Trouble deciding on melee weapons to use

[Sterling]

This is something I've struggled with for years since we got a whole bunch of weapons to choose from now. Picking a single weapon type always seems to have drawbacks. For one, I think almost all the final weapons in the melee progression line look silly. The machete looks ridiculous. The steel club unsightly. The steel knuckles are... ugh. Javelins are... well javelins. About the only thing that looks okay is the steel sledgehammer, but the iron sledge is just really great looking. Oh and of course the stun baton does tons of work, but aside from the pipe variant it's only got one choice.

If you don't use the steel variants of these weapons you miss out on all kinds of damage.

So I got to thinking, maybe I should just use tools. The steel axe looks like a battle axe so it seems like the most aesthetic choice aside from just skipping the steel variants of other weapons. I will say I'll 100% miss the bonuses given on the weapons perks.

Has anyone else tried to use tools as your melee weapon of choice?

[Helios]

Until getting steel club i use wood club and basebalbat because they share same skill for clubs and can use same mods.

[Jonnson]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Uscari:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Stitches:

I tested the Wrench, Steel Axe and Spear with their perks against radiated zombies.

With late game zombies the normal items like the Spear were better than the wrench and steel axe because of other benefits it receives. The wrench was the worst out of the 3. But the steel axe surprisingly held its own and damage was good. Once I added moonshine and candy to the mix the axe plowed through anything.

If you decide to use the axe, max sexual T because of the high stamina drain.

If you're having trouble with irradiated zombies, you won't be using any of these melees. You'll use guns.

The only melees that can realistically deal with them is the Sledgehammer and maybe the Club.

Judging off base stats alone and not accounting for books or skills, the Wrench's power attack gives it the highest DPS of any melee attack which doesn't stall stamina.

Sure you can probably exceed this using drugs, beer, and perk books using other melees, but the Wrench gives this with no added cost to you. No need to spend points in trees that have no application outside of combat, no need to bring beer/drugs with you, no need to fill up an extra slot in your inventory with a melee.

I agree late game Wrench is not the strongest melee but you get so much out of it for such little investment. I think it's a critically underrated melee weapon.

In the late game you shouldn't even be touching a Spear or Axe because you should have the points available to use real melee weapons, like the Sledge, Club, even the Machete.

"If you're having trouble with irradiated zombies, you won't be using any of these melees. You'll use guns."

"The only melees that can realistically deal with them is the Sledgehammer and maybe the Club."

https://youtu.be/5g5Sv3OA7CQ

The sledghammer is w/o a doubt, the worst weapon in the game.

[Uscari]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Jonnson:

"If you're having trouble with irradiated zombies, you won't be using any of these melees. You'll use guns."

"The only melees that can realistically deal with them is the Sledgehammer and maybe the Club."

https://youtu.be/5g5Sv3OA7CQ

The sledghammer is w/o a doubt, the worst weapon in the game.

I'm not sure what your argument is here. The sledgehammer is bad because the stun baton performs better in an incredibly impractical horde night setup?

You shouldn't be running around with your melee on horde night to begin with. It's extremely dangerous and this guy is gambling with his life every time he does it.

Why bother consuming 100 different drugs for this meme strat when I can use a normal functional melee weapon that helps me loot so I can use actual horde night weapons like guns behind fortifications to deal with the horde?

I could concede that the Stun Baton paired with the nerd candy is overpowered, but that wouldn't by any means suggest that the Sledgehammer is a bad melee weapon.

Sledgehammer gives you very similar crowd control as this weapon without requiring drugs to make it work, it has better range, and unlike the Stun Baton is efficient at killing zombies quickly. Yes it costs a lot of stamina but Sex Rex largely compensates for that, especially when you aren't pursuing suicidal horde night strats like this.


This doesn't even mention all the other melee weapons that don't have the crowd control of either the Sledge or the Stun Baton.

Melees are really designed for clearing and looting POIs, not for horde nights. Sure with enough preparation you could do better on horde night with some melees vs others, but those are all outclassed by ranged weaponry/traps. Sledge is top tier for the things you actually need to use a melee for.

