Melee vs Rifle

[ninthtj 1]

Hi Guys,

Hatchets seem to be everywhere in the game now, almost every village or town I go into I can find a hatchet somewhere. It's silent and kills with a single swing. Making it a brilliant tool against zombies, but no so good against players. I have come across multiple scenarios where I have just not wanted to give up my silent stealthy hatchet for a big load assault rifle. Any suggestions on which would be a better choice for future events?

Cheers,

TJ

[janivorickard@gmail.com 0]

You can always put it back in the tool belt, the problem though is to have space in your backpack for your main weapon next time you want to use the hatchet.

Since players are a much bigger threat than zombies I'd go for something with a bit of range rather than a melee weapon.

[Willz 0]

I love the hatchet and it's my best weapon at the moment. As long as I have a couple of bandages I find I can kill 15+ without to much of a problem. I also have my sidearm, which is pretty quiet anyway for when I'm out of town. I find rifles way to loud, all though I haven't found any of the rarer ones so they're probably different.

All in all, it's great in built up areas I find, but obviously sucks when you've got bandits after you.

[CER10TY 3]

The hatchet isn't exactly silent to players, nor is the crowbar. Once you use either of them, others will hear the sound of a gun (Hatchet has a more proper, suppressed sound, whilst the crowbar sort of has the sound of an M4, atleast regarding how loud it is). Zombies can't hear it though.

It's hard to tell when you should trade your hatchet for a rifle or vice versa.

Just yesterday I had this situation where I had 5 zombies in Novy Sobor after me, and I found a Lee Enfield with 2 mags. I decided to trade against my hatchet because the Lee Enfield will be much handier once I could get to the NW/NE Airfield.

Okay, so, I got this brilliant idea of shooting the zombies with this Enfield, since I can't use my hatchet anymore (I tried dropping the Enfield and picking it up again to switch to my hatchet but it just disappeared, so I had to pick up the second one which was closeby)..

Bad idea. Instead of 5 zombies chasing me I had the whole town after me and ran out of ammo since I only had 20 shots, but 30 zombies chasing me. I switch to a double-barreled shotgun in the hope of being able to use it with slugs, but no..

I still got out of there though.

But to be honest, never switch to a rifle if you ONLY have zombies after you. Instead, kill the zombies by going into a building and hitting them with your hatchet, then sneak / go back to where the rifle was, pick it up and get out of there.

[Benito 0]

Almost always pick up the rifle if you are going to be staying South and in the cities, due to PvP but if you're just wandering town to town and surviving, the Hatchet might be a better choice due to it being completely silenced to zombies. (Also if you're at the top of a ladder as it's technically a gun with really short fall off range if you hit off the ladder/roof and there's a zombie at the bottom it will hit the zombie...)

As any rifles you'll pick up will attract a rather large hoard quickly if you start firing in town.

[Miami_bat 5]

The hatchet isn't exactly silent to players' date=' nor is the crowbar. Once you use either of them, others will hear the sound of a gun (Hatchet has a more proper, suppressed sound, whilst the crowbar sort of has the sound of an M4, atleast regarding how loud it is). Zombies can't hear it though.

It's hard to tell when you should trade your hatchet for a rifle or vice versa.

Just yesterday I had this situation where I had 5 zombies in Novy Sobor after me, and I found a Lee Enfield with 2 mags. I decided to trade against my hatchet because the Lee Enfield will be much handier once I could get to the NW/NE Airfield.

Okay, so, I got this brilliant idea of shooting the zombies with this Enfield, since I can't use my hatchet anymore (I tried dropping the Enfield and picking it up again to switch to my hatchet but it just disappeared, so I had to pick up the second one which was closeby)..

Bad idea. Instead of 5 zombies chasing me I had the whole town after me and ran out of ammo since I only had 20 shots, but 30 zombies chasing me. I switch to a double-barreled shotgun in the hope of being able to use it with slugs, but no..

I still got out of there though.

But to be honest, never switch to a rifle if you ONLY have zombies after you. Instead, kill the zombies by going into a building and hitting them with your hatchet, then sneak / go back to where the rifle was, pick it up and get out of there.

