That said, I'm not sure anyone wants annoying escort missions. Especially a franchise known for its themes of isolation.

Why am I getting links to good educational research from you, while the Department of Ed confuses AI with A1?

Also, the thing about them not showing up in mirrors? Might not actually work with modern mirrors. The reason their reflection wouldn't show up in old mirrors was because they were made with metals like silver (which is also antimicrobial).

In fact, most vampire wards can generally be boiled down to "fights off infections and disease"

Garlic? Yup antimicrobial.

Sunlight? You guessed it!

Those woods exhibited antimicrobial properties!

Of course people didn't know that back then, but they did notice people got less sick around them and they were generally safe to use.

Likewise, iron and other metals that exhibited these same properties were also super effective!

So the idea behind a stake in the first place is to keep the vampire in one place. To literally stake them to the ground. But, if you want to really damage the vampire you have to use a wood like maple, birch, and pine were thought to work particularly well.

Want to guess why?

New feature. Shouldn't take long.

No joke, it seems like "let's make an indie game" is the new "let's start a band.