriously hard to kill. Whenever they receive lethal damage, their HP will be brought down to 1 instead and they will instantly retreat to the nearest Vampire Castle or the , whichever is closer. Also, Vampires have a reduced innate healing rate, as they heal by 5 HP less than a normal unit in all cases: they heal 15 HP per turn in a City Center, 10 HP per turn in friendly territory, 5 HP per turn in neutral territory, and cannot heal in enemy territory. However, to make up for this, they will always heal 50 HP whenever they pillage anything. This also means that improvements which grant healing when pillaged (like Farms or Cahokia Mounds) will fully heal Vampires who pillage them. However, your Vampires can be a little bit less dependent on pillaging when paired up with abilities that grant them extra healing, like Tomyris' leader ability, the War Department, the Fountain of Youth, or Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi.
Vampires are by no means immortal, however. There are a few ways they can permanently die:
* Vampires can be killed when they are inside the . This also applies to attacks initiated by the Vampires themselves.
* Vampires can be killed when they are on a Vampire Castle improvement. This is very similar to the situation mentioned above. Remember, in both of these situations, Vampires can only retreat once per turn, so a good tactic to use is to identify where the closest Vampire Castle is, set up an ambush there and kill them after they retreat.
* Vampires can be killed by nukes.
* In the Apocalypse game mode, Vampires can be killed by Comet Strikes. Vampires that get thrown into a Volcano by a Soothsayer during an Appease the Gods competition also do not regenerate.
* In the Heroes & Legends game mode, Vampires do not regenerate when Beowulf targets and kills them with Beowulf's Challenge.
Despite being classified as melee units, Vampires don't benefit from Battering Rams, Siege Towers, or Akkad's Suzerain bonus. They do, however, receive Combat Strength bonuses from Oligarchy, Fascism, and Ambiorix's leader ability, and are boosted by Great Generals of any era.
=== Bugs ===
For some unknown reason, units that belong to CLASS_ALL_ERAS (i.e., Vampires and Nihang) may sometimes not receive a Great General's combat boost although they should be affected by all Generals regardless of era, or the General may boost one unit but not another. This can be circumvented by bringing multiple Great Generals into battle.
== Civilopedia entry ==
== Gallery ==
File:Vampire in-game (Civ6).jpeg|Vampire and a Vampire Castle in game
File:Civ6 Vampire Castle In-Game.webp|Vampires and a Vampire Castle in game
Category:Secret Societies (Civ6)