Does Melee Even Make Sense in Fallout?
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- čas přidán 16. 04. 2024
- Is it badass to sprint through a hail of bullets to clobber raider over the head with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire? Sure! Are melee weapons overrated in a post-apocalypse settings? Kinda... depending on the situation, of course.
Firearms are like Pandora's Box. And not having any when others might is a bit like strolling through bug-infested swamps without mosquito repellant, or riding a motorcycle without a helmet... you can do it, but you might regret it.
Obviously the Fallout universe is not known for its utter dedication to realism, but it's a fun topic to over-think...
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#skallagrim #fallout #melee #realistic #postapocalyptic #rpg #tv #movie #scifi #fantasy - Zábava
Well, homeless blackmetal cyclist is giving me the right Fallout raider vibes
Not fallout 4 raiders.
and it slaps lol I love it
I was think the khans personally 😂
Question is: are you also bikeless?
Swap the bike helmet for a hard hat and it is 100 percent on the spot fallout 4 raiders.
Look...Sometimes you have to knife fight a deathclaw while hopped up on enough psycho to give a behemoth a heart attack
Psycho, turbo, med-x, slasher, rushing water, knockdown perk, slayer, finesse, better crits, bloody mess in New Vegas with any good melee weapon and you become a storm of death. To an onlooker you are some maniac swinging a weapon 10 times per second dismembering and exploding death claws. Quite silly but fun.
I can certainly respect the attempt.
They should make overdosing a thing. Take 5 drugs and there’s a 75% chance you DIE.
*goes up 5% each other dose you take?
My current playthrough has taught me that all you need us a mallet with a spike on the end.
And yes, all the drugs.
@@afrojohn8092 Don't forget your power armor which while also being a bullet sponge enhances your physical ability by a lot
"You cant just tank 3 gunshots to the torso, eat some cabbage, and be on your merry way."
*Floridaman has entered the chat*
Right, I forgot... Just need to replace "eat some cabbage" with "smoke some crack".
@@Skallagrim
And "attempt to fornicate with alligator,"
@@Skallagrim Fallout PCs are the personification of pure Florida Man.
@@Skallagrim In Fallout, maybe the radiation turn everyone to florida man
@@Skallagrim Don't you mean some Dash with a Stimpack chaser?
"Homeless black metal cyclist" is basically the description of the average postapocalyptic character...
In the classic "The Road Warrior" they are more like "Homeless black metal quarterback BDSM cyclist"
Courier Six Energy fr
That's Dutch Road warrior😅
Or someone from Florida
You most definitely _don't_ want to resort to melee against some raider or whatever, but you know what I wish we saw more of? Polearms and spears. Fallout 2 had spears, which were a great fallback option _to conserve ammo_ when fighting things that don't _have_ a ranged option. When you're up against a couple mole rats or whatever, you order your companions to switch to melee and you pull out your spear. It'll keep your enemy at a distance, it'll get the job done, and it saves you money. It eventually stops being a concern because your resources grow, but when you're an under-equipped tribal getting your foot in the door of the wider world, it's an effective way to keep that door wedged open.
There are spears in 3, NV, and 4, but weirdly they are either thrown or used with slashing motion, while only bayonet attachments can thrust. (edit: 3 may not actually have spears)
*boar-spears*! they should have Boar Spears (radscorpion spears?). for fighting the wildlife! (and weapons perks to increase meat and other things you loot from animals)
F-4's mod system coupled with spears would be sick af
@@ArifRWinandar Dude I was actually pissed when I got a Throwing Spear in NV and couldn't use it as a weapon on my first playthrough years ago haha.
Really hope the New Elder Scrolls has Spears etc too.
Everything past NV forgets about tribals
Fantasy Skall: "Look at my sweet discontinued sword"
Post-Apoc Skall: "Fix bayonets!"
that sword will be now located in a irradiated location past the pools of toxic sludge behind a small rock no one ever walks by because they didn't pack the diving equipment. a true collectors item.
Now that's soldiering!
Death Korps of Krieg approve this message.
To paraphrase Sgt Zim; "The enemy cannot push the VATS button if you disable his hand"
Precisely!
Medic!!!
@@freshhands9461careful that the medic doesn’t try to steal your organs.
"just the fact that you may run into enemies with firearms means you've gotta have one"
Skall sums up the USA in one sentence 😂
I thought the same thing lol he'd fit in down here great
Long time fallout fan here. Firearms and ammunition is has been manufactured post-war. Both by scavengers and professional manufacturers such as the Gun-Runners .
Yeah, the machinery will definitely still be around. The big question is sourcing raw materials for the powder and primer. It's POSSIBLE the refinement process to get the necessary purities will still be around post apocalypse, but that's a big question mark.
It annoys me that he says that people can't be bullet sponges when I saw a guy today that got run over and shit two times and when the guys got in the car the dude that got shot stood up and ran away, let's hear it "oh but that almost never happens" yeah I know but can you tell me that the strength of the bullets is gonna be the same when you're doing it out of glass shards and nails or whatever you have in the post apocalypse instead of birdshot or slugs? And with diy gunpowder and guns that are barely working, yeah sure the must have great range and accuracy, they always talk about if you get shot with your shit whatever armor you still die but like not only they wouldn't make body armor anymore, they wouldn't make bullets and guns any more, metro is a game that treats this subject way better anyway with radiated glass birdshot shot out of a piece of pipe you're most likely to die from an infection than from the actual bullet impact killing you :v
@@TheEdRiAx Except you're working on the premise that all knowledge will be lost, when in reality it wouldn't be, neither would all materials. Real life radiation from nuclear bombs dies off far quicker than in the Fallout universe, it wouldn't be enough time for people to forget how to make this shit or to lose copies of manuals/books, that tell you how to do so. In reality, it would be less Metro or Fallout, and more 1700/1800 living conditions with an increase of cancer at old age.
