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Unlike traditional FPS games, Extraction shooters have more advanced armor and ammo damage systems. The Operations mode in Delta Force is no different, though their version is somewhat simplified compared to a game like Escape from Tarkov. Knowing what armor to wear and what ammo to use will nonetheless be incredibly important and can determine your consistency in fights and, thus, your survival rate.
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Ammo and armor in Delta Force isn’t quite as opaque as it is in Tarkov, but it’s more complex than you’d find in a battle royale like Warzone. We’ll go over all the details you need to know here.
How Weapon Damage Works
Several variables determine how effective your gun is when fighting an enemy in Delta Force. The first and most important is the base damage your weapon deals. Each weapon has a base damage value and deals a set amount based on the part of the body you hit.
Every soldier has a maximum of 100 hit points shared across all body parts, a discrepancy made up for by differing damage values on the head and feet, and so on.
The damage your weapon deals is further modified by the range you’re firing from. Up close, every weapon deals maximum damage, but different weapons have different effective ranges. As you might expect, a submachine gun doesn’t have nearly the range of a battle rifle, etc.
You will never do less than a weapon’s minimum damage at its maximum range, as damage falloff is not linear.
Lastly, every weapon has a base armor damage value. This value helps determine how much durability a weapon removes from a piece of armor with each round that connects. The ammo you use adds modifiers to this value, which we’ll discuss shortly.
How Armor Stops Bullets Until It Doesn’t
Armor comes in six levels, from one to six, and its protection increases as its level does. Whenever you get into a gunfight, the game checks the protection level of your armor against the ammunition your enemy is firing at you. There are three possible situations:
- The armor and ammo levels are equivalent. In this case, your armor will stop some of the damage the ammo does while losing durability as determined by the ammo and weapon. You will still take some “flesh damage” to your HP with each bullet that hits you.
- The armor level is higher than the ammo level. In this case, the armor will completely stop the bullet, and only the armor will take damage. Your Operator will only start taking health damage after your armor’s durability has been reduced to zero.
- The armor level is lower than the ammo level. In this case, the ammo will ignore the armor entirely and deal full flesh damage to your character’s health.
Armor cannot protect any part of your body it doesn’t cover — your legs and arms — or if it’s completely broken. Some armors cover the chest, abdomen, and/or shoulders, and you should equip these whenever they’re available, within certain limitations discussed below.
Another consideration about armor is that the heavier it is, the more it affects movement and aiming speed. If speed and maneuverability are another primary means of defense (and they should be), consider equipping armor that covers only the chest and abdomen. Shoulder padding is heavy.
How Ammo Affects Armor
Ammo is the most complicated part of the equation in Delta Force, as it comes with the most variables to account for. The short version is that the better the ammo you can afford, the more you should be using. That’s true whether you’re using a pistol or a battle rifle.
Every ammo type has a level exactly like armor, with one notable exception: there are level zero ammo types if you really need to pinch pennies. The basic mechanics are the same. The better the ammo, the better it penetrates armor. The worse the ammo, and you get the picture.
Ammo also has a flesh and armor damage value, which will be linked to the weapon currently equipped. In other words, two weapons of the same caliber will not have the same flesh and armor damage values.
You need to keep these variables in mind:
- Ammo hitting armor of the same level only does 75 percent of its base damage.
- Ammo level determines a separate armor damage multiplier on top of its base damage. Level four ammo has a 100 percent multiplier when damaging armor up to level five, then drops to a 60 percent multiplier at level 6. The higher the level, the better that set of multipliers becomes, and vice versa.
- Specific ammo, like 9mm RIP and .45 RIP, have different penetration values than their levels would suggest. RIP ammo deals vastly increased flesh damage in place of armor damage, meaning they’re meant to be used against legs and arms.
In practice, any ammo can delete any armor, and we’ve seen level-four armor decimated by level-zero ammo. SMGs are particularly good at doing that, considering their fast rate of fire. In those cases, however, the only thing that took damage was the armor, so it was doing its job, if only for a few seconds.
Always go into a raid with some armor repair kits. The higher your armor’s rarity, the higher your repair kits need to be. Busted armor is good for no one. Oh, and always bring in more ammo than you think you’ll need. An empty gun is as useless as ripped armor.
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