atomic heart melee combat
Image via Mundfish/Focus Entertainment

Best Melee Weapons to Use in Atomic Heart

Pain comes in many flavors.

Normally, when you’re trapped in a facility with a legion of murderous robots, I’d say you don’t have much room to think about your particular implement of self-defense. But Atomic Heart offers just enough variety in its whacky sticks that perhaps you could afford to be a bit more choosy. Here are the best melee weapons to use in Atomic Heart.

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Best Melee Weapons to use in Atomic Heart

Over the course of Atomic Heart, you will come across five different melee weapons for P-3 to utilize toward creatively deactivating his various robotic foes. While all of these weapons are utilized in the same basic way with quick attacks and heavy attacks, they each have their own properties that make them more or less ideal for general havoc-wreaking.

Related: How to Complete Door Lock Mechanic in Atomic Heart

Here’s a quick breakdown of the game’s melee weapons and what makes them distinctive:

  • Swede: Large fire axe, good balance of strength and speed with crowd-clearing abilities
  • Fox: Hand-axe, weaker but can be used alongside glove abilities like Shok
  • Pashtet: Short-sword, can also be used with glove abilities, but a stronger than Fox
  • Snowflake: Large mace, slow wind-up but hits hard
  • Zvezdochka: Giant mechanical mace with buzz saws, slow and short-ranged, but has the highest damage of all melee weapons

Which are the Best Weapons?

atomic heart snowflake
Image via Mundfish/Focus Entertainment

If we’re looking to strike the best balance between usability and features, then our favorite melee weapons would definitely be Swede and Zvezdochka.

Despite being the first melee weapon you get, Swede never stops being useful. It’s got a good heft without sacrificing too much speed, and if you don’t mind shelling out for its upgrades, its extra attacks are great for keeping unruly crowds of enemies in check.

Zvezdochka, on the other hand, is a tool of absolute offense. Using it takes some panache, given its slow speed and short range, but when it connects, it hits like a freight train. One good swing from this thing will send basic enemies flying halfway across the room, occasionally in multiple pieces.

Try out Atomic Heart’s various melee weapons and see which ones feel best in your hands. You never know how well it clubs off a robot head until you give it a swing yourself, after all.


For some handy gameplay info on Atomic Heart, check out our guides on the best difficulty settings to choose and whether or not it’s a horror game. Visit our Facebook page as well for more news and guides.

Author
Image of Daniel Trock
Daniel Trock
Since the first time he picked up a controller as a child, Daniel has been a dyed-in-the-wool gaming fanatic, with a Steam library numbering over 600 games. His favorite pastime, aside from playing games, is doing deep dives on game wikis to learn more about their lore and characters.