While Fortnite is known for its diverse arsenal of firearms and explosives, melee weapons can be a highly effective tool for dealing damage up close. Mastering melee combat requires understanding weapon choices, engagement tactics, and practice honing your skills. This comprehensive 2000+ word guide will provide everything you need to know to maximize your melee damage against opponents.
Melee Weapons – An Essential Part of Your Loadout
Melee weapons have some key advantages in Fortnite:
- They deal very high damage per hit which can quickly eliminate low health enemies.
- Attacks are near instant with no reload time.
- No ammo required so usage is unlimited.
- Abundant availability from floor loot and chests.
Having a melee weapon in your inventory gives you an emergency close quarters option when your guns are empty. Certain melee weapons like infinity blades and lightsabers can also give mobility or defensive benefits.
While ranged weapons allow engagement at a distance, melee fills an important niche when enemies get too close for comfort. Developing your melee skills provides a reliable fallback whether your target is low on health or you run out of ammo.
Melee Weapon Types
There are 3 main categories of melee weapons in Fortnite:
Pickaxes
As the default melee option, pickaxes have no special abilities but deal decent damage. All players spawn with their cosmetic pickaxe choice available.
- Available on spawn, no need to loot
- Moderate damage
- No bonuses
Standard Melee Weapons
This includes weapons like swords, sledgehammers, batons, etc. which can be found as floor loot. They deal moderate to high damage.
- Found as floor loot
- Higher base damage than pickaxe
- Faster swing speed
- Variety of types – sword, axe, club etc.
Mythic Melee Items
Special melee weapons like Infinity Blade, Lightsabers, and Mjolnir deal very high damage and have unique bonuses. However, they are exclusively available from mythic bosses or special events.
- Extremely high damage
- Special properties like shield, mobility, deflection
- Limited availability from bosses
Melee Weapon Damage Comparison
| Weapon | Damage |
|---|---|
| Pickaxe | 50 |
| Standard Melee | 60-75 |
| Mythic Melee | 90-100+ |
Finding a Suitable Melee Weapon
Pickaxes are automatically available, but you‘ll need to loot buildings to acquire standard or mythic melee weapons. Some tips:
- Check chests, supply drops, llamas – these have the highest chance of special melee weapons.
- Search floor loot spawns in houses and POIs carefully.
- Landing near boss locations like The Fortress raises chances of mythics.
Ideally you want a high rarity (purple/gold) non-pickaxe melee weapon for maximum damage. Loot quickly early game to obtain one before engaging enemies.
Here are the best places to get mythic melee weapons:
- Infinity Blade – Defeat Ice King at Polar Peak
- Lightsaber – Found in special Star Wars chests
- Mjolnir – Defeat Thor at The Fortress
With mobility items like rift-to-go‘s, you can quickly reach these bosses to secure a mythic melee weapon off spawn.
Approaching Your Target
Closing distance is crucial to bringing your melee weapon into play. Here are some movement tips:
- Shockwave Grenades – Throw at feet to launch towards enemies quickly. Also useful for disorienting.
- Grapplers – Grapple to terrain near enemies to gain proximity for melee ambush.
- Launch Pads – Send you soaring above targets where you can drop down with overhead slash.
- Vehicles – Quickly drive up to unaware enemies and hop out already in range.
Patience is key – avoid just sprinting straight at enemies across open ground. Look for opportunities through cover or distractions.
Stealth Approaches
Stealthily sneaking up on unsuspecting enemies creates huge advantages for melee combat. Useful tactics include:
- Crouch Walking – Minimizes footsteps sounds when carefully approaching.
- Bushes – Hiding in bushes obscures you from view as you creep near.
- Corners – Peeking around corners and objects breaks line of sight while closing in.
- Edges of Storm – Enemies focused on outrunning storm often miss flankers.
Catching opponents unprepared with a stealthy melee assault leads to quick one-pump eliminations.
Optimizing Your Melee Attack
Swinging your melee weapon at the perfect time takes precision. Keep these pointers in mind:
- Move unpredictably – strafe side to side and crouch to be harder to hit.
- Wait until you‘re very close before swinging – be patient.
- Aim for their head for maximum damage.
- Attack immediately after building, editing, or switching weapons to catch them off guard.
- Jump and swing simultaneously to hit evasive or aerial targets.
- Don‘t spam click wildly – time your swings between their movement patterns.
With practice, you‘ll be able to reliably land heavy strikes before the target can react.
Advanced Techniques
Hone your skills with these high-level tips:
- Weapon Combos – Shoot then immediately swap to melee weapon for burst damage.
- Piece Control – Trap opponents in boxes unable to avoid melee range.
