Left 4 Dead 2: All Melee Weapons Guide

In todays guide we will go over what you need to know about melee weapons, and how to effectively use them against the infected.

We will showcase with pictures how melee weapons function, showcasing their hitrays.

Note: Hitrays are what the game uses to register attacks with melee weapons that most of the time don’t work because of the source engine.

Before going over what melee weapons are we will talk about a core feature of the game that a lot of player struggle to understand.

So what is a bash – m2 – shove – melee?

Note: Players call this function different names but in this guide we will call it “bash”

The bash is a tool at your disposal which quickly knocks back infected and stuns them before they can attack you.

Bashes are limited and should be used as a last resort.

There are 2 key differences between the l4d1 bash and the l4d2 bash.

[L4D1 Campaign Bash]
-In campaign the survivors can bash an unlimited amount of times with no cooldown

[L4D1 Versus, Survival and L4D2 Entirely]
-In L4D1 versus + survival and L4D2 in its entirety the survivors have a limited amount of bashes, when the limit is reached a cooldown system slows you down from carrying out additional consecutive bashes until the survivor rests.

[Additional Information]
-The bash is able to deadstop hunter or jockey that are trying to land on you
-You can interrupt boomers and spitters from spewing and reset their ability cooldowns
-You can free yourself from a smoker tounge if you are close enough to reach him, but you are not able to do this if you are holding a melee weapon in your hand
-The bash is able to kill common infected and special infected after a certain amount of bashes
-You are able to bash a witch only when she is in the stumble state

[Bash statistics]
-Charger and Tank are unbashable, don’t fist fight them
-The witch is bashable while stunned, but no damage is dealt
-Commons will take damage from the bash and will die in 5 to 7 bash randomly
-Special infected will take 250 damage after the 4th bash but the jockey will need an additional 5th bash to kill him
-Bashing common from behind instantly kills them, if they are in the calm state
-Bashing is able to blind the smoker and hunter, its more consistent while the hunter is pouncing, we where not able to reproduce the same effect with the other infected

The ability to bash is arguably the most important tool at the survivors disposal and knowing how to use it properly will drastically increase your chances of survival.

Extensive and painful training will be required to bash a bot jockey, meanwhile in versus you might as well do it blindfolded.

Now we will begin talking about what melee weapons are and some general information about them.

We will provide accurate representation on how melee functions by showcasing their hit registration.

The more hitrays a melee weapon produces the more reliable the weapon is at killing infected, with an exception, only one.

Note: Trying to use melee weapons on anything above 5 ping will lead to worse results and you will die.

Nobody wants to say it but this is the truth.

Melee weapons are divided in 3 categories.

[Blunt melee weapons]

[Sharp melee weapons]

[Special melee weapons]

All melee weapons deal the same damage except the chainsaw dealing 100 damage per tick to specials.

Although all the melee deal the same damage there are some other differences between them.

Melee weapons approximately deal 325 to special and common infected, meaning it will one shot all of them except the charger which requires a second hit unless you strike him in the head

L4D1 special infected (Hunter, Smoker, Boomer) have a strange quirk where if struck in the legs they will lose 75% of their current health as damage, meaning it will take 4 hits in the leg to kill them. Dunno how you’re managing to hit them there but anyway.

[Tips and Tricks]
-After attacking with a melee weapon, switching to your primary and back will cut the swing animation and allow you to attack again, allowing you to attack faster than normal. However this will stop casting hitrays from the previous swing, so make sure you kill the infected first
-You can cut a smokers tongue while using sharp melee weapons, you do not even have to face the smoker
-If a smoker grabs you while you are holding a melee weapon, you will not be able to bash him away
-It is possible to kill a witch with only a melee weapon, and there is an achievement for doing so
-You can skeet – level infected although it’s a difficult trick
-Melee weapons deal the least amount of friendly damage although it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to deal damage to your teammates
–It’s extremely rare to free yourself from a jockey when he procedes to land on you and you were in the process of bashing him

What defines a blunt melee weapons?

Blunt melee are weapons that are not able to cut infected and instead will bludgeon them to death.

In this section we will provide information regarding how they In this section we will showcase the hitrays that each melee weapon produces and their attack speed aswell.

We will go in order of the best to worse blunt melee weapons and the same will be done for the sharp melee later on.

Disclaimer: This is our opinion and it might vary from player to player, but if you use the knife you have no opinion.

Note: Test have been done using a 6000Hp tank.

Shovel attack speed 1.0
20 seconds to kill a Tank

[Can be found on these campaigns – Requires the Last Stand update]
“The Passing”
“Swamp Fever”
“Hard Rain”
“The Parish”
“Cold Stream”
“No Mercy”
“Death Toll”
“Blood Harvest”
“The Sacrifice”
“The Last Stand”

-It’s a reliable blunt melee
-It has a big hitray arc and can take care of many commons
-It feels like it has greater range than other blunt melee weapons
-It has a great sound effect on hit
-You can bonk jockeys with it and get an achievement

Guitar attack speed 0.9
18s to kill a Tank

[Can be found on these campaigns]
“Dark Carnival”
“The Parish”
“Dead Air”

-Reliable enough to use it
-Guitar has a big hitray arc like the shovel, and is even greater after consecutive swings
-It doesn’t feel like it has a big range of attack
-It has a different and tolerable sound
-Due to it’s rarity it’s barely used at all

Frying pan attack speed 0.9
18s to kill a Tank

[Can be found on these campaigns]
“Swamp Fever”
“Hard Rain”
“The Parish”
“Crash Course”
“Death Toll”
“Blood Harvest”
“The Last Stand”

