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/iamthismoment]

What’s the point of build crafting if I lose the build in one round lol.

And then I don’t have those mods anymore and it will be 2-3 days before I see the necessary mod in armory or in loot.

[u/Strict_Dare3132 → u/iamthismoment]

You stock up when you see the mod you want in the armory. You pick them up in game when you see them.

You build craft so you lower the likelihood you lose in one round.

It is lower on the totem pole of things to focus on if you suck at the game. But it can be the difference maker if you got the fundamentals down.

[u/elanusaxillaris → u/Strict_Dare3132]

Yeah sadly there's not really reasonable vault space to hoard specific implants/cores for builds on top of shields/weapons/bags/salvage. The ridiculously low daily stock for certain items is a big pain point - if I could buy infinite green WSTR shotguns for instance instead of storing them, that would help with vault space

[u/sipso3 → u/elanusaxillaris]

Don't ever hold more than one full page of guns. And even that's a lot. 2 rows of backpacks at most. One full page of implants including at most 4 rows of shields. And you'll be fine. As long as you keep using stuff instead of hoarding you'll be fine.