The Best Unarmed Build For Avowed

Latest Update: June 29, 2026 – Categories: Avowed, Avowed Builds

This Unarmed Build is one of the strongest and most versatile setups in Avowed. This build focuses on quick unarmed attacks and agility, letting you avoid damage while dishing out the punishment!

This build has been updated for the Avowed Anniversary Update.

Table Of Contents

• Unarmed Build Overview
• Who Should Play the Unarmed Build?
• Pros and Cons
• Best Race
• Background Choice
• Best Attributes
• Best Weapons
• Best Armor
• Best Accessories
• Best Skills
• Leveling Guide
• Combat Tips
• Recommended Companions
• More Avowed Builds

Avowed Unarmed Build Overview

Who needs weapons when you have fists of iron and steel? Unarmed combat in Avowed is some of the best I have ever experienced with powerful damage, fast attack speed, an incredible combination attack, and the best power attack in the game with the ability to send enemies flying.

This unarmed build takes your fists to the next level, allowing you to charge in, punch as hard as a superhero, and feel like one too. You’ll have the ability to take a hit and return it for even more damage. With high Critical Hit Chance and Critical Damage, our fists rip enemies to shreds, and with the right gear, even light them on fire!

Beating down your enemies with your bare hands has never been so satisfying. Check out a similar build in action below!

Related Guides

• Best Class For You in Avowed
• Avowed Character Creation Guide
• All Avowed Skills Updated for 2026

Who Should Play the Unarmed Build in Avowed?

The Unarmed playstyle in Avowed is about as simple as it gets. See those two meat hammers at the end of your arms? Smash stuff with them, and when you aren’t smashing stuff, dodge, duck, dip, dive, and block to stay alive. It’s as simple and fun as that. If you like send enemies flying, shredding through their armor with Critical Damage or stacking up burns, you’ll enjoy the combat potential for this build.

Keep in mind, you are NOT able to take the same hits that you dish out. So this is a bit of a glass cannon build. If you’re OK with that, get ready for some of the most fun you can have in Avowed with this Unarmed Juggernaut!

Oh, and uppercut small enemies to finish them off. You won’t regret it.

Unarmed Build Pros and Cons

Pros

• Excellent damage potential with hit Critical Chance and Critical Damage stats
• Very quick, with great mobility and dodges to avoid damage (stick and move)
• Save on gear upgrades or finding new weapons, since your Fists are all you need!

Cons

• Light armor and limited Damage Reduction means we can get hurt easily
• Slower Start to build up damage as your fists only upgrade every 5 levels via the Iron Fists ability
• More dependent on attack speed than any other build, does better with Companions and Consumables to make you faster

Best Race Options

With five playable races now available following the anniversary update, players have more options than ever to tailor their build. While the stat differences aren’t huge, your choice of playable race does have an impact early on in powering your build, plus you should consider height differences when in playing in first person.

The best playable race for the Unarmed Build in Avowed is Aumaua, as they have the best early damage spike in the game thanks to +2 Might at the start of the game. Their large size and height also makes it easy to spot enemies at a distance.

Another solid option would be the Human Race for their combination of +1 Might and +1 Resolve, which provides a nice balance of pure damage (Might) and Maximum Stamina (Resolve), which lets you throw more punches before becoming exhausted. For slightly higher Critical Chance (helpful at end game) while also retaining higher stamina, consider the Orlan playable race with +1 Perception and +1 Resolve.

Best Background Choice

Backgrounds in Avowed are primarily a role-playing tool. They shape how you experience the story and how NPCs react to your words, but they don’t create hard mechanical restrictions that matter beyond the early game. Your background also determines your starting stat allocation (you can change this before leaving character creation) as well as your starting weapon in the game’s tutorial.

In terms of roleplaying alignment, the War Hero is the best background for the Unarmed Build in Avowed.

The War Hero background positions your character as a decorated veteran of imperial campaigns, renowned for decisive victories and disciplined battlefield leadership. Your military career earned you respect, medals, and eventually a promotion to elite units before the emperor found a new use for your talents in the frontier.

