Vampire Knives

The Vampire Knives are a Hardmode post-Plantera melee weapon that autofires a spread of projectiles. The player is healed by a small amount for each projectile that hits an enemy. The Vampire Knives are always found inside the Dungeon's Crimson Chest in Crimson worlds. A Crimson Key will be needed to open the Crimson Chest.
Vampire Knives fire between 4 and 8 fast knife projectiles at a maximum spread of approximately 45 degrees. The knives are not affected by gravity, but at 28 tiles will begin to spin and fade, dissipating entirely after another 26 tiles (54 tiles total range). The knives may disappear visually a few tiles before they actually become ineffective. The knives deliver the weapon's full damage per knife until they begin spinning and fading, at which point their damage drops gradually until they dissipate.
Whenever a knife hits an enemy, a red beam extends to the player, healing them. The healing effect is 7.5% (rounded down) of the damage dealt by the hit. For example, it will heal 3 points of health for every 40 damage dealt.
== Notes ==
* Damage inflicted by debuffs such as On Fire! do not trigger the healing, only the knife projectiles themselves do.
* Because the lifesteal effect is rounded down, it will not heal the player if it deals less than 14 damage.
* At full speed (when first thrown), the projectiles travel at .
* Melee damage bonuses and modifiers increase healing.
* Vampire Knives will not absorb any health from critters or Target Dummies.
* Due to their high speed, some of the Vampire Knives' projectiles may travel through 1-block thick walls.
* Despite the visual effect indicating otherwise, the player gets healed immediately upon dealing damage, rather than when the ensuing red beams connect.
* It is impossible to obtain the Vampire Knives on Corruption worlds, as these lack a Crimson Chest. Instead, the Dungeon has a Corruption Chest containing a Scourge of the Corruptor.
* Reflected knives (such as by a closed Biome Mimic) that hit the player will not trigger the healing effect.
* In worlds, the Vampire Knives can be found with the normally-incompatible Legendary modifier. The size boost will not take effect, though it is still the best modifier possible.
* At least 4 knives will always be thrown. There are 4 independent chances (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16) to increase this number by 1, resulting in a maximum possible number of projectiles of 8. The following table visualizes the number of projectiles and the respective chances:
: 
Number ofprojectiles	Chance
4 	
5 	
6 	
7 	
8 	
: The average number of projectiles thrown is 4.94.
== Tips ==
* Some higher melee speed bonuses will cripple the Vampire Knives, as this may cause the player to only throw the knives every other swing. However, the high melee speed will make them fly farther.
* Vampire Knives are less useful against the Moon Lord because of the Moon Bite debuff it can apply to the player, disabling the life-stealing effect of the knives.
* The Vampire Knives are still useful with endgame gear, as no melee weapon can replace their healing effect.
* They prove effective against numerous bosses and events. With proper preparation, it can be impossible to die.
* While all flasks work well with the Vampire Knives, using a Flask of Ichor will lower struck enemies' defense, increasing damage dealt, and thus increasing health recovered to the player. Note that the healing cap still applies.
* Since the Vampire Knives heal based on damage dealt, and the Crawltipede's damage taken is multiplied by 10, the player can use this to their advantage, gaining more health than normal attacking them.
== Trivia ==
* The Vampire Knives were Leinfors's favorite weapon.Leinfors on Reddit 
== History ==
== References ==