Fallout 4’s melee build is more viable than in any previous Fallout game and relies heavily on certain stats, perks, and weapons. And chems. You’re going to need all the chems you can find, especially to conquer late-game fights.

There are a few different ways to play melee in Fallout 4, but the principle remains the same: try to take as little damage as possible, and play around the environment. Wide-open spaces are your biggest weakness. Here’s a guide to going full Rocky-mode in Fallout 4.

Updated August 12th by Harry Alston: We’re returning to this list of Fallout 4 melee builds to cover some more specific playstyle and roleplay ideas. We’ll also go into more depth about weapon strategies and how to survive until you’re strong enough to punch pretty much anything to pieces.

Melee Build Ideas

There are a lot of different ways to play a melee build in Fallout 4, but there are some that are better than others. You can check out our full list of the best melee builds in Fallout 4 here, but we’ll go over a couple of our favorites below.

Pure Tank

This is probably the easiest melee build to aim for in Fallout 4. It requires stacking Strength and aiming for Power Armor as soon as possible.

  • You should pick up the Big Leagues perk, this gives you extra melee weapon damage. It’s available from Strength 2 and can be leveled up at 1, 7, 15, 27, and 42. Idiot Savant is great for this build. You won’t be putting much into Intelligence, so the extra XP boosts are useful. Rooted is an essential melee perk. It gives you a boost to melee damage and resistance when standing still, great for just whaling on enemies with your chunky armor.

Ninja Build

This Ninja build relies heavily on Sneak and the Ninja perk. Your main aim is to creep around various areas and come up behind enemies, taking them down before they even know you’re there.

  • Ninja is the main perk to aim for. Level it up whenever you can. This perk provides you a big boost to sneak attacks. The Ninja build is probably the strongest melee build in Fallout 4, especially when you have maxed it out at level 33. You need to hit level 80 in melee weapons skill, so this isn’t a perk you can pick up early on. Worth it for the endgame, though.

Special Stats You Should Aim For As A Melee Character

SPECIAL stats are the foundation of any Fallout build. For melee, there are some obvious choices, and some flexibility when it comes to what sort of melee build you’re going for. There are also all kinds of fun, underrated melee weapons to use.

Ultimately, Fallout is an RPG experience, which means you can test, tweak, and experiment based on your character’s way of life. An amoral sword-wielding maniac exerting his anger on the denizens of the wasteland? Sure, why not.

Strength

Strength is the most crucial stat for a melee build. Each point lets you carry more goodies (+10 per level) and raises melee damage by 10 percent. It also introduces synergy with specific melee perks, like Iron Fist, Big Leagues, and Basher. Strength also lets you access the Rooted perk at level 9, one of the best melee perks available.

Agility

While the perk necessary for a good “in-your-face” melee build isn’t unlocked until level 9 (Blitz), you still want to start picking up agility fairly early on. This will let you choose between a tanky build or a more stealth-based melee build with perks like Ninja and Sneak.

Endurance

You’re going to be sprinting all over the place and getting in the faces of your opponents more often than not. This special stat determines sprint duration and overall HP. Endurance works hand-in-hand with your Agility level to determine how long you’ll be able to sprint. You want to strike a balance between the two. Remember, Endurance is applied retroactively, so if you boost it up later in the game then you will get all the HP benefits that would have been applied at lower levels.

Luck

Critical damage is important for a melee build in Fallout 4, and the luck stat provides just that. While the extra caps you might find lying about thanks to the luck stat can be useful, it’s really the perks that make this is a priority pick-up for a melee build: Bloody Mess, Idiot Savant, and Grim Reaper’s Sprint are awesome.

Side note:

As a side note, Charisma, Intelligence, and Perception are not that important for a melee build. Sure, Charisma can be useful for a few speech checks, but there aren’t many perks that will be useful to your baseball-bat-wielding psycho. Likewise, Intelligence and Perception are pretty much pointless, though you will want to stat up so you can use the Hacker and Lockpick perks.

Best Perks For A Melee Build

There are a few different ways to play melee in Fallout 4. During the early game, you probably just want to prioritize pure strength and endurance. You’re essentially playing as a tank until your stats and perks diversify enough to change up the playstyle to a hard-hitting stealth character later in the game. As you complete more side-quests and level up, you have more opportunities to experiment. Here are some perks for the tank and the ninja build.

Big Leagues - Available at Strength 2

This is probably the most important melee perk out of the bunch. At its base level, at strength 2, the perk does 20 percent more melee damage. Can’t really go wrong with that. The perk then upgrades at levels 7, 15, 27, and 42. At 42 your character will now do double damage with melee weapons and have the chance to smash your enemy’s head clean off. Nice.

Rooted - Available at Strength 9

Rooted is another must-have for a melee build. This perk kicks in whenever you stand completely still. It takes a bit of getting used to (having to stop every time you want to make an attack) but the damage resistance and attack damage boost are super powerful. Rooted upgrades at level 9 strength, level 22, and level 43. The final form of the perk gives you a chance to disarm enemies.

Blitz - Available at Agility 9

Blitz is a super powerful perk for the melee build because it essentially allows the player to teleport to their opponent via VATS. You can target enemies from a greater distance and the game will do the calculation on whether or not you can run over and crack some skulls. Each level of the perk increases the distance Blitz works at.

Sneak - Available at Agility 3

Sneak is the foundation of the sneaky melee build. This build essentially relies on massive critical damage attacks with a stealth modifier. In the later stages of the game you can basically one-shot most enemies, and take down powerful opponents before they have a chance to kill you. You probably don’t want to prioritize this until a bit later in the game, as the early strength is more important.

Ninja - Available at Agility 7

Ninja is the crowning glory of a melee stealth build. At its base level it increases melee stealth attacks by 4x and at its peak (at level 33) it will do 10x normal stealth damage. Combined with Blitz, this perk is pretty ridiculous. You can carry out stealth attacks from the other side of the world if you want to. Perfect for an all-powerful one-shot melee build.

Other perks to consider:

  • Blacksmith at Strength 4, this perk lets you upgrade your melee weapons for extra damage Lone Wanderer at Charisma 3, pretty much the only reason to consider picking up Charisma, pair it with Dogmeat and you have some good buffs Armorer at Strength 3, similar to Blacksmith but for your armor, you’re going to want to be tanky if you’re playing melee Grim Reaper’s Sprint at Luck 8 allows you to chain together melee sneak kills, one more addition to make you feel completely god-like

Best Melee Weapons In Fallout 4

There are some awesome special melee weapons in Fallout 4. These named items can completely transform your build. You can check out our list of the top 10 melee weapons here.

  • Grognak’s Axe, located at Hubris Comics behind a locked door, a great early-game melee weapon that is pretty easy to find 2076 World Series Baseball Bat, probably one of the most fun melee weapons to use and easy to get at the start of the game (located at Jamaica Plain) and scales well into the late-game with upgrades Shishkebab, another hilariously fun weapon that deals fire damage, located at Finch Farm as a quest reward Kremvh’s Tooth, a ridiculous weapon for a stealth build, this knife activates bleed poison damage, a bit harder to get at the bottom of Dunwich Borers

NEXT: Fallout 4: 10 Underrated Energy Weapons You Should Be Using