The default attribute emphasis falls heavily on Might 3 and Resolve 3, with solid Constitution backing up the frontline fantasy. This creates a character who hits hard, maintains stamina for extended combat through blocking and power attacks, and survives punishment that would fell lighter backgrounds.

Best Unarmed Build Attributes

To maximize your damage output, survivability, and mobility, you should prioritize the following attributes:

1. Might – This is your main percentage damage boost in Avowed, giving you 25% bonus damage at 10 Might. Try to scale this up early using stats and gear if possible.
2. Perception – Perception grants you increased critical chance, which will be a bigger damage increase than might be, thanks to our passive abilities and the speed of our fists.
3. Dexterity – Grants you more attack speed, which is incredibly helpful on the Unarmed build, which already has fast attack animations (fists).

Best Weapons for the Unarmed Build

The best weapons for the Unarmed Build are obviously your fists! While Avowed doesn’t include any brass knuckles or glove-type weapons, you can increase your Unarmed Damage significantly by unlocking the Iron Fists ability in the Warrior Skill Tree and leveling it up to Rank 4. This makes your fists equivalent to a Legendary quality weapon.

Pick A Melee Weapon Early

Use any melee weapon you want early in combination with a shield. This will give you some damage and defense while you wait for your Iron Fists to rank up. Personally, I prefer a one-handed mace which can more quickly stun enemies, but anything here is really fine.

Unflinching Duty

• Lesser Glancing Strikes: 5% chance to avoid Melee Damage
• Lesser Peak Conditioning: +20 Maximum Stamina

This shield is obtained in the first zone after defeating the Elder Brown Bear, a part of the main story quest. What makes this shield exceptional is its bonus stamina effect. Since stamina is the key resource for blocking and attacking, having a shield that increases stamina ensures that your unarmed build can sustain combat in the early game.

Best Unarmed Build Armor

The best armor for the Unarmed Build in Avowed is the Helwalker’s Vestments, Xaurip Paws, and Warmage’s Boots.

Helwalker’s Vestments

• The Path of Scars: +25% Melee Damage; -50% Damage Reduction
• Shared Transcedence: +50% Critical Hit Damage with Melee Weapons

Helwalker’s Vestments are the best Armor for the Unarmed Build due to the +50% Critical Damage multiplier which applies to unarmed attacks. This means your Critical Strikes and Special Attacks always hit much harder and since we have so much attack speed on this build, the net benefit is a huge damage increase.

Be aware that you will take more damage with this item equipped, so you’ll need to dodge enemy attacks whenever possible.

Xaurip Paws

• Bonus Effect:
  • +15% Stun
• Enchantment:
  • Draconic Blessing: Unarmed hits deal +10% bonus Fire Damage

The Xaurip Paws are a unique glove armor made specially for Unarmed builds, which provide a bonus to Stun as well as additional Fire Damage through Draconic Blessing. This allows the Unarmed build to not only do physical damage with fists, but also stack a fair amount of Elemental Damage, especially when paired with the Scion of Flame passive from the Wizard Skill tree. Plus, they look like little claws!

Warmage’s Boots

• Bonus Effect:
  • +15 Max Essence
• Enchantment:
  • Arcane Step: Dodging has a 10% chance to restore 20 Essence

I prefer getting as much Essence back as I can on this build, and with as much as we need to dodge, you can get it quite frequently using the Warmage’s Boots. You can also use this item even when not in combat, randomly dodging as you explore the world to fully refill your Essence before the next combat encounter! Who doesn’t like free skills?

Other Armor Options

Stelgaer’s Pride is the best early game armor option for the Unarmed Build. Medium armor promises a decent compromise between tankiness and minimal reduction of your stamina and essence pools, and this particular armor set automatically uses Barbaric Shout if you are hit for more than 30% of your health at one time. On higher difficulties, this is a very easy condition to fulfill which means you will almost always have Barbaric Shout up for free, and that ability is wildly powerful.

Vailian Breastplate – This set grants slightly more damage reduction which is nice, but really we would use this for the movement speed. 20% will make you quite fast, able to close gaps when charge is on cooldown, or create distance from dangerous enemies. It can also make parkour more or less challenging depending on your own abilities.

