Melee

Melee: The act of using your weapon as a bludgeon. This action can be executed by default by pressing the B button on the Xbox version or the F key on the PC version. Melee attacks are both stealthy and save ammo. One melee attack from behind will kill most enemies, provided you can sneak up behind them. This is called an assassination. It is often uncertain if a normally guaranteed assassination will work on the Halo 2 Brutes on Legendary. If an enemy is hit from the side or front, it may take two or three hits to kill them, depending on which weapon is being used. AI's, such as Elites, Hunters and Combat Forms, will melee if you get too close, but they will almost never attempt a stealth melee.

A melee is mostly used when an opponent is too close to effectively shoot, to attempt assassinations, or if the person is wielding a weapon that performs melee attacks only, such as the Energy Sword.

Assassinating (meleeing the opponent in the back for an instant kill) an opponent gives an Assassin Medal, while simply meleeing from the front and killing your opponent yields a Beat Down Medal.

Character compatibility

 * Spartans
 * Elites
 * Hunters
 * Brutes
 * Drones (only if they board your vehicle)
 * Marines (only if an enemy gets too close)
 * Flood Combat forms
 * Flood Pure Forms
 * Flood Tank Forms
 * Flood Stalker Forms

Halo 3
In Halo 3, the melee ability is much more powerful than it was in the past two games, making it a seemingly integral part of all close range engagements, especially in multiplayer. Due to it's augmented power, a common multiplayer tactic is to charge the enemy with an assault rifle, the melee the enemy once up close. If performed correctly, the enemy should have been slain once meleed, given that the enemy had regular shields. When the energy sword is equipped, the melee ability becomes a quick "slice", which although faster, is significantly weaker than the regular "lunge".

Trivia

 * In Halo 3, in solo mode, the Arbiter can melee while dual-wielding Plasma Rifles without dropping them.
 * In the Halo 3 Campaign, you cannot melee with support weapons like Machine Gun Turrets or flamethrowers. However, Brute Chieftains who carry plasma turrets can still melee you with it.
 * In Halo 3, even if you set the players to have invinciblity (as in the famed Halo 3 playlist Rocket Race), assassinations will still kill them, though nothing else will.
 * A quick way to save ammo in campaign is to go around meleeing enemies. It doesn't take very long to kill even a Brute with a Brute Shot's slung blade.
 * If you get too close, Hunters will use their shields as melee weapons.
 * Some fans have called using melee attacks "whacking" and "nutting", and in Campaign, when using the method mentioned above (going around in Campaign hitting enemies) "Whack-Attack" or "Ammo-Saver-fest '07".
 * Melees are almost useless against Flood Combat forms except when you have its arm blown off. However, in Halo 3, the melee is actually more powerful to them. A newly infected Combat form will usually die with 1 blow while and old combat form should die in 2-3 blows. Assasinating Flood does not work.
 * Before the two title updates, there was sometimes a glitch in which the player, killed by a melee, would go flying across the map, as if hit by a Gravity Hammer or Rocket Launcher.
 * Assassinating someone will kill them with one hit even when they have full shields.
 * In Halo 2 multiplayer, it can take up to three melee strikes to the front or side to kill a fully regularly shielded enemy. In Halo 3 multiplayer, if the target has no Overshield, only two strikes to the front or side are needed.
 * Halo 2's melee system was based on 3 levels of player movement, a stationary melee doing the least damage, a running melee taking down roughly half of the shield, and a jumping melee almost completely removing the shield.


 * In Halo 2 and Halo 3 the melee attack has a small lunge distance.
 * It seems in Halo 3, melee attacks are moderately more powerful than they were in the previous Halo games. This allows players to combat enemies with ease.
 * In the recent update to Halo 3 the melee attacks are more balanced and if there is any doubt then both players die and get even kills.
 * In Halo 2 on any level, repeatedly press X&B combined and you will melee very fast if pressing nonstop fast, although it does not hurt an enemy, it will only hurt at random times but not all the melees work if you do this. It does not work in Halo:Combat Evolved, but partially works in Halo 3.
 * In Halo: Combat Evolved, a melee attack in the back can kill a marine instantly. However, in Halo 2 and Halo 3 a melee attack in the back will not kill an ally at first.
 * Many people in Halo 3 Multiplayer use melee, sometimes first attacking with the Assault Rifle and then when they get close to the enemy, they use melee.
 * In Arby 'n' the Chief the chief gets mad about the overpowered melee system in Halo 3 when he loses a kill that should have belong to him.
 * In the early versions of Halo 3 multiplayer before the Halo 3 beta, where testing was done by only Bungie employees and staff, it is shown that the melee was less powerful, where a single melee will not deplete a player's shields.
 * In Halo 2 just one melee from an Elite on campaign can kill the player immediately, whether the attack is in the back or front. However if an Elite is wielding a carbine then the melee will not effect the player if at very close distance.