V Rising is getting a free Castlevania crossover to coincide with its 1.0 launch

V Rising confirmed it would reach 1.0 on May 8th just a couple of weeks ago, delivering changes to the survival action RPG’s PvP and endgame.

There’s an extra sweetener in 1.0 announced today, however: a Castlevania crossover where players can fight Simon Belmont and make off with his whip.

V Rising: Legacy Of Castlevania will launch on May 8th alongside 1.0. It’s free to all players, and defeating Belmont grants “a brand new weapon, the whip, adapting new combat abilities that embody the grace and precision of the deadly Vampire hunter,” according to the announcement.

While the actual fight and weapon are available to all, there will also be a Legacy of Castlevania Premium Pack cosmetic DLC that will let players deck out their castles and character with Castlevania items. That includes a skeletal mount, and Castlevania music playing in your castle halls. There’s no word on price yet.

If that doesn’t make immediate sense to you, V Rising is a “survival action RPG”, and because this is video games, “survival” here denotes that it’s a game where you craft things, build a castle to live in, and decorate it so it looks pretty or scary or pretty scary. I do not make the rules.

V Rising was already a good game when it launched into early access back in 2022, but it’s been regularly updated since and 1.0 aims to revamp core systems to make for more satisfying late game progression and better armour options.