The Tranton Family Greaves are another great early game option for the Unarmed Build that you can use even until the end game, with a very nice spread of stats including +20 Maximum Health, +20% Dodge Distance, and +10% Move Speed – everything a melee build needs!

Best Unarmed Build Accessories

The best Accessories for the Unarmed build in Avowed are the Painter’s Brush Trinket, The Ranga’s Clairy ring and the Ring of Pain Amplification.

Painter’s Brush

• A Critical Eye: +5% Critical Hit Chance

5% extra critical chance is a very solid increase to your damage, considering we also have many additional buffs to Critical Chance and Crit Damage on this build.

Ring of Pain Amplification

• Critical Damage: +15% Critical Damage

A solid early-game option that can be used for the entire game is the Ring of Amplification, which provides a 15% boost to critical damage. Since critical hits are a key feature of this build, this ring ensures that every hit lands with maximum impact.

The Ranga’s Clarity

• Belated Wisdon: +2 Intellect, +2 Perception

For the Unarmed Build in Avowed, every stat matters. That’s why accessories such as the Ranga’s Clarity Ring which boost our overall Attribute pool are a nice addition to this build. More Intellect results in a larger Essence Pool to cast more abilities, while more Perception results in higher Critical Hit Chance.

Best Unarmed Build Skills

The best skills for the Unarmed Build in Avowed are Iron Fists, Driving Kick, Devastating Criticals, and Critical Strike.

Fighter Skills

The Fighter Skill Tree for Avowed focuses on close-quarters dominance, durability, and crowd control using physical force. The recommended Fighter Tree skills are:

• Charge (Rank 3) – The quintessential warrior ability in Avowed, Charge is excellent, allowing you to knock enemies off their feet or knock tough enemies back. You also get to deal a ton of stun damage with rank 3 which is perfect for boss fights especially.
• Driving Kick (Rank 3) – A powerful kick that breaks through enemy Blocks, dealing damage and launching enemies through the air. Rank 2 increases the damage while Rank 3 creates an Area of Effect, dealing explosive damage.
• Constant Recovery (Rank 1) – This is an excellent defensive tool that pairs extremely well with the next passive in this list. Get hit, walk it off. Perfect for any build really, but especially melee builds.
• Toughness (Rank 3) – Increases your Maximum Health by 20% at Rank 1, 35% at Rank 2, and 45% at Rank 3.
• Iron Fists (Rank 4) – Without this, your fists will deal almost no damage beyond the first few fights. Take this ability every single chance you get as soon as you get the chance.
• Barbaric Shout (Rank 3) – The ultimate warrior ability, Barbaric Shout makes you absurdly tanky thanks to rank 2’s temporary HP buff, all while dishing out loads of stun.
• Devastating Criticals (Rank 3 ) – This is one of two massive damage buff passives and the whole reason Perception is such a powerful damage bonus for this build. Critical hit math is a beautiful thing.
• Retribution (Rank 3) – This is another key damage-increasing ability: take a massive hit from a boss, and return in kind with everything they hit you with through the biggest haymaker you’ve ever thrown.
• Adrenaline (Rank 1) – When below 50% Health, your Attack Damage is increased by 25%. When below 25% Health, your Attack Damage is increased by another 25% and your Stability is increased by 20%.

Ranger Skills

The Ranger Skill Tree emphasizes precision, mobility, and stealth, catering to both ranged sharpshooters and agile melee fighters. The recommended Ranger Tree skills are:

• Finesse (Rank 3) – This doesn’t say it works on fists, but it does, and that makes it essential. Up to 50% additional damage done with our punches is no joke.
• Critical Strike (Rank 3) – Increases your Critical Hit Chance by 10% at Rank 1, 15% at Rank 2, and 20% at Rank 3. This talent, combined with our attributes or gear makes 50% or more Critical Chance attainable, making you critically strike very often in combat.
• Survivalist (Rank 3) – 20% extra healing and essence from food is fantastic, but this also unlocks the best food items in the game for combat, buffing your Speed, Damage, Critical Chance, and Critical Damage.

Note: The 3 points invested in Survivalist can be reset after you’ve crafted the best food possible and have it stashed in your inventory. If you want to do this, use those 3 points in Evasive to reduce the Stamina cost of Dodge.