It's actually one of the few things people actually remembered how to do after the Great War, along with chems, guns, and electricity. Unlike basic masonry and carpentry, which everyone somehow forgot how to do.
@@insertname3977 After the fall of Roman Empire people managed to forget quite a lot even without nuclear bombs. Your premise is the main problem is radiation, while by all estimates it is dust. Irradiated dust that 1. blocks a big chunk of day light 2. Gets everywhere. Your food, your water, your lungs. So... people would not have food for everyone. That means war between survivors. Without education... I would say 1-2 generations is enough to degrade quite a lot.
Well yes. Power hammers and power gloves while wearing power armor.
Except the average raider doesn't have that, do they? They charge you with a frying pan and a dream.
Yep. When you're a walking tank, striding up to someone to punch a hole in their chest isn't out of the question.
@@Jefrejtordepends on the Fallout. Also bullets were scarce in 1 and 2 so melee was critical. Only in later ones did bullets become plentiful and craftable.
@@Jefrejtor well, yeah. Which is why they usually end up in pieces. But if that’s all you got, some people still go for it.
Even in our own history we’ve seen this. The Agooji are a prime example. They sent out soldiers and their famed women warriors in an attempt to maintain their slave trade when the French told them to stop. They had melee weapons, the French had firearms.
Played out the same way as the raider situation. Over seven weeks the French lost 88 people, the Agooji lost almost 4,000.
Side note, don’t further raiders hopped up on Jet as well. Drugs make you do weird thingsz
@@RicoRaynn it is very plausible so see someone trying to rush you with a baseball bat againt your laser gatling, when you realize they took multiple doses of psycho
In the military, we were actually taught that the most effective way to strike with a rifle (if you had to for some reason,) was thrusting with the barrel like you said, it's called a "muzzle thump." We practiced muzzle thumping each other back and forth in the body armor, and even through the hard plates, you could feel the impact and how much it would hurt if done on an unarmored target (especially the face.) People like the big dynamic swings of the butt stroke, but the muzzle thump is underappreciated. It's also the exact same technique you use to thrust with a bayonet, so training the technique is dual purpose.
I also just want to point out that, while most people will give up the fight after even one shot, there are NUMEROUS recorded cases of people charging officers with knives even after being shot several, even dozens of times. It's not too unrealistic to depict someone with a melee weapon closing the distance and possibly killing a gunman despite being shot...but they're likely going to die shortly afterward too. Honestly, I feel like this is just another point in favor of bayonets (or muzzle thumping.) Maybe you've shot them enough they're going to die soon, but you may need to fight to keep them off of you long enough for them to bleed out.
muzzle thumps are real. Especially if you have a 3 prong flash hider on it. lol.
As for the times that someone charges with a knife and is seemingly taking lots of bullets... I mean. If someone like that was charging me, i'd still rather take my chances with a gun over a melee weapon. Someone like you don't want to get close to you!
Knew a GWOT vet on discord who talked about being first hand witness to a muzzle thump that shattered an insurgents sternum
A part of avoiding butt strokes these days is rifles no longer have stocks made of solid hard wood. A telescoping butt stock of aluminum and synthetics is wonderful to carry but doesn't have as much mass and isn't sturdy enough to survive a hit to something solid like a helmet or ceramic plate.
@@ascalon132 I'd rather have a gun too, I more meant that given ammo scarcity in post-apocalypse settings it could be a valid use case where you've shot ALL of your 1-10 rounds you have at a guy, and he keeps coming, or something along those lines.
As Jimmy Hoffa says in "Irishman":
You charge the guy with a gun, but when guy has a knife, you run away.
This makes a knife/gun combo an interesting thing - you show a knife, your enemy opens distance and then you use gun to finish him...
Melee will NEVER be out of place, no matter the setting. Bullets and projectiles will always run out eventually but anything from your fists to your empty gun can be used as a melee weapon !!
Well.. given the option I'd rather conserve ammo using booby traps than melee weapons. If you have the prep time a batch of punji sticks may get the job done without having to expose yourself to the other guy.
@@silverjohn6037 I mean… an ambush counts as a trap but can still be executed with melee weapons.
@@silverjohn6037to be fair, Fallout protagonists seem to spend a lot of time moving around, so booby traps more complex than mines aren’t always a viable option.
@@eeyorehaferbock7870 Except in Fallout 4 where you can Dictate a Giant Peener Statue be Built in the Glory of Todd Howard, Their true God.
Also, the small possibility of an encounter up close enough that the melee weapon _is_ the better option cannot be discounted. Especially if you happen to be in a dark or dense enough area that not spotting each other until you're that close would be more likely than usual.
