| Preceded by |
|---|
| Melee 1.0 since Update 13.0 (2014-04-09) |
Melee (version 2.0) is a form of combat system that utilizes edged or blunt weapons and close quarter attacks. Every attack causes the player to take a single step forward. However, if the player is crouched, non-combo melee attacks will not cause a step forward. Melee weapons can be equipped in the tertiary slot of the arsenal in Warframe.
Current melee weapons consist 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.
| Melee Classes |
|---|
Basic Maneuvers
Basic melee attacks can be achieved while equipped with Primary or Secondary weapons by pressing melee attack key. To perform advanced maneuvers however, players must fully switch to a Melee weapon by holding down the weapon switch key (default F or 
). 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
Excalibur performing a basic melee combo.
|
E | 
|
circle |
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
Excalibur performing a slide attack.
| Combo | While Sliding + Melee |
|---|
Air variation :
| Combo | While Air Sliding + Melee |
|---|
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. For sparring weapons like the Kogake and Obex, slide attacks perform a double kick that targets only a single enemy, but ragdolls them away instead of only dealing damage. 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.
Aerial Attack
Excalibur performing an aerial attack.
| Combo | In Air + Melee |
|---|
Also known as a Jump Attack, press melee in mid-air to perform a targeted aerial slash, regardless if a jump has already been made or not. The Warframe will slash and be propelled towards the direction that the player is aiming at, making melee capable of targeting airborne enemies like Ospreys.
Slam Attack
Excalibur performing a slam attack.
| Combo | In Air + Aim Downwards + Melee |
|---|
Also known as a Leap Attack, aiming down towards the ground when performing a jump attack will perform a slam attack that forces the Warframe downward and creates a small radial damage and special effect upon impact with the ground, such as knock down or elemental damage. One can perform this move to anchor themselves to the ground, losing most if not all momentum.
There are two damages dealt by slam attacks:
- Direct contact to an enemy will deal Leap Attack damage, normally with the damage type of the weapons base attack.
- Radial damage deals a secondary damage type which diminishes with distance from the point of impact, but will often have a secondary effect (knockdown, stagger, etc.).
Wall Attack
| Combo | While Wall-Latching + Melee |
|---|
While wall running or climbing, a player may initiate a melee attack, causing the frame to launch 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; most weapons will slash the air in front of them as they launch, while heavy weapons will swing the weapon around them, and sparring weapons will launch with a forward punch. This maneuver is also useful as it may be used to leap parallel to the wall surface during a wall run; in contrast, releasing the jump key will always jump away from the wall.
Advanced Maneuvers
Advanced maneuvers can be achieved by equipping the melee weapon by holding down the weapon switch key, default F or .
Stances
The Melee Combo list for the 
Crimson Dervish Stance.
- Main article: Stance
Upon equipping a Stance Mod, up to three additional advanced Melee Combos will be unlocked, which are special chained attacks that enhance the melee abilities of the weapon. 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, Some Stances will change the default melee combo when the melee is wielded.
Channeling
Excalibur's body and weapon glowing under the effect of Melee Channeling.
- Main article: Category:Channeling Mods
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|
Weapon Fire LMB |
|
L2 |
Channeling converts energies from the Warframe energy pool to enhance melee attacks and blocking, and is activated by using the Melee Channeling key with the option of either holding it down or toggling. While Melee Channel is activated, each enemy hit in melee will drain 5 Energy from the Warframe and deal +50% increased damage and any additional effects from channeling mods. Additionally, +50% increase to damage over time per tick from statuses, e.g., slash or toxin, when they are applied while channeling.
Channeling Multiplier = 1 + 0.5 × Channeling Damage Mods
Currently there are only three exceptions to the +50% channeling damage, such weapons being the Fragor Prime, Furax Wraith, and Synoid Heliocor with +80% channeling damage output.
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, while mods like Life Strike will grant bonuses but reduce Channeling efficiency. The list of Channeling mods can be found here.
- When active, parts of the Warframe tinted by the Accent color will glow according to the Warframe's energy color, while parts of the melee weapon which gain elemental effects will glow according to the melee weapon's energy color.
- Warframe Skins will change the patterns of the channeling glow, as they will usually change the position of sections tinted by the Accent color.
- Armor parts will also glow while under the effects of channeling. Despite having their own Energy Color in the Attachments tab, Armor will glow using the Warframe's energy color instead.
- When using Excalibur's Immortal Skin, the parts of the Warframe tinted by the Primary color will glow instead.
- Damage bonus from channelling and combo counter stack additively with each other, as per the formula:
Effective Damage Multiplier = 1 + (Channelling Multiplier - 1) + (Combo Multiplier - 1)- As example while channeling without channeling damage mods and at a combo counter of 2.5x you gain a combined damage multiplier of 1+(1.5-1)+(2.5-1) = 3x.
