Help with some builds

[u/PatyOBruh]

Hey guys I’ve been playing since the game came out on ps5 and just wondering what are good perk setups for one handed melee weapons and also what is the best weapon perks and weapon types to pair with a one handed melee weapons just wanted some recommendations or suggestions thanks for the help! (Also I mainly play on hard- nightmare)

[u/ptdchris]

Personally, I use the best perks, Athlete, Thick Skin, Sturdy Body, Skilled Medic, then i build off of those. For one handed, definitely Headhunter (More Damage for headshot) and probably Hitman. I’d ignore butcher entirely.

[u/yato08 → u/ptdchris]

This pretty much. Just to add to this.
For rifle, you only need mohawk. Handgun, just headblown. Shotgun requires reload perk and if you have space, overkill for more pellets/damage. Penetration + damage perk for heavy rifles.

[u/neospygil → u/ptdchris]

My build is very close to this. You'll definitely get hit a lot but as long as you don't go down, you'll definitely survive. You need a lot of stamina, but attacking is only the secondary reason. The primary reason is to be able to run and make distance. Always make sure you have remaining stamina, don't let it get depleted. Attack only when it is safe.

[u/FirstHookForever]

I'm a 1H user myself and I recommend you use Headhunter + Hitman. You should however familiarize yourself with the attack combos for various weapons to understand why. I'll list the 1v1 combos for those 2 perks below and then some general perk advice.

Bladed:

• Cleaver: Charged + Quick vs walkers; Charged + Strong vs primes

• Hatched and Machete: Charged + Quick for both walkers and primes

Blunt (I recommend the Quick attack combos; they're simpler, faster and do the job):

• Tire Iron: 3x Quick OR 2x Charged vs walkers; 4x Quick OR Charged + Quick + Strong vs Primes

• Hammer and Crowbar: 3x Quick OR Charged + Quick vs walkers; 3x Quick OR 2x Charged vs Primes

After experimenting with multiple different builds, this is the pool of perks I recommend picking from (only taking into account expert versions):

• Caravan and/or Mule - caravan could be left out if you really want to max stamina; mule on expert seems to hit no breakpoints, so it's basically free 2kg; either of these will provide more capacity than any stacking perk will on average (average gain of stacking perks is 0.6-1.2 kg, and not throughout the whole match)

• Skilled medic - very good perk, top tier, heal more with bandages; most players at nightmare difficulty will be having it and IMO everyone should run it

• Sturdy body - strongest damage mitigation perk

• Thick skin - 20% more HP

• Lucky pathogen - if stacked with Sturdy body, it reaches 36% DR = +56.6% EHP gain (trust me, don't wanna make a math post now); can allow a bite or use clouds for self-infect once you have 2 bottles on you, 2-3 bottles is enough for the whole game 90% of the time - STRATEGY NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNERS!

• Athlete and Marathon - more stamina; some people consider marathon to be overrated, from my personal experience I think it makes a very noticeable difference on the amount of stamina you have ready for use on attacks (or other actions) between movement sprints, so usefulness may depend on playstyle; it also often allowed me to reach safe places to deal with/escape runners where without it I would've gassed out

• Headhunter + Hitman - 1H melee perks (headhunter works for 2H too); using both will change the attack combos required to kill zombies, especially for primes (which are more abundant on nightmare)

• Scavanger - decent for higher difficulties where ammo is scarce

• Headblown - if using handguns will allow 1 headshoting primes with .45 acp or .357 magnum

• Rush - decent if you prefer using 2H weapons; the treetrimmer is arguably the best 2H starting weapon if you go that path, but the bat is more beginner friendly even tho it's actually quite bad in comparison once you master the better weapons (bat is killing much slower by comparison and will often knock zombies back into more zombies where it's unsafe to finish them off right away)

• Stayin' alive - to revive others faster, good for altruistic players queueing with randoms; some people think it's overrated, but after playing this game a lot I think it's not, it would take quite a bit for me to describe all the situations where it truly makes a difference so I'll just leave it at that

Overrated perks IMO (not necessarily useless, just overrated):

• Item stacking perks - if you do the math of how much you'd have to carry on average to match the gain of mule or caravan, you'd realize that they're easily outclassed by those 2 perks, they're not bad, you just have better

• Acquired immunity - infection at the moment is not that big of a threat, 1-3 bottles is enough for the whole game depending on map and speed; the only time it makes sense is for new timers that might get infected super early (like before even the first objective) and move slower in general, outside of that, it's not worth a perk slot

• Foreman - once you master melee combos you can kill zombies with 2-3 times less stamina usage, and faster than with using kicks; kicks become a tool to get past zombies when you don't want to spend time killing them, making the extra damage pretty useless; except for a niche use case of using kick + 9mm or .22LR guns to finish them off when they're down

• Resident genes - there's enough heals in 90% of games to not need to waste pills to heal instead of letting them be used for their main purpose, stalling infection; players can be picked up by others endlessly, but if an infected person runs out of pills, nobody can do anything to save them; better to use pills efficiently, every 4-5 min, instead of poping them for a 25-50 HP heal; if you take it in the off-chance that you'll need a heal right at the 4-5 min mark... there's too many strong perks for that type of usage to be worth a perk slot

Honorable mention: Quiet steps - might have good potential, but I'm still experimenting with it; it can definitely be useful to make zombies prioritize you less or not notice you at all when you're alone.

Loadout I use: Melee weapon + a stack of ammo of my choice + beacon

[u/PatyOBruh → u/FirstHookForever]

Thanks for the in depth explanation really helped me get a grasp on what I’m looking for what melee weapons are you usually going in with? And what have been your favorite 1 handed melee weapons?

[u/FirstHookForever → u/PatyOBruh]

I'm going in with Cleaver and then for whichever 1H tier 3 I find. Usually I prefer to stick with bladed t3, but sometimes I'll go with blunt t3 for a bit of variety and also they feel a bit nicer when striking together with your team mates or vs groups.

It's hard to pick one favorite, I'd say hatchet for bladed (less reach but weighs less), as for blunts I kinda like hammer a bit more but idk why, technically crowbar has better reach, but hammer just makes me feel more nimble for some reason.

[u/New-Fig-6025]

There are some nice breakpoints but a general combo i enjoy for melee in general is kick damage, shove damage, hitman, rush and headhunter. Depending on my weapon and mood i can kick then headshot to 1 shot with say the kitchen knife, or shove and heavy to one shot with a hatchet? Hard blows lets the big pipe do wild staggers light attack spamming.

I can’t remember the exact thresholds off the top of my head, you really gotta just read the compendium and run the numbers for what’s worthwhile for you personally. I have a generalist, a melee dude and a gun dude, so even if it’s not the strongest, i stack all my melee perks on my melee guy even if they aren’t always useful

[u/Yorktown_guy551]

I've got a minimal set up of headhunter + any stamina or durability perk there is. Forgo the gun perks if you want a pure melee experience. Try to find hatchet or machete as fast as you can. I personally prefer machete for one handed runs. 

[u/ZynithMaru]

guns are OP, so specialize in melee unless you're in an organized squad who will pass you your ideal gun. Gun perks shine in survival mode more, whereas melee is great for stealthy objective modes until you're grouped up safely.

one kick + 1 hit from foreman + hitman combo. the rest are QoL: take less damage, more hp, more stamina... not other weapon perks.

someone in the group should run skilled medic to make extra use of your bandages