The way I see it: Melee/Bows/Crossbows in Fallout are a means to get a gun, not an alternative TO a gun. You might not have a gun readily available when everything goes ass over teakettle, so something like a knife/axe/machete might simply be the thing you have readily on hand. But yes: use whatever you've got, fight smart, then get a gun
Laughs in *Phased Plasma in the 40 Watt Range*
Yup or conserving ammo in the survival setting the game takes place in, don’t use bullets against the giant bug just squash it with a stick
A bow can very well be an alternative to a gun. But you've gotta have the skills and knowhow to both use and maintain, and rebuild if needed. The main problem with thie video is that it only tackles the topic of "running up to someone who's got a gun". That's just a situation you try to avoid. You don't make yourself known to the person you want to take the gun from. You wait till they fall asleep and sneak up and slit their neck. Or hide in what remains of the woods, or in an abandoned house, and nail them from where they can't see you. Even if you've got a gun, you still do these things. Because if you shoot a gun, it typically makes a gunshot, which gives away your position to everyone and everything that can hear it. And unless you've got a GRA Anti-Material rifle with the GRA explosive .50 cal BMG rounds, you're lunch for Deathclaws or Radscorpions (and/or bark scorpions). And maybe also geckos and nightstalkers and cazidores. And mirelurks, and lakelurks, and supermutants, and centaurs, and ghouls, and rabid cyberdogs, and coyotes, and feral dogs, and maybe even bloatflies and mantis. And cannibals. Oh, and killer robots. And every human in the area now knows that you've got one less bullet (per gunshot), so they might become just a little bolder. So, even when you've got multiple guns (cause if you've only got one, you're goinna have harder time with that one specific type/size of ammo), you really wanna keep those things and what ammo you've got for when you really need 'em. Best advice is to have more skills, and leverage what you can do to form alliances. Maybe you're an awesome cook who can make radroach taste like 52 different types of meat, so it rarely feels like you're just eating the same thing over and over. Maybe that guy with those 20 guns over there has trouble boiling water. Work out a deal, where they kill it, you cook it.
If your gun doesnt have a silencer using it practically means killing yourself. Thats my argument.
Me with two step goodbye: nah fam I'm good keep your gun
SPECIAL stats are in fact real in fallout. There's a lot of fucking strange things happening to the people in the fallout world. They're built different.
Why wouldn’t they be? Almost everyone’s irradiated to some extent; of course their biology will be a bit off. Vault dwellers just need to level up because they’ve avoided being mutated up to that point.
"Find out what makes your SPECIAL!"
It's not what you do outside, but what you know inside. Now let's see that extra heart and liver!
Yeah right? Humans in fallout are not humans like us I think, everyone can take a decent amount of damage and some even have psychic powers they’ve gotta be built different
@@eeyorehaferbock7870 SPECIAL is a thing even before the bombs exploded, as shown by The Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester.
Canned beans is what i survive on now.
The profile picture shows what that does to a man.
Your pfp is what the rest of us look like when that stuff decides it's ready to reintroduce itself to the world.
Melee weapons like spears would be useful for rat/roach sticking. But snares and traps would also do that and have the advantage that they're working while you're doing something more useful like tending crops or milking your two headed cow.
I would see bows/crossbows making a big comeback
I love my 45lb Osage bow, 150gr broadheads are devastating
For sure, especially crossbows since almost anyone can get the gist of how to operate it pretty quickly, especially if they are already familiar with firearms.
@@milesmanges Hope you don't live in England...
If you could find trees that werent irratiated/damaged and knew how to make them
@@Dogman262you could use metal bowlimbs.
Hes clearly got some ballistic weave on that armor.
Everybody knows that the best weapon to have in the post-apocalypse is a friend who knows Hokuto Shinken
Omae wa mou shindeiru
@@CreepyMF NANI?!?!? *explodes*
Sounds like a good way to have a dramatic death to fuel his quest.
This depends on when the story takes place after the apocalypse, but Jonathan Ferguson made a point about how guns that are just left lying around without maintenance would rust or rot away in just a few decades, meaning that hundreds of years in the future actual working guns might be scarce (putting aside people who make new guns like the Gun Runners)
If left laying out on the ground they could deteriorate that fast but if they were stored in a sealed container or away from rain and snow inside of a building they'd last much longer. There are plenty of antique guns that have survived for centuries and are still usable. Though considering the manufacturing standards a few centuries back you wouldn't want to use a hot powder charge;).
@@Dogman262how many people know how to do that in fallout though? Let alone have the resources and tools to do so?
@@user-kt4to5xs9l If they don't know how to do it, then they'd learn how to do it by trial and error, I would reckon. Guns are almost as big of a resource as food and water. Even if you already have a gun, repairing a scavenged gun is still a good idea, as you can sell that gun for more food and water.
@@Dogman262 if they even survived to learn how. It’s just as likely that they could make a faulty barrel and firing pin , leading to shrapnel in their chest. Which they couldn’t fix due to disease
@@Dogman262 what I’m saying is that the ability to produce those things is greatly diminished and the quality not good. It’s why we see so many wild weapons in use. If you can make guns great, but odds are you are going to resort to anything you can. And the wasteland is an irradiated junkyard at this point. From rust to radioactive material, something is getting into your wounds
you better not forget that knife stickin out of your glove when your nose starts itching
"Hey, what's the story behind your eye patch?"
*holds a baseball bat, designed specifically to hit a ball* "This is a weapon and has no other use !". Of course you'd need a teammate.
Ask the owner of the ball whether it counts as a weapon.
@@SableagleThe ball served "ritual purposes"
@@Dogman262 Ah yes, the Ancient Ritual of "Baseball" where the Americans would Worship their Blimp God "Goodyear" by Whacking the Sacrifice Ball with the Ritual Stick... Simple Fascinating Behaviour!
a teammate with a long fuse grenade preferably.
"Swatta Swatta swatta!"
I'm digging the "Mad Skall - Beyond the Blunderbuss" getup.
Beyond Blunderdome, Ride the Thunderbus! - Coming to theaters this summer.
One detail i like is thatvin dying light when you encounter hostile humans they immediately back off when you aim a pistol at them
That scene from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark comes to mind.
We're gonna catch people using mall ninja folding knife blades as spear heads.
Detach the blade from the handle and make a socket for it
Holding someone up with an empty gun was also a mechanic in the game "I am Alive" and that was pretty well inplimented cause it failed against more experienced enemies if they noticed your slide was locked back.
