How much damage does the shockwave armor upgrade do?

[Wheredoyoukeepthechocolate?]

I've been looking around, but can't find anyone willing to put a number on it. This is the upgrade that does AOE damage when your shield breaks.

[PleB Hitzgi]

I couldn't find a number either but from comments from other people on reddit it seems to be rather weak unless it was buffed since then. According to those comments it can kill green swarmers but thats about it. I'd stick to other upgrades or you could try to test the dmg and get an approximation.

[Davrick]

Problem is the other upgrades suck too.

[deadcantdance]

I choosed Breathing Room.

[Lunacy]

It does about 10, enough to kill naedocyte and the green nexus swarmers, but pretty much useless against everything else.
Though it may be more useful against swarmers in lower solo difficulties. (according to wiki their health doesn't scale based on players and the shockwave armor may only kill them on haz1)

[0ptimistPrime (the Gray)]

I spent a few hours testing.

Unit Health Values:

Glyphid Swarmer's health pool:
Hazard .... 1 ...... 2 .... 3 ....... 4 ....... 5
Health ..... 8.4 .. 12 .. 13.2 .. 14.4 .. 14.4

Glyphid Grunt's health pool:
Hazard .... 1 .... 2 .... 3 .... 4 ...... 5
Health ..... 63 .. 90 .. 99 .. 108 .. 108

source: DRG wiki[deeprockgalactic.gamepedia.com]:

Process:

- I equipped the Shockwave upgrade, I ensured Thorns was not equipped, I dismissed Bosco, I made sure the missions didn't have Regenerating Bugs, etc.
- I only entered a group of Grunts or Swarmers when all present were at full health, and there were no other enemies present that would indirectly harm these glyphids (Praetorian sprays, Menace shots, etc).
- I allowed Shockwave to go off once, then retreated to a difference and examined if bugs were killed or damaged.
- I took screenshots of the remaining enemies' health bars, then used MSPaint to measure the ratio of pixels remaining in each health bar relative to the total number of pixels in that health bar (the latter being a constant). Given the full health values mentioned above from the Wiki, I used the ratio to determine how many hit points were lost by each bug. It's not a precise measurement, but it worked well enough imo.

Results:

- I found that the damage that Shockwave inflicts is not a single value; it proved to be variable. Whether the variable damage is based on some unseen equations/factors, or is a simple range of damage from which a value is randomly selected per enemy, I don't know.

- I also found that the upgrade is highly unreliable. Sometimes it would go off when my shields hit zero, but a lot of times it wouldn't. On a surprising number of missions, it would only trigger once at the start and then never trigger again for the rest of the match. In other missions, I was able to get it to proc 3 times in just a couple minutes. I am completely unclear as to why it is so seemingly unreliable.
[edit: Just to test, I tried letting bugs break my shield before it had fully recharged, after having fully recharged, while missing HP, and after returning to full HP .. in all possible combinations of these. None of these improved the reliability of Shockwave triggering.]


Hazard Level 1:
-- Swarmers: all subjects were instantly killed in all tests (8+ damage)
-- Grunts: only a couple subjects at this difficulty level. Both took roughly 11 points of damage.

Hazard Level 2:
-- Swarmers: a small number of swarmers were instantly killed. The majority lived.
Those that survived had taken 8-10 damage, with the exception of one subject.
(In all of the tests on Haz 2, one surviving swarmer had been left with a single pixel-width of health.)
-- Grunts: Subjects suffered 10-15 points of damage.

Hazard Level 3:
-- Swarmers: a small number were instantly killed. The majority lived. 8-12 damage
One subject was, again, left with a single pixel-width of health.
-- Grunts: Subjects suffered 12-15 damage.

Hazard Level 4:
-- Swarmers: per test, 1-2 swarmers out of ~a dozen were instantly killed. The majority lived. A surprising 12-14 damage.
-- Grunts: N/A
I didn't think it necessary to test Grunts at this level.

Hazard Level 5:
-- Swarmers: Only one quick test. Subjects took 10-11 damage, none were instantly killed.
I realized afterward that Swarmer health pools are reportedly the same on Haz 4 and Haz 5
-- Grunts: also N/A

Conclusion:

1)
Shockwave is inconsistent in its triggering, as well as in its damage.

2)
When it works, it appears to deal about 8-14 damage to Swarmers and 10-15 to Grunts.
Though it could be 8-15 globally and that would fit these limited observations.

Therefore, Shockwave is semi-effective against weak enemies:
- kills all nearby Swarmers on Haz 1, but only a small number of them on Haz 2 - 5.
- kills all nearby Glyphid Spawn (the green swarmers from Brood Nexus) on all Hazard levels.
- Carnivorous Larva (from Parasite warning) should fall right in between Spawns/Swarmers, in terms of Shockwave effectiveness.
- I didn't test it to see if Shockwave hits Naedocytes. If so, they should all die on every Hazard levels.

3)
Shockwave is crap.

[Nightwolf]

yeah the shockwave has never been all that useful largely cause the things that are likely breaking your shield wont die to it. static discharge is infinitely more useful just because of the stun buys you time to run if your health is low. Breathing room is handy too.

[Mr. Spud]

Originally posted by Optimist Prime (the Gray):

I spent a few hours testing.

