Basic Trope: A character uses a melee weapon and a gun, but not at the same time.
- Straight:
- Bob wields a sword as his main weapon, but also carries pistols that he switches to for dealing with enemies at a distance.
- Bob uses a rifle as his main weapon, but carries a sword as a backup.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is armed with both a BFS and a BFG, which he switches between as needed.
- Bob is a Walking Armory that carries different kinds of guns (a revolver, a shotgun and a rifle) along with different kinds of melee weapons (a sword, a club and a dagger).
- Downplayed:
- Bob fights with guns, but also has a knife on his person.
- Bob fights with a sword, but also has a single shot pistol on his person.
- Justified:
- Bob lives in a time when all firearms are single shot. While guns are handy when the enemy is at a distance, Bob also needs a weapon that doesn't have to be reloaded.
- Bob lives in the aftermath of a great disaster that nearly ended civilization, and ammunition is always on short supply, so while guns are obviously useful, melee combat is just as important.
- Bob would rather have a weapon for fighting up close and not need it, than get attacked up close and be at a disadvantage because he only has ranged weapons.
- Some missions require stealth, and guns are too loud. Bob's much more silent melee weapons are helpful in those situations.
- Inverted:
- Sword and Gun
- Bob fights with an axe pistol.
- Subverted: Bob has a sword, but doesn't actually use it and only carries it as a status symbol.
- Double Subverted: Until he runs out of bullets, leaving the sword as his only remaining weapon, which he proceeds to use after all as a result.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: Bob's sword is only a status symbol, and he fights only with his guns. But then he runs out of ammo, and does draw his sword because it's the only weapon left. However, the enemy surrenders before he can actually continue fighting, so he doesn't get to use the sword after all.
- Averted:
- Every character sticks to only one kind of weapon, either melee or ranged.
- Guns don't exist in the work's setting.
- Enforced: The game designers needed to implement an Emergency Weapon so the player could still fight somehow if all of their guns ran out of ammo, so they gave the player character a melee weapon.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: The army requires all of their infantry to be equipped with both swords and guns.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: By law, everyone is only allowed to carry one weapon at a time, forcing a choice between only melee or only ranged unless it's a Mix-and-Match Weapon (which doesn't count as this trope).
- Discussed: "You should get yourself a sword or at least a knife. While uncommon, close encounters are always a possibility".
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Bob gets into a fight offscreen, and his weapons are never shown to the audience. However, when the aftermath of the fight is shown, the enemies he killed have both bullet holes and stab wounds.
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played for Laughs: ???
- Played for Drama: ???
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