- Edits – Edit down on opponent and swing simultaneously.
- Retakes – Use height from retakes to access aerial melee attacks.
Perfectly chaining shooting, building, editing and melee will make you lethal up close.
Recommended Play Styles
Certain gameplay approaches lend themselves well to melee combat:
Aggressive
Push weaknesses aggressively and quickly eliminate low health enemies up close with melee. Useful tips:
- Finish downs immediately with melee when safe to prevent revives.
- Chase enemies trying to heal/reload to stop them from recovering.
- Push together with teammates focusing fire – overwhelm with numbers.
Constant pressure prevents enemies from disengaging from your melee threat range.
Stealth
Flank undetected and ambush unwary targets with surprise melee burst damage. Tactics include:
- Use quiet mobility like crouching rather than noisy vehicles/launch pads.
- Break line of sight before engaging – don‘t let them spot your approach.
- Third party fights from an obscured flank position.
- Hide in structures and ambush as they pass by.
Striking from the shadows delivers massive damage before enemies can react.
Mobility
Use movement items to outmaneuver opponents and close into melee range. Examples:
- Impulses to jet towards enemies and initiate at melee range.
- Shockwaves to rapidly dive bomb unaware targets.
- Launch pads for aerial attacks from above.
- Vehicles to chase down fleeing weak enemies.
Your mobility advantage allows you to dictate the engagement distance.
Defending Against Enemy Melee Users
It‘s equally important to know how to counter opponents using melee tactics:
- Maintain distance and use ranged weapons – shotguns and SMGs excel here.
- Listen for approaching footsteps and drawing/swinging sounds.
- Build walls and ramps for cover the instant you detect a nearby threat.
- If low on health/mats, reposition and disengage. Avoid getting cornered.
- Jump and move erratically to throw off their swing timing.
- Get high ground for protection – melee users must close distance to attack.
Defensive Building
Proactively building defenses prevents melee opponents from sneaking up:
- Wall off choke points to block stealthy flanks.
- Build upward for height advantage.
- Box up fully when needing to pop shields/heals.
- Place traps at likely melee ambush spots.
Constructing barriers maintains space to keep these threats at bay.
Keybinds and Settings
Optimizing your controls and settings improves melee responsiveness:
- Scroll Wheel Reset – Resets builds/edits rapidly so you can press forward.
- Optimal Edit Keybind – Easy to access edit key for quick edits.
- Toggle Pickaxe Keybind – Quickly access pickaxe without scrolling weapons.
- High Sensitivity – Fast turning to track strafing enemies.
- Reduce Deadzones – Minimal stick movement required for crisp response.
With my keybinds set up I‘m able to press 6 buttons in under 0.5 seconds for a quick edit play into melee attack!
Drills to Hone Melee Skills
Dedicated practice is key to execute melee techniques effectively:
Edit Course
Build an edit course focused on closing gaps quickly with edits and blueprinting. Focus on:
- Edits that allow downward drops onto enemies.
- Quick edits that let you burst through structures into proximity.
- Simulate edits made mid-box fight to ambush a target.
If done correctly, you should be able to edit down and one pump targets in slick, rapid succession.
1v1 Box Fights
Intense melee-focused fights against a friend in close quarters. Rules:
- Start within 1×1 squares adjacent to each other.
- Melee weapons only.
- First to 5 elim wins.
The tight quarters and melee-only restriction will build critical close-range fighting skills.
Pickaxe Elimination Challenges
Eliminate X opponents using only your pickaxe per match. Start with something reasonable like 2 per match and increase the number as you improve.
Forcing yourself to rely entirely on a pickaxe will sharpen your ambush and movement abilities.
Boss Battles
Land at boss POIs like The Fortress and fight the boss using only their mythic melee weapon. This teaches you:
- How to dodge heavy attacks from boss.
- Recognizing openings to counterattack safely.
- Precision aiming for maximum damage.
Executing Devastating Melee Attacks
With the right weapon, positioning, timing and practice, your melee skills will rapidly improve. Here are some examples of effective melee gameplay in action:
Mythic Infinity Blade Ambush
This player capitalizes on the target being distracted to sneak up undetected for a quick elimination using a rare mythic Infinity Blade.
Key Takeaway: Patience and stealth is rewarded with a melee one hit elim.
Build Height Advantage
By building up above his opponent, this player is able to drop down and utilize the vertical mobility advantage for a devastating axe blow.
Key Takeaway: Verticality allows you to dictate engagement distance.
Mastering melee combat gives you a versatile option for clutch situations. Become an expert in landing massive damage, and soon opponents will fear the sight of you drawing your melee weapon. Now get in the action, and start unleashing devastating strikes on your foes!