You can also just "Do" this in Day Z when you're a Fresh Spawn Gearing up.
If you have a Gun with no Ammo and see another fresh Spawn you can try to use this trick for whatever reason.
(Just remember that a Fresh Spawn is more dangerously unpredictable then a Geared Player)
You can close the slide on most guns with an empty chamber though.
@@CrizzyEyes True but the game would 100% punish you for forgetting to do so which was neat.
@@DanceswithBlades5 I was referring to in real life. I haven't played the game in question so I'm not aware of if it allows you to do that or not. Though the fact that it does is indeed neat.
@@CrizzyEyes Ah fair enough! A very important thing to make sure of with any bluff to be sure!
One thing that should be noted though that there were cases historically, notably the American Phillipines war, where melee was still very much a thing. The reason why the 1911 and combat shotguns were initially adopted was because their predecessors (IE the .38 revolver) often lacked the stopping power to stop the Phillipino swordsmen quickly enough. And relevant to the period, the Australian Cavalry actually re-adopted the sword during WW1, as it made them so much more effective during the charges that were still very relevant in the eastern fronts of the conflict. And even in the Western Front, Melee weapons made a big return, as bayonets on long rifles often were cumbersome to use in the trenches.
And if you are part of a community, they you can get away more easily with dedicated melee weapons, as you don't have to carry all the tools you need to survive yourself.
Tl;dr, if high-powered semi-auto rifles are rare, IE they've degraded and been worn out with time and the industry to manufacture them at scale has not yet been rebuilt, and you often fight in close quarters, like, say in a building, then yeah melee weapons do make a lot of sense, especially if you are also wearing pistol-caliber proof armor
If this did happen I think the first few years would be a frenzied hurricane of bullets until every last hidden stash was expended, then we'll all be swinging clubs at each other.
by fallout 2 at least, bullet factories are back up and running, pouring ammunition back into the wastelands, and that's not to mention the profuse presence of reloading benches in New Vegas or the factories of the Commonwealth and West Virginia, still in wartime manufacturing mode and probably not too difficult to repair. after that, there's a few ways to get the materials for gunpowder
So F1 would be the one that would need to dispense with the guns to be realistic... Also Fallout 3, the capitol got *messed UP*, they barely have enough water for drinking and agriculture, no way they're getting the bullet factories back up
Agree. People don't really understand how quickly ammo is used in a hot conflict.
Until the consolidated powers like Caesers legion or the NCR discovered ammunition manufacturing plants, the prequesite mines for ammunition, and the necessary individuals required to relearn the "lost tech" and then bring the machines back into use
@@sfdgag9439to be fair tho, Most ammunition is used for supressive fire, which would not be such a big thing in a fight between a few people.
@@Edge-wx7hv I always assumed the bullets in the stores in F3 are imported, also another reason for the importance of the purification system as water would be a great resource for trading
Would immediately go and panic buy all the ammo? Buddy, you're late. All ammo was panic-bought like 5 years ago. Prices more than doubled since then.
Ammo sales go insane every time the US gets a Democrat president.
He's Canadian, they weren't as heavily hit by the ammo shortages IIRC
Twice the ammo double the fall
@@nextcaesargaming5469Because they're not allowed to have guns.
@@AndrewRyan-zv7zb They are allowed to have guns, it's just not an inherent right and the restrictions on those guns they are permitted to own make California look like Texas
Canada: the biggest warning to us why we *SHOULDN'T* give up our guns. And I say that as someone who scores far away from Libertarian on the political compass.
now that im thinking of it, if its far enough after an apocalypse that all weapons are blackpowder due to all of the smokeless bullets being used up, body armor may become viable enough to allow melee to be *slightly* more viable, since you could have something like renaissance "bulletproof" armor that can deflect most bullets, allowing you to get into range.
the issue is that you have to carry heavy armor and you still lose to anyone who figured out how to make smokeless powder, or saved some from the pre-apocalypse.
Holy cow... We need to end the world right this instant and make way for THE GUN KNIGHTS! This time artillery won't be around to stop them until much later!
If you bring enough stimpacks and med-x, being shot at is no longer an issue.
...unless they have a fatman or rocket launcher.
I think Matt Easton made a video about how in the age of revolvers, soldiers still have swords because unloading six rounds onto a determined attacker is not a guarantee that the attacker will not stab you before he dies.
Those were very different sidearms than what we have today. Even modern revolvers are leagues above them.
@@ascalon132 Eh, not quite:
czcams.com/video/pdjcYjSsIok/video.html
Someone running off adrenaline may not instantly drop if they get popped a few times, and even might be able to overpower the person w a firearm. But if u get shot most likely it’s fatal, if not immediately then in the next 5 minutes, if not then 10 days later from infection, in a post apoc scenario.
If you’re charging someone just to take their loot, that stuff is usually useless to u if you probably won’t survive the encounter. So as a deterrent against people without guns, a gun is extremely effective.
Only times it makes sense to charge someone w a firearm is if you’re expected to get shot at anyways (such as in the case of warfare you mentioned)
@@ascalon132I’d much rather get shot by a modern .38 than any revolver back then.
It could be argued a gun is a tool because it's used to hunt game/food, like a bow.
That's true.
@@Skallagrimwhat are you gonna hunt in a fallout like wasteland
@@duckpotat9818 There are still plenty of animals in the games.
@@Skallagrim idk how edible they are given the obvious effects of radiation and biological mutagens.
Realistically though, if you can be out and about without a hazmat suit and there’s animals running around then it’s definitely safe enough to farm.
No need to scavenge for scraps.
Most animals and plants, especially, are much sturdier than humans when it comes to radiation.
Metro games are much more realistic in this respect.
