Fallout: New Vegas offers a plethora of melee weapons to choose from, many of which offer their own unique playstyles and opportunities. This guide will go over everything you need to know to create the best melee build possible.
Quick notes about melee weapon builds:
- Two ways to play: fast, and tanky. The two main schools of thought that people use when they make melee/unarmed builds are whether they’ll utilize the higher DT of heavy armor, or if they’ll use the extra speed of light armor. For this build, I went with the latter. If you want to see a build that utilizes heavy armor, check out our Power Armor Tank build here.
- Plethora of weapons to choose from. Unlike many of the other builds available to the player, melee builds have a vast range of weapons that are all viable and great fun to use. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
- Poisons. Poisons are a very underused mechanic that allows the player to coat their melee weapons with poison. After doing so, the next enemy hit with that melee weapon will take additional damage and/or get debuffs. Poisons will be explained in further detail later on in the guide.
Stats
S.P.E.C.I.A.L
Your starting S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats matter a lot, as they are the backbone of the entire build.
A high Strength stat is a must, as melee weapons attack slower if you don’t meet the strength requirement. In addition, your Strength directly increases your Melee damage.
Endurance is also a must, as it will help you get certain perks that increase your survivability, allow you to get more implants, and it will also give you more HP.
My recommended starting S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats are as follows:
| Strength | 9 |
| Perception | 4 |
| Endurance | 9 |
| Charisma | 1 |
| Intelligence | 6 |
| Agility | 7 |
| Luck | 4 |
Later on in the game, you’ll be able to purchase implants from Doctor Usanagi in the New Vegas Medical Clinic. When you save up the caps, buy the Strength, Endurance, and Sub-Dermal Armor implants.
Skills
For skills, you’ll obviously want to max out the Melee Weapons skill as soon as you can, but there are 4 more skills that you might want to consider investing in:
- Repair. Many of the more powerful melee weapons have a fairly low durability, meaning that you’ll either have to fix them yourself using this skill, or you’ll need to spend a lot of caps on repairs.
- Medicine. The Medicine skill allows you to make better use of healing items, saving you a lot of money in the long run.
- Science. Science is a useful skill for crafting more powerful chems, such as Turbo and Slasher.
- Unarmed. The Unarmed skill locks away one of the most powerful melee perks in the game: Slayer. Despite the perk requiring a 90 in the Unarmed skill, the perk boosts both unarmed and melee weapon attack speed.
Which exact skill you pick is up to you, but I’d recommend tagging Repair, Melee Weapons, and Medicine to start off, and later putting points into the other two.
Traits
For Traits, there are two ways you can go:
Skilled and Good Natured
The combination of the Skilled and Good Natured traits is a well-known one in the FNV community, granting large skill bonuses to all skills, making the early game much easier with very little downside.
The Skilled trait gives you a +5 bonus to every skill, but you receive 10% less XP. Do note that this trait requires the Old World Blues DLC to show up.
The Good Natured trait gives you a +5 bonus to the Speech, Medicine, Repair, Science, and Barter skills, at the cost of a -5 penalty to the Energy Weapons, Explosives, Guns, Melee Weapons, and Unarmed skills.
Combined together, these two traits are a great choice for any build.
Hot Blooded and Heavy Handed
This is the far riskier approach. If you’re willing to play in a more unique way, these two traits are a very fun and unorthodox addition to your build.
The Hot Blooded trait gives you a 15% damage boost while below 50% HP, at the cost of -2 to Agility and Perception while below 50% HP. The negatives do very little to hinder this build, other than making V.A.T.S. less useful. Do note that this trait requires the Old World Blues DLC to show up.
The Heavy Handed trait increases your damage with melee weapons by 20%, at the cost of a 60% decrease to critical hit damage with melee weapons.
When combined, these traits can give you a massive damage boost, especially while using melee weapons that don’t focus on critical hits.
