What are your thoughts on the melee in this game?

[Titan]

Just thought that I'd see what people though about melee in this game, as well as share my own thoughts on the system as a whole.

Personally I rarely ever have a use for melee, at least as far as I am into the game; mostly for these main reasons:

1. It kills the fish, at least for the high damaging ones. Obviously it's hard to be enamored with a tool that actively hurts the revenue you receive; the best tools in this game (as far as I have played anyway, which I admit isn't especially far) seem to be either things that let you capture things alive or can kill a shark in a few hits (the only situation where killing the fish isn't the worst thing in the world).

2. In a weird contradiction of the first statement, I have yet to find any melees that deal high damage outside of some sort of charging mechanic. The problem I have with this is that the charge takes so long that either A. Your target has swam away unless they're something slow and stupid like a giant trevaly or B. they take a bite out of you and cancel the charge because you were stupid enough to try and use it on a shark. The stuff you're killing with melee is stuff you could have easilly caught with the harpoon, and at that point you're just gimping yourself financially.

There's a few times I do feel melee is worth it though. The first is if you get the squeaky hammer. No joke; if you don't have tranquilizers and you really REALLY need a live shark for some reason, that thing is stupidly good for bringing things back intact.

It's bizarre to say but the fact it deals no damage makes it great because you aren't accidentally going to kill what you're hitting with it, as far as I can tell the effect works on literally ANYTHING that's not a boss, and it swings fast enough that the "Slight" chance it proclaims adds up pretty quickly. I'd say you shouldn't be attempting this with anything bigger than a sawtooth, but up to that point there's really no reason NOT to use it if you want to save time and ammo. Also if you're about to be hit anyway there's nothing to lose from mashing the melee button a few times and hoping to get lucky.

The shovel is also pretty good for taking out the larger fish you were probably going to kill anyway. Yes, at first the abrupt downward trajectory seems very awkward to work with, but that's kind of the point; most critters attack in a more or less horizontal fashion. Dave really doesn't have a response to things directly above and below him, what with the narrow cone of aiming you have to work with, so something that can immediately deal with these things is pretty nice. Plus it deals well with those pesky crabs blocking things.

[Jeff]

I use it a few times in a playthrough.

1: Days 1-3, sleepy time hammer. Only way to get 3 star fish for best profit
2: Early game, Giant trevalle. Has a ton of HP and you need those fins for later.
3: Early game on sharks, if I got BOTH a tranq tip harpoon and a sharp katana. The charge attack on a sleeping shark can really hit hard before your harpoon is leveled.

But yeah in general melee is not very useful for the vast majority of the game. Getting in close means you probably get hit, and the damage isn't worth it compared to harpoon.

[a passerby]

I don’t like the hammer because it’s only really useful for aggressive fish. And even then the sleep chance is low and fishes wake up if you accidentally hit them again. There’s also no knockback so you risk taking a lot of damage if you’re trying to tranq a shark for example.
Tranq rifles are available fairly early on and are a very reliable way of getting those large fishes with the 8 ammo mag.

The only melee weapons I used regularly were the pickaxe (self explanatory) and shovel (for the downward dash)

[AquaX]

Well melee is suppose to be a last resort when used against aggressive fishes. The most common use is as a mining tool and as an alternative sleeping weapon of you are carrying a killing gun.

[Maligner]

I never relied on melee. As stated, it was a sort of last resort. Also useful against basic aggressive fish like lionfish and the triggermouth, at least once you get a little more of a weapon. Just about any weapon upgrade makes a few fast melee attacks lethal against these early aggressive fish. Late game when your base weapon is upgraded, many of the lower level aggressive fish are nothing to worry about. Simply melee and dump the bodies from inventory later. Mjolnir is fun in the shallows just for goofing around.

[Michael Squat]

As others have said, melee is essentially a last resort for me. However, my one exception is when I find the tennis racket. If I don't want to waste my weapon ammo, I'll use it's dramatically increased knock-back to push aggressive fish/sharks out of the way--giving me a much clearer and safer path ahead.

[Maligner]

Originally posted by Michael Squat:

As others have said, melee is essentially a last resort for me. However, my one exception is when I find the tennis racket. If I don't want to waste my weapon ammo, I'll use it's dramatically increased knock-back to push aggressive fish/sharks out of the way--giving me a much clearer and safer path ahead.

I had not tried this weapon but maybe I will.

Note to late game players after unlocking the default dive knife upgrade: this may not be obvious, but sometimes you pick up a weapon (like the tennis racket) then you can't get ore like opal, topaz etc. You can go in the inventory, highlight the weapon (in this case, the tennis racket) and deselect it. The weapon will drop onto the ground and you will re-equip the upgraded diving knife with which you can mine ore. Once you have done so, simply pick up your weapon (tennis racket) and continue on your way. The upgraded dive knife says it is always equipped but that fact isn't always apparent when you have a chicken in hand, or a frozen fish and you are staring at some diamond you'd like to gather.