Going for a melee build is so difficult in the beginning.

[Stolas! ❤]

I feel so squishy and have to use all my stims to survive some encounters and leveling feels so slow...

[Zes]

you need sneak and blitz

[Ashling]

Unless you're doing the idiot savant thing (which might be a good idea to go for if you're super against intelligence for this build. More info bellow), it's always a decent idea to put in a good amount of points into intelligence because that stat helps you level. You don't have to start off as a 10 strength/10 endurance character at level one and you'll often find specializing yourself to such an extreme will come back to haunt you in the mid game. Also, armor does wonders.

I'd still put in a decent amount of points into endurance though.
(Idiot savant is the 5th perk point in the luck tree and when you have an intelligence of 1 the perk acts as though you've put more than 10 points into intelligence for leveling purposes)

[Mathias🦽]

Id recommend you avoid fights completely that are in open areas early game, but once you get to like level 15-20 you'll be fine closing the distance without taking too much damage if you get the perk that gives resistances whilst sprinting

[supernova backshots]

what LazyPurple said "It's hard to be melee-based in a first-person shooter"

[wtiger27]

Melee in FO4, once you have perked for it and leveled some, know what to do, is a extremely powerful way to play the game. But do not rely strictly on melee. There will be times, you will need a range weapon. Like on turrets you can not reach.

With melee, use Blitz and attack using Vats.

[Sabaithal]

Do drugs. Lots of drugs. Jet, psycho, buffout, etc. Drugs are amazing bruh.

[nome22]

Get your STR up to 10,
use a "Day Tripper" then read "You're SPECIAL!" STR now 11
get the STR bobble head STR is now 12
Each point is an extra 10% melee damage and +10 carrying capacity

You're SPECIAL! can bring any stat above 10 as long as you lower it with a de-buff first
(Day Tripper +3 Luck +3 Chr -2 Str)

[mikaeliby]

I found it qutie easy from the start. Get grognacs stuff and you´re set.

[ghpstage]

The Blitz perk gives your melee attacks quite some range in VATS, basically a teleportation move. It is overwhelmingly powerful, easily the best thing available to melee, the only drawback is that it can get boring. with the third person camera you can even teleport out from behind walls.
VATS itself causes extra damage in melee or unarmed combat, VATS attacks cannot be blocked and the attack sequence reduces incoming damage to something like 10% of normal.

Drugs have been mentioned, so to give context,
Bufftats gives +3STR, +3 END, +3 PER, +65HP
Psychobufff gives +3 STR, +3 END, +65HP +25% DAM
Dirty Wastelander gives +3STR, +1CHA, -2INT

These all stack, so taken together that gives a whipping,
+9STR +6END, +3PER, +1CHA, +130HP, +25% DAM, -2INT
That gives a ridiculous buff to melee damage output and your ability to tank damage.
Most of the ingredients to craft them are common (especially the first two!) and you don't need any perks to make them.

Jet is particularly awesome too. It doesn't only slow time to give you longer to react, it makes your character faster relative to the gameworld, and it is very common.
Tying it to a hotkey creates a near perfect IWIN button that will get you out of just about anything.

[duanevp]

Stalker/Glass Cannon build from Fudgemuppet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti7YWhiav2Y
It's what I'm playing right now and it's fun.

Starts with S 10, P1, E1, C1, I1, A9, L3, (puts the special book point into C)
FIRST perk is idiot savant. Then big leagues, blitz and sneak, and just builds from there. With that low endurance you CAN'T just stand toe to toe with anything and bash away at them. You have to approach carefully and definitely be using VATS as much as humanly possible to start out with. Even then, there are some things you just DO NOT want to face off with for some time and you'll need to deal with them some other way - or just avoid them altogether.

Forget high intelligence. 1 Intelligence and Idiot Savant is better xp than 8 or 9 intelligence alone IIRC. I wouldn't even pick up the Intelligence bobblehead from the Library until you really don't care anymore about fast-leveling.