[/quote']

the Lee rifle will call the whole town, its LOUD.

I never use it.

But Melee I think should be a bit more effective, sometimes it takes 2-3 swipes to kill a zed. :/

[Duba 1]

If you play perfectly (I know that's a lot to ask), you should be able to wait out/skip any possible Zed encounter in the game. That being the case, I keep my primary weapon out all the time regardless, because another skilled player won't be anywhere near as forgiving as the Zeds currently are, and that few seconds to switch your primary out of your bag could mean dying.

[ninthtj 1]

Yeah, I have tried this approach before, but I find myself getting lazy or just plain unlucky eventually which results in me fighting against the Zed. I have now just starting using the Hatchets and melee weapons for the first few towns before I get my first rifle. I admittedly don't play much down south as I don't enjoy the PvP side that much, but I do like to wonder around the NW airfield from time to time in an attempt to get some better gear, so maybe it's an idea to get a rifle just for those sorts of occasions.

[DonkeyAssHat45 4]

WTF. I have found an unlimited amount of ammo and zero guns/hatches anywhere. Can we trade clients? I want yours! D:

[dayzsurvivors 155]

I love the hatchet. I generally will stick to a hatchet and hold out till I find a handgun which will allow me to switch quickly between the two.

Silent zombie kills are invaluable and not to mention I prefer interactions with players rather than conflict and I get the impression if they see you with a hatchet they don't see you as a KOS type of threat.

[Toilet 204]

Still haven't used the hatchet as a weapon yet, looks like fun, and I have seen some great hatchet betrayals on the youtubes. Personally I would get an assault rifle but that's just me.

[Wintermute (DayZ) 0]

Problem with just using a hatchet is it's impossible to avoid the random zombie strike at times and while it mostly just results in a broken leg, sometimes you get knocked unconscious which means death.

Once you have a Czech backpack you can store your primary along with it's ammo allowing you to switch to your hatchet at any time for silent kills. Personally I'd rather rely on a crossbow for that as it's more reliable since you can keep your distance.

[vanchrian 2]

I would say stick with the hatchet until you have ample supplies and gear. Once you have that, and you've learned how to deal with zombies with the pistol, you can opt for the Rifle for protection against bandits.

The Rifle is almost never used for zombies because of how loud it is, unless you're really desperate. But it will give you a fighting chance against bandits, so it will be handy to have.

[ATOJAR 23]

Last night me & a friend was traveling up north, He had a hatchet & M1911 pistol, I had just a AKM rifle.

Obviously my AKM makes a hell of a sound so we where saving that for an emergency(bandits or mass hoards of infected), We where heading up north hitting the small town & villages for loot on the way.

We managed to avoid/sneak past 95% of the infected we encountered, My friend was picking off single zombies with the hatchet that did aggro, We couldn't sneak past or they where in buildings we wanted/needed to loot.

Because i have camo gear on i was sneaking into a good advantage point and my friend was then sneaking into buildings and looting while i stayed back in the shrubs keeping watch.

Oh, I got a little carried away there lol. I guess my point is ..... Hatchets are awesome.

[stickninja1520 (DayZ) 1]

I had a hatchet in the Balota control tower. I was coming down the steps when another survivor comes up the stairs at shoots at me with the revolver. I start swinging and i managed to break their legs and finished them off losing only 2-3k blood. Im pretty sure they had a partner outside because i heard AK shots coming from the hanger so i think the silence of the hatchet saved me from dealing with them.

[ninthtj 1]

I love the hatchet. I generally will stick to a hatchet and hold out till I find a handgun which will allow me to switch quickly between the two.

Silent zombie kills are invaluable and not to mention I prefer interactions with players rather than conflict and I get the impression if they see you with a hatchet they don't see you as a KOS type of threat.

The only problem I really have when using the hatchet is how close you need to get to the zombies. A lot of the time I loose a considerable amount of blood due to how close I have to get to them. To counter this I tried using the crosbow.. Big mistake lol