Pesticide Not Required blends Vampire Survivors with Atomicrops

There's clearly no stopping the rise of games designed like Vampire Survivors, and as usual they keep hooking their teeth into me. The latest is Pesticide Not Required, combining  Vampire Survivors with Atomicrops.

Here it is actually a little bit different, as it also pulls in a little inspiration from Brotato too. It's based on waves, which you deal with through the day and night and right at the end a shop opens to spend your coins gathered from downed enemies. In the shop you buy seeds, which you plant and cultivate and these seeds are also where you get your additional weapons.

Pictured - Pesticide Not Required on Linux

There's mining, fishing, pets to help you out, lots of upgrades and the ability to make some really insane character builds to watch the screen fill up with your attacks. I have a feeling this is going to be pretty popular at release, if it manages to cut through the noise of thousands of games releasing on Steam all the time. It has the right idea and the blending of genres like this is done quite well. The mechanics are all simple though, to not overwhelm you so it remains quite accessible.

Features:

• Season-themed map variations with multiple difficulty levels.
• Many unlockable characters with special traits.
• Persistent skill tree upgrades.
• Quick ~20-minute play sessions.
• Tons of achievements to unlock.
• Full gamepad and keyboard support.

The full game is due out later in Q1 2024. It's gone right to the top of my wishlist - really fun idea.

There's a demo available on Steam that worked perfectly with Proton 8.