Phantom Brigade Melee Weapons & Mechanics Guide

• Melee is best use against stationary target. Moving target is possible but harder.
• A lock-on will show up on the floor of a unit if the swing trajectory is close to said target (even allies).
• If need to use on moving target, you want to think of jousting or move parallel to them.
• You will have no collision during the melee animation so you can pass through other unit without crashing (even allies).
• However, you can’t land on top of enemy with similar of higher weight class than you.
• Just like dashing, you can use melee to get on top building quickly, and melee possibly avoid missile lock-on.
• You can hold control button to change melee swing to left sides.
• Its possible to hit multiple enemy in one swing.
• Hit and run is a good way to avoid crashing.
• It looks cool AF.

There are 4 melee weapon stats you need to understand so can hit your target consistently.

1) Hit Width determines the radius of your weapon swing. Being the furthest reach at its peak swinging.

2) Range don’t actually determines the weapons hit rate. At least not for melee, base on my experience. Its more of how far you can land at the end of your melee. Offensive module such as Range Sensor can affect this stats but there’s seem to be hardcap for minimal range.

3) This is actually where your weapons hitbox really is. Lower interval has better chance to hit your target. The “barcode” shows the location in your melee swing trajectory that will connect to target. The empty space in between means your melee will miss the target.

4) Your mech weight doesn’t matter in melee attack. However, faster action duration = faster attack = higher chance to hit your target. If the duration is too long, say its 1.6 seconds, your target could have move away from your weapon trajectory.

Now the swing trajectory can be tricky and as most people say the trajectory is deceptive. So instead, I’ll just show you this picture:

You want your target to hit that spot exactly where the “colored boxes” are by looking at your weapon optimal interval. Lower interval will give you more hitbox. The only way to increase this is to equip “liquid cooling” module that give reduction to “heat generation”.

There is also the elevation/angle to consider if you decide to melee target at a different height. This is because you attack starts at head level and ends with swings at foot level. This can also change the outcome of where your target is being hit and miss if on different height. Although tank (not mech) on the same ground level as you will be hit even if the trajectory seem higher than it is (need to test further).

(this might be wrong though)

There are 3 weapon class and they generally determine the overall base stats of a weapon. Such as how heavy the weapon is, how heat it generates, how far the weapon can swing, and more impotently how consistent you can hit a target (with its hitbox).

Light Melee:
Secondary weapons with lowest mass, lowest swing width, but biggest hitbox.

Medium Melee:
Primary weapons with widest swing width (although just 1 meter differences), good damage and considerable hitbox.

Heavy Melee:
Primary weapons with highest damage, lower swing width, and horrible hitbox.
(Hardest to use without proper mod and setup)

Weapon types give unique properties to the weapon damage and play-style.

Blade:
Most basic melee weapon that great at destroying a single body parts. It has the longest range for melee weapon.

Cutter:
Might be the lightest weapon of all melee. The only weapon with stagger damage type useful for knocking down target.
Unlike Blade type, Cutter can hit multiple part of target.

Saber:
Slice through multiple part but generates the most heat of all melee weapons. With correct timing, a melee after the enemy attack can cause huge overheats damage and possibly OHKO. Saber will always have heat damage.

Axe:
The only melee weapon with concussion damage to knockout pilot. Some variation have added Heat damage (with higher heat generation). The best weapon to use if don’t want to destroy parts.