Damage
The Damage page explains how different Enemies, Weapons, and Stratagems handle damage.
Damage Calculation
[1]Calculating Damage in Helldivers 2 takes a large number of variables into consideration. All damage calculation information in this section of the document has been confirmed to be accurate as of Game Version 1.001.001
Enemy Parts
An enemy's hitbox is not as simple as a single value of health and universal armor value. An enemy is made up of many different enemy parts, each part with its own armor value, health, durability, and a Main health pool. Parts can also be considered "Durable" parts, which take damage in a completely different way.
Enemy parts can be destroyed, but that does not always mean the enemy dies. An enemy will die if one of the following conditions are satisfied:
- Enemy Main health is reduced to 0.
- A fatal enemy part is destroyed.
Percent (%) to Main
Damage done to an enemy body part may transfer full or in part to their Main HP or rarely not at all, although not all parts do this. Destruction of a body part can also initiate a bleed out.
- Example: A JAR-5 Dominator does 275 dmg to a Berserker's abdomen which transfers 100% damage to its 750 main health reducing it to 475.
Health Constitution (Bleed)
Constitution is a second health pool that begins decaying once the main health is depleted. The enemy is now in the "downed" state and will limp until they bleedout and die. Bleedout is a second health pool for limbs that determines how long they live for once they are destroyed, at which point, its Constitution will begin to decay, or "bleed out," at a set rate. For some limbs, the decay rate may be 0, meaning they will not decay over time and bleedout must be depleted with further damage to fully destroy the limb.
- Constitution Example: Chargers have 750 constitution with a decay rate of 100hp/s. Destroying the butt or depleting main health will trigger the "downed" state and the Charger will bleed out until it depletes its constitution and dies. Bleedout is usually fatal.
- Bleedout without Decay Example: Factory Striders have 1,500 leg health and 2,000 constitution but 0 decay therefore the constitution effectively behaves as extra health so the legs have 3,500 effective health.
Breakable Armor Plating
Some enemies have protective armor plating shielding vulnerable and fatal parts underneath it. The enemies that have this are Crescent Overseers, Elevated Overseers, Overseers, Harvesters, Leviathans, Bile Titans, Chargers, Charger Behemoths, Rupture Chargers, Spore Chargers, Impalers, Hive Lords, and Factory Striders.
- Breakable armor plating has a separate health pool from the parts underneath it that DOES NOT transfer excess damage to the parts underneath. The armor plating must be destroyed in order to deal damage to the vulnerable and usually fatal part underneath.
- For example: Destroying a Charger's Leg Armor with a rocket from the MLS-4X Commando and finishing off the exposed vulnerable flesh off with a primary weapon such as the BR-14 Adjudicator.
Explosion Damage
Explosive damage deals 100% durable damage and is dealt straight to the Main health of enemies (if it can penetrate its armor) and to any limbs that are vulnerable to explosives. This allows explosives to deal damage multiple times to Main health.
- Explosion damage transferred to Main via explosion vulnerable parts "ignore" Main AV and its ExDR.
For example: An HE shell explosion from the GR-8 Recoilless Rifle which is 
Heavy armor penetration fired at an Annihilator Tank's vent will ignore the Main AV when transferring damage to Main which is 
Tank I armor.
- Explosions only directly damage main health from any limb if said main health is internal such as hitting a Devastator's leg with an explosion from the GL-21 Grenade Launcher. Otherwise if main health is tangible it must be within the radius of the explosion to damage it such as a Warrior's body.
- For example: An Eagle 500kg Bomb exploding underneath a Bile Titan and dealing damage to all four of its legs, bile sacs, underside, torso armor and head.
Explosive Damage Resistance (ExDR)
Enemy limbs commonly have explosion resistance and/or immunity to protect against explosions dealing multiple instances of damage by hitting multiple parts.
- A limb with an ExDR value of 100% means it is Explosion immune and that part itself does not take explosion damage.
- An ExDR value of a percent lower than 100 means that the target can negate a percent of explosion damage done to that part to reduce their effectiveness (e.g. Tank hulls have an ExDR value of 35%).
Explosions have 3 different radii from the center of impact where the following rules apply:
- Inner Radius: 100% damage, 100% stagger, Full AP, 100% demolition force.
- Outer Radius: 99-0% damage 100% stagger, -1 AP (minimum 2 AP), 99-0% demolition force.
