Weary of being a wimpy wannabe who gets walked on by the weakest worker ant? This guide is for you!

Introduction

I have long been a proponent for the Melee Weapons skill in New Vegas. I believe it is without a doubt the most overpowered combat skill in the game. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the setup for a beast of a character with both brief and detailed perk guides, as well as some extra tips that make the build even more game-breaking. If you follow this guide, you can beat New Vegas with your eyes closed.

P.S. There’s nothing really stopping you from tweaking a few things and making this an Unarmed build, as you’ll have to level Unarmed for it anyway, I recommend Melee Weapons but do whatever you like the most.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

Strength: 10

This gives you a damage bonus on Melee attacks, which you want.

Perception: 5

To boost the Explosives skill, needed for a perk.

Endurance: 6

This is mainly for a required perk. It’s always nice to have high Endurance as a Melee character, but there’s no need to go higher than what’s necessary.

Charisma: 1

If you know anything about New Vegas, you know Charisma is useless. If you don’t know anything about New Vegas, let me be the first to say that Charisma is useless.

Intelligence: 10

You’ll want those sweet, sweet skill points Intelligence grants you every level.

Agility: 7

Mainly for a required perk.

Luck: 1

No real need for criticals with this build.

Tag Skills

Explosives

Needed for a later perk.

Melee Weapons

Obviously.

Unarmed

Needed for a later perk, but even though I recommend Melee Weapons, you can use this as your main skill as you’ll have to get both to 90 anyway.

Traits

Heavy Handed

Since there’s no need for crits, more damage is always better.

Skilled

This is probably the best trait in the game, since you essentially get 65 free skill points with a minimal downside. It’s not even mildly hard to hit the level cap with -10% gained XP.

Perk Guide

This section contains the most essential perks needed for this build, as well as their requirements, in order of when you should try and obtain them. There’s a few honorable mentions that aren’t melee-specific, but will further contribute to your domination of the Mojave. The rest is up to you.

Super Slam!

Req: Level 8, Strength 6, Melee Weapons 45

The crux of this build. Without the other perks, it wouldn’t be nearly as effective, but this one is the main perk you need. It has a 15% chance of making enemies ragdoll when using a one-handed Melee Weapon or Unarmed weapon, and a 30% chance with a two-handed Melee Weapon. You only really need the 15% chance if you have high DPS.

Stonewall

Req: Level 8, Strength 6, Endurance 6

Try and grab this one at level 10, it makes any melee enemies a joke.

Piercing Strike

Req: Level 12, Unarmed 70

This perk makes ALL enemies a joke by negating 15 DT when you use a Melee or Unarmed weapon (hint: you will be). This is also the exact DT of a Deathclaw, so have fun exacting revenge.

Unstoppable Force

Req: Level 12, Strength 7, Melee Weapons 90

Makes melee enemies even more of a joke by multiplying your damage by 4 if you hit them while they block.

Purifier

Req: Level 14

This just makes all of the tougher wasteland critters much easier to deal with.

Pyromaniac

Req: Level 12, Explosives 60

This perk is to maximize the effectiveness of Gehenna, one of the two weapons I recommend to work toward getting.

Slayer

Req: Level 24, Agility 7, Unarmed 90

This is why we increased Agility. +30% attack speed combined with a 15%-30% chance of ragdoll on every hit spells trouble for anyone or anything that dares cross you.

Honorable Mentions:

Confirmed Bachelor/Black Widow

Req: Level 2

+10% damage boost against men, who are the majority of the game’s human enemies.

Educated

Req: Level 4

+2 skill points per level, totaling 92 if you take it at level 4 and hit level 50.

Jury Rigging

Req: Level 14, Repair 90

A must-have for any playthrough, you’ll be able to repair your good weapons with useless weapons. It’s also pretty easy to get your repair to 90 by level 14 and still have the requirements for the essential build perks by the time you hit their levels, so you might as well go for it.

Them’s Good Eatin’

Req: Level 20, Survival 55

Breaks the healing in-game by having enemies randomly have super-powerful healing foods when you loot them.

Ideal Weapons

With the combined perks, you can use just about any Melee/Unarmed weapon you want and come out on top. However, there are a few that you want to work toward getting to really destroy anything in your path.

Gehenna(GRA)

This is why we took Pyromaniac. Gehenna does great damage, has a solid amount of attacks per second, and lights enemies on fire. You can buy it from the Vendortron at Gun Runners,

Katana (GRA)

With Slayer and all the mods, this thing has some of the highest attack speeds in New Vegas. If you also have Evil Karma at level 50 and take Ain’t Like That Now, you can reach 6 attacks per second. As you can imagine, that’s a deadly combo when each attack has a 15% chance to knock an enemy down. It’s purchasable from Mick at Mick and Ralph’s if you gain access to his secret stash.

Honorable Mentions:

Chainsaw (GRA)

If you don’t care to follow this guide, just buy this weapon from Vendortron. This guide was meant to make your character insanely OP but still have it be somewhat fun. The Chainsaw with all mods completely removes any challenge from the game. Half of the perks in this guide don’t work with it. It’s unaffected by Super Slam! to my knowledge, it’s automatic so Slayer doesn’t affect it, it’s not a fire weapon so Pyromaniac does nothing. Even with all that, it’s completely overpowered because it ignores DR/DT and can down enemies in seconds. Combat will be boring, I promise you. I once took out every major settlement in the game with low level armor and this weapon.

Thermic Lance

Like the modded Chainsaw, but a bit more powerful. This weapon can be sold, but I’ve never seen that so your best bet is finding it in Lonesome Road.

Here we come to an end for the A Game-Breaking (But Still Fun) Melee Build – Fallout: New Vegas guide. I hope this guide has helped you with your gameplay. If you have something to add to this guide or believe we forgot some information to add, please let us know via comment! We check each comment manually by approving them!