Just look at Chernobyl and other nuclear test sites. They have better ecological balance than most natural parks.
Concerning how human habitation is worse for the environment than nuclear disasters.
@@SkallagrimThe survivors would only be noticeably worse for wear in the first generation after nuclear fallout; over time, humans would adapt to the world even if it means background radiation.
Naussica of the Valley of the Wind had a manga and a great point in that about how the survivors of humanity have a baseline level of poison tolerance in their system. There's more to that part but I don't wanna spoil such a great story.
Its worth noting that military gear won't just disappear.
If guns are the norm then "I'm in a tank and you are not." is a valid argument.
That's just Brotherhood of Steel...
That knife sinking into the gel torso was brutal \m/
used to attend some post-apoc fallout/stalker based LARPs. Despite the Firepower you could weild, Ammonition scarcity is a thing aswell as jam's from your heavily modified Nerf blasters or airsoft. So the majority of my "kills" on those game relied on knives, hammers, fist etc. But the factual reason was that most players dont account their hits when being fired upon with a softair but they can't powerplay themself out of a judo-throw. ^^
If ammunition is scarce... Why not use crossbows?
@@ShinoSarna Single shot and you spend how many ten seconds loading?
Slings or staff slings though.
@@ZeroXSEED Just make a Compressed Air "Van Helsing" From Metro 2033, Or with Compound Technology the Chinese Magazine Fed Belly Bows could be Viable again.
@@ZeroXSEED That's still way better than a knife, which gives you zero shots. If the enemy has like, a bolt action rifle, maybe even 22lr you're not going to be THAT outgunned. And if there is twenty of you with crossbows versus one guy with gun, and your side is decently trained - he's dead, Mad Max movies be damned.
And in modern times you can easily improvise a sturdy crossbow with a heavy duty spring and some sharp pieces of metal (rebar?). Maybe even electric motor for reloading. And you have a good chance of finding this stuff - unlike guns, which all will be looted in first 10 years.
Imagine musket lines in fallout, whole empires built on by muskets lol
That's the Minutemen with their laser muskets
@@ArifRWinandar Given that laser muskets can be absolute powerhouses shot-for-shot, I wouldn't want to mess with any linear warfare formations wielding handheld artillery like that
I really wish I could train the Minutemen to form a firing line.
It's actually more realistic than you think because black powder isn't that hard to make neither are basic musket designs. Pretty much just a metal tube lol.
Consider this: Ammunition gets heavy very quickly, and you cannot carry an entire arsenal with you. You could very well be in a situation (especially if you're traveling long distances), where ammo conservation is a serious concern. After all, you have no idea when you're going to come across the next ammo cache. You could be travelling for months without a re-stock, depending on what flavor of the apocalypse you find yourself in. Even if you have ammo, it would probably be better to spare it for absolute emergencies.
In those situations, a melee item that serves more than one utilitarian purpose could absolutely be crucial. A knife would be good for obvious reasons, as you pointed out. A polearm would be a great walking stick (especially over uneven terrain), and a polearm is just a good general-purpose tool. If your version of the apocalypse necessitates a lot of repair (Mad Max), a wrench or hammer would be great to have around. If you're in a heavy-foliage area, a machete is basically a necessity. A rope could serve many purposes that include setting traps and climbing, but could also be fashioned into a makeshift melee weapon.
Basically, having a tool-item that doubles as a melee implement is not only realistic but also satisfies the rule of cool. And keep in mind that, depending on how far along you are in the apocalypse, ammunition might be significantly scarce indeed. Or, you might need something more quiet for those low-profile situations. BUT... if your version of the apocalypse is advanced enough to have ammunition production plants, there are probably going to be situations in civilization where your guns must be confiscated or concealed. In those situations, a melee device might be the difference between life and death.
Ammo, even if properly stored, might decay over time and weapons WILL jam eventually.
Even if ammunition is plentiful, how can you be so confident that the next ammo stash you come across will have the right caliber for your weapon? I mean I guess you can just pick up discarded weapons all the time, but then you're either carrying around 6 different guns on your person (you WILL get tired quickly) or you pray that after every violent encounter that the dead guy has a lot of ammo on him. Either way, a trusty close-range weapon might be the thing that saves you.
And if you're carrying around lots of guns, ESPECIALLY on the outskirts of civilization, you're basically asking to be robbed. I can think of several ways you could use an empty weapon to your advantage though: As a lure for would-be thieves or even to fool your attacker, who picks up the weapon and tries to use it.
Unless you're part of an actual post-apocalyptic army, don't count on guns alone.
Great video!
Yah but in that case your melee weapon is still serving secondary at best your firearm. And in a life and death situation the firearm is being brought out.
says ammo gets heavy then lists off several noticeably heavy/bulky items such as polearms, hammers, wrenches.
also dunno what a hammer or random wrench is supposed to help with when it comes to a apoc where you need to repair stuff. outside of inserting/extracting pins and keys a hammer doesnt do much in the world of repair (atleast for metal working, carpentry is a different matter) and being able to repair something with a random large sized wrench that is big enough to be used in combat seems unlikely... again wrenches are primarily used for assembly and disassembly of existing parts and it is even rarer for something to require the same sized wrench for all its nuts.
the idea of having a tool/weapon itself as a backup isnt bad but your examples of it are terrible
I dont like your point of "even if you have ammo it would probably be better to spare it for absolute emergencies" either. again its not an entirely bad line of thinking but any confrontation at a melee distance between you and an aggressor is a risk to yourself esp in an apoc world where an infection can mean loss of limb or life. in general itd be much better to avoid risk and take down an enemy at a distance if you have ammo, remember if you die while trying to "save" resources you lose all your resources anyway. save maybe a few rounds for absolute emergency.
