Are there melee weapons in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora?

Can't I just... not throw the spear?

A Na'vi standing in a bioluminscent cave in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has plenty of different weapon types—including both Na’vi weapons and RDA/human guns. Naturally, one of the first things that players will want to figure out is whether melee builds are an option in this game.

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Can you use melee weapons in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora?

I’m deeply saddened to say that there are not any melee weapons in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Every weapon retains the option to use an unarmed melee attack, and that attack is powerful enough to one-shot/yeet human enemies, but there are no actual melee weapons that can be equipped. Your melee attack will also look the same regardless of what weapon you are using (although it does change from a fist to a knee if you use the attack while airborne).

What’s all the more tragic about the lack of melee weapons in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is the fact that spears are in the game—however spears can only be used as a ranged weapon via the Spear Thrower. Even if you have the Spear Thrower equipped, your melee attack will still be a punch and not the spear that you are literally holding in your hands.

Aiming an arrow at a beast in the jungles of Pandora in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
No stabbing allowed. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Can you make a melee build in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora?

The good news is that melee builds can still be viable in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, despite the fact that there aren’t any melee weapons. An Ancestral Skill enables you to use super-powered melee strikes when attacking from above, and a skill in the Warrior Tree allows you to use your hands to rip RDA pilots out of AMP suits when they are staggered. Melee strikes already one-shot human infantry, and using the skills listed above lets you also competently take down AMP Mechs with your bare hands.

Especially when combined with the Short Bow and/or the Shotgun, your unarmed melee attack is a powerful and viable way to win your battles in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Will melee weapons ever be added to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora?

Currently, it is unknown whether or not Ubisoft has any plans to add melee weapons to Avatar in the future. What we do know is that the game is certainly getting at least two DLCs, although, from the looks of it, those DLCs will most likely be story expansions only. But hey, they could also add new weapons to the game. Given how often the Na’vi use spears in the Avatar films, I think it is totally reasonable to hold out hope that melee weapons will one day be added to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

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Pierce Bunch
Freelance writer and jack-of-all-games.