The Longspear

Let's start with one of the most obvious melee weapons: the longspear. This weapon has two main advantages:

1. It has a long reach, so you can kill Zombies from a relative distance.
2. It's relatively easy to build.

While it has got its drawbacks (which we'll talk about in a second), this should be one of the first weapons you acquire, as it's just so damn useful.

How to make a longspear

You'll probably have a hard time finding a longspear anywhere, so you'll probably have to build one yourself. Luckily, that's not too hard. All you need is a long (and preferably straight) stick or pole, a knife or similar bladed weapon, and some means to attach said blade to the stick. If in any doubt, use duct tape.

If you don't have a blade or don't want to use it to make a longspear, you could simple make use of a pointy stick. Note that this has the additional disadvantage of being only useful to thrust, swinging this stick around won't do you any good. That said, swinging even a proper longspear around won't do you much good against zombie hordes – unless the spear's blade is more like an axe, in which case we're talking halberds.

How to use a longspear

It's simple, really. Keep your distance, and thrust the pointy end of your spear into zombie heads. Heck, you could even do this from an elevated position (a roof or a tree, for instance), and indeed this is the prefered way to use a longspear.

If you're down on the ground and the shambling hordes come ever closer, you could use your spear as a staff and keep those zombies off you for a second. This is a last resort, however.

Other uses

If push comes to shove, you could use your spear as a javelin if a) it's not your only weapon (see below), and b) you're not faced with a horde. If you even consider doing this, make sure to get plenty of practice beforehand, or otherwise you won't hit anything, let alone a zombie head.

Additionally, if you've got some friends around who are also as sensible as you are and thus are armed with longspears too, congratulations: you've just build a (somewhat) mobile anti-zombie wall! Don't make this your standard tactic to fight Walkers, though, as this should only be used in a pinch.

The Drawbacks

Never, ever take a longspear as your only melee weapon. Make sure you've got a backup once things go awry, because once the zombies get uncomfortably close to you, you'll want to switch to a weapon with which to actually attack these personal space invaders.

Conclusion

A longspear is always good to have, but it's never good to have only a longspear.