While guns play a central role in Remnant: From The Ashes, the melee weapons hold a special place in many players' hearts. There’s something so viscerally appealing about clubbing or slashing through a horde of enemies and coming out intact on the other side.RELATED: Open-World Games With The Best Replay ValueFor those of you wanting to dive into the up close and personal nature of melee fighting in this horror game, it’s best to know which weapon to use. While technically any weapon can help you reach victory there are specific weapons that make the task much more bearable.Updated February 2, 2022 by Jacob Buchalter: Though the title came out back in 2019, Remnant: From the Ashes still remains one of the better Souls-like or loot-based ARPGs to ever come out. This is in part due to the game's absurd replayability, but it also has a lot to do with the wide array of different Hand Guns, Long Guns, and Melee Weapons. And yes, while the idea of using a sword to run up and beat down an enemy with a gun gives some serious Fallout Melee vibes, it works shockingly well in Remnant. So, let's take another look at all the different Melee options, in particular, this game has to offer.

16 Spear

This Spear, which is found in the Yaesha Realm of the Pan, is an unexpected winner of a basic-looking melee weapon. Of course, it's not nearly as good as any of the Boss weapons, given that they all have additional effects and (usually) elemental damage, but the Spear is good enough to beat out all the rest of more "common" rarity melee weapons.

In exchange for not having any sort of extra ability or Elemental effect, the Spear has a bit more minimum and maximum damage than the other Spear weapons, though the difference is pretty small. Still, it's an excellent weapon to use for those who don't have the Voice of the Tempest or aren't building into Elemental Damage.

And, with something like the Razorstone equipped that applies Bleeding on Charge Attacks, the basic Spear can get an extra bump to its already notable base damage.

15 Wastelander Flail

Some might object to the Wastelander Flail not ranking higher, but let's be honest. This flail isn't better than the Butcher's Flail, it doesn't have an extra effect, and even its design is a bit basic. That isn’t to say it’s a bad weapon by any means, and it's cool that they included one of the more unique types of weapons, AKA flails, into Remnant in the first place.

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The problem is the weapon is rather slow and there’s a lot of downtime between attacks when compared to most other weapons. It’s a strong weapon which is why it makes the list, and it certainly looks gnarly enough to justify having, but there are plenty of better weapons out there.

14 Chain Blade

The Chain Blade is a sharp blade attached to an extendable chain, obviously, and this combination gives it a lot of versatility. But, what makes this DLC-exclusive weapon special is the Chain Strike Special Ability.

When the player performs a charged attack, they’ll extend the chain and blade out from them, similar to something like the Blades of Chaos from God of War (but not nearly as iconic). This allows the player to strike the enemy from a distance to get some breathing room or start an attack. But, sadly, because other Melee Weapons with ranged options, like the World's Edge and Hero's Sword, the Chain Blade falls pretty short in comparison.

13 Scythe

Surprisingly, this basic weapon is one of the more powerful melee weapons out there, at least in terms of raw damage. While the standard attack leaves much to be desired, the charged attack is another story. When fully charged, your character will quickly strike the opponent three times with one attack as they spin the Scythe in hand.

This essentially triples the weapon's DPS in one attack allowing it to shred through enemies when upgraded. And, because a lot of the basic enemies in each Realm tend to die pretty quickly, the attack speed of the Scythe is always a huge plus.

12 Scar Of The Jungle God

The Scar of The Jungle God is a pair of gauntlets outfitted with energy blades. They have a lightning-fast attack rate and can also apply the Bleed Status Ailment rather easily. You'll quickly learn that by upping the attack rate even higher you could quickly apply the Bleed effect and watch opponents bleed out.

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That said, if the basic attacks aren't working, use a Charge Attack to guarantee a stack of Bleed, Bleed an opponent, and then back off as their health is whittled away. The biggest drawback of this weapon, and really its only notable drawback, is that it requires players to learn and solve the Bell Puzzle in the Ravager's arena on Yaesha, which is a huge pain.

11 World’s Edge

The World’s Edge is an ancient sword said to be crafted from the fragments of broken worlds. It’s one of the best melee weapons Remnant has to offer for crowd control. The reason being is that it has Horizon Strike.

This is a wave of energy unleashed from the Sword after a charge attack that goes through multiple enemies, making it great for taking out a whole squad. And, just on a visual level, this Sword looks incredible as well.

10 Butcher’s Flail

The Corroded Status Ailment is terrifying when applied to you, but incredible when you can apply it to enemies. And, thankfully, this is possible with the Butcher's Flail. Like any of the other Element-based Melee Weapons, the Butcher's Flail normal attacks have a chance to inflict Corroded, while the Charge Attacks always apply it.

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The only real reason this weapon doesn’t rank higher is that it’s very slow, and outside of bosses, most basic enemies will have already been killed by it before the Corroded effect is applied. Still, its high base damage, great design, and useful Special Ability make the Butcher's Flail more than worthy of this ranking on the list.

