is a melee/unarmed character viable in combat?

[Ronin_735]

I wanna try a melee or unarmed character, but I don't know if it'd be viable in mid to late game

[Der durch die Scheibeboxxxer]

mid game is too late

[Ronin_735]

I'm afraid I don't understand. too late for what?

[Der durch die Scheibeboxxxer]

pff sorry didnt read correctly yeah i think you could give it a try

[psychotron666]

Yeah, unarmed is good, melee is ridiculously good

[The Chosen Chad]

Yeah, Unarmed and Melee can carry you the entierety of the game.

Unarmed is easier, since your fist does hella more damage than all your unarmed weapon (except the power fist) once you hit level 9.

Melee has lots of good weapons, but also a lot of bad ones. If I got to give some tips go for :

Knife > Combat Knife > Louisville Slugger/Super Sledge > Ripper

Try to get to Reno quick for the Slugger, also make a stock of drugs, mainly Psychos and Jets

[TonZa]

Originally posted by John Cassidy Joestar:

Melee has lots of good weapons, but also a lot of bad ones. If I got to give some tips go for :

Knife > Combat Knife > Louisville Slugger/Super Sledge > Ripper

I would have to disagree that Ripper is the best melee weapon, Super sledge should have that position.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Ripper_(Fallout)
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Super_sledge_(Fallout)

[The Chosen Chad]

Originally posted by TonZa:

Originally posted by John Cassidy Joestar:

Melee has lots of good weapons, but also a lot of bad ones. If I got to give some tips go for :

Knife > Combat Knife > Louisville Slugger/Super Sledge > Ripper

I would have to disagree that Ripper is the best melee weapon, Super sledge should have that position.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Ripper_(Fallout)
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Super_sledge_(Fallout)

Idk, I hate knocking out some guy, and he flys to the other side of the world. Then spending some action points to get to him just for him to wake up and making him fly again.

On paper it has the best damage, in praticality, its just tiresome.

The Ripper tho, you just knock the dude 1 feet away then you finish him with a low action point cost stab.

In the end, I prefer punching, less people flying and hella fun. You can play the game bare handed and still win. Making the Chosen One the strongest ♥♥♥♥♥ in the wastes. Just tearing power armor like it was nothing lol

[TonZa]

It kind of works both ways, they are going to have to get close to you too if they only have melee, works well against Wanamingos and you can choose what direction they would get knocked back, like against a wall or tree if you don't want them to fly away, there is also no low cost stabs on ripper, both swings cost 4AP, on sledge you have option of 3AP swing and 4AP thrust normally.

[The Chosen Chad]

It's been a while since I played melee (find it kind of boring actually), but the Ripper carried me better in some cases than the Super Sledge. Plus the isometric view dont give a clear trajectoire to knock yur ennemies.

In the end, unarmed is still the better alternative in melee combat. Especially in a Jinxed playthrough.

[Johnny Casey]

Nothing really beats out the Big Guns, as most of the burst weapons never miss, unlike any single shot weapons including melee/unarmed, they sometimes miss a lot despite having 95% chance to hit.

As a player who gets very frustrated when the game decided show the bad RNG, I rarely go for anything else.

[Fraktal]

Funny you say that. I found that a mixed Big Guns/Melee build works very well if you have companions, using Big Guns whenever you have a shot and falling back to Melee when you can't shoot without friendly fire. Only tried it in Fallout 1 so far, but I found that Super Sledge + Flamer can carry you through most random encounters that don't involve super mutants with Big Guns of their own.

Originally posted by John Cassidy Joestar:

Idk, I hate knocking out some guy, and he flys to the other side of the world. Then spending some action points to get to him just for him to wake up and making him fly again.

That's why you pick at least one level of Bonus Move if you're doing melee. Late-game, you do enough damage to knock people back even without a Super Sledge.

[The Chosen Chad]

Originally posted by Fraktal:

Funny you say that. I found that a mixed Big Guns/Melee build works very well if you have companions, using Big Guns whenever you have a shot and falling back to Melee when you can't shoot without friendly fire. Only tried it in Fallout 1 so far, but I found that Super Sledge + Flamer can carry you through most random encounters that don't involve super mutants with Big Guns of their own.

The Flamer is close range tho, better to just use your Super Sledge all together lmao
And thois combination is viable with mutants, just use 2 psychos.

Originally posted by Fraktal:

That's why you pick at least one level of Bonus Move if you're doing melee. Late-game, you do enough damage to knock people back even without a Super Sledge.

Nah usually it goes to the other screen, depleting your entire AP. Just knock him with a aimed punch to the head with a fist or a Mega Powerfist and finish him bruh. The Super Sledge is over rated.

[Morior Invictus]

Melee/Unarmed build really comes together at level 24 with the Slayer perk.

For Melee the Super Sledge is by far the most damaging weapon, though the knockback can be an issue if you want to make repeated attacks against ranged enemies. The best way to mitigate this is to fight in enclosed spaces. For everything else the Ripper is the second best choice, ignoring 80% of enemy damage resistance, though it requires Small Energy Cells for ammo. For the mid-game you can also loot a Wakizashi from a Yakuza in world map encounters around the New Reno area, this also has 80% armour penetration.

For Unarmed the Power Fist is by far the best choice, again using Small Energy Cells for ammo. You can upgrade this to a Mega Power Fist at certain locations or buy the upgraded version in San Fran. In the early game Spiked Knuckles will carry you pretty far.

The Slayer perk at level 24, despite the description saying it requires a successful luck roll for crits, is false and all your unarmed and melee attacks will become auto-crits.

You can increase your close range combat effectiveness further with perks that give you more action points, such as Bonus Move and 2 stacks of Action Boy. Obviously a high natural Agility would serve you well, it would be best to roll 8 or 9 Agility at character creation.

[The Chosen Chad]

Originally posted by Übermensch:

For Unarmed the Power Fist is by far the best choice, again using Small Energy Cells for ammo. You can upgrade this to a Mega Power Fist at certain locations or buy the upgraded version in San Fran. In the early game Spiked Knuckles will carry you pretty far.

Quick note, bare handed is more powerful than spiked gauntlets once you hit level 9 and 100% in unarmed

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Unarmed#Unarmed_skill_attacks

[Fraktal]

Originally posted by John Cassidy Joestar:

The Flamer is close range tho, better to just use your Super Sledge all together lmao

The Super Sledge can't hit multiple closely-packed enemies. Torching four radscorpions in a single shot is very satisfying, not to mention ammo-efficient. Quite weight-inefficient, though.

And thois combination is viable with mutants, just use 2 psychos.

I'm not sure it is, if I want to keep my party alive. Rocket launchers tend to be instant kill on everything not wearing powered armor (and sometimes even then, as I tend to play on Hard which cranks up the AI's crit chance like crazy) and I prefer keeping my companions alive. In such a matchup, I prefer singling out which mutant has the rocket launcher and blasting him with my own, trying to catch as many in the blast as I can, before dropping the hammer.