Bat Familiar

A Bat Familiar is a summoned bat that follows the hero around and acts as an ally. It has appeared in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.

Symphony of the Night
Alucard can summon the Bat Familiar with the Bat Card. It normally flutters behind and above Alucard, following him at a sluggish pace, and when it sees an enemy, an exclamation point appears above its head and it charges towards its target, dealing minor damage. The damage appears to be Hit. This familiar will level up as it kills enemies, just like Alucard; at higher levels, it will attack more frequently and acquire targets more quickly. When Alucard takes the Form of Bat, the Bat Familiar will mistake him for a possible mate, and a heart will appear over its head. Smitten, it will follow him much more closely, making it more useful. Also, additional bats will be summoned depending on the familiar's level (one additional bat for every 20 or so levels). If the Fire of Bat relic has been found, whenever Alucard fires off a fireball in Bat Form, any Bat Familiars with him will launch a fireball as well. The Bat Familiar has no action to match the Wing Smash ability, however.

Circle of the Moon
In Circle of the Moon, the Bat Familiar can be summoned by Nathan Graves using the Saturn Card and Salamander Card combination; this Bat Familiar shoots fire balls forward whenever Nathan swings his whip.

Dawn of Sorrow
Soma Cruz can summon a Bat Familiar by using the Bat guardian soul, harvested from ordinary bats. It behaves similarly to the one from Symphony of the Night, albeit without much personaly; it follows Soma closely without needing to be tricked, and the exclamation points are missing. While the Bat Familiar cannot level up in the traditional sense, Soma can strengthen the spell by acquiring more bat souls, up to level nine. At level nine, using the spell will summon three Bat Familiars with higher strength than the original. Since the Bat Company soul, which allows Soma to turn into a bat, is also a guardian soul, it is not possible for the Bat Familiars to team up with a Soma-bat in Dawn of Sorrow. The enemy the Bat(s) target can be manually selected with the touch screen.

Harmony of Despair
As in Dawn of Sorrow, Soma Cruz is able to summon a Bat Familiar by using its guardian soul.