Perks
Below is a list of perks, listed in order of importance for this build.
| Perk Name | Requirements | Benefits | DLC |
| Slayer | Level 24, Agility 7, Unarmed 90 | Increases your attack speed with all melee weapons by 30% | |
| Implant GRX | Level 30, Endurance 8 | Allows you to slow down time on demand | Old World Blues |
| Piercing Strike | Level 12, Unarmed 70 | Makes your melee attacks ignore 15 DT | |
| Travel Light | Level 4, Survival 45 | +10% movement speed while wearing light armor | |
| Toughness | Level 6, Endurance 5 | +3 DT per rank, totaling +6 with both ranks | |
| Super Slam | Level 8, Strength 6, Melee Weapons 45 | Adds a chance to knock down enemies with melee attacks (15%/attack for one-handed weapons and double that for two-handed melee weapons) | |
| Unstoppable Force | Level 12, Strength 7, Melee Weapons 90 | Allows you to deal full damage through enemy blocks | |
| Life Giver | Level 12, Endurance 6 | +30 max HP |
Optional Perks
Below is a list of perks that you can take to spice up your build. These aren’t necessary, but they are a fun inclusion and can make certain weapons more viable.
| Perk Name | Requirements | Benefits | DLC | Reason for inclusion |
| Pyromaniac | Level 12, Explosives 60 | +50% damage with fire-based weapons | Highly upgrades the Gehena and Shishkebab weapons | |
| Cowboy | Level 8, Melee Weapons 45, Guns 45 | +25% damage with Combat Knives and Bowie Knives | Upgrades Chance’s Knife and Blood Nap | |
| Grunt | Level 8, Explosives 20, Guns 45 | +25% damage with Combat Knives | Honest Hearts | Upgrades Chance’s Knife |
| Atomic! | Level 20, Endurance 6 | 25% bonus movement speed and attack speed + other stat buffs while being irradiated | Old World Blues | Allows you to be far more deadly in irradiated areas. The Coyote Steak and Coyote Meat items allow you to get this boost anywhere, as they are common food items that irradiate you for 3s. |
Equipment
Weapons
There is a large number of very powerful melee weapons available to the player in this game. Below, however, is a list of the most notable weapons alongside some of the pros, cons, and acquisition guides if they pique your interest.
| X-2 Antenna | Oh, Baby! | Chance’s Knife | |
| Pros | Great anti-robot and anti-power armor weaponAcquired during the main quest of Old World BluesHigh base damage | Highest damage per hit of all melee weaponsGreat attack speed relative to the damage dealt | Fast attack speedLevel 1 acquisitionDecent damage |
| Cons | Slow attack speed | Relatively difficult acquisitionLow durability | Very low durabilityHigh skill requirement (Melee Weapons 50) for an early-game weapon |
| Quick Analysis | A great utility weapon to keep on you during your playthrough. While not as powerful as the Oh, Baby! Supersledge, its utility against robots can’t be beat. | This is easily going to be your late-game go-to weapon. Its high damage and attack speed make it the most powerful melee weapon in the game | Starting off, this is definitely going to be the best weapon for you. Its relatively high damage and very fast attack speed make it the ideal starting choice for any melee build. |
| Guide | Acquired during the Old World Blues main quest “X-2: Strange Transmissions!” | Acquisition Guide | Acquisition Guide |
Armor
As for your armor, there are many choices depending on your playstyle. My favorite for light armor builds, however, below is a table of great choices.
| Ulysses’ Duster | Courier Duster | Sierra Madre Armor, Reinforced | |
| Pros | Bonus Crit ChanceSimple acquisition | Varying bonuses depending on your chosen factionSimple acquisition | Highest DT light armor |
| Cons | Late-game acquisition | Late-game acquisitionBonus usefulness varies depending on your chosen faction | No stat bonuses |
| Quick Analysis | The bonus crit chance may or may not be useful to you depending on if you took the Heavy Handed trait or not. In either case, this is a phenomenal suit of light armor. | Specifically, the Legion and NCR variants of this armor are very helpful as they increase your Strength and Endurance respectively, which especially helps if you get debuffed by a consumable or enemy. | If you want the highest DT possible with Light Armor, this is the way to go. With its DT of 16, it even beats the regular Combat Armor, which is considered to be Medium Armor. |
| Guide | Acquisition Guide | Acquisition Guide | Acquired in the Sierra Madre vault at the end of the Dead Money DLC. |
Gameplay Tips
- Lily is a great companion to bring with you. She deals terrific damage with her bumper sword, has incredible HP, and moves around quickly. You can recruit her during the Guess Who I Saw Today quest, guide to that quest can be found here.
- Use poisons. Poisons, like the Cloud Kiss (Lethal) from the Dead Money DLC, allow you to deal amazing damage very quickly. Poisons are especially useful against enemies like Deathclaw Alpha Males or the legendary variants of standard enemies.