- Explosions have linear damage, stagger & demolition force fall-off.
- Shockwave (Stagger): 0% damage, 99-0% stagger, Full AP, 0% demolition force.
- Helldivers will only experience stagger if they are hit by the inner or outer radius.
- Going prone reduces explosion damage by 90% to outer radius as well as being in ragdoll state.
- Inner radius will bypass obstacles and obstructions, while outer radius will only let shockwave and stagger effects through obstacles.
Armor Penetration & Armor Values
Every part of every Enemy has a specific Armor Value, with a range of 0 to 10. This number indicates how armored that part is, and how much armor penetration or AP a Weapon needs to be to deal damage to it.
- Armor Penetration is abbreviated as AP0-10.
- Armor Values are abbreviated as AV0-10.
Similar to enemies, every weapon has a set of Armor Penetration Values that indicate how much armor the weapon can pierce.
- If the Armor Penetration Value is greater than the enemy part's Armor Value, the weapon deals 100% damage (Red Hitmarker)
- If the Armor Penetration Value is equal to the enemy part's Armor Value, the weapon deals 65% damage (White Hitmarker)
- If the Armor Penetration Value is less than the enemy part's Armor Value, the weapon deals NO damage (Ricochet)
Each weapon has a total of four penetration values:
- One penetration value for a direct hit, looking straight at the enemy part with (almost) no angle of attack: less than 25°.
- One penetration value for hits at a slight angle: 26 to 60°
- One penetration value for hits at a large angle: 61 to 80°
- One penetration value for hits at an extreme value: 81 to 90°
The first three penetration values are often identical, resulting in a general penetration value and a bouncing angle.
For explosions, only one armor penetration value is used. It decreases by 1 in the outer radius.
Weapon Damage
Each weapon, stratagem, etc. has two different damage values assigned to them
- Standard damage is the normal damage the weapon does to anything it shoots.
- Durable damage, is the damage done to durable enemy parts[2] and large volume bodies[3], both of which have a durability greater than zero.
Ballistics
- Caliber: Drastically increases damage fall-off.
- Speed: The bullet's initial magnitude to its velocity, higher speed increases damage fall-off slightly.
- Mass: Reduces damage falloff.
- Drag: Increases damage falloff.
- Gravity Multiplier: How much the bullet drops in travel.
Damage Fall-Off
Many damage sources can suffer from reduction independently of their target. Damage fall-off is affected by Caliber, Speed, Mass, and Drag. There are two types; velocity-based fall-off (ballistics) and range-based fall-off (explosions).
- If a projectile is slower than its muzzle velocity, damage is lost.
- If a projectile is faster than its muzzle velocity, damage is gained.
- This can be achieved via diving, jumping with the LIFT-850 Jump Pack or traveling at high speeds in the M-102 Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle.
- Projectiles lose velocity from drag factor. Damage increase can occur when firing at a target at a lower elevation using, for instance, JAR-5 Dominator which has 0% Drag but is affected by gravity. Reduction in speed and gravity is otherwise typical for most weapons no matter the elevation.
- Weapons with 0% drag do not suffer damage fall-off.
- The explosion from projectiles is not affected by this system, only the projectile.
One important thing to note, these damage values are the damage done at point blank range. Damage decreases as the distance traveled increases.
Enemy Durability & Durable Damage
Enemy parts may also have Durability. This is a variable between 0 and 100%.
- A value of 0% means the enemy part is not durable at all, and will take full standard damage
- A value of 100% means the enemy part is 100% durable and will take full durable damage.
- The ratio of durability & standard damage always adds up to 100%
- For example: An enemy part is 30% durable, therefore 70% standard damage is also taken into account.
Each weapon has a specific value defined for the amount of damage it can do to standard enemy parts, and a separate value defined for the amount of "durable" damage it can do to enemy parts. The part's durability value defines the ratio of standard damage vs. durable damage applied.
Examples of Damage to a Durable Part
Formula to calculate damage vs durable targets:
Standard Damage × (1 - Durable %) + (Durable Damage × Durable %) = Damage dealt
- Note: Round DOWN to the nearest whole number for the damage dealt.
For this example, we'll be using the BR-14 Adjudicator which has a standard damage of 95 and durable damage of 23 firing at a 30% durable target with an armor value of 
Light with no damage fall-off.
