Helldivers 2's director, Johan Pilestedt, has explained how armour penetration works in the game, although even he seems to be a little unsure of all of the details.

One of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far has been Helldivers 2, a game that PlayStation barely advertised and seemed like something that would pass everyone by in the whirlwind of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. That's not what ended up happening, though, as it's quickly become one of the most talked-about and popular live-service games in recent memory.

Undoubtedly, one of the reasons that Helldivers 2 has become so popular is because of how challenging it can be at times combined with the fact that it's just so much fun to see things go wrong. One of the things that a lot of players have had trouble wrapping their heads around (and even completely ignoring at times) is how armour penetration works.

Armor pen is a value between 0 and 10 - if the AP is equal to the enemies armor value the damage is 50% if the AP beats the armor you do 100%. If AP is less than the AV the bullet ricochets.

I don't know what the light ap condition is. I think it might be if AP is 2 or less. But…

— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) March 1, 2024

Each weapon in Helldivers 2 has a different type of ammo that is listed as being "light armour penetrating", which means it'll get through smaller enemies with ease. As enemies get bigger and tankier, though, that same ammo will simply ricochet off of them and not do any damage, leaving you to have to hit a weak spot or choose a different weapon with higher armour penetrating.

That might seem simple, but it's actually giving some players a bit of trouble since it's not exactly clear what values are being used to determine the armour penetration. For anyone struggling to figure out exactly how it works and understand the meta of Helldivers 2 (even if it's more fun to just jump in and see what happens), the game's director, Johan Pilestedt, has explained how it works on Twitter.

In a response to a fan's question on Twitter, Pilestedt explained that armour penetration is measured as a value between zero and ten. If the armour penetration is equal to the enemy's armour value (i.e. if they're light, medium, or heavy), then the damage dealt is halved. If the armour penetration is higher than what the enemy has, then it's 100 percent damage. And of course, if it's less, then it ricochets.

That should be pretty informative for anyone struggling to figure the mechanic out, but it's worth noting that even Pilestedt doesn't seem to know every single detail, as he also said he "honestly" doesn't know waht the value for light armour penetration is, theorising that it might be a value of two or less.

Posted: Mar 07, 2024 2:44 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/helldivers-2-director-explains-how-armour-penetration-piercing-works/