Ballistics

 are an important part of Escape from Tarkov. They play a big role in firefights and often determine the outcomes. Choosing the right weapon, ammo and gear is one of the most important parts in coming out on top of fighting.

Flight ballistics
Bullet flight is simulated realistically in Escape from Tarkov. Bullets have speed, are affected by gravity and air friction and can penetrate or ricochet when hitting objects, and even fragment when doing so. The specific flight characteristics of a bullet are determined by the ammo type, and the chance of a bullet penetrating or ricocheting off of an object is determined by the material of the object and the type of bullet. Bullets lose both damage and penetration power as they lose speed from air friction over long distances.

Terminal ballistics
Escape from Tarkov simulates damage to the body and body armor. Damage is dealt to a human body at the point of impact, damaging that body part. Bullets are capable of penetrating various surfaces and body parts, enabling the same round to damage multiple parts. Bullets can fragment when penetrating a player's body, dealing 50% bonus damage to the affected body part (Note: Due to a bug this currently only works on limbs). The damage dealt by a bullet is based only on the bullet itself, and not by the gun it was fired from. Armor protection is also simulated realistically, stopping bullets entirely instead of providing a damage reduction like in most other games.

Armor and penetration
Body armor provides protection to specific body areas. You can see which areas are protected when you inspect the armor item.

The penetration chance of a bullet hitting armor is calculated based on the armor's protection class, the armor's remaining durability % and the ammo's penetration value. The chance is then rolled to determine whether or not the bullet penetrates. The angle of impact does not influence the penetration chance.

If the bullet penetrates, it deals between 0% and 40% less damage based on an algorithm that uses the bullet's pen value and the armor's class and durability %. There is a strong correlation between the penetration chance of the penetrating round and the damage reduction applied to it: higher penetration chances result in less damage reduction, with high armor classes and high pen values of ammo having lower reductions than others. Most penetrations will be around 20% damage reduction when a bullet starts to penetrate an armor, but armors like a PACA vs. 5.56x45mm M995 will result in 0% reduction.

On soft armor and helmets, if the bullet does not penetrate, "blunt damage" is applied, which lets through a % of the base damage of the bullet to the body part hit. This % is based on the specific armor's "blunt throughput" stat, the penetration value of the ammo, and the armor's class and remaining durability %. Blunt damage is very low and usually not a notable factor in time to kill.

Durability
Durability of armor is important, the lower the current % of durability remaining the less protection the armor offers overall. The durability % is calculated by dividing the current durability of the armor by the original maximum durability of the armor. As an example a 60/60 repaired LBT-6094A Slick Plate Carrier armor is calculated as 60/80, or 75%.

The durability damage taken from bullets is based on the penetration value of the ammo and the armor level of the armor, multiplied by the ammo's armor damage % and the armor material's destructibility %. The minimum durability damage armor can take from a single hit is 1, including from individual buckshot pellets. Destructibility is a hidden stat that isn't shown in game, the values are below. A penetrating round does a little bit less durability damage to armor than a round that does not penetrate. It varies, but is usually around 10-15% less.

If you want to find the effective durability of different armor to compare how durable different armors are, use the following formula: EffectiveDurability = Durability ÷ Destructibility In the above example EffectiveDurability =0.75/0.6=1.25 which means it can still have more than it's maximum durability (100 hitpoints).

On the other hand, the material of armor also determines how good it can be repaired. While ceramic armor like Zhuk and Gzhel-K will be almost broken after 2 repairs, Slick Plate Carrier and 6B13 M can be repaired many times and still retain good defense.

Denotation notes
 * Currently, there is a bug where the projectiles do not fragment below 20 penetration power, regardless of the specified fragmentation chance. ''' ** Assuming all projectiles hit the target on every shot. Because each projectile causes a minimum of 1 durability loss to armor, it becomes effective at breaking down armor and eventually penetrating.''' S Denotes Round is Subsonic T Denotes Round is a Tracer E Denotes Round is Explosive FM Denotes Round cannot be listed for sale on the flea market

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