Example: 95 × (1-30%) + (23 × 30%) = 73.4 → 73 damage dealt to the target.
For this example, it will be assumed that the weapon used has 1,000 standard damage and 500 durable damage with no damage fall-off. Assume a single shot is being fired at a specific Enemy Part, and that the shot pierces the armor of the enemy completely (AP > AV).
- If the enemy part has a durability value of 0 (0% durable), the part will take 1,000 damage.
- 100% of standard damage = 1000
- 0% of durable damage = 0
- If the enemy part has a durability value of 100 (100% durable), the part will take 500 damage.
- 0% of standard damage = 0
- 100% of durable damage = 500
- If the enemy part has a durability value of 50 (50% durable), the part will take 750 damage.
- 50% of standard damage = 500
- 50% of durable damage = 250
- If the enemy part shot by this weapon has a durability value of 75 (75% durable), the part will take 625 damage.
- 25% of standard damage = 250
- 75% of durable damage = 375
Squishy Enemy Parts
Squishy parts have an Armor Value of 0 (
Unarmored I) but have extremely high Durability, high health and normally 0% ExDR (e.g. Bile Spewer, Charger & Nursing Spewer butts).
- Example: Charger butts are Unarmored I, 950 hp and 80% durable.
- This means that all weapons can damage the part, but the damage done is almost entirely related to the guns durable damage, not its standard damage.
- Weapons, Stratagems, etc. with explosion damage such as the GL-21 Grenade Launcher are most effective against squishy enemy parts because explosives deal 100% durable damage.
Demolition Force & Structures
See also: Demolition
All destructible structures in the game have a Demolition Threshold value between 0 and 60. In order to destroy most structures, the user needs to be using a weapon/stratagem that has enough Demolition Force. Depending on the structure, the weapon/stratagem may need to be explosive as well if it has BaDR (Ballistic demolition resistance) set to Yes. Currently only spawners such as Bug Holes, Automaton Fabricators, and Grounded Warp Ships have BaDR set as Yes. Armor penetration is irrelevant to this check, as is damage. If the threshold is met, the structure is destroyed.
Other Structures
These structures are not exclusively dependent on Demolition force.
| Structure | Health | AV | Durable | ExMult |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-Air Emplacement | 400 |  Heavy |
100% | 100% |
| Bio-Processor | 4,000 | Unarmored I |
0% | 100% |
| Bulk Fabricator | 4,000 | Tank I |
100% | 100% |
| Cognitive Disruptior PSU | 180 | Unarmored I |
100% | 100% |
| Command Bunker | 2,500 |  Tank II |
100% | 100% |
| Defense Gate | 8,000 | Heavy |
100% | 100% |
| Defense Generator | 5,000 | Unarmored I |
0% | 100% |
| Fabricator | 1,500 | Tank I |
100% | 100% |
| Mega Shrieker Nest | 15,000 | Light |
100% | 100% |
| Mortar Emplacement | 400 | Heavy |
100% | 100% |
| Nest Egg | 10 | Unarmored I |
100% | 100% |
| Parked Dropship | 1,000 | Tank I |
100% | 100% |
| Shrieker Nest Tower | 2,500 | Light |
100% | 100% |
| Spore Lung | 30,000 | Light |
100% | 100% |
| Spore Spewer | 2,500 | Light |
100% | 100% |
| Grounded Warp Ship | 5,000 | Tank I |
100% | 250% |
| Warp Ship Shield | 2,500 | Unarmored I |
0% | 100% |
Armor Damage Modifiers
Armor will lower the damage the Helldiver takes when hit, depending on its armor rating. The following tables explain the effect armor has on each part of the Helldiver
Factors
| Modifier | Factor |
|---|---|
| Head | 150% |
| Chest | 100% |
| Leg | 85% |
| Arm | 85% |
| Explosion | 50% |
| Fortified | 50% |
| Vitality Booster | 90% |
Armor Rating Factors
| Armor | Factor |
|---|---|
| 50 | 125% |
| 64 | 118% |
| 70 | 115% |
| 75 | 112.5% |
| 79 | 110.5% |
| 100 | 100% |
| 125 | 87.5% |
| 129 | 85.5% |
