Melee weapons are weapons featured in the Call of Duty series. Melee weapons are usually used in close-quarters combat situations, due to their very limited range. The most common weapon is the knife, but later games have featured alternate melee weapons including machetes and the sickle. Call of Duty Online, Black Ops III and all games afterwards have their own class of standalone melee weapons, usually available as secondary weapons. However, the riot shield in Call of Duty: Online, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare II is in the primary slot of the melee category, and the melee weapons of Modern Warfare Remastered have their own selection slot.
Prior to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, there was no standard melee weapon. In Call of Duty and Call of Duty: United Offensive, the player was able to melee enemies with the butt of their primary weapon or pistol whip with their handgun. In addition, players could also melee with their grenades, satchel charges, and binoculars. However, enemies were difficult to kill because of the short range, inaccuracy, and low damage of many weapons.
Call of Duty 2 limited the players' melee attack to only their primary weapons and pistols. Call of Duty 3 brought back the ability for the player to melee with whatever weapon or equipment they had. The player still couldn't melee with a knife though, and were only able to use it once in the mission "The Crossroads" during a scripted CQC event.
Post-Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare[]
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the first game where the player was able to melee with a knife, as well as the first to completely remove the ability to melee with whatever the player was holding. The knife has served as the default melee weapon for all games succeeding Modern Warfare, however, Call of Duty: World at War and later games also debuted alternate melee weapons the player could attack with. Many of these are unable to be used in multiplayer, rather they are only usable in Campaign and Zombies mode.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 introduced Riot Shields. and the Tactical Knife attachment to multiplayer. Riot Shields protect the player, and require two hits to kill. Tactical Knifes are faster than the standard melee and are used with a pistol drawn.
Call of Duty: Black Ops introduced the Ballistic Knife to multiplayer, a secondary capable of not only a one-hit melee attack, but also being able to fire a spring loaded projectile.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II introduced the combat knife as a replacement to a standard secondary since the Pick 10 System allowed the player not to have one. This made it the first instance of an equip able, singular knife in Call of Duty multiplayer.
Ghosts gave the player the option to equip a knife, though only as a primary, and automatically gave the player the knife when removing their primary weapon from their class. The player is unable to swap to anything when no secondary is equipped.
Advanced Warfare had removed the standard knife animation from the melee function, though the player could still perform a one hit kill through Exo Melee. The combat knife is equipped only when a primary or secondary is removed similar to Black Ops II.
Post-Call of Duty Black Ops III[]
Black Ops III included knifeless, weapon drawn, melee animations with reduced damage by default, while adding additional secondary melee weapons besides the standard knife. When no secondary is equipped, the player simply takes out their fists and deal the same amount of damage as their standard attack. All sequential games afterward no longer included a one hit knife as their default weapon drawn attack in standard multiplayer modes, and melee weapons were allocated to their own category tabs.
Despite this, the throwing knife in Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare II, and Modern Warfare III allows the player to perform the traditional knife melee with their weapon drawn as long as they haven't thrown the knife. The old style knife animation has also remained consistent in most Zombies modes.
For the first time, Black Ops 6 includes melee weapons as an additional third weapon slot besides the primary and secondary.
List of Melee Weapons in Call of Duty[]
Pre-Modern Warfare[]
Note: Only a few weapons are shown, although all weapons are able to be used as melee weapons.
Additionally, in the campaign mission "Captured", the player can melee by pistol whipping with the Atlas 45, the SN6 and the AMR9. However, these melee attacks aren't one-hit kill, unlike other melee weapons.
Unlike previous games, players will not melee with a knife if they have their other weapon out, instead they will melee with the butt of their weapon or pistol whip. In order to melee with another weapon, they will have to select the combat knife, or have no weapons whatsoever, which will give the player Fists. Melee with one's gun can kill in one to the sides or rear, but requires two hits to the front. The fists take two hits to kill regardless. Furthermore, there is now an actual weapon class for eighteen standalone melee weapons in multiplayer.
