Melee weapon options?

[Spyder335]

Is there any point in using anything besides the hammers?
Any benefits to the knifes?

[Artek [General]]

TL:DR - Big No.

Long version:
No, for the whole variety of reasons. Hammers are unbeatable in golden combination of stagger-power and raw damage output.
The real big one being 20 damage on fully charged hit, which allows hammers to one-shot generic biters. A quick tap to the back of the head also oneshots shooters. Staggering allows it to overpower everything else.
The only genuine criticism is the somewhat unrelaible arcing hitbox which causes some suprise f*ck ups on rare occasions.

The Bats trade damage output for even more stagger, allowing them to stunlock anything they don't like. They also completely annihilate physical locks.

Knives are all about speed - with their crazy charging speed you can massacre small enemies real quick. Then they also have 2 unique gimmicks: bonus damage against sleeping enemies AND bonus damage from backstabs, which makes them crazy good for stealth.

Spears though never found a niche. Everything they can do - someone else can do better. They have better reach, but all that means is that they are easier to use - it rarely matters in terms of practicality because Hammer Cavemen just jump their victims at full sprint to compensate the lack of reach.
Spears have superior headshot damage, i think like 33% more on full charge than Hammer? But in practice that doesn't mean anything - they take exactly the same amount of hits to kill big ones, only without the safety of reliable staggering.
When facing smalls - they always have to aim for the head, when hammers can just say "f*ck it" and just smack a biter with a full charge for a guaranteed kill, no additional aiming required.
Spears also deal 33% less quick stab damage, making them disgustingly weak without charging.
The final nail in the coffin is the sprint-while-charging, or rather the lack thereof. Everyone can bum-rush enemies, the spears cannot. Combine it with the fact that it doesn't actually do anything special and you get the objectively worst melee in the game that there is no reason to bring into any mission for any reason. It literally only exists as training wheels for new players.

[Spyder335]

Thanks for the info, a friend and I just started and it can be a little overwhelming.

[Stormer]

Stamina cost is far lower on bat and knife though this is only really an issue if your not playing with a full team and have to melee twice as much at once since the bots dont really help with that

I exclusively use bat just because I hate the stamina cost on the hammer due to the above

[Mysterious Sir Knight]

These are how I'd describe them:

-Hammer
Positive: Overall the best.
Negative: Can't do the fun stuff the other weapons can.

-Spear
Positive: its range makes it good for Scouts, and allows you to dog fight big bois as long as they're alone.
Negative: Slow charging and slower sprinting while charging, making it terrible for chain-kills.

-Bat
Positive: has big stagger for stun-locking.

-Knife
Positive: Charges the fastest, and if aimed properly can slaughter small bois VERY fast.
Negative: If aimed improperly, you may as well be hitting them with a pool-noodle.
Negative: Hardest to kill scouts.

[Ghoul Hunter]

Spear is fine. Does the largest stealth hit, doesn't it? Also has the longest reach for stabbing a scout in the head. Doesn't hurt to have one guy with a spear, and make them the dedicated scout popper. Less chance of failure is a good thing.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Ghoul Hunter:

Spear is fine. Does the largest stealth hit, doesn't it? Also has the longest reach for stabbing a scout in the head. Doesn't hurt to have one guy with a spear, and make them the dedicated scout popper. Less chance of failure is a good thing.

Not stealth - precision hits. Stealth is knife's thing.
Spear's only 2 upsides are notably longer reach - very comfy once you get used to it - and increased headshot damage, but only on charged attacks.

Spear is a great starter for a giant pick off - it deals mean ~78 damage on occi, leaving a generic giant with ~42 health, or x1 charged hammer backstab plus a light tap, but IMHO its not really a great selling point.
It needs to deal 80 damage for top tier one-two KO interaction with a hammer user,
or 85 damage so that it could solo a giant by itself with occi > backstab combo.
THEN it would have a genuine niche as a dedicated giant remover (not chargers though) and all of its' downsides would actually be reasonable. Alas, we never reached that state of greatness.

[Stormer]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Spear is a great starter for a giant pick off - it deals mean ~78 damage on occi, leaving a generic giant with ~42 health, or x1 charged hammer backstab plus a light tap, but IMHO its not really a great selling point.
It needs to deal 80 damage for top tier one-two KO interaction with a hammer user,
or 85 damage so that it could solo a giant by itself with occi > backstab combo.
THEN it would have a genuine niche as a dedicated giant remover (not chargers though) and all of its' downsides would actually be reasonable. Alas, we never reached that state of greatness.

The selling point is the reach is far enough that your outside of gaint slap range, meaning you dont loose half your health if you mess up (and also a full team of spears can nuke a sleeping miniboss enemy before it wakes up which is kinda funny if too impractical to bring seriously)

Just that comes at the downside of it being worthless outside of stealth since its too slow to chainkill hordes and even in stealth its too slow to effectively silence groups of small sleepers before they can yell

[ShodaN]

I rarely see people mention this, but I think ease of use is a big plus, when many levels take a considerable time to complete, secondary and overload included. Sure the hammer can deal with all targets well enough. But taking out giants and scouts with a spear is just way more relaxed. Same with the knifes on smaller enemies or the bat for staggering. It's small differences, but feels like it adds up over time.

[Dj DNA]

Originally posted by ShodaN:

I rarely see people mention this, but I think ease of use is a big plus, when many levels take a considerable time to complete, secondary and overload included. Sure the hammer can deal with all targets well enough. But taking out giants and scouts with a spear is just way more relaxed. Same with the knifes on smaller enemies or the bat for staggering. It's small differences, but feels like it adds up over time.

This is why the spear is a noob trap. The hammer is just as easy to use as the spear + gives you the much needed mobility in the late game.