Vampire Knives

The  is a weapon that was added in the 1.2 update. They can be found in Crimson Chests, which can be found in the Dungeon. In order to open the chest, the player will need a Crimson Key, which can be obtained by using a Crimson Key Mold, a Temple Key, and 5 Souls of Fright, Might, and Sight. Because Vampire Knives cannot have a Prefix that increases their size, their best prefix is Godly. The Knives do not go forever, when standing still, the Knives will spin and fade just outside the screen.

Bonuses
As the weapon does melee damage, the Beetle Armor set will apply damage bonuses to it along with any other accessory or armor set that boosts melee damage.

A portion (~7%) of the damage dealt will be returned as health to the user. The knives can hit multiple enemies or hit a single large enemy multiple times. 4-8 Vampire Knives can be thrown at a time. For example:


 * One of the Knives hits an enemy and deals 90 damage, but 7% of this damage (i.e., 6) is returned to the player as HP. This permits effective invincibility, due to constant healing &mdash; as long as the player continues to throw the Knives. They are capable of healing almost all damage inflicted to them fairly quickly.

Issues
The Knives have a huge, and seemingly random spread, making aiming them all very difficult. Despite this, it's fairly easy to survive most encounters and out-heal any damage that may be received. Especially from bosses, where the lifestealing properties of this weapon can be seen in full effect.

However, continued use of the Knives can be extremely disorienting with all that's going onscreen. It can be difficult to discern where enemy projectiles or ranged attacks may be, and the player could die from not being able to see their character among the knife storm and healing beams while they are dealing damage.

Trivia

 * This weapon is likely a reference to Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizzare Adventure; a time-stopping vampire who throws knives in an identical fashion. Specifically, this is much like Shadow Dio's knife throw from the arcade fighter of the same name, whose knives fan out in a manner similar to this weapon.
 * The Vampire Knives may alternately be a reference to Sakuya Izayoi from the popular Japanese series of games Touhou Project, first appearing in the 6th game, The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Sakuya serves a vampire, Remilia Scarlet, and is capable of throwing torrents of knives due to her ability to stop time. Many fans also believe that Sakuya herself is a reference to Dio Brando.