The New Hatchet

[Fargo]

I have a question to anyone who's used the hatchet. Compared to the other melee weapons, what makes it any better? Does it have any secret traits? Because the way it's presented, it seems like a direct downgrade to something like the stun baton, or the stun lance. It penetrates light armour like all the other melee weapons, the only difference is it can't stun. Can it do anything special, like the entrenchment tool? Or is it just a worse version of other melee weapons?

[MrRaggaedeman]

I can jump on a behemoth and hack it dead.

[Lucky Cat]

It just does far more damage than the Baton (And presumably the shovel) when comparing a wide and fast swing weapon. The downside is it isn't as easy to stagger medium enemies like Overseers, you might get a few swings in and it MIGHT stop them but not quick enough to get pummeled to the ground by them. Its extremely quick to take our swarms and keep them at bay.

If your intent is to kill them outright, Axe is the way to go. Otherwise use the Stun Baton for Crowd Control. As for its Light Penetration, you can ignore it as its a bit misleading. You can in fact use it on certain enemies like Charger's legs and it'll down it very quickly, the swings of Melee weapons (Or stabs like Stun Lance) bypasses the armor and hit the weaker parts instead.

Honestly, your best bet for figuring things out where it fits better is to use it yourself and get an idea, use different setups like Ballistic Shields, stun grenades. Anything to enhance the effectiveness. I just know I ain't using it because its too much risk getting beat up for trying to use it when a Stun Baton/Lance gives you room to fight back, get some distance, shoot, etc. Hell, the stagger force of a weapon bash is easily better than the axe alone and yet it cannot do that for w/e reason but that's by experience alone and not quite 100% certain since I haven't used it on every enemy yet.

[Fargo]

Originally posted by Lucky Cat:

It just does far more damage than the Baton (And presumably the shovel) when comparing a wide and fast swing weapon. The downside is it isn't as easy to stagger medium enemies like Overseers, you might get a few swings in and it MIGHT stop them but not quick enough to get pummeled to the ground by them. Its extremely quick to take our swarms and keep them at bay.

If your intent is to kill them outright, Axe is the way to go. Otherwise use the Stun Baton for Crowd Control. As for its Light Penetration, you can ignore it as its a bit misleading. You can in fact use it on certain enemies like Charger's legs and it'll down it very quickly, the swings of Melee weapons (Or stabs like Stun Lance) bypasses the armor and hit the weaker parts instead.

Honestly, your best bet for figuring things out where it fits better is to use it yourself and get an idea, use different setups like Ballistic Shields, stun grenades. Anything to enhance the effectiveness. I just know I ain't using it because its too much risk getting beat up for trying to use it when a Stun Baton/Lance gives you room to fight back, get some distance, shoot, etc. Hell, the stagger force of a weapon bash is easily better than the axe alone and yet it cannot do that for w/e reason but that's by experience alone and not quite 100% certain since I haven't used it on every enemy yet.

That's really good info, I appreciate it. I was hesitant on getting it, but this does clear things up a lot. It's a little awkward how they present the melee weapons currently, given the only shown stat is 'recoil: 8'. So I'll have to experiment myself and see if it's worth using more than the lance or baton. I do hope they rework the way they present these weapons, because currently even their descriptions leave much to be desired.

[Botji]

I have not tested it but assuming it is like the baton it would also have the anti-synergy with the Ballistic Shield where you basically open up the shield almost entirely when you swing it while with the staff/spear you can poke from the safety behind the shield.

And yes the Ballistic Shield is honestly very viable even against the bugs now that it blocks melee attacks.

Commanders/Chargers will not knock you around either, you can block their charge(they will move you but not ragdoll you) and it even fully blocks Bile Spewers too... Hunters jumping you just bonk against it as well.

Edit: and according to youtube sources the axe does the same damage as the staff/spear.

[Lucky Cat]

Originally posted by Fargo:

That's really good info, I appreciate it. I was hesitant on getting it, but this does clear things up a lot. It's a little awkward how they present the melee weapons currently, given the only shown stat is 'recoil: 8'. So I'll have to experiment myself and see if it's worth using more than the lance or baton. I do hope they rework the way they present these weapons, because currently even their descriptions leave much to be desired.

Its definitely hard to trust AH's way of going about the description of weapons we can use. Double Edge Sickle easily is more than just a carbon copy of the original but it does Medium Penetration and that alone makes it hard to believe what we're seeing at face value, which is why players are HEAVILY ENCOURAGED to use it and figure it out from there despite wishing we had more detailed information. For all I know, the axe may have more properties that differ from the shovel entirely, it could have the same damage but we don't know that, again, at first glance. Only by hitting things we get a idea and there are avid players who do just that.

The excuse that AH gave for lacking information is that they don't want us to bombard with such but with me who played Battlefield 4, that sort of information was extremely helpful. It was nice to know recoil patterns, where it begins to falter, the damage dropoff... Its why players are begging for a testing range so we don't have to deal with going out in the field, find appropriate enemies by chance and use each and every single thing that comes through.

[N00B]

I killed a charger... with melee.
I decapitated an Impaler... with melee.
The other melee weapons can temporarily stun enemies. The hatchet "stuns" them... permanently.

Originally posted by Fargo:

Compared to the other melee weapons, what makes it any better? Does it have any secret traits?

Damage.

[Botji]

Originally posted by N00B:

I killed a charger... with melee.
I decapitated an Impaler... with melee.
The other melee weapons can temporarily stun enemies. The hatchet "stuns" them... permanently.

Originally posted by Fargo:

Compared to the other melee weapons, what makes it any better? Does it have any secret traits?

Damage.

You can do that with any melee weapon.

[k0rbin0]

I like it

[N00B]

Originally posted by Botji:

You can do that with any melee weapon.

But the hatchet does it better.

[JOHN HELLDIVER]

I've used the hatchet against voteless while wearing melee boosting armor and it took 2-3 hits to kill while NOT stunning. So... no thanks. Also it doesnt stun overseers enough, they flinch but then they'll just wack you.

[StellarSkys]

Originally posted by N00B:

I killed a charger... with melee.
I decapitated an Impaler... with melee.
The other melee weapons can temporarily stun enemies. The hatchet "stuns" them... permanently.

Originally posted by Fargo:

Compared to the other melee weapons, what makes it any better? Does it have any secret traits?

Damage.

I’ve stabbed tanks to death with the spear, I’ve stabbed elevated overseers to death with the spear. It stuns and kills.

Jokes aside. The axe feels better against bugs than stun baton due to its higher damage. The stun baton feels better against illuminate due to its wide cleave and stun effect making them more controllable, and stun lance works well against bots for its high damage, mixed with stun and penetration.

[Inardesco]

Hatchet is awesome.

I like.

You can gimp hive guards from the side (not hitting their plates on the front) in 3 hits. Brood Commanders go all whack in the animation with it though.

Also.

You can dismember every bit of a bug. Thats good enough for me.

On the other hand.

The shovel you can find?

You can stab with it like its a gladius

[Midas]

More damage, less stun, pairs well with the ballistic shield now that you can block melee attacks with it, because you won't be able to stun-lock things like the baton and lance do.

[Kirb]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Hatchet is awesome.

I like.

You can gimp hive guards from the side (not hitting their plates on the front) in 3 hits. Brood Commanders go all whack in the animation with it though.

Also.

You can dismember every bit of a bug. Thats good enough for me.

On the other hand.

The shovel you can find?

You can stab with it like its a gladius

I was digging up some samples and a Diver got overzealous/greedy, tried scooping them up before I was finished scooping dirt and ended up scooping his damn leg off. That shovel stab/dig animation is no joke.