As a veteran gamer with over 200 hours clocked in Starfield, I‘ve tested and experimented with every melee weapon available. While spacefaring adventures call for plenty of laser fire and plasma blasts, I vastly prefer getting up-close and personal to watch enemies perish by my own hand-forged steel.
When your ammo runs dry or stealth is paramount, nothing brings more satisfaction than unleashing a perfectly-timed sword combo or jamming a plasma-hot dagger between the ribs of an unsuspecting pirate.
Today I‘ll share definitive rankings and in-depth analysis of Starfield‘s most potent melee tools of destruction, so you can carve the deadliest path possible across the Settled Systems!
#1 Va‘Ruun Painblade: Muscle and Brutality Incarnate
One glimpse of the imposing Va‘Ruun Painblade elicits primal fear – as it should, considering this massive greatsword‘s ability to chunk enemies for catastrophic damage.
- Va‘Ruun Painblade poised to unleash 62 damage mayhem. My Strength-focused Juggernaut build can easily one-shot weaker foes.
In my extensive field testing, no other melee weapon comes remotely close to matching the Va’Ruun Painblade‘s tremendous 62 damage strikes – enough to one-shot all but the hardiest enemies once my character reached level 25+.
The Painblade does impose massive encumbrance given its prodigious size. My current Juggernaut build has 230+ lbs of capacity however, so after equipping the Painblade alongside Colossus Mk.IX armor you‘d hardly notice another 5 odd units of weight!
For most effectively leveraging the Va’Ruun Painblade, I recommend similar brute force builds stacking every Strength buff and toughness perk possible. Here‘s my setup:
- Attributes: 100+ Strength, 100 Constitution, 60 Dexterity
- Skills: Max Heavy Weapons, Two-Handed, Critical Strike and Parry
- Armor: Colossus Mk. IX Heavy Suit (Strength/Carry Weight bonuses)
- Consumables: Rage, Medi-Gel, Mineral Sludge Cocktail, Stamina Hypos
This configuration lets me erase most enemies in 1-2 lumbering swings while withstanding considerable punishment. Bosses fall quickly once I guzzle my damage and crit-enhancing concoctions!
While effective, I admit gloriously smashing everything in sight with the Va‘Ruun grows one-dimensional over time. When desiring more elegant and strategic opponents for my blade, I turn to…
#2 Wakizashi: Swift, Vicious Finesse
If the Va’Ruun Painblade is a plasma-powered battle axe, the Wakizashi would be a monomolecular sword – elegant, lightning-quick and effortlessly lethal.
- Twin Wakizashis striking in blazing unison after activating Hindered Soul. Note the blood spatter from Bleed effects!
This katana-style shortblade serves as my go-to weapon for prioritizing surgical precision over raw stopping offense.
With 49 damage and extremely fast swing speed, the Wakizashi excels at rapidly dispatching multiple enemies when other weapons would get bogged down. Activating Hindered Soul to slow time coupled with Poisoned Weapon and Fury consumables lets me dance through hordes largely unimpeded.
I also abuse Blinding Strike to reliably trigger the Wakizashi‘s 50% bonus backstab damage, allowing one-hit stealth assassinations on all but the heartiest marks.
When both equipped together, the Wakizashi‘s graceful dual wield combos eliminate threats with such animated fluidity I forget about anything beyond serving death poetically. This also facilitates stacking more buff consumables and Poison/Bleed effects.
My optimized Astika Assassin build includes:
- High Dexterity and Critical Strike chance
- Maxxed One-Handed, Light Weapons, Stealth skills
- Light/Medium Phantom armor granting Stealth/Crit bonuses
- Assortment of banned Cybernetics for burst damage spikes
While the Wakizashi lacks raw stopping clout, it‘s unparalleled when desiring a deadly and elegant extension of oneself to pivot between enemies exploiting vulnerabilities.
#3 Barrow Knife: Rapid Multi-Target Destruction
When overwhelmed facing myriad threats, maximizing target saturation grows paramount. Though only moderately damaging individually, no other melee weapon achieves higher multi-target destruction potential than the humble Barrow Knife.
- Dual-wielding Barrow Knives while affected by Hyperjet and Fury consumables. Laughably fast attack speed perfect for shredding groups.
While my Strength-oriented builds scoffed at initially equipping such puny pig stickers, further testing revealed that when dual wielding, the Barrow Knife‘s lighting-quick slash attacks rapidly inflict death by a thousand cuts.
Activating Hyperjet or stacking attack speed-enhancing consumables pushes the Barrow Knife into supreme crowd control overdrive. Even high-level enemies eventually falter from the thousands of frantic punctures.
I further augment the Barrow Knife through:
- Concentrated poison applications on each blade
- Swarming enemies into traps and explosives
- Utilizing Hindered Soul to rapidly line up execution blows
With the right setups and tactics, few weapons exceed the Barrow Knife’s multi-foe body count rampages. It serves as an ever-present backup blade even for my heaviest melee builds!
Master the Mayhem Yourself
While this covers my personal top 3 picks, Starfield indeed offers an armory’s worth of cleaving, hacking and slashing implements to churn enemies into hunks of flesh.
No better way exists to forge a blood-soaked path toward your destiny than binding lethal steel as an extension of oneself to wield with elegant brutality. I urge all prospective melee masters to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible through blending skills, gear and creativity.
Now get out there and start stacking bodies high! What has been your favorite melee build or go-to weapon so far? Let me know in the comments section!
