Wooden Stake

Wooden Stakes are simple yet important piece of weapon to combat vampires other than acting as makeshift torch if ignited. They may comprised of Ash, Maple, Aspen, Hawthorn, or Buckthorn wood.

Description
Wooden stakes can be found scattered throughout the castle, and can be stockpiled in the inventory. When using a stake as a weapon, pressing the fire button will cause you to raise it over your head, and releasing the fire button will cause you to stab the stake downward and drive it into any creature that's right in front of you. Stakes have an extremely short range, but they do lots of damage when they hit. You can stab anybody with a wooden stake, and it does a decent amount of damage (as a physical weapon, stakes are second only to the flintlock or musket in terms of stopping power). However, stakes are mainly for use against vampires. A single stake driven into a vampire while it's still in its coffin will prevent the vampire from rising up and attacking you. You'll also need to stake the game's bosses while they're in their coffins to permanently kill them. Stakes are also one of the few weapons that are effective against the game's boss enemies during combat, and it only takes a few stake hits to defeat them. Stabbing someone with a stake causes you to use up that stake. Also, somewhat inconveniently, once you stab someone with a stake you'll automatically switch to your bare fists, and will need to switch back to the stakes in your weapon menu before being able to stab again. Since the stakes are right next to your fists in the weapon menu, however, this isn't too bad.