-It’s usable
-It has a lot of hitray that can reliably kill infected
-Frying pans attack range feels inferior to other melee weapons
-Sound effect goes *SPANG*
-it’s uncommon to find

Golf Club attack speed 0.75
15s to kill a Tank

[Can be found on these campaigns]
“Dead Center”
“The Passing”
“Crash Course”
“Dead Air”
“The Sacrifice”

-Unreliable blunt melee
-Produces a fair amount of hitray
-It feels like the golf club has a decent attack range
-Forgettable sound

Note: The Baseball Bat and Cricket Bat share the same hitrays, attack speed and attack pattern

Both melee weapons attack speed 0.85s
17s to kill a Tank

[Cricket Bat can be found on these campaigns]
“Dead Center”
“Swamp Fever”
“Crash Course”
“Dead Air”
“The Sacrifice”

[Baseball Bat can be found on all campaigns]

-The hit pattern is unreliable unless you train accordingly
-They are carbon copy of each other
-They share the same sound
-Contains a lot of hitrays
-it’s fairly common to find

-The hit pattern is unreliable unless you train accordingly
-They are carbon copy of each other
-They share the same sound
-Contains a lot fo hitrays
-it’s Common to find even though it’s in all the maps

Baton attack speed 0.65s
13s to kill a tank

[Baton can be found on these campaigns]
“The Parish”
“No Mercy”
“Crash Course”
“Death Toll”
“Dead Air”
“Blood Harvest”
“The Sacrifice”
“Cold Stream”

Note: Baton can be found on riot infected and police officers in specific maps “Only the officer infected have been changed after the last stand update to have baton”

-The hit pattern is consistent
-The problem with the baton is the first attack, the most important attack, which only contains 7 hitrays, making it extremely unreliable
-The baton has a niche use, which is killing tanks
-It feels like the baton has a pathetic attack range
-It’s very common especially after the update

What defines sharp melee weapons?

Sharp melee weapons cut infected and unfortunate victims collision boxes disappear faster.

Fire Axe attack speed 0.9s
18 seconds to kill a Tank

[Can be found on these campaigns]
“Dead Center”
“The Passing”
“Dark Carnival”
“Swamp Fever”
“Hard Rain”
“No Mercy”
“Crash Course”
“Death Toll”
“Blood Harvest”
“The Sacrifice”
“Cold Stream”
“The Last Stand”

-The fireaxe produces an amazing amount of hitrays “16”
-The fireaxe has good attack range
-Satisfying sound
-It’s the most melee weapon you can find
-The fireaxes value comes from its consistency, and its hard to blame the weapon for getting hit, or missing commons
-For some reason it’s not in Dead Air nothing personal

Machete attack speed 0.675s
13.5s to kill a Tank

“Swamp Fever”
“The Parish”
“Death Toll”
“Blood Harvest”
“Cold Stream”
“The Last Stand”

-We do not feel ashamed to put it below the Fireaxe
-It’s not as common as the Fireaxe
-The 1st attack is inferior to the Fireaxe that could lead to you missing the cut
-The attack sound slash is good, but not as good as the Fireaxe, but better than the Katana

Katana attack speed 0.75
15s to kill a Tank

[Can be found on these campaigns]
“Dead Center”
“The Passing”
“Dark Carnival”
“Hard Rain”
“No Mercy”
“Dead Air”
“The Sacrifice”
“Cold Stream”

-We do not feel ashamed to place the katana below both the fireaxe and machete
-The 1st attack is inferior to the Fireaxe that could lead to you missing the cut
-It’s not as common to find as the Fireaxe
-The attack sound slash is good, but not as good as the Machete
-It’s in Dead Air for some reason

Crowbar attack speed 0.9
18s to kill a Tank

[Can be found on these campaigns]
“Dead Center”
“The Passing”
“Dark Carnival”
“Hard Rain”
“No Mercy”
“Crash Course”
“Death Toll”
“Dead Air”
“Blood Harvest”
“The Sacrifice”
“The Last Stand”

-Due to it’s low hitray count it’s less consistent than other sharp melee but it’s still very viable for killing
-The crowbar is more common than the katana 😀
-It has a golden version unlike the Katana
-It has a good enough slashing sound
-Louis says funny line

Pitchfork attack speed 0.88
17.6s to kill a tank

[Can be found on these campaigns – Requires the Last Stand update]
“Swamp Fever”
“Hard Rain”
“Blood Harvest”
“The Last Stand”

-The pitchfork has high hitrays on the 3rd attack, but the 1st and 2nd attack have low hitrays and are carried out in a ridiculous pattern.
–IT HAS A VERTICAL ATTACK
-It’s more usefull to take on haybales in Blood Harvest
-Fortunalty it’s rare to find

Knife attack speed 0.7425s
14.85s to kill a Tank

[Can be found on all campaigns – Requires the Last Stand update]

-I think we can all agree that it looks like a deflated balloon
-Knife sucks if you actually use it you are just handicapping yourself

DISCLAIMER: We do not hate the Katana, it’s just that it’s inferior in every way possible to the god Fireaxe.

The Chainsaw is the only special melee available in the game.

Unlike other melee weapons the chainsaw has a fuel gauge, once depleted the chainsaw will drop on the ground and you will be left with a default pistol.

Chainsaw attack speed 10 hits per second
100 damage per tick
Damage per second 1000

-It takes longer to equip than any other weapon
-It has limited use
-It’s really rare to find
-You will most likely take damage while using it
-You will take half the damage from common based on the difficulty while holding down the attack button
-Best dps in the game
-It can skeet infected and cut smoker tounge