Unit Health Values:

Glyphid Swarmer's health pool:
Hazard .... 1 ...... 2 .... 3 ....... 4 ....... 5
Health ..... 8.4 .. 12 .. 13.2 .. 14.4 .. 14.4

Glyphid Grunt's health pool:
Hazard .... 1 .... 2 .... 3 .... 4 ...... 5
Health ..... 63 .. 90 .. 99 .. 108 .. 108

source: DRG wiki[deeprockgalactic.gamepedia.com]:

Process:

- I equipped the Shockwave upgrade, I ensured Thorns was not equipped, I dismissed Bosco, I made sure the missions didn't have Regenerating Bugs, etc.
- I only entered a group of Grunts or Swarmers when all present were at full health, and there were no other enemies present that would indirectly harm these glyphids (Praetorian sprays, Menace shots, etc).
- I allowed Shockwave to go off once, then retreated to a difference and examined if bugs were killed or damaged.
- I took screenshots of the remaining enemies' health bars, then used MSPaint to measure the ratio of pixels remaining in each health bar relative to the total number of pixels in that health bar (the latter being a constant). Given the full health values mentioned above from the Wiki, I used the ratio to determine how many hit points were lost by each bug. It's not a precise measurement, but it worked well enough imo.

Results:

- I found that the damage that Shockwave inflicts is not a single value; it proved to be variable. Whether the variable damage is based on some unseen equations/factors, or is a simple range of damage from which a value is randomly selected per enemy, I don't know.

- I also found that the upgrade is highly unreliable. Sometimes it would go off when my shields hit zero, but a lot of times it wouldn't. On a surprising number of missions, it would only trigger once at the start and then never trigger again for the rest of the match. In other missions, I was able to get it to proc 3 times in just a couple minutes. I am completely unclear as to why it is so seemingly unreliable.


Hazard Level 1:
-- Swarmers: all subjects were instantly killed in all tests (8+ damage)
-- Grunts: only a couple subjects at this difficulty level. Both took roughly 11 points of damage.

Hazard Level 2:
-- Swarmers: a small number of swarmers were instantly killed. The majority lived.
Those that survived had taken 8-10 damage, with the exception of one subject.
(In all of the tests on Haz 2, one surviving swarmer had been left with a single pixel-width of health.)
-- Grunts: Subjects suffered 10-15 points of damage.

Hazard Level 3:
-- Swarmers: a small number were instantly killed. The majority lived. 8-12 damage
One subject was, again, left with a single pixel-width of health.
-- Grunts: Subjects suffered 12-15 damage.

Hazard Level 4:
-- Swarmers: per test, 1-2 swarmers out of ~a dozen were instantly killed. The majority lived. A surprising 12-14 damage.
-- Grunts: N/A
I didn't think it necessary to test Grunts at this level.

Hazard Level 5:
-- Swarmers: Only one quick test. Subjects took 10-11 damage, none were instantly killed.
I realized afterward that Swarmer health pools are reportedly the same on Haz 4 and Haz 5 :conwayshrug:
-- Grunts: also N/A

Conclusion:

1)
Shockwave is inconsistent in its triggering, as well as in its damage.

2)
When it works, it appears to deal about 8-14 damage to Swarmers and 10-15 to Grunts.
Though it could be 8-15 globally and that would fit these limited observations.

Therefore, Shockwave is semi-effective against weak enemies:
- kills all nearby Swarmers on Haz 1, but only a small number of them on Haz 2 - 5.
- kills all nearby Glyphid Spawn (the green swarmers from Brood Nexus) on all Hazard levels.
- Carnivorous Larva (from Parasite warning) should fall right in between Spawns/Swarmers, in terms of Shockwave effectiveness.
- I didn't test it to see if Shockwave hits Naedocytes. If so, they should all die on every Hazard levels.

3)
Shockwave is crap.

Somehow a literal scientist just kinda showed up.
This guy makes engineer look stupid.

[Lunacy]

Originally posted by All Powerful Spud:

Somehow a literal scientist just kinda showed up.
This guy makes engineer look stupid.

Yes was interesting to find out it in fact has a chance to kill swarmers on higher difficulties, but not usually.
But still it's mainly a defense against swarms of nydocyte and nexus swarmers.

[Wheredoyoukeepthechocolate?]

Optimist Prime, thank you so much for doing such thorough research! After this, I'm never using shockwave. Now, does anybody know what the properties of static discharge are? Does it have similar problems with triggering inconsistently or not at all? When it does go off, are all enemies stunned, or just certain types? or is it a percent chance to stun?

[Syncourt]

Nice breakdown Optimus.

Though even without all that info it's pretty obvious to a haz5 player that shockwave really needs to be buffed so that it deal a decent chunk of damage on proc. At least 40 IMO so it deals little over 1/3 of a grunts health and kills any regular swarmers biting your ankles. Maybe having a maximum amount of hits tied into it to prevent it being used to eradicate large swarmer groups.

Killing a few green swarmers or naedocyte is pretty pathetic bonus compared with having a 50% chance to stun enemies that surprise gank you, giving you a moment to escape with less/no damage (occasionally saving your life) whenever your shield drops.

[kit]

Originally posted by Optimist Prime (the Gray):

I spent a few hours testing.

Thank you! You rock!