Melee Weapons

Melee Weapons is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, and Fallout 3 skill. It determines your combat effectiveness with all melee weapons.

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics
Initial Level: Starting Melee is equal to 55% + (1% x the average of your Strength and Agility). Average characters will have a 60% skill.

Fallout 3
Weapons using this skill are specifically the Police Baton, Chinese Officer's Sword, Combat Knife, Lead Pipe, Ripper, Rolling Pin, Knife, Switchblade, Tire Iron, Repellent Stick, Baseball Bat, Nail Board, Pool Cue, Sledgehammer, Super Sledge, Shishkebab, and any unique variants of these weapons. As this skill increases, so does your damage inflicted with all of these weapons, both in and out of V.A.T.S. mode. The Melee Weapons skill also allows you to use a melee weapon to block an attack; the higher the skill, the more damage is absorbed.

Melee weapons in Fallout 3 is a Strength based skill and you receive two skill points for each point of Strength. In addition there is a Strength based damage bonus for each melee attack up to +6 damage at 10 Strength. Melee weapons can be used in V.A.T.S. but can't make targetted attacks to specific parts of the body but still gain the accuracy boost to the attacks to the body in general. Unlike Fallout 1 and 2 where some of the higher level Melee weapons like the Ripper (weapon) used Small Energy Cells with each attack no melee weapons in Fallout 3 require ammunition. However as ammunition, especially for Small Guns weapons, is a very common loot item this shouldn't be a major consideration in chosing a melee weapon.

The only specific Fallout 3 Perks for Melee weapons are Little Leaguer and Ninja although other Perks like Toughness or Better Criticals are important for building an effective melee fighter.

In choosing a melee weapon don't focus too heavily on which weapon has the highest damage. A fast weapon like a Combat Knife or Ripper (weapon) can make more attacks in a given length of time than a heavy Sledgehammer so it might do more damage over time. Refer to the DPS stat on the Weapons page. More attacks also means more chances to stagger an opponent so they can't attack back as quickly reducing the damage you take. Shishkebab appears to be the pre-eminent melee weapon as it has the highest base DPS, and when combined with Pyromaniac, is by far the most effective melee weapon.

The player can maximize this skill by collecting all Grognak the Barbarian books, granted that the player has the Comprehension skill.

Common Strategies

 * Against ranged attackers you're best to duck behind cover and wait for them to come running up to you when you can ambush them with a quick VATS attack. If you don't kill them in that first attack then keep hammering on them to keep them off balance until you either kill them or get enough action points for another VATS attack.  If you get caught out in the open, strafing to the left or right as you're running up to them will reduce but not eliminate the damage you take.


 * Against melee attackers you can either chose to go toe to toe with them, if you've built up enough Damage Resistance through armor, perks or doses of Med-X or you can "slash dance" by making a quick attack then backing off out of their reach before they can make their own attack. This latter tactic seems to work especially well against creatures with slow but powerful attacks like the radscorpion.


 * If you find yourself having trouble with wounded raiders running off faster than you can chase them look into getting a Dart Gun as this will cripple their legs and slow them to a walk.


 * As many common melee character builds sacrifice Perception you may find yourself getting ambushed too often as you're running through the Wasteland. Recruiting Dogmeat can be a way to give you advanced warning as he has high Perception and will start growling and face towards any hostiles he senses.


 * Melee-based companions, particularly Dogmeat, make a great side-kick for melee PC's. Dogmeat will generally draw enemy attention away from you, allowing you to move in close without getting wounded. With a high enough sneak percentage, you can even remain undetected by a foe while Dogmeat is tanking him, giving you a chance to perform a Sneak critical.


 * Oddly enough, it is more effective to use a Ranged Weapon against Melee or Unarmed enemies, and to use Melee Weapons or Unarmed against enemies with Ranged Weapons. When fighting a Melee Weapon/Unarmed enemy continously back up as you shoot them with a Ranged Weapon to take minimal damage. It is unwise to use Melee Weapons against other Melee Weapons users, because basically you will just be trading blows and the other enemy may block your attacks. When fighting a humanoid with a Ranged Weapon or a weapon that can't block, continously circle them in one direction while hammering them to death [apparently the AI has a low X-Axis sensitivity setting], they will not be able to turn fast enough to hit you and will be unable to block leaving them defenseless. This tactic can be used successfully against Deathclaws, Super Mutants, and Ghouls but is less effective against enemies lower to the ground such as Radscorpions, Mole Rats and Dogs. Luckily, the former group is the more dangerous one.

Caution!
The Melee weapons skill is not the path of least resistance in Fallout 3. There are some steep SPECIAL requirements for Strength, Endurance, Agility and Luck in order to be as effective as a Small Guns shooter that will only need to worry about Agility and Luck. This means you may have to short change Intelligence meaning fewer skill points which makes it harder to raise non-combat skills like Speech, Science and Lockpick. Or attributes such as Charisma that have fewer practical applications with a Melee based fighter could be lowered instead of Intelligence. Melee fights also seem to be more demanding on graphics cards than sniping from a distance so you may run into problems with the game "chugging" or even crashing if you have the graphics set too high. Alternatively, mixing this skill with something like explosives lowers the agility requirements, as you can use ranged grenades in VATS, then wait for them to charge you while your AP recharges, and you can also set up a quick mine to further weaken them while you lie in ambush. Remember that nine extra agility only translates to 18 APs, which is more or less one extra attack in VATS.

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