If you've spent any time on the platform, you know that a solid roblox melee combat system script is the backbone of basically every successful fighting game or RPG. It doesn't matter if you're making a high-octane anime battler or a simple dungeon crawler; if the sword swinging feels clunky or the hits don't register, players are going to bail within five minutes. Creating a system that feels "snappy" is a bit of an art form, but once you get the logic down, it's actually pretty fun to build.
Most beginners start by just slapping a .Touched event on a sword part and calling it a day. While that technically works, it's also the fastest way to make a game that feels laggy and unresponsive. If you want something that actually stands up to modern Roblox standards, you have to look at how the pros do it—focusing on server-side validation, clean animations, and reliable hit detection.
Why the Touched Event is a Trap
We've all been there. You write a tiny script, put it in a tool, and use Part.Touched:Connect. It seems fine when you're testing by yourself in Studio, but as soon as you get two people with 100ms ping fighting each other, everything breaks. The "Touched" event relies heavily on the physics engine, which isn't always synced perfectly between players.
Sometimes a sword will clearly pass through an enemy and do zero damage. Other times, someone gets hit from five studs away. This is why a professional roblox melee combat system script usually leans on Raycasting or specialized hitbox modules. Raycasting is much more precise because it checks for intersections along a path rather than waiting for the physics engine to report a collision. It gives you total control over the "active" frames of an attack.
Setting Up the Architecture
Before you even touch a line of code, you need to think about where things live. You can't just put everything in a LocalScript. If you do, a generic exploiter will come along, change the damage variable to 999,999, and wipe your entire server in seconds.
A good combat system follows a specific flow: 1. The Client (LocalScript): Listens for the mouse click or button press. It plays the animation immediately (for that instant feedback) and sends a signal to the server. 2. The Server (Script): Receives the signal via a RemoteEvent. It checks if the player is actually allowed to swing (are they stunned? is the weapon on cooldown?). 3. The Hitbox: Once the server validates the swing, it creates the hitbox. This is where the actual "math" happens to see who got hit. 4. The Resolution: The server applies damage to the enemy's Humanoid and maybe plays a sound or particle effect.
Making Hitboxes Feel Real
If you want to go the extra mile, don't just use one big box. The most satisfying roblox melee combat system script setups use something called "Raycast Hitboxes." Instead of a static cube, you attach several points to the blade of your weapon. Every frame the weapon is swinging, the script draws lines (rays) between the current position of those points and where they were in the previous frame.
This creates a "trail" of detection. If a player swings their sword in a wide arc, the rays will catch anything that passes through that arc. It's incredibly accurate. There are some great open-source modules out there, like TeamRaycast's Hitbox module, that handle the heavy lifting for you. Using a module like that saves you from reinventing the wheel and lets you focus on the cool stuff, like combat moves and combos.
The Importance of Animation Timing
Animations aren't just for show; they dictate the rhythm of your combat. A common mistake is having the damage happen the exact moment the player clicks. In real life (and good games), there's a "wind-up" or startup phase.
Your script should use Animation Events. Inside the Roblox Animation Editor, you can drop markers on the timeline. You might name one "HitStart" and another "HitEnd." Your script can then listen for these markers. When "HitStart" triggers, you turn on your hitboxes. When "HitEnd" triggers, you turn them off. This ensures that the player only does damage when the sword is actually moving forward, not while they're still pulling it back behind their head.
Adding the "Juice"
You can have the most mathematically perfect roblox melee combat system script in the world, but if there's no feedback, it'll feel dead. "Juice" refers to the little polish items that make an action feel impactful.
Think about adding: * Screen Shake: A tiny, subtle shake when a player lands a heavy hit. * Hit-Stun: Briefly slowing down the attacker and the victim for a fraction of a second when a hit connects. This is a classic fighting game trick that makes hits feel "meaty." * Sound Effects: A "whoosh" for the swing and a "thud" or "slash" for the hit. * Particle Emitters: A quick burst of sparks or blood (if your game's vibe allows for it) at the exact point of impact.
All of these things should be handled on the client side to keep the server from lagging, but they should be triggered by the server's confirmation that a hit actually happened.
Handling Combos and Cooldowns
Nobody likes a game where you can just mash the left mouse button at 20 clicks per second and win. You need a combo system. Usually, this involves a "combo counter" variable in your script.
If a player clicks again within a certain window (say, 0.5 seconds) after the first swing, they move to "Swing 2." If they wait too long, the counter resets to "Swing 1." Each stage of the combo can have a different animation and different damage values. This adds a layer of strategy. Maybe the third hit in a combo is a slow overhead bash that does double damage and knocks the opponent back. This kind of logic is what turns a basic script into a real gameplay system.
Dealing with Lag and Latency
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: ping. Roblox is a global platform, and players will have varying internet speeds. If your roblox melee combat system script is too strict with server-side checks, players with high ping will feel like their inputs are being eaten.
A common middle-ground is "Client-Side Prediction with Server-Side Sanity Checks." The client shows the hit effect immediately so the player feels good, but the server does a quick distance check. If the client says they hit someone from 50 studs away with a 5-stud sword, the server simply ignores it. It's a balancing act between making the game feel responsive and keeping it fair.
Organizing Your Code
As your script grows, it's going to get messy. Don't put 500 lines of code inside a single Tool script. Use ModuleScripts. Have one module for the combat logic, one for the animation data, and maybe one for the visual effects. This makes it way easier to bug-fix later. If your sword stops doing damage, you know exactly which module to check instead of hunting through a mountain of spaghetti code.
It also makes it easier to add new weapons. If you've built your system correctly, adding a spear or an axe should just be a matter of swapping out the animations and tweaking the hitbox range in a config file, rather than writing a whole new roblox melee combat system script from scratch.
Final Thoughts
Building a melee system is one of those projects that's never truly "finished." You'll constantly find yourself tweaking the swing speeds, adjusting the knockback, or adding new visual flares. The key is to start simple. Get a basic raycast working, link it to an animation, and make sure the damage is handled securely on the server. Once that foundation is rock solid, you can start layering on the fancy combos and special effects that make your game stand out. It takes some trial and error, but seeing your combat system come to life is one of the most rewarding parts of being a Roblox dev.