Wizard Skills

The Wizard Skill Tree is the primary source of elemental area-of-effect damage and battlefield manipulation. The recommended Wizard Tree skills are:

• Scion of Flame (Rank 2) – Increases the amount of Fire Accumulation you deal. This is extremely good when paired with one of our items below, which deals Fire damage when using Unarmed Attacks.

Unarmed Build Leveling Guide

Players can unlock 35 total talent points in Avowed via leveling up, starting with 1 point per level at level 2, and including 1 bonus point for levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30.

Unarmed Build Combat Tips

Fights against normal enemy packs with an unarmed build play out very simply. Start out from sneaking to either initiate with a Godlike sneak attack, or with a charge for big damage and a little crowd control. Follow up by finding and either stunning or killing the group’s healer because you will not be able to out damage a healer.

Once the healer is down, find any chanter type enemies and take them down with charges and punches to relieve the melee pressure they bring from their summoned allies. If you are taking too much pressure, or not dealing enough damage to kill them fast enough, use Barbaric Shout for a big temporary health shield that will let you stick around in the fight longer.

If you can take down healers and chanters, most fights are simple: dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge to stay out of trouble and swing those fists away while managing your stamina. Running out of stamina can quickly get you killed, so be careful to keep something in the tank for that last second dodge.

When fighting bosses, the tactics change depending on the fight. In individual boss fights, focus on stunning the boss and dodging their attacks. You can use Charge and Barbaric Shout to build up stun rapidly, allowing you to unleash stun combos regularly. If you have the Retribution ability unlocked, use Barbaric Shout’s shielding capabilities to eat a big hit from the boss every once in a while to return their own damage in kind.

When fighting bosses with adds, or additional enemies, focus the most dangerous smaller enemies first while utilizing your companions to keep the boss occupied or crowd controlled if possible. Make sure to take out healers, chanters, and archers or throwers as these can be very painful enemies that complicate a fight considerably. If there are enemies like Delemgan Scourges or other enemies with rapid, aggressive combination attacks, get the little guys out of the way as fast as possible and then focus the aggressive enemy to create space to rock the boss’s socks.

Recommended Companions

1. Giatta – Her healing and Accelerate abilities are such powerful utility granting extra damage and free healing in and out of combat. Accelerate is especially powerful allowing you to close gaps, take more damage, and attack faster all of which are incredibly powerful on an unarmed build.
2. Kai – Kai’s Fire and Ire ability to taunt enemies, and his second wind make him a reliable tank which decent damage and stun thanks to the low cooldown of Fire and Ire. His ability to pull aggro from enemies and take melee or ranged pressure off of your unarmed character is invaluable.
3. Yatzli – Her area of effect damage is incredibly powerful and helps fill in the gaps of this build tremendously. Her damage also helps against enemies that may be a tier higher than your fists, allowing you to take on fights you otherwise couldn’t touch until level 16. I also recommend using her Delay of Motion companion ability to slow down harder enemies, turning them into punching bags!

The Final Word

The Unarmed build in Avowed is one of the most powerful playstyles in the game, offering a great balance between damage and evasion. I hope you found this guide helpful and be sure to check out the rest of our Avowed content linked below!

Update Log

• March 22, 2025 – Build created for Avowed release
• February 1, 2026 – updated leveling guide, best weapons, armor and accessories
• February 11, 2026 – updated for Avowed Anniversary Patch
• March 25, 2026 – updated information for Best Attributes and Best Weapons
• June 29, 2026 – updated skills section

More Avowed Builds

Looking for the best Avowed Builds? We’ve got you covered! Check out our best Avowed Builds below, with detailed skill explanations, gear loadouts, and leveling guides.

• Avowed Complete Builds List
• Avowed Battle Mage Build
• Avowed Fighter Build
• Avowed Gun Mage Build
• Avowed Gunslinger Build
• Avowed Ranger Build
• Avowed Rogue Build
• Avowed Spellblade Build
• Avowed Two Handed Build
• Avowed Unarmed Build
• Avowed Wand Build
• Avowed Wizard Build