- Enemies killed by Channeled attacks can still be affected by Desecrate.
- Channeling will consume energy for each successful strikes. Strikes that do not connect do not drain energy, nor do strikes that connect to neutral objects like Containers.
- Energy is drained per enemy hit, i.e. hitting two enemies in one swing will consume twice the energy.
- Energy drain rates are affected with Channeling Efficiency mods and not Ability Efficiency mods.
- Channeling Efficiency has a maximum cap of 80% with Reflex Coil and Focus Energy even while they both have a total of 100% efficiency.
- Channeling increases damage based off total melee damage, which is the sum of the base damage plus any physical damage and elemental mods.
Blocking
Excalibur with Skana in blocking pose.
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|
Weapon Aim RMB |
|
R2 |
Can be achieved by holding the aim button while having a melee weapon equipped. Blocking will reduce incoming damage and will block knockbacks; however, this action can only block frontal damage and not back. The amount of damage reduced differs between melee weapon types, with some blocking more damage than others.
Channeling while Blocking will perform a parry which will nullify all incoming damage, reflect some damage back, and open up melee attackers for finishers, but will drain Energy on every blocked attack.
- Can block Fire Blast and Rippling Shockwave. Doing so will push the Warframe back, but prevent the knockdown effect.
- Will completely block Seismic Shockwave from Grineer heavy units and Eximus variants.
- Can block continuous weapons like Flux Rifle lasers and Scorch flamethrowers.
- Parrying can block Bombard Rockets, though it will not prevent damage from the explosion itself.
- Will also block Scorpion grappling hooks to prevent getting pulled.
- Parrying with Rhino's Iron Skin active will not deflect any damage and instead mitigate the hitpoints to Iron Skin.
- Will not block Status Effects from affecting the player.
- Channeling Efficiency mods do not affect the amount of energy lost from blocked damage while channeling.
| Weapon Class | Max Damage Reduction |
|---|---|
| Claws | 35% |
| Dagger | |
| Dual Daggers | |
| Glaive | |
| Nunchaku | |
| Rapier | |
| Sparring | |
| Whip | |
| Blade and Whip | 60% |
| Dual Swords | |
| Fist | |
| Gunblade | |
| Nikana | |
| Sword | |
| Staff | |
| Tonfa | |
| Zaw | 80% |
| Hammer | 85% |
| Heavy Blade | |
| Machete | |
| Polearm | |
| Scythe | |
| Sword and Shield |
Exceptions to the above table are:
- Ankyros (Prime), which block at 85% instead of other fists' usual 60%.
- Dragon Nikana, which blocks 85% instead of the other nikanas' usual 60%.
- Dual Zoren and Twin Basolk, which block at 35% instead of dual swords' usual 60%.
- Kama, which blocks at 35% instead of the other machetes' usual 85%.
- Kronen (Prime), which block at 35% instead of the other tonfas' usual 60%.
- (Prisma) Dual Cleavers, which block at 85% instead of dual swords' usual 60%.
- Ripkas, which block at 85% instead of the other claws' usual 35%.
- (Sancti) Magistar, which blocks at 60% instead of hammers' usual 85%.
- Silva & Aegis Prime, which blocks 90% instead of sword and shield's usual 85%.
Combo Counter
A 45-hit Combo Counter with a 2.5X Damage Multiplier
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 the Melee weapon, increasing the weapon's overall damage including any additional elemental 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 3 seconds, which can be increased up to 31 seconds with the Body Count, Drifting Contact, and Gladiator Rush mods.
The Bonus Damage Multiplier starts at 1.5x the weapon's base damage after five consecutive hits. The multiplier is increased by +0.5x 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. The exact formula used for this growth in terms of the combo multiplier is known to be H = 5 × 32M - 3, where H denotes the number of hits when M is the desired combo multiplier.
Currently, only Venka Prime has a modified Bonus Damage Multiplier which starts at 1.75x of the weapon's base damage. As a result, each subsequent Combo Counter multiplies the damage by +.75x instead of the normal +.5x, thus gaining 1.75x combo multiplier at 5 hits, 2.5x after 15 hits, 3.25x after 45 hits, etc. The exact formula used for Venka Prime's growth in terms of the combo multiplier is known to be H = 5 × 3(4M - 7) / 3, where H denotes the number of hits when M is the desired combo multiplier.
