The Hatchet is a new melee weapon in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. It replaces the Knife from The Old Blood and The New Order, having similar capabilities of using it to takedown soldiers stealthily or throwing them from afar. The hatchet is Captain Gerald Wilkins' melee weapon in The New Colossus third DLC: The Amazing Deeds of Captain Wilkins.

Hatchets makes a return in Wolfenstein: Youngblood as a melee option for both Jess and Soph Blazkowicz along with the knife.

General Use

The New Colossus/The Amazing Deeds of Captain Wilkins

The hatchet combines the functionality of the knife and the pipe. It's an efficient and quick melee weapon that can be thrown to stealthily take down targets from a short distance. It can also be used to pry open certain hatches. In addition, the hatchet can dismember a soldier upon doing a takedown (combat or stealth). In addition, the hatchets are extremely sharp and strong, able to dismember a robots arm without breaking on impact. The hatchets are extremely durable, able to destroy the Ausmerzer's claws with three swipes.

Related Perks The New Colossus

• Stealth Takedown: Increased movement speed in crouch, 10% per level, Max of 50%.
• Thrown Hatchet Kills: Increased total hatchet capacity, 1 per level, Max of 8 hatchets.
• Takedowns or Tampers: Get Laser-Kraft and Blitzen-Diesel ammunition when tampering.
• Ram Shackles/Cannon Arm: Grenades and hatchets are thrown much farther and faster. Hitting an enemy directly with a Handgranate will knock them down.

Youngblood

The hatchet returns in Youngblood as one of the two melee options within the game. While the gameplay mechanics are the same from The New Colossus/The Amazing Deeds of Captain Wilkins. Opportunistic cloaked take-downs will be the main use of hatchet as most enemies in Paris will be able to survive a thrown hatchet attack. The hatchet and the knife share the same damage profile and inventory slot. Any melee weapons will be converted into the player's currently selected skin.

Related Abilities (Youngblood)

• Supersoldat Hunter: Enables silent takedowns on Supersoldaten.
• Super-Kinetic Throw: Throw grenades and melee weapons with extreme force, causing extra damage on impact. If the enemy survives the hit, they might be knocked down or staggered.
• 6-point Blade Belt: Increases your maximum carry capacity of throwable melee weapons from 3 to 6.
• Blade Annihilator: Your thrown Hatchets and Knives become immensely powerful and will kill most organic enemies in one hit.
• Silent Killer: Steath Takedowns immediately recharge your Cloak meter.

Strategy

The New Colossus/The Amazing Deeds of Captain Wilkins

• The hatchet can be useful when you want to be stealthy as it can be thrown and be used for takedowns. Takedowns come with a detriment, however; If a soldier is up close, a takedown will get the job done, but the animation of doing so leaves you extremely vulnerable to attacks from other enemies around you.
• Throwing a hatchet is a very reliable method for longer-range stealth/combat kills. That being said, not all hatchet throws are a guaranteed kill against armored enemies (Heavy infantry, for example), often merely bouncing off and knocking them forward or to the side. You can aim for the head or the legs to circumvent this.
• The perk for being able to carry more hatchets is useful when playing on harder difficulties.

Youngblood

• The throwing hatchet's trajectory is still affected by drop, thus the player will need to aim above the target in order to hit enemies at a distance. Youngblood's Enemy barrier system and leveling mechanics make throwing hatchet kills impractical till the player invests XP to level up and ability points to unlock the Blade Annihilator Ability. Even with this, most higher level enemies will still survive a thrown hatchet attack.
• Youngblood's weapon mastery system applies to both Knife and Hatchet under the melee category. Melee weapons gain +4% damage per level, with each level requiring 20 enemies kill per level. With a max level cap of 25, it requires 500 enemy kills to max out the damage buff of +100%.

Variants

The New Colossus/The Amazing Deeds of Captain Wilkins

• Fire Hatchet - A utility tool found in all Nazi installations and vehicles across Occupied America. It is a a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side with a slight beard, and a chisel-shaped pointed poll on the opposing side of the head and another at the knob of the haft. It appears to be a single piece forged construction, with the head and shaft of the hatchet showing no visible seams or joints, except for a reinforcing strip near the top of the haft.

Youngblood

Youngblood has a series of skins for the Hatchet that are able to purchased with in game currency. All skins do not provide any gameplay impact or effect. The draw and takedown animation are different for each skin.

Trivia

• The hatchet is the only melee weapon so far in the series that has both lethal and non-lethal stealth executions (rarely happens). Non-lethal executions involve B.J. using the hatchet to tap the enemy's shoulder to get their attention and straight-punch them square in the face, knocking them out or simply using the blunt side the hatchet to bash their heads to knock them out.
• In a letter found on the Ausmerzer, it's noted that they are carelessly placed. This can be seen as a soldier has one on a dart board or often on the ground in certain areas.
• B.J.'s favored method of execution with the hatchet seems to be cutting the opponent's arm and then aiming to a vital organ. We see him do it twice during cutscenes and more times against regular enemies.
• No enemy soldiers seem to use the hatchet except for B.J. and Gerald.

Gallery

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

B.J. collecting the hatchet.

Ditto, inspecting the weapon.

BJ executes an Ubersoldat with the hatchet.

B.J. axing a Ubersoldat in their energy core.

BJ throws the hatchet at a Nazi soldier.

BJ axes an Nazis commander.

BJ threatens a Nazis Soldier with a hatchet.

B.J. killing Mannheimer.

B.J. killing Rip with the hatchet.

B.J. readying his hatchet to kill Engel.

B.J. hatchets Engel's skull.

Same hatchet cracking and splitting Engel's skull.

Gerald Wilkins executes Wolfgang Schwarz.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Hatchet Skin in Weapon Customization menu

Tomahawk Skin in Weapon Customization menu

Fire Hatchet Skin in Weapon Customization menu

Cyborg Hatchet Skin in Weapon Customization menu

Old Blood Pipe Skin in Weapon Customization menu

Ninja Mörder Hatchet Skin in Weapon Customization menu

Max Mastery for melee weapons

Hatchet in Emergency Case

Hatchet found in Little Berlin

Tomahawk found in Political Detention Area 4

Zofia throws a hatchet at a Nazi soldier.