How to increase NPC HP, damage + More!

Honestly, you don't need a guide for this. Just go ahead and open up a file called "skill.cfg" in GarrysMod/garrysmod/cfg. Alot of stuff can be figured out on your own. I did. :)

Introduction!

We can all agree on that the vanilla NPCs are way too easy. The combines are supposed to be superhuman-like trained and armed soldiers. Yet 3 of them probably can't even beat some random guy given a gun. Worse, 10 of them can't beat a guy spawing bathtubs.

Here's how to make the combine better, the rebels wrose, make them more difficult in general, and maybe tweak other catagories of NPCs, like zombies and antilions. However, please note that I'm not telling you to change the settings according to mine. Do whatever you want. I'm just providing an example to what you can do with this.

Open up "GarrysMod/garrysmod/cfg/skill.cfg".

The first lines you should see should be like this:

// ===========
//  NPCs
// ============
// Barnacle
sk_barnacle_health		"35"

// Barney
sk_barney_health		"35"

// Bullseye
sk_bullseye_health		"35"

// Bullsquid
//sk_bullsquid_health	"120"
//sk_bullsquid_dmg_bite	"15"
//sk_bullsquid_dmg_whip	"25"

// Citizen
sk_citizen_health		"40"

// Combine Soldier
sk_combine_s_health		"50"
sk_combine_s_kick		"10"

More HP!

Like I said, simply looking at this already gives you an idea of what most of the settings do. "sk_barnacle_health", well, sets the HP for barnacles.

But the most eye-catching part here is probably the Combine Soldiers' HP, which is 50. No wonder they are so easy to kill! And if you scroll down a bit, you can see the Combine Guards' HP, which is 70.

There is also "sk_combine_s_kick". This is the damage they deal to you when they bash you with their gun if you get too close.

I personally set both of these to 120 HP so they'll be like players, and "kick" to 15.

// Combine Soldier
sk_combine_s_health		"120"
sk_combine_s_kick		"15"

// Combine Guard
sk_combine_guard_health	"120"
sk_combine_guard_kick	"15"

But why 120 HP? Well, it is 100 HP. The extra 20 HP is to simulate armor.

But why have them both 120 HP? Should the guards still be stronger than soldiers? Actually, when it said "soldiers" it included C.Soldiers AND C.Elite. It's weird how Combine Elites are weaker than prison guards. I figured to just make all of them the same.

// Metropolice
sk_metropolice_health	"40"
sk_metropolice_stitch_reaction "1.0"
sk_metropolice_stitch_tight_hitcount "2"
sk_metropolice_stitch_at_hitcount "1"
sk_metropolice_stitch_behind_hitcount "3"
sk_metropolice_stitch_along_hitcount "2"

I don't have an idea what "stitch" is or what it does, so I left it. Besides, I only use the Police for pistol enemy needs. I set their HP at 100.

sk_metropolice_health	"100"

You know what? This isn't in the section title but we're talking about HP here. Press Ctrl+F and type "sk_ally_regen_time" then click "Find Next".

// Allies
sk_ally_regen_time	"0.2"

This is, of course, a unique regenaration ability for allies. I set it at 0. It's just an unfair mechanic against the Combines. And Citizens' (Includes Rebels' and Medics') HP? 50.

[code// Citizen
sk_citizen_health "50"
]// Allies
sk_ally_regen_time "0"[/code]

In the Garry's Mod, the Rebels have better precision then Combines. So to compensate, they should stay at a low HP. It's not realistic to have such a low HP, but you're not going to be fighting your teammates anyway so it shouldn't matter.

Once again, you don't have to follow me. I'm just providing an example.

But this will make gunfights so long with increased HPs! Well, I'm going to increase the damage of most HL2 weapons now.

More damage!

For some reason, nearly everything in this game deals double damage in the torso. So when it says that it deals 10 damage, most of the time, it's going to deal 20.

sk_plr_dmg_ar2			"8"
sk_npc_dmg_ar2			"3"
sk_max_ar2				"60"
sk_max_ar2_altfire		"3"

sk_plr_dmg_alyxgun		"5"
sk_npc_dmg_alyxgun		"3"
sk_max_alyxgun			"150"

sk_plr_dmg_pistol		"5"
sk_npc_dmg_pistol		"3"
sk_max_pistol			"150"

sk_plr_dmg_smg1			"4"
sk_npc_dmg_smg1			"3"
sk_max_smg1				"225"

sk_plr_dmg_buckshot			"8"	
sk_npc_dmg_buckshot			"3"
sk_max_buckshot				"30"

sk_plr_dmg_rpg_round		"100"
sk_npc_dmg_rpg_round		"50"
sk_max_rpg_round			"3"

sk_plr_dmg_smg1_grenade		"100"
sk_npc_dmg_smg1_grenade		"50"
sk_max_smg1_grenade		"3"
sk_smg1_grenade_radius		"250"

sk_plr_dmg_sniper_round		"20"
sk_npc_dmg_sniper_round		"100"
sk_max_sniper_round			"30"

sk_plr_dmg_357				"40"
sk_npc_dmg_357				"30"
sk_max_357					"12"

sk_plr_dmg_crossbow			"100"
sk_npc_dmg_crossbow			"10"
sk_max_crossbow				"10"

sk_plr_dmg_airboat			"3"
sk_npc_dmg_airboat			"3"

sk_plr_dmg_grenade			"150"	
sk_npc_dmg_grenade			"75"
sk_max_grenade				"5"

sk_plr_dmg_crowbar			"10"
sk_npc_dmg_crowbar			"5"

sk_plr_dmg_stunstick		"10"
sk_npc_dmg_stunstick		"40"	// Kill a citizen in one hit

Anything that has "dmg" in the name is the weapon's damage. And anything that has "max"in the name is the weapon's max reserve ammo. "plr_dmg" is the damage the weapon does if a player is shooting it. "npc_dmg" is how much damage it does if an NPC is shooting it.