[Rio]

I like knife but until machete its terrible on any high difficulties
Baton is okay shrug, but its such a candy reliant weapon to really shine
Knuckles are horrible early game. But I've heard you can become unkillable late game (I also agree that I hate the look of the steel knuckles, its like you have a swiss army knife strapped to your hands so they look silly, instead of threatening).
Steel Club is always a solid choice
Sledge is okay, but you need to be dedicated to it
Javelin isn't something I consider viable on any difficulty, I consider it a novelty and nothing more. But on modded ravenhearst where you have pitchfork and halberd its so much cooler)

Steel Axe is always a great choice and the one I often make.

A. Your going to max tool nipper anyway (So its effectively skill point free, leaving you to spend those points elsewhere, like on a ranged weapon)
B. It has great range (Which really shines in stealth killing) and decent damage
C. Amazing utility, it kills, destroys paper/glass piles, breaks doors, opens crates, chops trees, etc. Which saves you the annoyance of constantly switching from weapon to tool and back!!! Which is really its biggest perk imo
D. Hotbar space saver, its filling both the tool and weapon role

[Nimbull]

Sledge hammer is nice with the perks and all but my favorite is a flaming steel axe and a drunken dwarven battle cry while clipping zombies left and right. Shotgun does make a nice complement weapon but eventually I get drawn to the assault rifle and sniper rifle to complement my flaming battle steel axe.

[Serious]

I always liked the axe:
The stone axe as standard tool for almost everything is always the first thing i upgrade to build it myself at lv 5.
The steel axe on the other hand is so damn fun to use. Optical and its also strong enough to deal with every standard zombie. And if you miss an attack you will at least destroy a wall or floor block :D

[Rio]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Ramar:

Does anyone use the stun baton mid to late game? I've put points into it, and I have a tier 6 stun baton, but it seems like it's taking a LOT to kill zombies with it. Oh, I'm on day 40, so I've got a ways to go. Jut wondering if it works good in later stages.

In darkness falls mod it can be nice to stun lock zombies pre-laser weapons. Because they are near unkillable with their hp regen + insane difficulty. So its beating on them until you get the lucky head crit. Its the only place about where I was really grateful having a player on the team with the stun baton.

In vanilla zombies aren't that tanky, so stunning is usually inferior to just killing imo. Like stunning falls to the wayside to just getting that head 1 shot later on imo Idk They are a fun weapon...but... if you just going for 1 shot fast swings..machete exists. And machete comes with utility as your butcher tool. I mean your going to invest in agility or strength no matter what, because you need an armor skill,

I do think they need a new weapon tier. Or to not rely on a candy. Or have the candy become craftable.

[Stitches]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Serious:

I always liked the axe:
The stone axe as standard tool for almost everything is always the first thing i upgrade to build it myself at lv 5.
The steel axe on the other hand is so damn fun to use. Optical and its also strong enough to deal with every standard zombie. And if you miss an attack you will at least destroy a wall or floor block :D

Also another good thing about the axe is you only need to invest to tier 7 strength attributes to max the axe.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Uscari:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Jonnson:

"If you're having trouble with irradiated zombies, you won't be using any of these melees. You'll use guns."

"The only melees that can realistically deal with them is the Sledgehammer and maybe the Club."

https://youtu.be/5g5Sv3OA7CQ

The sledghammer is w/o a doubt, the worst weapon in the game.

I'm not sure what your argument is here. The sledgehammer is bad because the stun baton performs better in an incredibly impractical horde night setup?

You shouldn't be running around with your melee on horde night to begin with. It's extremely dangerous and this guy is gambling with his life every time he does it.

Why bother consuming 100 different drugs for this meme strat when I can use a normal functional melee weapon that helps me loot so I can use actual horde night weapons like guns behind fortifications to deal with the horde?

I could concede that the Stun Baton paired with the nerd candy is overpowered, but that wouldn't by any means suggest that the Sledgehammer is a bad melee weapon.

Sledgehammer gives you very similar crowd control as this weapon without requiring drugs to make it work, it has better range, and unlike the Stun Baton is efficient at killing zombies quickly. Yes it costs a lot of stamina but Sex Rex largely compensates for that, especially when you aren't pursuing suicidal horde night strats like this.


This doesn't even mention all the other melee weapons that don't have the crowd control of either the Sledge or the Stun Baton.

Melees are really designed for clearing and looting POIs, not for horde nights. Sure with enough preparation you could do better on horde night with some melees vs others, but those are all outclassed by ranged weaponry/traps. Sledge is top tier for the things you actually need to use a melee for.

