New Player Tips for Melee
One of the best characters for a dedicated melee build is Kenzie, due to having a high base dodge chance and also due to being less affected by weight penalties.
Give Kenzie either Eclipse Blades or Scouts of Hades. Eclipse Blades is what I personally run, but there’s good skills for melee combat in Scouts. Take a good look at their skills and figure out which one you like best. My input is that Scouts of Hades is better for dealing with being swarmed by large groups, particularly by Quasimorphs in the Rapture phase, but Eclipse Blades is better for general combat, avoiding punishment by shotguns and assault weapons, and for surviving surprise one-shots (they can’t kill you if they can’t hit you).
Equip your choice of armor, but keep in mind you will want a set that is relatively light weight. Impactor, Glory, and Smuggler armor sets can be mixed and matched depending on your resistance preferences. The lightest armor in the game that still offers some protection is Tezctlan (with more variety for helms and chest pieces). Any choice of vests is fine, but I recommend Chainmail or even a Panzer to shore up your resistances. The extra weight on the one piece of clothing isn’t a big deal in the long run, and even a Panzer only weighs 5 units.
Next, and possibly most important, choose your backpack. While it seems obvious to just run a buffalo, the bonuses you get for running something lighter to weight reduction help considerably with survivability. I personally run with a Helper servo-harness, which comes with a 50% weight reduction bonus to everything in your inventory and that you are wearing and grants an extra weapon slot.
I then give Kenzie the two best melee weapons in the swords category in both his default weapon slots. Machettes, Razors, Duggur’s Sabers if you can get them. Two is not strictly necessary if you have weapon repair kits, but now that they are harder to craft just having two so you have a backup when the first breaks is invaluable. If you do have kits to spare, just bring one to cut further down on weight.
Finally, you want a good ranged weapon for the servo-harness slot. Even on a melee-centric build, there are a couple of situations where you really will just want to be able to shoot particular enemies. The Baron of Venus comes into mind. Ideally, you want something that has high accuracy and does not use much ammo, both to cut down on weight and to make up for Kenzie being a bad shot if you are playing Eclipse Blades instead of Scouts of Hades. A shotgun is a good pick, but if you can find one a Prism is priceless since even while sprinting Kenzie will never miss with it, and having energy ammo on hand means you can use it to power scanner terminals. Engimas are another good choice simply because they do not use ammo, meaning less weight.
Do all of that, then farm up your skills. If you are using Eclipse Blades, Kenzie should be hovering at around 60% passive dodge, which means enemies will regularly completely miss you even when shooting you with four-burst shotguns at point blank range. Eclipse Blades will have significantly lower passive dodge, but once they actually take and survive a shot, they get up to a 100% dodge bonus from Combat Focus, making them very nearly untouchable while the skill remains active (mind the downtime).
The way I play it, Kenzie kills very nearly entire floors, sprinting around at full speed, being virtually untouchable and getting three sword swings with every movement point, all with over 100% accuracy and dealing disgusting damage. You can counter-charge two Duggur Chariots and beat them at their own game pretty reliably. I only slow down when dealing with very particular enemies – Civil Resistance with Blade Cutters, Quasimorphs with Battle Staves, Serpent’s Mouths, or Crossbows of Pain. I use the Prism opportunistically, whenever I get a long shot and multiple lined-up enemies or whenever I need to penetrate heavy cover, but I use it sparingly since you only get 30 shots with it before it breaks.
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