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Best Fortnite melee weapons
- The best overall melee weapon in Fortnite is the Infinity Blade
- Iconic crossover weapons like Lightsabers from Star Wars or the weapons from TMNT feature
- Chains of Hades are the most recent weapon to make the list
When you picture Fortnite, you’re probably thinking about players running around with guns, shooting each other from afar. But while that might be the case, there have been a whole host of iconic melee weapons added to the game for players who likely to get in their opponents’ faces instead of taking them out from a distance.
So if you want to take a look at what the best melee weapons in Fortnite have been, we’ve put together a selection to take you through some of the highlights. We’ll talk you through what each weapon did, and why they were worth using over even some of the best ranged weapons.
Best melee weapons in Fortnite of all time
We’ve chosen our list based on how strong each of these weapons were at the time they were in the game. Each of our choices is here not just because of their great damage, but because they offer something else, whether that’s unique attacks, movement options or even the ability to block damage.
Here are the five best melee weapons in Fortnite history:
- Infinity Blade
- Thorne’s Vampiric Blade
- Chains of Hades
- Lightsabers
- TMNT Weapons
Infinity Blade
One of the favourite weapons among Fortnite fans full stop, the Infinity Blade is potentially the best overall melee weapon out of the gate. As well as its massive damage, it gave you 200HP and 200 shields, healed you for 1HP every second, gave you a 50HP restore after killing an enemy and a 30% faster move speed.
Not only that, but your attacks could quickly demolish structures, cleaving through buildings and opponents alike. Combine that with an incredible design and this is one iconic weapon, and one we hope Epic Games bring back soon.
Thorne’s Vampiric Blade
Thorne’s Vampiric Blade was introduced back in Chapter 4 Season 4. It was the Mythic version of the Kinetic Blade, another great weapon, meaning it had the same main attacks – the Knockback Slash and a secondary Dash Attack.
What made Thorne’s Vampiric Blade even better though, was its lifesteal. Every time you hit an opponent, you would siphon 20% of that damage as health or shield. This meant you could play incredibly aggressively, as even if your opponent is hitting their shots, as long as you hit them with the sword, you’re healing, making great players seem unkillable.
Chains of Hades
Our most recent entry, the Chains of Hades were added in Chapter 5 Season 2. Basically a chain whip, while this was a melee weapon it had a decent range to its swings, with its three hits dealing a whopping 190 if you hit them all. But where it really came into its own was its secondary, a long-range whip that pulls enemies and items towards you.
Grabbing an unsuspecting victim from afar before finishing them off up-close was an incredible strategy and made the Chains of Hades incredibly viable. Sadly, it’s been vaulted for the Elements event, but we hope it will be back soon enough.
Lightsabers
A crossover with Star Wars, how could we not include the Lightsabers? An iconic weapon in their own right, they were also very powerful in Fortnite. WIth a combo attack ending in a slam to deal huge damage, their real power came in the fact that they could completely block almost any kind of damage for a short time before going on cooldown.
And on top of that, players who killed Darth Vader would be rewarded with Darth Vader’s Lightsaber, a weapon that, on top of doing everything a normal Lightsaber can, could be thrown at players like a boomerang for some quick, long-range damage.
TMNT Weapons
Another iconic set of weapons from a crossover, this set of four weapons came via a TMNT crossover. Leonardo’s Katanas, Michelangelo’s Nunchaku, Donatello’s Staff and Raphael’s Sai all shared a moveset, with a combo, dash attack, double jump and AoE attack.
They were a bit unpopular, as most players were trying to use them by just rushing in with them, which didn’t work. But with a good strategy, you could surprise players and kill them with the right combo in an instant. An incredibly underrated set of weapons, and we only wish we could give them another try.
Of course, there are plenty more melee weapons that have been featured in Fortnite, and not all of them could make the cut. Every melee weapon has its strengths and weaknesses, and these are just the ones that we thought were the best ones to use.