Did the pimps state that melee was designed for clearing POI's. Because I and many others have used melee builds from Parkour or through base designs for horde nights.

[Rio]

The game penalizes you for using guns to clear mid/large pois with screamers over melee/bow. Specially on higher difficulty where it takes more shots to kill zombies and then multiplayer where you are both shooting its oh boy....

I have fought bloodmoons before with a steel axe and fortbites an other things. But I do feel the ease that you get broken arms and legs fighting groups kind of is the game saying "What your doing is not what you should be doing." Least in A19, haven't done tank melee build in A20 yet,

I do very much think heat builds 5-20x faster then it should.

So I would say the game very much promotes you clear pois with melee/bow. Even with ammo being more common now.

[tazman1]

honestly why use weapons when you can use your fists.

If fact if you rank up brawler really cops and crawlers are your only real headache. Cops have that nasty little spit and explode mechanic and crawlers tend to be the only thing that can infect you because its hard to get the head shot on those bastards.

add that to the rest of the Fort tree and the Str skill sexy rex and stamina will never be an issue including the ability to get the hell out of dodge if you ever do need to heal up or repair.

I actually did a comparison with A19 and found out that only 1 skill in the entire fortitude skill set was changed. Give you 1 guess what that skill was.

[Sterling]

Początkowo opublikowane przez tazman1:

honestly why use weapons when you can use your fists.

If fact if you rank up brawler really cops and crawlers are your only real headache. Cops have that nasty little spit and explode mechanic and crawlers tend to be the only thing that can infect you because its hard to get the head shot on those bastards.

add that to the rest of the Fort tree and the Str skill sexy rex and stamina will never be an issue including the ability to get the hell out of dodge if you ever do need to heal up or repair.

I actually did a comparison with A19 and found out that only 1 skill in the entire fortitude skill set was changed. Give you 1 guess what that skill was.

If we're talking just your fists by themselves, that takes a lot of work to make into a powerhouse. The knuckles only slightly more so. I just really hate the look of the steel knuckles, which is why I always have trouble choosing a melee weapon to run with.

[Humpenstilzchen]

My favourite melee weapons are clubs (baseball bat, steel bat) and machetes. I prefer the clubs a little bit more because smashing heads feels so great and because you get so much stam back that you can fight endlessly, though machetes are quite effective as well and are great for chopping meat too so you save one slot for a knife.

[KellyR]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Uscari:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Stitches:

I tested the Wrench, Steel Axe and Spear with their perks against radiated zombies.

With late game zombies the normal items like the Spear were better than the wrench and steel axe because of other benefits it receives. The wrench was the worst out of the 3. But the steel axe surprisingly held its own and damage was good. Once I added moonshine and candy to the mix the axe plowed through anything.

If you decide to use the axe, max sexual T because of the high stamina drain.

If you're having trouble with irradiated zombies, you won't be using any of these melees. You'll use guns.

The only melees that can realistically deal with them is the Sledgehammer and maybe the Club.

Judging off base stats alone and not accounting for books or skills, the Wrench's power attack gives it the highest DPS of any melee attack which doesn't stall stamina.

Sure you can probably exceed this using drugs, beer, and perk books using other melees, but the Wrench gives this with no added cost to you. No need to spend points in trees that have no application outside of combat, no need to bring beer/drugs with you, no need to fill up an extra slot in your inventory with a melee.

I agree late game Wrench is not the strongest melee but you get so much out of it for such little investment. I think it's a critically underrated melee weapon.

In the late game you shouldn't even be touching a Spear or Axe because you should have the points available to use real melee weapons, like the Sledge, Club, even the Machete.

You realize the rad remover mod exists, yes?

[brightcat7]

i have found pipe rifle with 8x scope mod does 1 shot kill at early stage brilliant.

[brightcat7]

Początkowo opublikowane przez FadeXF:

For the first time ever I started putting points into a melee on this run... brawler with an iron knuckles (so far) 9 points (+1 from glasses) - 5 brawler - found 2x books so far in boxing - put points into sexual trex - it feels really solid to me - the continued bonus when you kill 1 zombie after another is really nice - healing yourself in combat is nice. I can't wait to try steel knuckles - I suspect it will be quite OP since already I can 1 shot normal zombie with luck.

I don't know how viable end game will be but I can't wait to do blood moons just boxing everything - seems like a fun change to my usual game play to me!!

ohh...*walks backward slowly*