Melee

Melee 2.0 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 Maneuvers
Basic melee attacks can be achieved while equipped with Primary or Secondary weapons by pressing to perform a quick melee attack. To perform advanced maneuvers however, players must fully switch to a Melee weapon by holding down the weapon switch key (default ). Equipping the melee weapon will unlock additional melee combat features such as Parrying and Channeling.

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.

Slide Attack
Aerial variation

Also known as a Spin Attack, Slide Attacks propels a Warframe forward while performing a spinning slash around them, dealing greater damage and hitting multiple enemies. Slide attacks can be performed on the ground to hit low-lying enemies, or in the air to hit tall enemies, potentially landing headshots.

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 depending on the weapon type used (ex: gauntlet type weapons).

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

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.

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. This attack often will initiate even when not looking down at an enemy, but when contacting an enemy who has been knocked down.

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.

Advance Maneuvers
Advance maneuvers can be achieved by equipping the melee weapon by holding down the weapon switch key, default.

Stances
Upon equipping a Stance Mod, up to 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.

Channeling


Channeling 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 +50% increased damage and a stagger effect, opening opportunities for a Finisher attack.

The damage dealt by Channeling can be improved by mods like Killing Blow. In addition, various mods such as Reflex Coil can improve the energy efficiency of Channeling, and Second Wind will grant bonuses while reducing efficiency. The list of Channeling mods can be found here.

Parrying
Essentially a blocking action. It is achieved by holding the aim button while having melee weapons equipped. Blocking will nullify incoming damage and deflect some damage back to enemies, this action can only block frontal damage and not back.

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. Parrying while crouching will use the same stance as when blocking while standing. See Key Bindings for more information. Stamina can recharge while damage is not being blocked, making the Quick Rest mod quite efficient.

Finisher
Channeling while parrying will grant a chance to stagger any enemies that have struck the player in melee. 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.

Combo Counter
Each successful consecutive melee hit against enemies with a Melee weapon equipped within a short period of time will start a Combo Counter that appears above the weapon UI, which tracks how many hits have been performed. Once a certain number of consecutive hits have been made, a Damage Multiplier will be given to your Melee weapon, increasing your weapon's overall damage. The Damage Multiplier increases as larger consecutive hit counts are achieved, allowing for greater damage against larger numbers of tougher enemies. The Combo Counter resets if no enemies are hit after 4 seconds.

The Damage Multiplier starts at 1.5X the weapon's base damage after 5 consecutive hits. The multiplier is increased by +.5X after achieving three times the number of hits of the previous multiplier, i.e. 15 consecutive hits yield a 2X Damage Multiplier, 45 consecutive hits yield 2.5X Damage, 135 hits yield 3X Damage, 405 hits yield 3.5x etc.