Ranged vs Melee Weapons Guide

How the game decides weapon type

There is no separate "weapon class" setting. The game looks only at the item in your right hand. If its name is on the melee list, you are a melee fighter; every other right-hand item is treated as a firearm. An empty hand (no weapon) counts as melee too, with no weapon damage at all. The off-hand slot never changes your weapon type, and neither does a rarity prefix: an "Epic Machete" is still a Machete.

The melee list has fourteen weapons: Combat Knife, Rusty Wrench, Rebar Club, Spiked Bat, Machete, Fire Axe, Tomahawk, Sledgehammer, Combat Katana, Rail-Spike Maul, Shock Maul, Thermal Cleaver, Vibro-Blade and Arc Reaper. Ranged weapons are the Pipe Pistol, Revolver, Hunting Rifle, Submachine Gun, Combat Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Plasma Cutter, Gauss Cannon and the Scrap Launcher. Shot-by-shot damage rules are in the called shots guide.

Range zones, Charge and Pull Back

In the default battle view every fight is played across three zones: FAR, MID and CLOSE. A fight always starts at MID. You can move one zone at a time with Charge (closer) or Pull Back (farther), and each costs 1 AP. You cannot move while an enemy is holding or pinning you. The "Classic view" button turns the zone system off: melee can strike at any time and ranged weapons get a flat multiplier of 1, but you lose the FAR bonus described below.

Every firearm uses the same curve, so no gun is secretly better up close than another. If you own a sanctuary, weather multiplies the result: clear skies add 5%, storms subtract 5% and fog 10%. At FAR in clear weather the total is about ×1.21. Melee damage ignores zones and weather completely.

Two habits follow from the table. Against ranged enemies, which never change the range themselves, a firearm user should Pull Back once, from MID to FAR, and stay there. That one AP buys +15% for you and 25% less damage from them for the rest of the fight. A melee user should Charge once to CLOSE and stay there.

Weapon damage by tier and rarity

Weapon damage is tier × 6, then multiplied by rarity (Common 1.0, Uncommon 1.3, Rare 1.6, Epic 2.0, Legendary 2.5, Godlike 3.5; see the gear and rarity guide). Melee and ranged use the same formula, so a tier-6 blade and a tier-6 gun both give 36 at Common. The Scrap Launcher is the exception: a flat 55, multiplied by rarity.

Melee weapons add a small style bonus that guns do not have. Heavy weapons give Max HP (tier × 4), blades give Max Stamina (tier × 3) and axes give Armor (tier × 1.5), all multiplied by rarity and rounded. The Combat Knife has no style.

A worked comparison: a Gauss Cannon and an Arc Reaper are both tier 10 and both do 60 at Common. At FAR the Gauss Cannon is worth about 69 per hit, but at CLOSE it drops to about 51, while the Arc Reaper stays at 60 and adds Armor. Rarity can overturn any of this: a Rare Machete (29) nearly matches a Common Hunting Rifle (30).

Ammo, the Scrap Launcher and running dry

Every firearm shot uses 1 Ammo, whatever its AP cost. The Scrap Launcher uses 1 Scrap instead and never touches your Ammo. The game checks the weapon name, so any rarity of Scrap Launcher works the same way. A new game starts with 10 Ammo and 10 Scrap, and the Heavy Gunner background begins with a Common Scrap Launcher and 50 extra Scrap. Scrap is also the basic building material, so a Launcher competes with your base for the same stock.

Three talents give a chance to skip the cost of a shot: Conserve Ammo (4% per rank, five ranks), Reload Drill (5% per rank, three ranks) and Guns Blazing (15%). Together they reach 50%, and the hard cap is 75%. These work for Scrap too.

When the count hits zero, your attack buttons are replaced by a red warning and a single button, Switch to melee (equip Combat Knife). It costs no AP, but it overwrites whatever is in your weapon slot and does not put the gun in your gear list, so the empty weapon is gone. A Common Combat Knife does 6 damage, so your damage bonus collapses. Count your Ammo before a boss contract or a wave fight, and carry a real melee weapon in your gear list so you can swap on purpose.

Melee enemies and ranged enemies

Each enemy is marked MELEE or RANGED in the target panel. Some enemies are flagged directly: Utopek-7, The Zmora and Lady Midday are melee, and the Unknown Threat is ranged. Everything else is decided by name. Names containing wolf, dog, hound, butcher, cleaver, enslaved, warden, beast, feral, zombie, mutant or slave driver are melee. That covers Feral Timber Wolves, Mist-Crawl Hounds, the Abattoir Warden, and the Reptilian Butcher Elite, Cleaver Guard and Slave Driver. Raiders, scouts, scavengers, drones, turrets, deserters and most bosses are ranged.

Melee enemies cross the field by themselves, so a firearm gets at least one free round against them. The best answer is the Leg Shot, which knocks them back and stops them closing in for two rounds. You can also kite: Pull Back from CLOSE (1 AP) and the enemy lunges for half damage again while you fire at ×1.00 instead of ×0.85. You lose about a fifth of your output but halve what it deals. Ranged enemies stay put and shoot, so a firearm user wins by Pulling Back and a melee user wins by getting close once and staying there.

Talents that favour each side

Several talents apply to only one weapon type. If you took all of them, the percentage bonuses come out about even, which is why the flat bonuses and range matter.

• Ranged only: Heavy Hitter and Long Shot (+4% per rank, five ranks each), Guns Blazing (+20%), Trigger Discipline (+5 flat per rank, three ranks) and Big Guns (+3 flat per rank, five ranks), plus Sharpened Senses and Deadly Aim for headshots. Details are on the Gunner and Reaper pages.
• Melee only: Brawler in the Juggernaut tree (+4% per rank), Brutal Strikes in the Berserker tree (+5% per rank, five ranks) and Silent Killer in the Ghost tree (+5% per rank, three ranks). See Berserker and Ghost.
• Both: general damage talents, critical chance and damage, Executioner-type finishers, and Rage-type bonuses at low HP.

Which one should you use?

If unsure, carry both: a firearm for ranged enemies and a heavy or axe weapon as a fallback. For where to spend your points, read the talent builds guide; for general rules see the combat guide, and for what you will be fighting, the boss list and weapon database.

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