Melee is the act of physically striking an opponent, either with fists or with a basic striking weapon such as a club or a blade.

Contents 1 Melee by players 1.1 Weapon effects 1.2 Character skills 1.3 Proficiency 2 Melee by enemies 2.1 Common enemies 2.2 Human bosses 3 Trivia 4 Borderlands 2 4.1 Damage calculation

Melee by players

Each class comes with his or her own distinctive melee attack, though the attacks all have the same speed and inflict the same base damage.

Brick	lead pipe (or fists, while Berserk)
Lilith	psychokinetic strike
Mordecai	sword
Roland	combat knife
Axton	tomahawk
Maya	psychokinetic strike
Zer0	digistruct sword
Salvador	fists
Gaige	hammer
Krieg	buzz axe

While there are no melee-only weapons for players, certain weapons (such as those with attached spikes or blades) can augment a character's melee damage. In some cases, use of these weapons will slow attack speed.

In addition, certain character skills can augment melee damage, add an elemental effect, or daze a struck enemy.

Weapon effects

Certain weapons when wielded will augment the damage of melee strikes. While attacking, the usual character melee animation changes to a slash with a weapon's affixed blade or a strike with a spiked buttstock. In some cases, this animation has a longer recovery time between strikes, slowing attacks.

• Spiked-accessory (Assault Shotguns): +100% (but see note below)
• Jagged-accessory (Combat Shotguns, including Sledge's Shotgun): +150%
• Fanged-accessory (Repeater and Machine Pistols): +100%
• Lacerator-accessory (Repeater Pistols): +200%
• Bladed-accessory (Revolvers): +100%
• Razor-accessory (Revolvers): +200%
• The Clipper: +100% (bugged)
• Hyperion Reaper: +300% (bugged)

In addition, any bladed weapon with a critical hit damage bonus will deliver that same bonus to criticals inflicted in melee. This applies both to critical bonuses noted on the gun card as well as hidden bonuses intrinsic to weapon classes. In particular, the blade on any Revolver will deliver an additional +100% damage bonus to critical hits.

Unlike most damage bonuses, damage bonuses from most weapon accessories are multiplicative. Any hit with a Jagged shotgun will inflict two and a half times as much damage as an equivalent hit without that shotgun in hand. This multiplication takes place after critical hits, skill, and classmod bonuses are applied. As an exception to this rule, the melee damage bonus of a Spiked assault shotgun is added alongside other bonuses, rather than multiplied into the final total, making Spiked shotguns considerably less effective at augmenting those other melee bonuses.

Character skills

The following skills will increase melee damage or daze foes struck in melee.

• Brick
  • Iron Fist
  • Heavy Handed
  • Bash
  • Pay Back (also affects weapon attacks)
• Lilith
  • Striking
  • Venom
  • Hit & Run
  • Phase Strike
• Mordecai
  • Lethal Strike
• Roland
  • Roland has no melee-specific skills
• Salvador
  • Fistful of Hurt
• Axton
  • Crisis Management
  • Impact
  • Battlefront
• Zer0
  • C0unter Strike
  • Deathmark
  • Killing Bl0w
  • Ir0n Hand
  • Backstab
  • Execute
  • Resurgence
• Maya
  • Scorn
  • Mind's eye
• Krieg
  • Buzz Axe Rampage
  • Blood Overdrive
  • Buzz Axe Bombardier
  • Empty the Rage
  • Salt the Wound
  • Silence the Voices
  • Release the Beast
  • Pain is Power
  • Fire Fiend
  • Hellfire Halitosis

Proficiency

Proficiency does not apply to melee attacks. Any experience gained by a melee kill is applied to the class of the weapon currently wielded, whether that weapon had a blade or not.

Melee by enemies

The majority of Pandora's indigenous beasts-- skags, rakk, scythids, spiderants-- attack using melee strikes. By contrast, most of the intelligent enemies found in the game prefer to use ranged weapons. Some intelligent enemies nevertheless prefer melee, and a few have no ranged attack at all.

Common enemies

• Psychos use buzz axes in melee for their primary attack. Badass Psychos very rarely use the same kind of ranged attack as their regular counterparts when they cannot reach their opponent.
• Bruisers will attack with their fists if approached within melee range, though they prefer ranged combat.
• Various non-flying Guardians attack with an energy blade. Arch Guardians only enter into melee when approached, while the other land-based Guardians will rush in to melee range.
• Lance Defenders and Hyperion Guards will swing their shields at an enemy if approached within melee range, though they prefer ranged combat.
• Lance Assassins attack with a pair of glowing red plasma swords.
• Bangers in Lockdown Palace use crude clubs fashioned from metal plumbing. They have no ranged attack.
• Stabby Claptraps wield a pair of mallets, knives, or simply boxing gloves over their clamps. They have no ranged attack.

Human bosses

A few of the human bosses primarily use melee attacks.

• Roid Rage Psycho uses MIRV grenades and charges with his fists.
• Sledge fights both with a shotgun and his eponymous hammer.
• King Wee Wee emits a damaging but small shockwave and wields a tiny buzz axe.
• Hanz uses grenades and a huge sword.
• The Omega Assassin squad leaders
  • Vulcana
  • Hera
  • Minerva
  • Ceresia
  • Helicon
• Mr. Shank can throw a knife, but prefers to teleport to point blank range and stab.
• Truxican Wrestler attacks with a powerful knockback punch.
• Meat Popsicle wields a club.

As do some formerly-human bosses:

• Undead Dr. Ned
• Commandant Steele-Trap
• Undead Ned-Trap

Many bosses who prefer ranged attacks will still melee opponents who engage them too closely. For example, Nine-Toes will lash out with the blade on The Clipper, while Reaver when pressed has a knockback strike with his sniper rifle.

Trivia

• [final melee damage] = [base unmodified melee damage] * (1 + [MOD Bonus] + [Talent Bonus]) * (1 + [Equipment Bonus])

Borderlands 2

Damage calculation

All characters' base melee damage equals 20 × 1.13^L, where L is the character's level. Thus, level 1 melee damage equals 22.6, and level 50 melee damage equals about 9014.7.

Percentage modifiers to melee damage can come from weapons, Class Mods, skills, Badass Rank, and relics (including Strength Relics). Most percentage modifiers are added together into a single multiplier for the base damage. As an exception, skill and weapon modifiers multiply together: a character with a +20% bonus from a skill and a +50% bonus from a bladed weapon will receive a +80% total bonus (1.2 × 1.5).

Note that Salvador's Fistful of Hurt and Zer0's Killing Bl0w skills will scale this final value, after all bonuses are applied. Fistful of Hurt quadruples the value, while Killing Bl0w will scale it by the number of ranks in the skill.

Critical hits inflict double melee damage after all other bonuses are applied. Critical hit bonuses (whether from character skills, Badass points, or wielded weapons) do not further increase melee damage.