Armor Piercing?

[ItchyDani3l]

I'm finding the Penetration / Armor Piercing mechanic a little hard to grasp.

The upgraded AM D114-9 pistol has a relatively low Penetration stat compared to the Bambetov SV sniper rifle, yet the pistol can penetrate and kill helmeted soldiers in 1 shot, while the Bambetov cannot.

Same thing applies to primary hip rifles upgraded with high penetration ammo. They can't penetrate helmets, which defeats the whole purpose of upgrading the ammo.

And of course, this makes even less sense considering that steel and kevlar helmets in the real world cannot stop even standard 5.56 or 7.62 rifle rounds, much less AP versions.

So for the Bound Dragons event, the only primary hip weapon which is viable right now (for me) is a grenade launcher, and the only viable primary back weapon is the Brennan Anti-Material rifle (lol). And the AM D114-9 of course (though I also used the grenade launcher pistol with some success).

[[ACPL] Jon]

They do penetrate riot armors \ make them way easier to put down. Steel helmets fly off fast anyway and the pistol can't penetrate the said helmet AFAIK, just the bullet spread \ drop made you hit the guy in the face UNDER the helmet, thus why he died instantly. Same goes for other weapons and is a part of a countermeasures mechanic, that's why it's like that.

[ItchyDani3l]

It's important to take down the enemy in 1 shot because if they sound an alert it can make the mission much harder.

Also, the upgraded pistol DOES kill helmeted guys in 1 shot, even from behind or the side. (not the standard one)

[[ACPL] Jon]

Originally posted by ItchyDani3l:

It's important to take down the enemy in 1 shot because if they sound an alert it can make the mission much harder.

That's why you order your men on missions to destroy enemy equipment storages, like helmets or body armors. It's right (second) tab of the Deployment menu. Yes, I haven't seen it at first too.

That way you'll reduce the amount of ♥♥♥♥♥ running around in better equipment.

And also that's why you learn to aim properly - in the face and not in the helmet.

That's why you use "no shaky hands" drugs too.

PS: It doesn't, I'm sure of it. Bullet drop.

[ItchyDani3l]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1192903420

I've been doing it all day, it 1 hit headshots helmeted guys.

[[ACPL] Jon]

Hmmm, I'll check it out, but AFAIR their helmets are stupid, only covering part of the head and not from the side or so. They wear something like the heaviest helmet you can wear.

Do you get a kill every single headshot?

[ItchyDani3l]

Yeah so far it has, but i've only tested it in the Bound Dragons mission. I haven't tested it on the normal baddies with steel helmets.

[Holografix]

the AM D114-9, when upgraded, shows the upgrade as a Piercing Round Conversion (Penetration Up). This is the key factor and explains why the Bambetov SV, even though it has the same or greater penetration horizontal bar statistic, does not penetrate the helmet as easily as the AM D114-9 does.

It's the Piercing Round Conversion (Penetration Up) description that matters, not the ammo type or gun base type.

[OddJob]

Originally posted by ItchyDani3l:

I'm finding the Penetration / Armor Piercing mechanic a little hard to grasp.

The upgraded AM D114-9 pistol has a relatively low Penetration stat compared to the Bambetov SV sniper rifle, yet the pistol can penetrate and kill helmeted soldiers in 1 shot, while the Bambetov cannot.

Same thing applies to primary hip rifles upgraded with high penetration ammo. They can't penetrate helmets, which defeats the whole purpose of upgrading the ammo.

And of course, this makes even less sense considering that steel and kevlar helmets in the real world cannot stop even standard 5.56 or 7.62 rifle rounds, much less AP versions.

So for the Bound Dragons event, the only primary hip weapon which is viable right now (for me) is a grenade launcher, and the only viable primary back weapon is the Brennan Anti-Material rifle (lol). And the AM D114-9 of course (though I also used the grenade launcher pistol with some success).

There really isn't a lot of rhyme or reason to the way the game decides how much penetration you need to break through what types of armor - you'll just have to learn which guns do what.

For instance:

Sniper rifles can be equipped with magnum bullets which should very clearly overpenetrate helmets, but often don't - yet pistols which should be much weaker can easily blow off helmets and kill guards in 1 hit.


Currently there are only a few weapons which are blowing heads off of helmeted guards:

The D114-9 pistol with AP ammo.
The Serval rifle.
The Brennan rifle.
The Molotok.

And the M-2000's Magnum bullets will have a 50/50 shot at blowing through someone's helmet for some reason. - haven't tested the bamby or AM sniper, but I'd imagine its the same (Unreliable and not worth using, stick to regular ammo and take face shots)

[ItchyDani3l]

Yeah the Brennan and the D114-9 are the only ones I've found which do the trick.

And explosives like the grenade-pistol and grenade launcher primaries seem to do the trick

[Bugjuice]

It's all about the damage type of the weapon, there is a few weapon can do the same trick
AM-D114-9
WU-S324/333 revolvers
*4 or higher grade Renov Sniper rifle
*8 M2000 sniper
Brennan
Serval
Molotok

All these weapons with armor-piercing rounds as stated in the description will pierce helmet and make heavy infantry "flinch" with each bodyshot.. and weapon with really high penetration but non-armor piercing stats only have one advantage, bullets goes through bodies, if you have 4 guards lining up property you can kill all four with a single bullet, this usually happening on the bridge of a fob. So weapon like the Brennan and Serval seems to have both these abilities, AP and high prenetration etc..

One way to blow off the helmet of heavy infantry with non armor piercing bullet with only two shots, the mrs-71 for the example, you need to land two fast consecutive shots in the face within one sec, making sure no miss in between.

[Zest]

Amor Piercing Rounds are designed to pierce the armor of other enemies, its a difficult concept- but if you think hard it kind of makes sense.