Vampires vs. Werewolves — Complete Guide

What is Vampires vs. Werewolves?

VvW is a free browser MMO RPG set in the dark-fantasy world of Aeternum. Two playable factions — vampires and werewolves — fight a perpetual war bound by the Iron Treaty. No download. Cross-platform via PWA. Cosmetics-only monetization (no pay-to-win). Active raids, PvP, clan war, and seasonal events.

Step 1 — Race choice

Vampire (sustain, methodical, Blood Drain) or Werewolf (burst, aggressive, Natural Regen). Permanent on a character. Race quiz: /quiz.html. Deep comparison: vampire-vs-werewolf pillar.

Step 2 — Class & build

Each race has 4 starter classes plus prestige unlocks. Race-class synergies matter (vampire-Blood-Mage, werewolf-Berserker dominate respective archetypes). Pillar: character-builds. Per-class deep-dives: builds category.

Step 3 — Levelling

Reach Lv50 in ~12 hours focused or ~25 hours casual. Bracket-by-bracket plan: leveling 1-50 fast-track. Endgame prep 50→100 (prestige + M+): endgame prep guide.

Step 4 — Economy & gold

4-method gold stack: dailies + dungeons + AH arbitrage + gathering. Pillar: economy & gold-farming. Quick how-to: make gold fast.

Step 5 — PvP

Arena 1v1, Colosseum 3v3, Eclipse War quarterly. ELO-based ranked. Pillar: pvp meta 2026. Survival guide: how to survive PvP.

Step 6 — Clans & raids

Solo content caps around prestige 3. Join a clan for raids, M+ keystones, Eclipse War. Pillars: clan warfare, raid strategy.

Step 7 — Prestige & endgame

Prestige resets Lv50 → Lv1 with permanent +2% stats and signature skill. Cap: 10. Required for top-tier M+ keys. Wiki: prestige deep-dive.

Step 8 — Lore & worldbuilding

Aeternum spans 3200 years across Five Ages. Five Vampire Houses + Five Werewolf Clans. Iron Treaty preserves uneasy peace. Pillar: aeternum lore. Hub: lore.html.

All resources

Wiki: wiki.html. FAQ: faq.html. Race quiz: quiz.html. Live stats: stats.html. Discord: discord.gg/vvw. Press kit: press.html.

Deep dive — races and classes at a glance

Both playable races start from a distinct stat block, not just a flavor label. Vampires open at STR 12 / DEF 6 / DEX 8 / LCK 6 with 90 base HP and +8 HP per level, and their racial passive — 5% life steal on every hit, no gear required — is layered before any build choices. Vampires also get a scheduled damage window: +20% STR during "Dark Hour," 22:00-02:00 UTC, a free five-hour buff that costs nothing to use beyond scheduling your raid or ladder session around it. Werewolves open tankier at STR 14 / DEF 8 / DEX 5 / LCK 4 with 110 base HP and +10 HP per level, trading dodge and crit chance for raw HP, and their racial passive is flat regen (+2 HP every turn, no threshold) plus a permanent +30% bonus to critical-hit damage. Their scheduled window is the Blood Moon world event, granting +15% to all stats at once rather than a single stat.

At level 30, every character locks in one of three race-specific subclasses, each layered on top of (not replacing) the racial skill tree: Vampires choose between Blood Mage (caster-sustain hybrid, +25% INT/+20% skill damage but -15% DEF), Shadow Assassin (crit-focused glass cannon, +30% DEX/+25% crit chance but -20% HP), or Dark Knight (dedicated tank, +25% DEF/+20% HP but -15% DEX). Werewolves choose between Moon Warrior (night-buffed bruiser), Pack Shaman (support caster, buffs allies at -15% personal damage), or Berserker (the highest-ceiling burst subclass, +40% ATK below 50% HP, immune to stun). The full breakdown of stat formulas, skill trees, and gear sets for every subclass lives on the character builds pillar — that page alone runs past 4,800 words because there's a lot of interlocking math to get right before you commit points.

Deep dive — the faction and reputation layer

Beyond the vampire/werewolf war itself, Aeternum runs eight independent reputation factions that both races can grind in parallel: The Silver Dawn (anti-vampire militants at Sunspire Citadel), The Shadow Covenant (vampire political cabal beneath Ravenhollow), The Blood Wolves (werewolf war-pack at Howling Gorge), The Crimson Court (aristocratic vampire society in the Velvet Quarter), The Iron Forge (neutral smiths who sell to both races), The Void Seekers (necromancy researchers above Lake Nihil), The Frost Wardens (northern guardians at Rimeguard Fortress), and The Merchant Alliance (trade federation running Greyport's Grand Exchange). Every faction uses the same seven-tier reputation ladder — Hated, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly (12,000 points), Honored (24,000), Revered (42,000), and Exalted (60,000) — earned through a rotating pool of ten daily quests each (kill, gather, deliver, explore, craft types, roughly 250 rep and 100-200 gold per quest). Hitting Exalted with any faction unlocks a legendary-tier item and a unique title; the Silver Dawn's Radiant Edge of the First Light and the Shadow Covenant's Obsidian Fang of the Covenant are two of the strongest faction capstones in the game. None of this reputation grinding is required to progress your character, but it's the deepest source of lore-flavored gear outside of raids and Mythic+.

Deep dive — the leveling curve, mathematically

XP required per level follows floor(100 × (level-1)^1.6) — a curve that's gentle early and steepens hard at the top. Level 10 needs roughly 3,981 total XP; level 30 needs about 43,336; level 50 (a common "endgame-ready" milestone) needs 132,505; and level 80, the prestige-eligible threshold, needs 371,789. In practice this means the jump from 1-30 is fast (a few hours of story and dungeon spam), 30-50 is a deliberate grind through daily quests and party dungeons, and 50-80 is where most players start leaning on Mythic+ keystones and raid clears for efficient XP rather than grinding solo. See the leveling 1-50 fast-track and endgame prep guide for bracket-by-bracket routing.

