I went with the titanium shepherd crook stakes. They seem to hold fine for this tent. I've set the tent up a couple different places in the yard during the seam sealing process, and did an overnight trip with in a pasture here close to the house. In all the places I've had it so far, they held find. The ground around here is pretty rocky, and its not much trouble at all to find a spot to squeeze them through. In a lighter more sandy soil they might not hold, but so far I haven't had a problem.