@@dom7899 You talk to any person in the armed services and they will agree that carrying ammunition, even a meager amount, is heavier than you might think.
@@baneofbanes I never once said that you should have a melee as a primary arm.
@@PsychorGames im not disagreeing with that point, im well aware ammo can become heavy. i was critiquing your points afterwords
Ah the return of the Clyde/Mormon Special "Riffles and Shotguns" modified to be as quick to wield as possible. Just understand that in most jurisdictions this modification type is illegal.
Off Topic, but the thing that has always bothered me most with the weapons in Fallout is where are the bows and arrows. Like spears are a thing in Fallout so why not bows and arrows?
76 has them but not great
A simple crossbow can be quite good on its own, as demonstrated in _For Your Eyes Only,_ which we didn't watch for Roger Moore's parts of it.
These days, though, we can upgrade it in a really scary way, if we can find a facelift clinic that still has some of those magic anti-wrinkle injections in the freezer.
Three nanograms per kilogram body mass for a 50% chance.
No, a nanogram is not a grandmother sent round to someone's house.
Perhaps living trees are difficult to find in the wasteland. A spear shaft can be fashioned easily enough from scavenged metal pipe, but not so much a bow or arrow.
@@Hieronymous_Flex You can make the limbs from metal. Or bone. Or plastic. Making a bow isn't that hard. Making a GOOD bow is a different matter, but still easier than to set up an ammo factory.
@@intlidaveif the bows aren’t that good is it even worth spending valuable resources to make it? Mutants and raiders would withstand a weak bow and arrow so why waste the time energy and resources to make a shitty bow? And by the time you can make a good bow you have other options that are better
The t-60 not having a melee weapon is a crime...
T-60 and other power armours are mele weapons itself
Just get a pain train perk and do cardio into mfers
idk, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a punch even from my initial low-level T-60, modded for hauling junk. and that's before you add taser knuckles
Could you imagine getting punch by that thing?
@@Dogman262 Just watch Sodaz's fallout animation to see how does jt feel to be punch
While melee can be incredibly powerful in classic Fallout games, ironically it's only really viable when you pull either The World type exploit where you multiply yellow action points for movement through save/load, or if you have Jinxed and no one can really use their firearms properly because of it. Otherwise you get gunned down very quickly before you can get any close, RIP.
Nah, with certain abilities score and above certain skill threshold you've basically become Batman. I mostly used melee in the second half of Fallout 2, without any cheating. Although having power armor and cyber implants helps XD.
Coming back to this, I remembered that Matt Easton covered this same topic as well. And he came to the exact opposite conclusion. He pointed out that melee (or at least bows/crossbows) would be the preferable first form of post-apocalyptic self defense. Why? Guns are loud. The second you shoot one enemy, it will alert every scavenger/raider around "Hey, there's an idiot with ammo to spare! Lets get'em!" In that kind of scenario, guns are a much better backup weapon, with a silent option like a spear as the main weapon (plus spears are good for hunting as well) or an axe for more utility. Kind of like in that movie "Book of Eli" where the main character fought stealthily with a machete for most of the movie, but in the final fight when he was in deep crap he pulled a sawed-off shotgun out of his pack and started blasting fools. That way you don't draw the attention of any potential nasties that might be lurking around, but have the option to "go loud" in an emergency like facing someone else with a gun and no hesitation to use it.
@jlan7844 that's not really how the human mind works, scavengers don't get loot by getting shot. even if someone does get shot and survives an encounter, they have to spend time and resources healing themselves. time spent resting is time spent not getting food or anything else. gun shots would only attract very specific groups of individuals. almost everyone else would stay away
@@CrizzyEyes You're assuming that the people alerted by the gunshots are going to act like video game NPCs and charge you straight on, and that's a fast way to a stupid death. What will actually happen is that they'd decide that if you are using your gun, you have enough ammo for it to be worth them ambushing you and using a small amount of their ammo to drop you from an advantageous position. Or more likely wait until you are in a position that they can quietly kill you with a melee weapon or whatever primitive projectile weapon they have on hand before you are aware enough to use your gun against them. Granted that could happen period in a post-apocalyptic scenario, but it is far more likely if you loudly announce your presence and position with something as loud as a gunshot. It is much better to simply avoid a fight completely by being as quiet and unobtrusive as possible in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Guns do not do quiet and unobtrusive, even suppressed guns are loud enough that in an urban environment the sound will carry for a couple blocks.
@@jlan7844 you are assuming, on the flip side, that random scavengers are very competent ambushers. these will be a very small minority of people. the vast majority of scavengers will pick through places like the Boneyard and avoid people they don't know as often as possible because there will be far more materials and resources to go around than people to consume them after the war.
the only people who will do what you describe would likely be raiders or some other armed group who are actively trying to control a territory, who will see gunshots as a potential threat to their authority, and therefore go check it out. but word of that will get around quickly, and most scavengers will just avoid the turf entirely while there are still pickings to be had elsewhere. most people would rather risk a gunshot than a radscorpion, feral ghoul or other mutated threat getting in melee range regardless
@@CrizzyEyes First, to clarify: I'm not talking about Fallout. Radscorpions, ghouls, and mutants do not and can never exist in real life, so they don't factor into what I (and originally Matt Easton) was talking about. Second, even an incompetent and unsuccessful ambush is dangerous because you might still catch a bullet even if you kill the guy who jumped you. And yes, you WILL be at risk of getting jumped by other scavengers, not just thugs and raiders, if you make yourself noticeable. People get desperate in survival situations and desperate people tend to fall back on a "me or them" mentality. If they think that they can get more and/or better supplies by jumping another scavenger, they will. Even if it doesn't seem all that logical to us, who are not blinded by the fear and desperation that most people in a post-apocalyptic scenario would be feeling. Desperation makes people stupid. That's why survival experts say urban areas will be the most dangerous places right after an apocalyptic event, all of those desperate people will be fighting over resources even if it is more logical to band together. At the end of the day it is simply better to not attract attention and make yourself a target, since you survive every fight unscathed if you simply avoid the fight in the first place.
