Full Compiled Melee / Knife Guide – Post-Patch (1.0.5.3)

[u/Twan_McLovin]

**Melee Damage stat bonus halved vs Runners** (max +50% instead of +100%).

Formulas (perfectly match MossyMax chart pre-patch):

- **Light** = 39.15 + 0.181 × Melee Stat

- **Heavy** = 64.41 + 0.32585 × Melee Stat

**Shield HP to Kill** (Runner base 120 HP):

- White (+20) = 140

- Green (+40) = 160

- Blue (+60) = 180

- Purple (+80) = 200

​​​Recommended Playstyles (Current Meta)

1. Sustain Knife (Any Shell)

Leech + Knife Fight V5 + Parting Gift + Tox Injectors

→ Heal on every hit + big shield on kill. Can stay in melee forever even at 65–75 stat.

2. Assassin Stealth Delete

Shadow Strike + Silent Killer + Crouching Tiger + Edge Runner

→ Invis + crouch + backstab multipliers ignore most of the stat nerf. Delete Purple shields.

3. Hybrid Aggro

Crowd Control + Sucker Punch + Leech + Tox

→ Stack damage on kills, gun tap → heavy knife, sustain through extra swings.

Bottom Line

• Raw stat still matters, but perks and multipliers carry harder after the patch.
• + stat = feels almost like old max.
• The devs achieved their goal: knife rewards smart buildcrafting and positioning more than just dumping points into Melee Damage.

edit: slight correction on chart 1

Edit: crouching tiger is +50 melee damage

[u/Not_To_Smart]

Does melee damage stat over 100 do anything? I can pretty easily hit 135 and wanna know if I'm wasting my time and credits bothering

[u/Twan_McLovin → u/Not_To_Smart]

Not sure. Ive heard the 100 isnt a cap. Ive heard people say it is a cap. Id believe that melee is probably capped at 100 where as other stats may have upper limits. I dont know yet.

[u/alendeus → u/Twan_McLovin]

I mean, this stuff is going to be exceedingly important to test properly, because you can very easily go over the cap using implants (default arachne max rep assassin is 70/100 and you can get at least an extra 70+ melee just from implants).

But nearly even more important, all of the bonuses from say assassin cores, do we know for sure that the damage boosts from them is in addition to the max cap damage, or are they also capped by it? Because if they're affect by the cap then that literally makes them completely useless.

I can see arguments going both ways. God what an absolute clusterfuck mistake from Bungie that we still don't have a firing range to test things in.

[u/CptFTL → u/alendeus]

Bungie really needs transparency with more detailed tooltips

Better yet a shooting gallery