BLOW $--- UP! Use all the explosives. Use ALL the drugs too. MAKE the drugs yourself if possible. If you EVER just walk away from a hubflower you're doing it very wrong. You should be making and taking as much jet and psycho as you can (preferably just merging them into psychojet), along with whatever Medex that you find. Keep a few Refreshing Beverages on hand for possible addiction and keep more at whatever your home base is. Upgrade your melee weapon ASAP and then mod it as far as you can. Cook ALL the meat. Don't rely on JUST stimpaks for healing. Cooked meats also can provide a lot of useful bonuses and abilities. Making drugs and cooking meat is also more xp for you.

Don't rely on ALL-MELEE all the time unless you're looking for that as a challenge. Use grenades, molotovs, set mine traps and pull targets to them. Keep a pistol, a sniper rifle, and a combat shotgun on you too and don't be shy about using them, even if they're not your best attack. If you need distance - keep your distance. Observe and PLAN your attacks rather than just rush in hoping for the best. Keep a suit of power armor at base too for when you need to go in strong somewhere, but mostly your defense is actually in your offense and stealth.

Keep your melee weapons FAST. You can find a combat knife behind the houses on the ridge above Concord. Go with that to start and get Pickman's Blade as soon as you can - that can carry you through the remainder of the game. However, if you really want to go for big heavy SLOW melee weapons then you almost need a different build, but otherwise should still wait until, maybe 30th level before going after Atom's Judgement. For REALLY big battles save up missiles and mininukes and simply keep the missile launcher/fatman waiting at home until you actually PLAN to use them. For the mirelurk queen at the Castle I generally save up bottlecap mines and let her walk up the shore from the water and blow HERSELF up (with a missile or couple grenades to finish her off if needed).

By the time you're level 4 with the Stalker build and have Blitz, the scales really tilt in your favor. You can sneak up still a fair distance away from targets and then just blitz MULTIPLE targets in VATS. Melee might require SOME caution and skill at the outset but it's almost embarrassingly easy to dominate the rest of the game. ALL that ammo you pick up is just money in your pocket, other than keeping 100 rounds or so of the two or three calibers you keep for backup weapons. You don't needs tons of junk for all the screws and springs and whatall that you would for modding guns. Your perks and Pickmans or Krevmh's Tooth will mostly keep you on top of damage, and you can just pull mods for any backup guns from whatever you happen to find. Unless you're also putting a lot of effort into base-building you don't need a steady supply of junk. Your 10+ strength can be put to use carrying only the stuff with the best value-weight ratio.

Melee builds in F4 kick ass - as long as you do them right.

[Premu]

Originally posted by duanevp:

Forget high intelligence. 1 Intelligence and Idiot Savant is better xp than 8 or 9 intelligence alone IIRC. I wouldn't even pick up the Intelligence bobblehead from the Library until you really don't care anymore about fast-leveling.

Actually, the XP gain with idiot savant is higher for INT 2 than for INT1. After that it drops until INT 10. Any point above 10 increases it again (as the probability for idiot savant can't drop below 1%). With INT 15 (Reachable with bobblehead, You're special and three sharp armor pieces you get even a higher XP gain from than for INT 2. So either go for INT 2 or go completely overboard. In your build I'd take at least the bobblehead.

[kaffekoppen]

Yes, it's harder to start out as melee, but it will eventually make you the best damage dealer. Melee is absurdly powerful with the right stats, perks and gear, and on top of that you can stack more damage than other builds by using alcohol and chems.

People have already said to go for VATS and Blitz. Other than that, I recommend looking for 5 armor pieces with +strength ("fortifying"), and definitely go for ballistic weave. I also highly recommend grabbing the Rockville Slugger from Diamond City - even though you get it early, it's one of the best melee weapons in the game, you just have to upgrade it.

If you have Nuka World, you should aim for the Pack Alpha perk as it's amazing for melee The Chosen Disciple perk looks good on paper, but in reality it's bugged and doesn't work on all enemies. I'd grab Pack Alpha and Ace Operator.

Originally posted by duanevp:

Forget high intelligence. 1 Intelligence and Idiot Savant is better xp than 8 or 9 intelligence alone IIRC.

With low intelligence, you won't get Science!, Scrapper, or Chemist. Chemist is amazing for melee builds, and Science! is used for upgrading equipment (including some of the best melee weapons), and for building.