What is a melee weapon in Fortnite?

Fortnite is full of weapons that you can use to eliminate an enemy player, or even use against NPCs that are running after you. Most of the time, you will use one of the many ranged weapons such as assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, submachines, and whatever else you can pick up to survive a match. You will need to get close to your enemy and use a melee weapon every so often, though. What is a melee weapon in Fortnite?

How do melee weapons work in Fortnite?

A melee weapon in Fortnite is one you need to use by getting close to your opponent and hitting them with it, typically with your character performing an animation to show them swinging it at them. For example, if you take your harvesting pickax and swing it at an enemy, you can damage them, which will count as having done melee damage to an opponent. You can visit your Locker in the main menu to change what your harvesting pickax, and it will still be a melee weapon.

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Outside of your harvesting tool, there are other melee weapons you can find in the game, but many are mythical or rare drops you can only find at specific times. For example, during Chapter 3 Season 3, Darth Vader appeared on the map. If you went after Darth Vader and defeated him, he dropped his lightsaber. This is a mythical lightsaber you could take around with you, and if you hit an opponent with it, you could eliminate them, which also counts as melee damage.

There are likely going to be more melee weapons available in Fortnite during special events, such as special bosses like Darth Vader that will drop them.