Melee

Melee (v2.0) is a form of combat system that utilizes edged or blunt weapons and close quarter attacks. Every attack uses Stamina and causes the player to take a single step forward. Melee weapons can be equipped in the tertiary slot of the arsenal in Warframe.

Current melee weapons consists of a number of classes, in which each class of weapons has a unique set of attack animations, including normal, jump, slide, stealth attacks, finishers, combos, and blocking.

The default attack key is for PC and ? for PS4. For other maneuvers, please check Maneuvers and Key Bindings.

Basic
Melee attacks can be achieved by simply pressing the melee key during gun fight. As of Update 13 Dark Sectors, a Tenno can wield a melee weapon alone and utilize it to its full potential, which unlocks additional maneuvers such as Melee Channel and various combos.

Each melee weapon has a number of attributes, such as attack speed and damage. Each attribute can be altered by a variety of Melee Mods.

Normal Attack
The simplest form of melee attack. The action is achieved by simply pressing the melee attack key repeatedly, in which the animation pattern continues to loop until the player ceases the attack.

Common Attributes:
 * Damage: Damage done by each hit. Enhanced by damage mods such as Pressure Point.
 * Attack Speed: Speed of the attack animation. Enhanced by speed mods such as Fury.
 * Max Targets: the maximum amount of targets you can hit in a single cleaving motion (excludes jump attacks and slide attacks)
 * Cleave Radius: A rough estimation of the size of the swing. May not be accurate due to individualized cleaving animations.

Stealth Attack


Walk up behind an enemy who is unaware. Wait for the "stealth attack" prompt. The action will always deal critical heavy damage, potentially killing the victim. This is affected by Charge Damage.

Finisher
While enemies are being staggered, players will have a short window to perform a finisher attack. Finishers will yield custom animations and deal very high damage to enemies.

Parrying
Essentially a blocking action. It is achieved by holding the block button while having primary or secondary weapons equipped, or the aim button while having melee weapons equipped. Blocking will nullify incoming damage and deflect some damage back to enemies.

Blocking drains stamina upon taking damage. The amount of stamina drained while blocking is dependent to the damage taken. Blocking can be done while jumping, sliding, in mid-air, and horizontal wall-running, but not vertical wall running or wall sliding. Blocking while crouching will use the same stance as when blocking while standing, but the frame will move slower. Attempting to do so will trigger a minor glitch where the frame pulls out the weapon to block, and then puts it away. See Key Bindings for more information.

Slide Attack
Melee attack while sliding to affect multiple enemies and knock most of them down. A spin attack does greater damage than a normal melee attack.

Slide attack damage can be increased by the Pressure Point mod and all other elemental damage the player may have equipped on their weapon. The attack does not have a maximum amount of targets, however the cleave motion may be too narrow to target more than one enemy (ex: gauntlet type weapons).

Attributes:
 * Slide Damage Type: Damage type slide damage is dealt as.
 * Slide Damage: damage dealt when doing a slide attack.

Speed Boost: Also known as "Zorencoptering", this maneuver will provide a speed boost to the player. The amount of boost varies depending on the melee weapon's attack speed. However, if the player is equipping thrown weapons such as Hikou or Kunai, the player will not gain a boost.

Jump Attack
Press melee in mid-air to forcibly attack downwards and create a small radial damage and special effect upon impact, such as knock down or elemental damage. This attack uses normal melee damage, not charge attack damage.

There are two damages dealt by jump attacks:
 * 1) Direct contact to an enemy will deal a slightly higher damage, normally with the damage type of the weapons base attack.
 * 2) Radial damage will deal a secondary damage type and slightly less damage, but the said damage type will often have a secondary effect (knockdown, stagger, etc.).

Attributes:
 * Jump Dmg Type: Impact damage type
 * Jump Damage: Impact damage (direct contact with mob)
 * Slam Damage Type: Radial Damage type
 * Slam Damage: Radial Damage
 * Slam Radius: Radial size.

Wall Attack
While wall running, a player may initiate a melee attack, causing the frame to launch horizontally off the wall at the angle of the direction aimed, with a special melee attack animation. The attack will change depending on what melee weapon is used. This maneuver is also useful as it may be used to leap parallel to the wall surface during a vertical wall run; in contrast, releasing the jump key will always jump away from the wall.

Ground Finisher
Execute knocked down enemies. This attack is performed upon moving close to a downed opponent, aiming your crosshair at the target and pressing the melee attack button. This will not work on most bosses. The damage dealt by this attack can be increased by the Finishing Touch mod and melee damage mods (e.g. Pressure Point). Heavier weapons tends to perform this action slower than lighter weapons.

Stances
Upon equipping a Stance Mod, three additional advance combos will be unlocked. These combos can only be performed while wielding a melee weapon. The combination will vary depending on the melee weapon equipped and the Stance mod equipped.

Melee Channel
Melee Channel converts energies from the Warframe energy pool to enhance melee attacks, and is activated by holding down the Melee Channel key when melee weapons are equipped; releasing the key deactivates the ability. While Melee Channel is activated, each melee attack will drain 5 energy from the warframe and deal increased damage and a stagger effect, opening more opportunities for a Finisher attack.

The damage dealt by Melee Channel is determined by a Melee Weapon's Charged Attack stat, which can be improved by mods like Killing Blow. Mods like Reflex Coil can improve the energy efficiency of Melee Channel, while others mods like Second Wind can reduce efficiency. Melee Channel can be further improved by equipping mods that give additional functionality while Channeling is active, ex. the Parry mod providing a chance to counterattack.