Update on PvP Damage Mechanics in 1.0.2

After taking a break from the game for a few months, I thought it best to update this article to reflect the changes to PvP Damage Mechanics in 0.9.0, which is when the bulk of this article was written. For the most part, the only thing that has changed is that weapon perks are now active in PvP, which means that the use of rare (blue) and uncommon (green) weapons is no longer viable.

Based on conversations with Freakoh and Alexander Danilenko (Arguna), I have confirmed that the damage mechanics in PvP are slightly different than what I previously understood. Because we are never able to see the decimal place that is supposedly taken into account when calculating damage, it was assumed that the decimal place was removed and the result rounded down when an opponent took damage in PvP. In other words, it was assumed that a gun that has a base damage in PvP of 11.9 actually deals the same damage as a gun that has a base damage of 11.2 because they would both round down to 11. I had tested this prior to update 0.8.4 and found that this was indeed the case; however, I reran the experiment to see what happened to the HP of my opponent when being fired upon multiple times to determine whether the decimal place is dropped or not. I can confirm that the actual damage done includes the decimal place through testing with my alt using the MFG GEN9 auto rifle, which has a base damage of 12.6. This inherently means that (1) guns with a higher base damage are preferable to those with a similar but lower base damage and (2) base damage boost on gloves no longer needs to hit a certain threshold to have an effect (i.e., even though it doesn't boost the hit value by a full point, an 11.2 base damage gun would do 11.7 damage with 5% damage gloves equipped).

The Takeaway

If you do not want to read how I got here, which I will illustrate later, here are the primary weapons that are looking most favorable to use in the current meta based solely on the Time to Kill statistic. Note that I have reworked my formulae to take buffs, gear, and enemy resistance into account and am presenting the guns with the lowest average Time to Kill against 165 HP opponents with 0%, 5% (9 point survival build), 15% (bar buff only), and 20% (skill + bar buff) resistance levels. It is also extremely important to note that this will be different from person to person as weapon perks are now active. The guns listed below reflect the perks that I have in my own inventory, so yours may not perform the same as mine; however, the basic list is generally reliable.

SMGs: Furious Fungus, Pyro Spirit, Mondrian, Pazuzu, Wintermute

Auto Rifles: Faraday Accelerator, Gridlock, Big Eagle Storm, Lambent Flame, Skull Blaster 3000

Shotguns: Scorpio, Fearargini, Dybbuk, PZ-14L Caw, Singh's Song, Big Eagle Thunder, Nebula

It should be noted that the time to kill statistic is not the only one that should be considered. Minimizing number of hits to kill and % accuracy required to kill a 165 HP opponent in a single clip are also important to consider. When considering these stats, other guns that become highly relevant are the Freedomizer and Niko's Stopper. In short, it's not just about all out damage; you need to connect with your opponent to deal the damage so accuracy is a very important stat on the gun that needs to be taken into account. It is why guns like the Niko's Stopper can perform well even though the damage output is lower due to the fact that it is easier to connect with your opponent on account of the high base accuracy.

After a long while, MFG did decide to activate perks in PvP, so that inherently gives legendary weapons a relatively big advantage over other rarities; however, as indicated in the list above, there are still epic weapons that are viable in this current meta where basically all you see is Faradays. Also, to ensure that this question isn't asked, item rarity doesn't offer any hidden bonuses in PvP now for either armor or weapons. All that matters is the set of perks; there is no longer a hidden damage or resistance buff from using a certain rarity of items. Finally, the current power level of the weapon does not matter in determining the damage it will do in PvP. All guns have their power level reduced to zero for the purposes of calculating PvP damage (see more in For Reference section below).

The Experiment

The easiest way I can explain how it works is that if you've ever played the card game Spades, you know that you collect points in your bag for any tricks that you make above what you've bid and as soon as you hit 10 points, you are assessed a penalty. It is essentially the same with PvP damage. The decimal values add up with each hit, and you will see that some hits reduce HP by 13 instead of 12 whenever the cumulative value of the decimal places exceeds an integer value. For example, the first hit would deal 12.6 damage, so you would see HP go down by 12. Then the next hit would also deal 12.6 damage, but if you add the decimal place to the previous hit, they would add up to 1.2 damage. Since this is higher than 1, that second hit would reduce HP by 13 instead of 12. To go even further, the next hit would bring the cumulative decimal value up to 1.8, so that third hit would reduce HP by 12, and the following hit would reduce HP by 13 because the cumulative decimal value would then be 2.4. The interesting thing I noted was that the very next hit only does 12 damage even though the cumulative decimal value is an even 3.0, so what I concluded is that it only brings down HP by the additional point when the cumulative decimal value is higher than the closest integer value. Regardless, all you need to know is that there is now differentiation between guns that appear to do the same base damage by the number you see pop up on your screen in PvP, so a gun that does 11.9 base damage is marginally better than a gun that does 11.2 base damage.

How Resistance Works

While I did explain how this works in a recent video, I wanted to reiterate how projectile resistance works. If any of you have read my articles on PvE damage mechanics, you will be familiar with how elite damage resistance works. The resistance is first applied as a percentage against the base weapon damage and then any damage boosts from skills, perks, or buffs are then tacked on as a percentage of that base damage adjusted for elite resistance. It works the exact same way in PvP. For example, if your opponent has 5% projectile resistance and you are using a gun with a base damage of 10, the base damage adjusted for resistance is 9.5. If you have 10% damage boost from gloves, then you would do an additional 10% of 9.5, not 10% of the original base damage of 10. There was a bug where it may not display that the damage dealt to someone with a 15% projectile resistance bar buff active is reduced, but I've specifically looked at how much a shot reduces the health of my alt character and I can confirm that the bar buffs are working correctly.

For Reference

If you would like to do calculations on your own, you will need to know how to (1) convert PvE base weapon damage at 270 power to PvP base weapon damage and (2) convert PvE base weapon damage at any power level to PvE base weapon damage at power level 270. The first calculation is easy as it is simply 0.079545455 multiplied by the PvE base weapon damage at 270 power and rounded down to the nearest tenth. For the second calculation, I refer you to a previous article that explains how to do that calculation.

Many thanks to Freakoh and Arguna for bringing this to my attention. Happy hunting!

--[APx] InsulinMaze