The table below displays the values up to a damage multiplier of 8.0x.
| Combo Counter Bonus Tier | Total Base Damage Multiplier | Total Base Damage Multiplier for Venka Prime |
Minimum Consecutive Hits Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1.0x | 1.0x | 0 |
| 1 | 1.5x | 1.75x | 5 |
| 2 | 2.0x | 2.5x | 15 |
| 3 | 2.5x | 3.25x | 45 |
| 4 | 3.0x | 4.0x | 135 |
| 5 | 3.5x | 4.75x | 405 |
| 6 | 4.0x | 5.5x | 1,215 |
| 7 | 4.5x | 6.25x | 3,645 |
| 8 | 5.0x | 7.0x | 10,935 |
| 9 | 5.5x | 7.75x | 32,805 |
| 10 | 6.0x | 8.5x | 98,415 |
| 11 | 6.5x | 9.25x | 295,245 |
| 12 | 7.0x | 10.0x | 885,735 |
| 13 | 7.5x | 10.75x | 2,657,205 |
| 14 | 8.0x | 11.5x | 7,971,615 |
- Damage bonus from combo counter and channelling stack additively with each other, as per the formula:
Effective Damage Multiplier = 1 + (Channelling Multiplier - 1) + (Combo Multiplier - 1)- As example while channeling without channeling damage mods and at a combo counter of 2.5x you gain a combined damage multiplier of 1+(1.5-1)+(2.5-1) = 3.
8.0X Damage Multiplier Confirmed after 7,971,615 hits.
- Currently the highest reachable Damage Multiplier is 8x with the combo counter unable to exceed 224=16,777,216 consecutive hits.
- However, with the addition of Venka Prime, the Damage Multiplier is increased to an 11.5x modifier with the same amount of consecutive hits.
- In practice, the number of possible consecutive hits is limited by the number of enemies, their durability, and the player's skill at connecting combos to other enemies.
- Certain Warframe abilities benefit from and contribute to the Melee Combo Counter, allowing them to further enhance their damage as the Combo Counter increases. The following are the list of abilities that use the Combo Counter:
- Ash's Blade Storm
- Atlas's Landslide
- Excalibur's Slash Dash and Exalted Blade
- Valkyr's Hysteria
- Wukong's Primal Fury
- Despite its name, the Combo Counter should not be confused with the Combos performed using Stance Mods. The Combo Counter will count all melee attacks performed while equipping Melee weapons, including stealth attacks.
- The Combo Counter counts melee attacks performed while having Primary or Secondary weapons equipped. Immediately switching to a melee weapon within 3 seconds will show the amount of hits performed before the switch.
- Melee hits against objects, like Mining Equipment, do not count towards the Combo Counter.
- The Combo Counter does not increase the damage of prompted stealth attacks or prompted finisher attacks.
- The Combo Counter does not apply to thrown attacks from Glaives
Charge Attacks
An example of a charge attack.
Holding down the melee attack key while melee is equipped will perform a Charge Attack. After approximately 1 second of charging, the attack will release, dealing 3x damage (unconfirmed with non-sword weapons). It is still possible to sprint, slide, crouch, double jump, and bullet jump while charging, though double jumping and bullet jumping will have a lesser effect. Being knocked down will cancel the charge.
Some weapon types can have up to two different types of charge attacks, the type of attack performed being dependent on when during an attack chain the charge attack is begun, ex. the first type is performed if the charge is done after the first melee attack, while the second type is performed if the charge is done after the second melee attack in a chain, etc. Stances can further modify the attack timing necessary to perform the desired type of charge attack.
Charge attacks are generally precise melee attacks; melee weapons will be swung in the direction of the reticle and can more easily obtain headshots or more accurately hit targets.
Except for Glaives and Gunblades, the melee weapon has to be equipped to be able to perform a charge attack.
Finishers
Excalibur executing a Stealth Attack with Dual Swords.
- Main article: Finisher
Finisher attacks have custom animations, and deal a very high percentage of the equipped melee weapon's total damage. Players performing finishers are immune to any kind of damage for the duration of the animation.
The three types of finishers are:
- Ground Finisher, on knockdowned targets
- Stealth Attack, on unalerted enemies
- Front- / Back-Finisher, under specific effects
Tips
- For players wanting to specialize in melee combat, remapping the equipped melee attack key to LMB can make performing attacks and melee combos easier and more instinctive. Quick melee attacks when using Primary or Secondary weapons are considered a separate keybinding, and can be kept in its default key E .
- While doing charge attacks, the moment the swing does damage, immediately pressing the melee key will execute another charge attack, this can be repeated.
Bugs
- Successfully blocking an attack while rolling can make a player unable to attack with their melee weapon. This is usually accompanied by a slight change in camera perspective where the camera is positioned slightly down while facing upwards. This bug can be resolved by performing a roll or dodge again.
- Tapping the melee key slightly before landing causes the player to slide across the ground with minimal friction for a brief period.
Patch History
Update 22.20 (2018-05-17)
- Melee attacks (including spin attacks) will no longer sweep through walls or objects. Please read our Dev Workshop for Melee insight!
