Summary
- Melee builds in Starfield allow players to customize their character's appearance and fighting style, particularly for fans who enjoy close combat with bladed weapons.
- Skills like Concealment, Dueling, Neurostrikes, Boxing, and Martial Arts enhance melee builds, providing increased damage, stun effects, knockdown abilities, and critical hits.
- The Gymnastics skill in Starfield enables players to maneuver effectively around the battlefield, reducing fall damage, improving movement in Zero-G, and enhancing speed for melee-focused players.
In Starfield, players are able to build their character just about however they would like. This is true whether it comes to their characters' looks or how their character fights against opponents throughout various galaxies. One of the most sought-after builds in Starfield is a melee build, which caters to fans who enjoy getting up close and personal with melee weapons.
There are several bladed weapons for players to use, as well as different skills to invest in for a complete melee build that stands efficiently throughout Starfield. It's important for these gamers to obtain these skills so that their melee builds are optimal, which can be fairly difficult with what Starfield offers.
6 Concealment
- Rank 1: No longer set off enemy mines; ranged sneak attacks deal 2.5x more damage; melee sneak attacks deal 4x more damage.
- Rank 2: Running while sneaking doesn't affect stealth; ranged sneak attacks deal 3x more damage; melee sneak attacks deal 5x more damage.
- Rank 3: Players gain a Chameleon-like ability when still or sneaking; ranged sneak attacks deal 3.5x more damage; melee sneak attacks deal 8x more damage.
- Rank 4: Engaging in stealth forces distant enemies to lose the player; ranged sneak attacks deal 4x more damage; melee sneak attacks deal 10x more damage.
Although running with a melee build in Starfield doesn't mean that players need to spend skill points on stealth-based skills, the Concealment skill is an incredibly useful skill for any gamer out there utilizing one of the several bladed weapons to fight. With the concealment skill, players will be granted an exceptional bonus to their melee sneak attack damage, especially with the skill upgraded.
At Rank 4, the Concealment skill gives players a 10x bonus to their melee sneak attack damage. This skill is one of the few that supports the use of melee weapons in any situation.
5 Dueling
- Rank 1: Melee weapons deal 25% more damage and players take 10% less damage while wielding a melee weapon.
- Rank 2: Melee kills make players run 20% faster for 10 seconds.
- Rank 3: Melee weapons deal 50% more damage and players take 15% less damage while wielding a melee weapon.
- Rank 4: Melee kills heal the player for 10% of their health.
Of course, no melee build will be nearly complete without the help of the Dueling skill. The dueling skill is one of the only melee weapon-focused skills that players can obtain in Starfield.
When obtained, Dueling will simply grant fans a 25% increase to their melee weapon damage, as well as a 10% decrease in the damage they receive while holding a melee weapon as a nice cherry on top. When completely upgraded, players will have many different benefits from using a melee weapon (gain movement speed and health on melee kills).
4 Neurostrikes
- Rank 1: 10% chance to stun an enemy with an unarmed attack.
- Rank 2: Unarmed attacks deal additional EM damage.
- Rank 3: 20% chance to stun an enemy with an unarmed attack.
- Rank 4: After stunning an enemy, players can knock down any enemies in close range.
Melee builds don't necessarily have to focus on weaponry, as fans are more than capable of making their fists their primary form of physical confrontation. Unarmed attacks aren't too strategic at first, but the Neurostrikes skill can help make unarmed attacks an efficient way of dealing with enemies.
The Neurostrikes skill initially grants gamers a 10% chance to stun an enemy with an unarmed attack. With more skill points invested, however, players will have a much higher chance to stun enemies, as well as have their unarmed attacks deal EM damage and the ability to knock down surrounding opponents.
3 Boxing
- Rank 1: Unarmed attacks deal 25% more damage and players use 25% less oxygen when using a power attack.
- Rank 2: Unarmed attacks deal 50% more damage and players use 50% less oxygen when using a power attack.
- Rank 3: Unarmed attacks deal 75% more damage and players use 30% less oxygen while running in a fight and unarmed.
- Rank 4: Unarmed attacks deal 100% more damage and have a chance to knock down opponents.
The Boxing skill is another great asset for any player looking to utilize unarmed attacks in Starfield. Most notably, the Boxing skill has the potential to unleash a 100% increase in the amount of damage dealt by players' unarmed attacks, which is enough to handle enemies in one or two swings.
The Boxing skill also gives players the ability to completely knock down opponents with their attacks, making it much easier to deal with hearty foes who deal a lot of DPS. This is a must-have skill for any melee-focused player, as it also reduces the amount of oxygen that attacks use.
2 Martial Arts
- Rank 1: 15% increased chance to land a critical hit with a melee or unarmed attack.
- Rank 2: 15% chance to disarm an opponent with a melee or unarmed power attack.
- Rank 3: While wielding a melee weapon or unarmed, players take 10% less damage.
- Rank 4: Reflect 50% damage back when blocking a melee or unarmed attack.
Other than the Dueling skill, the Martial Arts certification is the only other skill in Starfield that actually pertains to melee weaponry. When they have obtained the Martial Arts certification badge, players will be rewarded with several incredible abilities that they can make use of with unarmed or melee weapon attacks.
For one, players will have a higher chance of landing a critical hit. Fans will also be able to disarm opponents and reflect incoming damage back to an enemy when blocking their attacks. This Martial Arts skill is nice, as it adds much more strategy and conflict to melee attacks, which helps respective builds become more optimal.
1 Gymnastics
- Rank 1: Unlock the ability to combat slide and take 15% less fall damage.
- Rank 2: Move faster in Zero-G and take 20% less fall damage.
- Rank 3: Become more stable when firing in Zero-G, take 30% less fall damage, and replenish some oxygen when mantling.
- Rank 4: Increased jump height and players can run faster after combat sliding or mantling.
Although this skill may only grant any melee-related effects or attack bonuses, Gymnastics gives gamers the maneuvering abilities they need to flow around a battlefield when taking on multiple enemies. When using a melee weapon or unarmed attacks, players will be consistently running around an area to each enemy, because most of the NPCs in Starfield use ranged weaponry.
Gymnastics helps melee-focused players by giving them access to the combat slide, decreasing their fall damage, bossing their movement in Zero-G, and boosting their speed when using parkour tactics. Essentially, Gymnastics makes it much easier to run around to each enemy while maintaining damage and making it easier to course around enemies.
Starfield is available on Xbox Series X/S and PC.