Rifleman Archive

moosecat is correct that AP has damage benefits. However, here is how it works.

Every target has an armor rating (AR) and every weapon has an armor piercing (AP) value. When a shot hits a target, the damage will be adjusted by how well the AP of the weapon compares to the AR of the target.

Armor rating can be none (AR0), light (AR1), medium (AR2), and heavy (AR3). Armor piercing has the same scales (AP0 - AP3). Examples: Player armor is all light (AR1), the T21 is heavy armor piercing (AP3), VKs are light armor piercing (AP1), and unarmed attacks (i.e, no VKs) dono armor piercing (AP0).

Review the FAQ threads to find the actual formulas, but when AP equals AR, the weapon just does whatever damage it did. It gets no bonus or penalty from AP vs. AR. When AP exceeds AR, the weapon does a cumulative 25% more damage per level of AP over AR. For one level over, damage is multiplied by 1.25. Two levels over, damage is multiplied by 1.56. Three levels over, damage is multiplied by 1.95.

When AR exceeds AP, the weapon receives a cumulative 50% penalty to damage for every level AR exceeds AP. When AP is one level under AR, damage is multiplied by .50. Two levels under, damage is multiplied by .25, and three levels under, damage is multiplied by .125.

Resistances will reduce reduce the damage if the damage is the type of the resistance. For instance, for a target with 20% resistance to energy, and energy weapon will do only 80% of its damage. However, when a target is vulnerable to a damage type (i.e., has no resistance to it) armor and resistance factors are bypassed. So you get no bonus or penalty as a result of armor differences when the target is vulnerable to a damage type. You get just whatever damage the weapon does, unadjusted.

Currently, bleeds also bypass armor and resistance factors, so even if a target is 100% resistant to a weapon's damage type, if you use a bleed, you get whatever unadjusted damage the shot does. However, it has been reported that bleeds and all DoTs (Damage over time shots) are going to factor in resistances with an upcoming patch.