The best melee weapons in Atomic Heart
Smash them to pieces.
Jamie Moorcroft-Sharp 
Screenshot by Gamepur
Atomic Heart has several weapons for you to unlock and mess around with by smashing robots to pieces. However, not all of them are that useful or even effective in a fight. This guide outlines the best melee weapons in the game, so you don’t waste your time with little more than chopsticks.
Related: Atomic Heart endings, explained
Best melee weapons in Atomic Heart
While playing Atomic Heart, we found a couple of melee weapons that are worth your time. Below, we’ve listed these weapons and what they’re useful for, so you can pick and choose the one you need for where you’re at in the story.
Swede – Best early game melee weapon
Swede is the first melee weapon you’ll get in atomic Heart. It’s a basic axe, to begin with, but you can very quickly upgrade it to deal much more damage without needing to seek out Blueprints. In the game’s first underground section, you can upgrade Swede to be incredibly powerful, downing most robots in three or four hits. This is good enough to carry you through to the late game alongside some decent firearms. If you do want to upgrade it further, try heading to Testing Ground 8 to get a new blade for it that will increase its damage significantly.
If you want to take Swede to the next level, we suggest upgrading the handle and blade as much as possible before adding the canister upgrade. This will let you add elemental damage to it and really rip off some heads.
Zvezdochka – Best late game melee weapon
There are plenty of other melee weapons to explore, but you can very easily switch directly from an upgraded Swede to Zvezdochka. This is the weapon that’s been in most Atomic Heart marketing material, and it’s a beast. As you can see, it’s a metal pole with a circular saw blade mounted on top, and you can add another if you find the Blueprint in Testing Ground 8. The base damage of this weapon is far greater than what Swede can achieve when fully upgraded, destroying early-game enemies in one or two hits. You will never feel safer while exploring than when you’re walking around with this.
Like all weapons, you can push Zvezdochka even further with the canister upgrade. This’ll allow you to add elemental damage to all your swings, including special attacks. Even Belyash are no match for you when you’re swinging a fully-upgraded version of this around, thanks to the increased damage and decreased time between swings.
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