Melee weapon discussion.

[Khyron]

Early game when I'm doing Tier 1-3 quests just about any weapon can be useful. Clubs stand out vs other weapons solely because of the increase in stun/KD rates, but I've had good success doing early-game missions with pretty much any melee weapon in the game.

 

Mid and late game, when I'm dong Tier 4-5 quests it feels like most melee weapons are lacking when dealing with hordes. The baton and sledge are both amazing at aoe, with the Sledge being able to knock down groups and the Baton (With nerd tats) being able to incapacitate large amounts of zombies at once. But the other weapons lack that same utility. Oftentimes it feels like the only way to reliably take on larger groups at mid-to-late game is with firearms.

 

Now, that by itself wouldn't be so bad IMO - I'm OK with using firearms at that point. I've got some mines set up, I've got brass and lead and plenty of gunpowder. But melee perks never really feel useful past a certain point if you are using a machete, or a spear, or whatever. It feels like it's not even worth the perk investments if the weapons can't keep up. If I can't crowd control some of that crowd, they'll kill me faster than I can kill them. Weighted head helps with some weapons but not all of them (Machete) can accept that modification, and even for the ones that can it feels like it doesn't proc often enough to keep me alive. The ONLY way I can complete T4/5 quests is with a firearm, and with 5 if I am not SUPER careful the firearm needs to be automatic to keep up with the crowds I get.

 

I guess what I'm wondering is if this is commonplace. Do others run into this same difficulty? How many people prefer to run Sledge/Baton specifically because of the lack of decent CC against crowds in later tiers? Is there a trick to melee that I'm missing that makes it more handy with those weapons? Please help me improve my play by helping me understand where I'm going wrong.

[Syphon583]

I don't think you're alone in this. As opposed to early game where guns are your backups for those oh sh*t moments, mid to late game that seems to flip where melee is your backup in case a zed gets to close while you're reloading. I do wish there were another top tier melee weapon like a katana that sliced through all but the toughest enemies like butter.

 

I have seen a YT video about an "unkillable" brawler build, but I can't remember the specifics. It of course heavily relied on beer and fully spec'd heavy armour, but I've never played it myself, so not sure how sustainable it is.

[Ray Garraty]

I love melee weapons, but in the lategame I abandon them too in favor of stealth weapons and firearms.

I can't imaging making noise on the higher floors of a skyscraper, because the numbers of enemies are too overwhelming, and framerate is too low to be able to club them all to death simultaneously and effectively without taking damage.

Theopetically, you could use stealth to approach sleeping zombie and hit it with a melee weapon, and I saw some YT-videos of using knife to cut-throat zombies, but I personally wouldn't risk it.

Also when the POI is located in Wasteland, it's also important to stay quiet on the lower floors in order not to attract any zombies and bears from the street

Edited July 14, 2022 by Ray Garraty (see edit history)

[RipClaw]

6 hours ago, Ray Garraty said:

I can't imaging making noise on the higher floors of a skyscraper, because the numbers of enemies are too overwhelming, and framerate is too low to be able to club them all to death simultaneously and effectively without taking damage.

Depends on which skyscraper. The Crack a Book HQ is very difficult to master with melee weapons alone. Dishong and Higashi, on the other hand, can be done with melee weapons if you clean one room at a time and are quick on your feet.

 

As for the horde nights, it depends on whether you play with standard 8 zombies at the same time or, for example, with 32 zombies at the same time. With many zombies at the same time you either have to use electric traps or you only have a thin bridge that leads to you so that you only have 2-3 zombies in front of you at the same time while the rest of the zombies falls down to the ground.

 

 

[Darthjake]

I use the spear as it's reach makes it a bit easier while backpedaling.  I've not used clubs much since the spear became available, but I don't seem to have too much trouble knocking down Z's, I even fended off a horde with one of the new crawlers with just my spear after I got detected shooting my bow.

[ElCabong]

I equip a baseball bat and that's it. In later stages I will use it to finish off a zombie when I just don't want to waste any more ammo on it.

 

For taking out groups of zombies I use explosive crossbow bolts. This is a problem in later game like you said. 

[pApA^LeGBa]

If there is some room to move, i don´t have any issues using the machete in late game also. I guess you could use the baton combined with 2 turrets aswell, but there is a lot of places where this would be hard or impossible to pull off.

 

@RipClaw Not taking the intended route in the crack a book does work for melee. Starting on the ground level and luring them out using a few frames in the stair well. Doing the intended route, no chance, that´s true.

Edited July 15, 2022 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)

[Ray Garraty]

32 minutes ago, pApA^LeGBa said:

Not taking the intended route in the crack a book does work for melee

Like this one? 

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by Ray Garraty (see edit history)

[pApA^LeGBa]

Not really. I simply make a path trough the spikes at the main entrance and lure them out floor by floor just placing a few frames in the stairwell so they can actually path down and outside and i can melee them. Don´t have time to build a minibase when doing a POI tbh, also don´t wanna just grab the main loot, there is a lot of stuff to wrench.

Edited July 15, 2022 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)

[ElDudorino]

I use melee and crossbow the vast majority of the time and then guns for backup. Clubs are fast, can knock down multiple enemies, stun on hit, and give you essentially infinite stamina once you're perked up so it's easy to take on hordes as long as you're only facing 2-3 at a time due to choke points or maneuvering. But sure, in a place like the Crack a Book T5 I'm switching to guns when I trigger a room full of a million fast zombies.

 

I've never felt like I should be using melee 100% of the time. Guns as the backup for intense moments at the cost of ammo and possibly waking up a wasteland full of angry dudes feels like the way it would really go down and feels basically "right."

[canadianbluebeer]

On 7/13/2022 at 4:45 PM, Syphon583 said:

I don't think you're alone in this. As opposed to early game where guns are your backups for those oh sh*t moments, mid to late game that seems to flip where melee is your backup in case a zed gets to close while you're reloading. I do wish there were another top tier melee weapon like a katana that sliced through all but the toughest enemies like butter.

 

I have seen a YT video about an "unkillable" brawler build, but I can't remember the specifics. It of course heavily relied on beer and fully spec'd heavy armour, but I've never played it myself, so not sure how sustainable it is.

 

 

This one? 

 

 

That's basically my main tank one.  I go heavy machine gun first, then add the brawler later.

 

It is a very fun build.