This is my config:

sk_plr_dmg_ar2			"15"
sk_npc_dmg_ar2			"25"
sk_max_ar2				"100"
sk_max_ar2_altfire		"3"

sk_plr_dmg_alyxgun		"20"
sk_npc_dmg_alyxgun		"20"
sk_max_alyxgun			"150"

sk_plr_dmg_pistol		"10"
sk_npc_dmg_pistol		"20"
sk_max_pistol			"150"

sk_plr_dmg_smg1			"10"
sk_npc_dmg_smg1			"15"
sk_max_smg1				"225"

sk_plr_dmg_buckshot			"10"	
sk_npc_dmg_buckshot			"15"
sk_max_buckshot				"50"

sk_plr_dmg_rpg_round		"250"
sk_npc_dmg_rpg_round		"250"
sk_max_rpg_round			"4"

sk_plr_dmg_smg1_grenade		"100"
sk_npc_dmg_smg1_grenade		"100"
sk_max_smg1_grenade		"4"
sk_smg1_grenade_radius		"250"

sk_plr_dmg_sniper_round		"100"
sk_npc_dmg_sniper_round		"100"
sk_max_sniper_round			"30"

sk_plr_dmg_357				"50"
sk_npc_dmg_357				"50"
sk_max_357					"60"

sk_plr_dmg_crossbow			"100"
sk_npc_dmg_crossbow			"200"
sk_max_crossbow				"10"

sk_plr_dmg_airboat			"15"
sk_npc_dmg_airboat			"15"

sk_plr_dmg_grenade			"100"	
sk_npc_dmg_grenade			"100"
sk_max_grenade				"9"

sk_plr_dmg_crowbar			"20"
sk_npc_dmg_crowbar			"40"

You may have noticed that the NPC's damage is a lot higher than players'. This is because I want the NPCs stats to be like a player's. I already gave the Combines 100-120 HP. Since there's no way to change the accuracy in this file alone, I gave them higher damage to compensate.

A fun thing to add: Remember when I said the extra 20 HP for Combine Soldiers was armor? In this case, since the Revolver deals 50x2 damage, it will one-hit Metropolice (unarmored enemies) but not Soldiers (Armored). :D That's armor alright.

Other Stuff and Conclusion!

I'm pretty sure if a futuristic Helicopter shoots a futuristic Minigun-like weapon at you. You'll die in less than a seccond. But no, aparently, and only in GMod, you die of old age instead.

Which is why instead of this:

// Combine Helicopter
sk_npc_dmg_helicopter			"6"
sk_npc_dmg_helicopter_to_plr	"3"
sk_helicopter_grenadedamage		"30"
sk_helicopter_grenaderadius		"275"
sk_helicopter_grenadeforce		"55000"

I made it this:

// Combine Helicopter
sk_npc_dmg_helicopter			"50"
sk_npc_dmg_helicopter_to_plr	"20"
sk_helicopter_grenadedamage		"100"
sk_helicopter_grenaderadius		"300"
sk_helicopter_grenadeforce		"55000"

The high damage to NPCs it to make the Hunter look really powerful and scary. But when I'm actually fighting it, it's not that unfair.



Also, a bit of off-topic here, but if you're reading this guide then you are like me: you want to make the NPCs harder. But instead of improving them, why not make us worse? Type "sv_accelerate 5" in the console and It will make you sprint at 250 max, just like NPCs, I think. Or at least, a realistic sprinting speed when carrying guns.




All of this should make NPCs noticably harder now. There's obviously a lot more stuff that can be change that wasn't covered, like Zombie/Antilion health and damage. You can figure do that without me. I hope this guide helps to raise awareness of such settings.

[Mauser]

how to change combine elite hp?

[Jamesinator]

So I did use these convars, but I was hoping the damage would also apply to players. The damage only changes for NPC's. Is there a convar to change the default HL2 weapon damage stats to effect players?

[Ahmetnet19]

I cant kill npcs they like in godmode, please help

[D MAS]

@AL: please don't post unrelated links

[AL]

https://youtu.be/DdmNYNkcwKE

[frest959]

sk_combine_guard are elites, not prison guards

[Shadow1997]

Hi everyone! How increase damage from combine energy ball launches by npc to player level(500 dmg)?

['Nam I Am]

Do you know where I can alter fast zombie stats? They don't seem present in this file.

[-クリズム-]

/! WARNING !\

Setting sk_ally_regen_time to 0 can cause HL2 NPCs that already regen from the base game (Alyx, Barney, Gman, & Gregory) to crash the game upon taking damage

[Khaiø]

Th7nK fasT: What do you mean by "put it into your autoexec"?