If melee weapons were still useful in Victorian times/ww1(and they Were) they'd be useful in a fallout scenario especially as sidearms
I think Matt Easton made a video about how in the age of revolvers, soldiers still have swords because unloading six rounds onto a determined attacker is not a guarantee that the attacker will not stab the soldier afterwards
I mean, there's a story of a guy who charged a machine gun nest with a sword and cleared it out in WW2.
@@ArifRWinandar gun tech as come a long way in the last 100 years. Even a modern revolver shooting .357 is on an entirely different tier than a black powder/percussion cap revolver. We standard modern pistols are carrying over 15 rounds of ammo per mag, with reloads almost as fast as drawing a sword, there's little point in having a dedicated melee weapon (outside of maybe a knife, which is also a tool), especially if your main weapon is a rifle (with said pistol as the back up..)
People always seem to forget that people _miss_, particularly in a dynamic, stressful environment such as close combat. If you have a reliable semi-automatic weapon with a high capacity magazine (10+ rounds), that becomes less of a factor, because you can just send more rounds down range. However if you’ve got limited capacity &/or single shot weapons (e.g. revolvers and bolt action rifles, a la WWI) then you’re definitely at risk of being run out of ammo or engaged whilst cycling the action, and then melee weapons are much more useful.
awesome suit :)
How you comment an hour ago
@@walleras Timing issue
0:11 "homeless black metal cyclist" nearly gave my TV a new coating of beer! :D
Day 1: Secure supplies to construct pommel launcher.
Day 2: Construct pommel launcher.
Day 3: Rule the nuclear hellscape with an iron fist. 👊💀🤘
Are you using the pommel launcher to acquire a power fist?
@@Justanotherconsumer amongst other things. I suppose, I'll pick one up here and there. Once I have achieved the total subjugation for all things still living, I'll wear a powerfist as a symbol of office. 👊💀
I would carry with me black powder revolver. Simple to cast lead bullets and simple to make black powder (charcoal, potassium nitrate and sulfur). But compound crossbow also would be a good choise.
edit: almost all chemicals to make black powder guns work you can find in any shop with gardening supplies
Where are you getting percussion caps from?
Got yourself a flintlock revolver, have you?
Don't go telling everyone about my black powder plan!
I don’t watch Skal regularly anymore but I find myself checking on this channel every year or couple of years because it’s just is nice to know he’s going strong.
Nice! I see this going well with the algorithm. Looks like you are getting some good ideas for continuing your channel!
I know I've said this before; we just want to be entertained with interesting thoughts and cool bits of history. This type of video is great!
NUCLEAR HERPES! 😂
I've found melee useful when traveling in the wilderness. I like to travel avoiding combat, but since sometimes mobs sneak up on me (mostly wolves; need surround sound; suck at turning behind me), being equipped with a melee weapon deals with them due to how close they get to me. I just want to walk to an objective in peace, then pull out my gun when assigned a combat task, preferring to snipe rather than run-n-gun.
Verily I proclaim, prowling the barrens nigh maketh me yearn for a winter of extraordinary preportions.
Great video! I really enjoy your perspective and live demonstration.
One thing to remember is that the Fallout games are set roughly 200 years past the Great War, sealing the Vaults. What does that time do to a gun or ammo? Most of the population (both on the surface and in the Vaults) don't know how to make gunpowder or even the basics of gunsmithing.
Except that there are industrial levels of gun making and ammo making going on in the West Coast of the USA. Gun Runners don't scavenge for old weapons, they make brand new pre-war spec firearms and ammunition.
@@insertname3977how many of them are there and do they share their knowledge? Because the majority of people don’t have that skill. And even less have the infrastructure to do so
Fallout 1 is 84 years after the war, Fallout 2 is 164 years, and society is rebuilding.
@user-kt4to5xs9l There's enough of them that have formed several companies that hire new people all the time (who can take their cash and leave to start their own business once their contract ends), and are common enough that the NCR is outfitted with newly made firearms for their thousands of soldiers.
The West Coast is pretty much at 1800/1900 levels of industrialised firearms making, so every small town is guaranteed to have a small gunsmith at the very least, if not a factory of workers churning out firearms.
So while it's not everyone, gunsmithing is common enough that it wouldn't be the issue people who've only played fallout 3 and 4 think it is.
@@insertname3977 huh, I didn’t know that. I guess anyone using melee weapons can’t afford to buy or make much ammo, or are lower in the hierarchy
Just started a New Vegas run and thought to myself I do a Sneaky Sniper character, but until now I did most with the Machete because strong
But while we are at it, how about Bows or Crossbows in the Post Apocalypse.
They would probably be better for hunting, maybe some kind of explosive arrows/bolts (if those exist) would be useful against people, but i doubt they're effective in one on one confrontation
@@zjay How so? A bolt will still kill someone. Crossbows were killing people long before guns showed up. They are also quiet, so great for ambushes.
8:33 real life Mage's staff.
As someone who lives in the U.S. and is a gun enthusiast, I *wish* ammo had only gone the way of TP in 2020; it might actually have been affordable! (Seriously, ammo became so scarce and expensive that companies opened whole new facilities to try and handle the demand. It was insane.)