Deep dive — the four core gameplay loops

PvE: ten hand-built dungeons gate by level range (e.g. Crypt of Shadows covers levels 1-15, Werewolf's Den covers 10-25), each running four to five difficulty tiers — normal, hard, heroic, and mythic — with heroic and mythic tiers layering Mythic+ affixes like Fortified (+30% non-boss HP) and Tyrannical (+40% boss HP/+20% boss ATK) on top of the base fight. PvP: an ELO-based ladder starting every account at 1000 with a 32 K-factor, gated to a ±5 level attack range and capped at 3 attacks per target per day so no single player can be endlessly farmed. Economy: gold flows in from work cooldowns, monster kills, quests (hard quests pay up to 20,000 gold), boss kills, and the auction house, and flows back out through skill upgrades, item repair/upgrade, and clan costs — the economy pillar covers the full stack. Clans: creation costs 500 gold at level 5+, clans are single-race by default, and clan halls scale from 15 to 30 member slots across five upgrade tiers costing up to 500,000 gold, each tier adding XP/gold/war bonuses on top.

Deep dive — endgame systems

Prestige unlocks at level 80 (not 50) and can be taken up to five times. Each prestige resets your level, XP, and base stat allocation back to zero, but keeps your gold, items, clan standing, achievements, and cosmetics untouched — so the gear grind isn't wasted, only the point allocation is. Bonuses scale per prestige rank: P1 grants a flat +5% to all stats and a 1.1× XP multiplier; by P5 you're running +25% all stats, 1.5× XP, 1.25× gold, an extra 10 skill points, and the exclusive "Eternal" title. Beyond prestige, Mythic+ keystones layer up to 15 named affixes (Fortified, Tyrannical, Bolstering, Sanguine, Necrotic, Explosive, Raging, Spiteful, Volcanic, Quaking, Grievous, Bursting, Inspiring, Storming, Infernal) that unlock progressively at keystone levels +2 through +15, each one changing what a party needs to survive a run. See the prestige deep-dive and raid strategy pillar for the full endgame loop.

Deep dive — F2P vs premium, honestly

Every purchasable system in VvW is built around gems, a premium currency earned free through daily login streaks, hard quests, seasonal events, and achievements — or bought in packages from €0.99 (100 gems) up to €99.99 (14,000 gems plus a 4,000-gem bonus). Every single gem-shop item is either cosmetic (portrait frames, chat effects, weapon trails), a time-saver (XP/gold boosts, craft-speed items), or a convenience (extra inventory slots, extra crafting queue slots) — there is no gem-shop item that grants a combat stat you couldn't otherwise earn through play. Mystery boxes ("Arcane Chests") are cosmetic-only with a hard pity counter guaranteeing a rare-or-better item every 10-20 opens depending on box tier. The game also ships built-in spending protection: a €200 monthly spend cap, email warnings at 80% of that cap, and a voluntary self-exclusion tool with 24h/7d/30d cooldown options. Net result: F2P players routinely sit in the top-100 PvP ladder, and the only thing money buys is time, not power.

Deep dive — clans, raids, and the Eclipse War loop

Once you're clan-level content ready, the loop widens from solo-vs-monster into coordinated group play. Clan halls scale across five tiers (level 1: free, 15 slots; level 5: 500,000 gold, 30 slots, +20% XP/+15% gold/+10% war bonus), and clan power is calculated with a transparent formula — sum(member levels) + (war_wins × 50) + (hall_level × 100) — so a clan's public standing is entirely a function of its members' progress, its win record, and its infrastructure investment, not hidden variables. Eclipse War runs quarterly over 200 contestable territory tiles; winning a war grants the winning clan 100 glory points, 50% of the losing clan's treasury, 20 gems per member, and a "War Winner" trophy, while the loser gets a modest 5-gem consolation and a 168-hour cooldown before they can be war-targeted again. Full mechanics: clan warfare pillar and raid strategy pillar.

Cheat sheet — numbers every player should know

Bookmark this table — it answers the questions new players ask most in Discord's #help channel, and every number is pulled straight from the live balance configuration rather than estimated from play.

Choosing your path — three common player archetypes

The story-first explorer wants Aeternum's lore before its ladders. This player should read aeternum lore before touching a build guide, level slowly through story content 1-15 instead of rushing to dungeon-spam, and treat the eight reputation factions as parallel storylines rather than grind chores — each faction's daily quest pool is written as a small ongoing narrative about its NPCs, not generic filler. The competitive climber wants ladder position and should skip straight to the PvP meta pillar after finishing the race quiz, pick a subclass from the current S/A tier list, and treat levels 1-50 purely as a runway to Arena unlocking at level 20. The clan-first socializer should join a clan the moment it's available (level 5 for creation, but most players join an existing clan earlier via invite) and let clan culture — not solo optimization — drive their build and schedule, since raid attendance and Eclipse War participation matter more to this player's fun than personal ELO or DPS meters.

None of these paths are mutually exclusive, and most long-term players cycle through all three across their first few months: lore-curious in the first two weeks, ladder-focused once PvP unlocks and the first prestige is banked, then clan-invested once solo content plateaus around prestige 2-3. The point of this hub page is to hand you the right next link regardless of which mode you're in this week — that's also why every section above links out to a full pillar rather than trying to cram everything into one page. If you only remember one thing from this guide, make it this: VvW rewards depth over grind. A player who reads the class-synergy math once and applies it consistently will out-perform a player who's logged twice as many hours but never learned why DEF stops mattering past 150.