How to melee in Remnant: From the Ashes

This guide's will teach you how to EFFECTIVELY melee. We're talking straight up eating Gorefist's attacks without breaking a sweat.

Basic Strategy

The main idea is to be in the middle of Melee Combat as often as possible. Now as you've probably noticed yourself, that's a terrible idea. But who cares about that, ranged combat is for chumps. The build here is "developed" to ensure that even if you're taking damage, it ends up being negligible and easily reversible thanks to regenerated health and stagger resistance. This should allow you to eat damage like a mongoloid, and give it in turn. It might of course take more than one run through of the game to get everything Essential to the build, but that's okay; a key point of the game lies in its replay value.

You'll engage from close range, obviously, but at "Mid-Melee Range". This implies that you have learned how to and actively engage in starting a fight with a charged melee attack with proper timing so as to stagger your opponent out of the attack they're likely about to hit you with. Doing this properly can usually either stagger them out of the animation or kill them before it can finish and damage you.

After having done this long enough you'll have racked up enough Mod Power to activate your side-arm's mod, Mantle of Thorns, reducing the damage and stagger you take and returning damage to enemies. Frankly, it gets ridiculous; aside from instant stagger attacks (which exist) you can tank through hits with ease. Even Gorefist, the boss based off of Earth's sword wielding Elites, cannot stagger you once Mantle of Thorns is activated. So just keep swinging and you should be fine!

Last Note : There are plenty of creatures that cannot be damaged directly via melee damage! I can think of at least 3 normal enemies and 4 bosses who Melee literally just won't work against! Make sure that you still take care of your ranged weapons to stay viable against bosses.

Essentials

Traits:

1. Vigor: Modifies Health
2. Spirit: Increases Mod Power Generation
3. Keeper's Blessing: Increased Elemental Resistance
4. Mother's Blessing: Increased Ranged Resistance
5. Triage: Increased Healing from all sources
6. Will to Live: Increased Health while wounded
7. Arcane Strike: Increased Mod Power generated from Melee
8. Bark Skin: Increased Percentile Armor
9. Guardian's Blessing: Increased Melee Resistance
10. Rapid Strike: Increased Melee Speed

Weapons:

1. Riven: Melee weapon, Scythe, Mod Power is a passive Life Stealing Buff
2. Ruin: Long Gun, Burst Rifle, Mod Power is a passive Free Revive on Death, useful for ranged bosses
3. Any Moddable Sidearm: Attach Mantle of Thorns, use it if you absolutely need to keep range

Amulet(s):

1. Twisted Idol: Increased Armor Effectiveness
2. Cleansing Jewel: Healing item effectiveness up / Dragon Hearts cleanse statuses

Ring(s):

1. Leech Ember : Melee Strikes Heal
2. Root Circlet : Melee 20% faster

REMEMBER: These are the bare essentials; and they don't guarantee a perfect experience either. The game is meant to be played in a mix of range and melee; so while this may feel fun to play, it is in no way at all an OPTIMAL build. Just one that allows you to play around a bit with melee.

Guide by Deltarizon