My wastland ronin/paladin/shinobi would be proud 🥊🔨🪓⛏️🗡
Did you bring a knife to a nuclear grenade launcher fight?
"The enemy cannot launch a nuclear grenade if you disable his hand"
Sgt Zim, possibly
@@carloshenriquezimmer7543to be fair, if an enemy can get close enough to you to melee you, you can’t really use the Fat Man on them anyway because you’ll just blow both of you up in any case. That thing’s only for use in wide-open spaces against enemies who are great in quantity and/or particularly tough.
A post apocalyptic outfit made from what you had lying around looks more like an actual post apocalyptic outfit than a planned out one.
Cool Vid. Love the post-apocalyptic topic 👌🏻
Melee is perhaps more appropriate for non human threats. Great video Skall!
All roads lead to stealth archer.
"Ammo is rare"
_Finds fresh ammo of any caliber in every trashcan and lunchbox_
Good to see this channel alive and well after all this time!
That's a Detroit Urban Survival certified combat suit!
I feel confident with my treasure trove of weapons and armor.
Your videos are so good man. You really push the envelope. Proud to be a viewer
I was just thinking about this topic. Skallagrim great vid man!!!!
Ride that algorithm train baby!
My preferred weapons in Fallout 4 is the Rapid Knife (very hard to get but the best) or Kremvh's Tooth/Pickman's Blade
The Stealth Ninja Melee Build (Strength, Endurance, Agility & Health) and the associated perks is the best way to build your character before focusing on ranged weapon perks. Lone Wanderer is good (having only dogmeat with you still allows the perk to work) & Demolition is key as well.
I've done this in Fallout 3, Fallout 76 and Fallout 4.
Even to the point of being able to beat someone in power armor only with a knife in Fallout 76
I like this style of video, even if the number of things to nitpick is finite someone's gotta do it
Just wrap a hockey stick in barb wire you'll be fine
Bullets dont stop Super Mutants from caving my skull in with a fence post
When you get hit by the Luisville Slugger, you only question your life choices.
Deathclaws are a melee build and they're the most terrifying creature in the wasteland.
The simple answer is VATS. You can basically speed blitz a group of larger enemies with VATS as such in the fallout universe you are much more than some ordinary human so melee weapons have their own place especially with power armor.
I think @DonutOperator might beg to differ on how many bullets a person can take while still being actively problematic lol. Anyway, another great vid and thanks for the work you do
I enjoyed this video it was interesting thx for uploading it. oh and the make shift armor looks good too.
Ammo is more precious than gold however some foes should be engaged only at range such as raiders and robots
Scary thought Skalagrim with a double barreled bayoneted shotgun dude is not playing around.
keep it up skall! love the videos
Your point is valid; however, love cleaning out a raider camp with my death-claw gauntlet every so often.
One of the most OP characters I came up with for New Vegas was a melee stealth build that revolved around the Blade of the West. It used Implant GRX, or Turbo, along with perks that increased knockback and drug duration, to get the jump on enemies and juggle them into the air. Fights would always end with it raining enemy parts. Of course, depending on the situation, my character could still use guns, talk their way out of a fight, or just sneak past enemies. Sometimes the best way to win is to avoid a fight in the first place.
There was a Ubisoft Wii game called I Am Alive. Post-apocalypse, and you could bluff melee enemies by pointing a gun at them.
Of course, if you kept doing it to the same enemies, they would start trying to call your bluff.
HAHAHAHA! I loved the "end him rightly" reference. lol
Thanks for a good laugh :)
Well, if you have an ability to slow down time to see the bullets flying in slowmo. Yes, you can do a melee build, especially if your weapon can cut through anything including power armor.
In a post-apocalyptic world
A weapon that is effective at killing people, even one that is good for killing only people, is also a hunting tool.
Me, riding a Glaive- Powerarmor- Alcohol- 2-Hand Melee Build in Fallout 76 and nonstop dealing 3-4 Figures Damage Numbers per Hit, 1-hit killing everything but Bosses: Yeah, its useful, but you have to do it right.
Speed is also important, so 20% more Speed and Jetpack are reccomended.
This video was wayyyyyy too fun!
Best handgun for the post-apocalypse any 22 or 22 long rifle and 9 mm. These are the most common types of ammunition made and available in the US.
Best long arm or rifle for the post-apocalypse is any 12 gauge pump shotgun. Handling your own cartridges is a pretty easy skill to learn which means you can basically remake your own ammo.
Best melee weapon for the post-apocalypse is a hand and a half Acts. Also call the fire axe. The design to be effectively swung one or two handed and uses a demolition tool . I'm with a prior / Baker Spike on the back is pretty much nothing you can't get through.
Secondary melee weapon is any large fixed blade knife and rope. As you need both for any survival situation
When gun cost caps, man have no caps, man have lead pipe for free 😊
One thing that isn't always considered that Hunt makes you realize: guns make noise.
And in a post apocalyptic world with mutated predators, psychos, raiders, and various factions warring?
In some cases? If you NEED (or want) to kill, you might as well take a silent option IF available.
Sure, no one's gonna blink twice at the sound of distant gunshots in Fallout, but some people may be drawn to it like moths.
If you can't get gunpowder the next best thing in Fallout post apocalyptic world would be heavily modified compressed air tools like nail guns or bullets that use pressurized air as propellant.
As always Skall, a thoroughly entertaining video. Love your stuff. A comment for the algorithm.
Caesar's Legion equips its soldiers with machetes because they don't have enough guns to go around. You go from machetes to guns as you get promoted.
Hey Skall, if you ever want to join the biggest Post-Apo Larp in the World (F.A.L.L.E.N. Larp formally known as F.A.T.E. ) you are more than welcome.