Answer: Sunlight

Any fan of vampire tales knows the best way to kill a vampire is to lure them out into the searing sunlight, right? Not so fast there, young vampire hunters. While the idea of sunlight as a vampire-burning ultimate weapon is present in most modern vampire tales, it wasn’t nearly as powerful in the grand-daddy of all vampire tales: Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

In Stoker’s tale, there are many elements of modern vampire lore: Dracula is super strong, able to shapeshift, an excellent fighter, commands vampires he has created, feeds on blood, hates garlic, and you can kill him with a combination of impalement through the heart and decapitation. But there’s one thing that you can’t kill him with: sunlight.

In fact, not only does sunlight not burn our dear Count Dracula, it has a pretty mild effect on him. During the day, he’s more like a regular guy than a supernatural vampire lord. That’s it. No searing, no scorching, and definitely no reduction to dust. During the day, the count just puts on his regular-guy hat and is a little less super strong, super fast, and supernatural. You’d better be on your toes, however, come dusk as the moment the sun dips below the horizon he regains his super strength and other supernatural abilities (putting even well-prepared vampire hunters at a distinct disadvantage).