9 Frostborne

It's a shame, but the Subject 2923 DLC doesn't have a great track record as far as melee weapons are concerned, considering where the Chain Blade and now the Frostborne have ended up. That said, the Frostborne is the Frostbite elemental melee weapon of this game, with the same chance to apply the status effect and guarantee to apply it on Charge Attacks as the other elemental weapons.

Unlike Burning or Corroded, however, Frostbite is great for slowing down a heavy-hitting opponent or managing larger groups of foes. This makes it a fantastic weapon for Boss battles, though it doesn't always actually slow down the bosses' movements, depending on which boss it is.

8 Smolder

It's a shame Remnant players sleep on the Smolder sword a bit too much, considering just how visually appealing its design is. Sure, its overall damage is a bit low, but that isn't taking the damage inflicted by the Burning DoT into account.

Frankly, it's meant to be used on builds that are building into their elemental damage, builds that benefit from constantly damaging an enemy (such as an Ossesus Set build), or a character build based around Weapon Mods and Mod Power Generation.

Every proc of the burning effect on an enemy generates Mod Power, and also adds onto the subsequent hits Set bonus of the Ossesus Set, which matters a lot.

7 Hero's Sword

The Hero's Sword is an interesting one because it's actually usable unlike the starting Blade of Adventure that gets taken away after the tutorial, even though they look identical.

The big thing about the Hero's Sword is that it actually has a ranged attack. When using a Charge Attack, the sword releases an Energy Wave that travels a fair distance and does some decent damage. Obviously, this is a reference to one of the coolest weapons of all time that everyone's favorite green tunic wearing Hero of Time uses. Thankfully, you don't need to have full HP to use this Energy Wave as he does with the Master Sword.

6 Guardian Axe

The Guardian Axe is a unique weapon as it’s viable for a pure melee run (using no guns whatsoever), but it’s even better when used in combination with the right Weapon Mod and gun. This is because when it strikes an opponent it triggers an ability called Spirit Engine that generates 2x Mod Power for the mods installed on your firearms.

This is huge for a number of builds that emphasize the use of weapon mods like Blink Token that consume a lot of energy to use repeatedly.

5 Voice Of The Tempest

The Voice of The Tempest is a powerful spear that's sort of the community fan-favorite. It deals solid damage when upgraded and has great reach. But, the real bread and butter of this Spear is its Special Ability Lightning Shock which can apply the Overloaded Status Ailment with either normal attacks or with Charge Attacks.

The biggest downside of the spear-type weapons in Remnant is that they're great for small groups of enemies or one-on-ones, but bad for groups. But, with the Overloaded Ailment applied, Voice of the Tempest is actually even better against a large group which is why it's earned this ranking.

4 Lost Harpoon

The best Spear in the game is a close competition between The Voice of the Tempest and the Lost Harpoon, but we think the Lost Harpoon just barely inches ahead thanks to its Power Strike Special Ability. Sure, against a lot of the basic mobs in the game, Power Strike won't get to trigger often, but it's probably the best ability out there in regards to boss fights.

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Plus, add on any of the items that raise attack rates and this spear becomes even more of a powerhouse. That said, it does, unfortunately, struggle a bit more against groups of enemies whereas the Voice of the Tempest would do much better.

3 World Breaker

For many of you, the World Breaker is the best melee weapon in the game, and it’s not hard to see why. This large hammer deals a tremendous 135 damage when fully upgraded and that’s before dealing a hefty charged attack.

In fact, a charged attack will trigger its special ability Force Burst. Force Burst deals an explosive shockwave that knocks back enemies and staggers them. This is great for crowd control and stunning enemies for follow-up hits. The only real downside of this weapon has to do with its name. Frankly, the fact that it's a weapon called "World Breaker", but isn't even larger than the player themselves, is a bit of a shame considering Remnant is sorely lacking in the oversized weapons department.

2 Riven

The Riven is a small melee weapon that’s capable of hitting enemies very quickly. Like the Scythe it can be charged to unleash a series of attacks in quick succession. While the damage is rather low, its absurd Attack Speed and Special Ability are what make it one of the game's best melee options.

To be clear, all melee attacks with this weapon equipped, heal the player for four percent of the damage done. Anyone who is familiar with the Souls-like genre of games immediately understands that this is a huge deal. And, with its high attack rate, this means your character is almost continually receiving heals as you cut opponents down.

1 Petrified Maul

Easily the best melee weapon in the game is the Petrified Maul. Not only does it have the highest base damage of all the melee weapons, but its also the king of staggering enemies, able to stagger even the largest elite enemies with a single Charge Attack

Granted the weapon is certainly slow, but the incredible damage and its ability to stun lock opponents more than makes up for it. NEXT: Useless But Wholesome Button Commands in Games