Apex Legends is one of those games that allows casual gamers to enjoy, but at the same time has a high skill curve that competitive gamers are drawn too. The variety of game mechanics come together to make a fun, yet deep first person shooter. Being able to get a victory usually comes down to a team’s tactics, their individual skill, and how they adapt to each match. With that in mind, melee fights in this game are unexpected and quite visceral. But that’s the great thing about a title like Apex Legends, you never really know what to expect. In case you run out of ammo, melee attacks can be the only chance of survival. You can even use them wisely during a gunfight, which as long as you do them properly, can help sway the fight in your direction.
Why should you melee someone in Apex Legends?
First of all, the melee attacks are insanely fun. And to make things even better, the gameplay does make it easy for you to enjoy the melee experience too. There are many places where you can have close quarters battles, and in that case the melee attacks can make quite the difference.
A great time to use a melee attack is during a close quarter fight in which you’ve broken the enemy’s armor, and you’re certain that they only need a single hit to be knocked down. A melee attack is faster than a reload, and if you were right about their health than you’ll win the fight with a well timed punch.
Occasionally your squad may land in an area that is filled with enemies, and unfortunately all the guns are taken. The wise thing to do is to run like hell, but if you’re feeling courageous (and lucky) you can start throwing melee attacks. Sometimes an aggressive melee attack at the very start can catch an enemy off guard.
How can you perform a melee in Apex Legends?
That depends on the platform. If you are playing on PC, then you need to wait for the right time to hit the opponent, and that’s when you want to press V. The V button will perform an immediate melee attack and you will be able to damage the opponent or even kill him if he has a very low health value.
If you’re playing on PS4 or on Xbox, you have the same button for initiating a melee. And that’s the right thumbstick, also known as R3 on both consoles. As you do that, the character will punch in front of him and he will deal a deadly blow to the enemy as quickly as possible. Ideally you want to pull this off very fast, otherwise there will be challenges as you try to attack again. By that point, the enemy might be able to reload and kill you.
How much damage does melee do?
Melee damage in Apex Legends does 30 damage per hit. A character has 100 health, and so a fully healed character will require 4 melee hits to down. This is assuming they don’t have any armor on.
Try to use melee variations
The standard melee attack is good but it will not work for you all the time. You will need a bit of variation, as sometimes dodging, sliding, jumping while throwing punches will keep you in the fight longer.
Beside the basic melee punch, there are 2 modifiers for the melee attack. The first one would be the flying jump kick. Obviously this one requires you to perform a melee while jumping. As a result, you will be kicking and not punching. It works great if you just jumped from somewhere or if you fell from a zipline for example. In addition, the animation to perform this melee attack is quicker. It’s been proven that you can land 4 kicks faster than regular punches. Good information to know if you’re in a fist fight with an enemy.
You also have the uppercut. This is something to do as you are sliding. You have to start sprinting and then you can crouch and the character will slide under obstacles. If you have a very long slide, you can actually do an uppercut on the opponent as you leap up. This one is a bit more complex to do, but can be a fun way to smack your opponent.
Keep in mind that you must be fairly close to your opponent to land a punch. The game will lock you on if you’re close enough, and hit your punch button. If you’re too far away, it will be easy for the opponent to dodge the hit.
Some gamers have wondered whether it’s faster to punch a downed opponent to death or use one of the “finisher” executions that is unique to each legend. The finisher kills are quicker than beating a downed enemy to death. That being said, you are vulnerable during finishers, which means it will be a double-edged sword. Sometimes it can be wiser to finish someone with your fists.
How can you win more melee fights in Apex Legends?
Use Jump Kicks. As we established earlier, there are 2 main attacks, the punch one and the kick based one. Kicks are better in Apex Legends because they have a faster animation. Both attacks do the same damage, but if you kick instead of punching the faster animation will help you kill an enemy a lot faster. It’s actually a very good idea to try and optimize the melee experience as much as you can with this kind of stuff. And it does have the potential to help a lot in a situation like this.
A good idea is to jump and melee at the same time. Jumping makes it easy to lock on to an enemy, and that will make attacking and eliminating them a lot easier.
Dodge as much as possible. If you want to increase your chances of winning in such an attack, then learning how to dodge is pretty much a must. Once you know how to dodge it will be a whole lot simpler and easier to move close to enemy and land a blow. There are challenges that come from dodging, as some players will be good enough to recognize when and how you dodge. Which is why dodges need to be unpredictable otherwise you will have issues trying to ditch the enemy.
Utilize the slide. If you’re slippin’ and slidin’ all over the place it will make it hard for enemies to aim on your (or land punches). Especially in close quarter combat, a well timed slide can get you close enough to an enemy to land a final melee hit.
Should you start using melee attacks in Apex Legends?
Absolutely! Melee attacks are a lot of fun to do and they can lead to a great stories to share with your other gaming friends. They don’t always work out as planned, but when you finish an enemy with a well-timed punch you’ll feel like a pro.
The idea is to take your time, practice, and eventually you’ll master the melee attacks in Apex Legends. If you’ve got a friend to practice with, it can help fighting each other. Make sure one of you are Lifeline, and you can use the healing drone in between fights.
Melee attacks in Apex Legends are always useful, but in the right situation a true Legend will utilize the attack to make sure they continue to survive. The best of the best know how to aim, understand the games tactics, and can even use their fists if necessary.