Melee Weapons

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== Melee Weapons For Dummies ==
The quintessential looting weapon in the game, Melee Weapons are silent, close range weapon that do not require ammunition to use. Melee Weapons can be divided into 2 groups:
* Blades/Blunts: Characterized by having a longer reach, and an attack speed of 1 hit/s (early game) to 1.5 hits/s (late game). Allows you to out-range most zombie attacks and reach important 1-crit threshold more quickly.
* Knives: Characterized by having a shorter reach, and an attack speed of 1.5 hits/s (early game) to 2-3 hits/s (late game). Allows you to take out groups of weaker enemies more quickly.
Melee Weapons are capable of dealing cleave damage to up to 2-3 extra enemies. These enemies take 12.5% of the original damage, allowing melee to deal up to 125% of its original DPS.
Melee Weapons' primary strength lies in their Very High Critical Chance, which is the highest critical chance possible in the game. Even though Melee Weapons might seems weak at first due to their weak base damage and slow attack speed, a critical hit can severely knock zombies back and inflict 5 times the amount of damage of a normal attack, allowing Melee Weapons (as well as Pistols and Rifles) to kill even end-game common zombies in as little as 1 to 2 hits. This properties is crucial to any player looking to loot efficiently, as it is important to minimize the amount of noticed zombie and eliminate any threat as quickly and cheaply as possible to maximize looting time and profit.
In the early to mid levels, Melee Weapons heavily emphasize the "stealth" aspect compared to Pistols and Rifles, trading DPS, overall crowd control capability and safety for the ability to kill without generating noise or spending ammunition. This is further reinforced by the Stealth stat, which makes it easier to sneak up on zombies and increases your melee damage by up to 25% when maxed. As endgame hits and zombies become increasingly difficult to fight at close range, Melee Weapons instead become high risk, high reward tools with superior DPS compared to Pistols and Rifles.
Melee Weapons and Chainsaws are capable of killing zombies that would otherwise explode upon being killed by a firearm (for example, the Bloat) without causing them to detonate. They also ignore all PvE armor by default, meaning they will bypass any protection employed by zombies to directly damage them.
=== Requirements ===
Melee Weapons require 79 Critical Hit to achieve the maximum critical chance of 80%. Aside from Stealth which increases Melee damage, other stats are completely irrelevant as far as melee performance is concerned: Strength is never required by any Melee Weapon (nor does it increase their damage), Accuracy does not affect their precision or range, and Reloading is unneeded because Melee Weapons do not run out of ammunition.
=== Looting/Scouting ===
Melee Weapons are ideal for loot runs, primarily due to two facts:
* Low Aggro: Silent and potent, melee weapons do not generate noise that can attract enemies on screen.
** Natural aggro spikes will still occur even when using only melee weapons, however.
* Ammo-free Combat: Melee Weapons do not use ammo by their very nature, and so are free to employ, reducing the cost per trip and saving you valuable inventory space.
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Circling is the primary tactic for using Melee Weapons and Chainsaw against small amount of enemies in a limited amount of space, and will prove to be effective against even the most powerful of bosses, as shown in the video to the right. The tactics involves 2 steps:
# Dodge the zombie's attack by walking or sprinting to the side of their attack instead of backpedaling, allowing you to stay close to them for your own melee attack.
# While the zombie is recovering from their attack, go in and attack them, ideally in the back to facilitate further circling if the zombie is still alive.
Energy management, the amount of threats and spaces available serve as factors that should be mentioned in while circling. Sprinting is much faster compared to walking, and having a decent amount of energy available makes it much safer for you to dodge, rush in to exploit recovering zombie, as well as fleeing if things go south. Having too many zombies and too little amount of space can complicate circling attempts, as they can greatly decrease the amount of space that you can dodge with - it is recommended to try to round the zombies into a single crowd, and then use circling tactics in a more open space to slowly this them out.
Melee Weapon users should exercise caution when dealing with the following type of foes:
* Zombies with vomit attack are capable of outranging Melee Weapons, but also have to stand still for an extended amount of range to do so. Consider sidestepping to bait out the vomit attack and then close in from the side, instead of backpedaling like with normal enemies.
* While Melee Weapons are capable of killing exploding zombies without causing them to detonate, using them in team fights can still be risky due to other firearm-using players capable of blowing them up anyway. It is advised to either switch to a firearm, or fight alone in another location in these situations.
* Sirens pose the greatest amount of threat to Melee Weapon wielders as it is nearly impossible to eliminate one if it has spotted you from afar, and Melee Weapons are very poor at handling large crowds. If there is one with a good chance of spotting you nearby, consider using terrain to limit the chance of it spotting you, or making a beeline to it while temporarily ignoring other zombies. If a Siren spotted you and alerted nearby zombies, switching to a firearm is advisable.
One final advise: Due to how critical hits work in DF, melee weapons are capable of advancing the critical pattern for free by just swinging at thin air. Thus, it might be a good idea to keep a counter in your head on the critical pattern progress and "reload" critical hits by swinging away the non-critical ones; for example, with the maximum critical chance of 80%, you should swing away 1 non-critical hit after every 4 critical hits. This should allow you to guarantee that you always start an encounter with your crits ready, and eliminate smaller groups of enemies more quickly and safely.
=== Aggro Combat/Boss Fighting ===
Compared to Pistols and Rifles which can at least snipe the horde from afar while backpedalling, Melee Weapons are simply not designed for aggro combat at all - they lack DPS or knockback, have difficulty engaging multiple enemies, and tend to invite difficult to dodge swipes from zombies boosted from behind. In aggro situations, you would be better off trying to reach a safe space to weather the storm, finding an exit from the situation, or using another weapon altogether.
== Advantages and Disadvantages ==
Advantages 
* Melee Weapons are the cheapest weapons to use in the game, often costing a lot less than firearms of similar proficiency level and requiring no ammunition.
* Lack of ammunition usage also allows more free inventory slots and more profit on looting trip.
* Melee Weapons are the least stat demanding weapon in the game, only requiring 79 Critical Hit to reach maximum potential as opposed to firearms that would invariably require a combination of Strength, Accuracy, Critical Hit and Reloading to function properly.
* Can kill exploding zombies without causing them to explode.
* Can "reload" critical hits for free.
* Can boost damage by leveling the Stealth stat.
Disadvantages
* Usage requires getting near enemies, limiting killing speed and exposing the player to higher level of threats compared to firearms.
* Ineffective against hordes or boss fights, especially in multiplayer.
* Several zombie attacks are capable of outranging Melee Weapons, such as Brutes' and Irradiated Long Arms' pukes.
** Knives in particular are disadvantaged in this regard, often getting outranged by the common Long Arms in later areas.
==List of Melee Weapons==
The Damage values in brackets indicate the averaged damage that can be achieved with the maximum critical hit chance. The Scrap values in brackets indicate the scrap price with Master Crafted (MC) items.
===Lootable/Craftable===
===Limited Edition/CS Only===
===Dusk/Dawn===
===Event===
Category:Weapons