Household Weapons: the melee tiers

Haddonfield's arsenal is what a 1978 suburb keeps in its drawers and sheds — and the community's systematic testing has sorted it into a real hierarchy. The dividing line isn't damage; it's reach and throwability. Two universal rules first: all melee weapons have durability and break (a perk reduces the loss), and Michael can pick up and throw what you drop.

Worst tier: short and non-throwable

Kitchen knife, fire poker, broken bottle, police baton, pipe wrench, shank. The shared flaw: they fight at exactly the range where his grab wins, with no throw option to fight from anywhere else. He overpowers you through all of them.

The one exception worth knowing: the fire poker is the easiest weapon in the game to find (check fireplaces) — a fine opening stopgap until the real tier shows up. Stopgap, not plan.

Best tier: reach, weight, or a second life

Weapon	The pitch
Fire axe	High damage, breaks exit boards, and dies into a throwable hatchet that downs on head hits
Pickaxe	The two-hander veterans hunt; breaks boards; heavy swings drain stamina
Sledgehammer	The spam-to-overpower weapon and easiest stun; breaks into a throwable brick
Rake	Spear-range pokes that interrupt grabs; throws like a javelin

Add the dedicated throwables — lawn darts, bricks, the butcher knife — and the pattern is complete: everything good either keeps you out of grab range or works from beyond it.

What weapons are actually for

Not hunting — leverage: self-defense out of a bad moment, grab interrupts and shove support, and the group knockdowns that open arrests. One more team play most miss: spare weapons can be handed to NPCs (R on PC), and a perk makes armed residents hit harder — the neighborhood can fight back if you arm it.