'Most ambitious' Vampire Survivors update yet features 'immersive door opening action' and 'world premiere train mechanics'

A free Vampire Survivors update called «Laborratory» released by surprise this week, adding a new challenge stage, bonus stage, weapon, and «holiday-themed» character. A trailer shown at today's ID@Xbox Showcase (embedded above) also promises «immersive door opening action,» «world premiere train mechanics,» «genre-defining cart racing,» and «fully rendered running animations.» 

Update 1.10 is Vampire Survivor's first «AAAA» update, says developer Poncle—an ironic reference to Ubisoft's recent declaration that its long-delayed pirate game Skull & Bones warrants a fourth 'A.' The update's Steam news post includes the full details, most of which are hidden by spoiler tags. Here's the non-spoilery breakdown of what's in the patch:

Disembark from this article now if you want to discover all that on your own. Otherwise, here's how to unlock everything in the Vampire Survivors Laborratory update:

«Everything is trying to kill you» in the Laborratory stage, according to the patch notes. The level intriguingly includes levers which have «mostly positive effects» when pulled, depending on your Luck score. Meanwhile, the new character, Santa Ladonna, «starts with a temporary cooldown bonus and automatically triggers a Rosary when reaching critically low HP.»

The notes also mention that technical work on online co-op is «going well,» but say that it's «still too early for more details.» They additionally reveal that Poncle is working on a secret new feature which will pave the way for new Adventures, standalone campaigns introduced a couple updates ago. 

«We had planned to make new Adventures more often, but then realised that while they work very well to isolate new DLC content, the base-game ones are missing something,» wrote the developer. «So we've been working on adding a new feature to the game (that will remain a little secret for now) after which we'll be back releasing new adventures.

»The Tides of the Foscari one is an exception. Instead of just retelling the story