An advancement card is a vampire card in all respects, so it can be influenced in the normal manner. In addition, you can merge the advancement with the associated regular "base" vampire if you control one and the other is in your uncontrolled region. This costs 4 transfers and 1 pool during your influence phase. When merged, the counters and cards on the vampire remain, and the two crypt cards are treated as a single vampire card, even if Banished, until the vampire is burned.

When merged, the vampire has the special abilities of both the base and advanced cards. The rest of the base card is ignored (capacity, Disciplines, etc.). The advancement card applies in full. Some merged cards have an additional effect that only applies when the two cards are merged. This effect is identified in the card text by a "merged" icon.

The advanced vampire (merged or not) will contest other copies of the same vampire (advanced or not) in play, as usual.