| 150 | 75% |
| 200 | 65% |
Full Armor Table
| Armor | Head | Chest | Leg | Arm | Explosion | Fortified | Effective Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 150% | 125% | 106.25% | 106.25% | 62.5% | 31.25% | 100 |
| 64 | 150% | 118% | 100.3% | 100.3% | 59% | 29.5% | 105.93 |
| 70 | 150% | 115% | 97.75% | 97.75% | 57.5% | 28.75% | 108.7 |
| 75 | 150% | 112.5% | 95.63% | 95.63% | 56.25% | 28.13% | 111.11 |
| 79 | 150% | 110.5% | 93.93% | 93.93% | 55.25% | 27.63% | 113.12 |
| 100 | 150% | 100% | 85% | 85% | 50% | 25% | 125 |
| 125 | 131.25% | 87.5% | 74.38% | 74.38% | 43.75% | 21.88% | 142.86 |
| 129 | 128.25% | 85.5% | 72.68% | 72.68% | 42.75% | 21.38% | 146.2 |
| 150 | 112.5% | 75% | 63.75% | 63.75% | 37.5% | 18.75% | 166.67 |
| 200 | 97.5% | 65% | 55.25% | 55.25% | 32.5% | 16.25% | 192.31 |
With Vitality Booster
| Armor | Head | Chest | Leg | Arm | Explosion | Fortified | Effective Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 135% | 112.5% | 95.63% | 95.63% | 56.25% | 28.13% | 111.11 |
| 64 | 135% | 106.2% | 90.27% | 90.27% | 53.1% | 26.55% | 117.7 |
| 70 | 135% | 103.5% | 87.98% | 87.98% | 51.75% | 25.87% | 120.77 |
| 75 | 135% | 101.25% | 86.06% | 86.06% | 50.63% | 25.31% | 123.46 |
| 79 | 135% | 99.45% | 84.53% | 84.53% | 49.73% | 24.86% | 125.69 |
| 100 | 135% | 90% | 76.5% | 76.5% | 45% | 22.5% | 138.89 |
| 125 | 118.12% | 78.75% | 66.94% | 66.94% | 39.38% | 19.69% | 158.73 |
| 129 | 115.43% | 76.95% | 65.41% | 65.41% | 38.48% | 19.24% | 162.44 |
| 150 | 101.25% | 67.5% | 57.38% | 57.38% | 33.75% | 16.88% | 185.19 |
| 200 | 87.75% | 58.5% | 49.73% | 49.73% | 29.25% | 14.63% | 213.68 |
Damage Types
Different Stratagems, Weapons and Enemies deal different types of damage to Helldivers and Enemies.
List of Damage Types
Status Strength & Thresholds
Weapons that have status effects are not so simple that a single pellet can hit an enemy and proc the status effect; they have status strength or "buildup" where once the threshold is met the status effect will trigger on the enemy. Status Strength also has decay so ensure to continuously apply the "buildup" to trigger the effect. Enemies also have a maximum threshold to prevent residual "buildup" from continuously triggering on an enemy.
- For Example: The SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary has 0.6 status strength per pellet and a Warrior has a minimum trigger threshold of 2.1 & 3.3 maximum for fire DoT. This means that at least 4 pellets need to hit the Warrior to trigger the burning DoT.
Damage over Time
Damage over time, commonly known as its abbreviation, DoT is a status effect that deals damage ONLY to Main health. The status effect must be able to penetrate the Armor Value or AV of the enemy in order to deal damage. DoT is also subject to the damage reduction from armor penetration being identical to the armor value.
- For Example: Fire DoT which is Heavy armor penetration deals 35% less damage to a Charger's main health which is Heavy armor.
- Fire does 100 dmg/s × 1.5 = 150 dmg/s × 0.65 = 97.5 → 97 dmg/s.
- Sources of DoT are Fire, Burning Heavy, LAS-17 Double-Edge Sickle Burn, Thermite, Gas, Acid, Thorn Bushes and Barbed Wire and Bleeding (Helldiver only)
Elemental Multipliers
Elemental damage and Status Effects operate via damage multipliers, the most common being Fire, though there are few enemies with Arc and Gas status effect damage multipliers that are also affected. Such as Fleshmobs receiving a 2x Arc damage multiplier or Helldivers with a 1.3x Gas damage multiplier. These multipliers operate are based off of enemy size, the larger the enemy the higher the multiplier and vice versa, with smaller enemies having a smaller multiplier.
- Fire damage multiplier examples: Warriors have a 0.8x multiplier, Brood Commanders have a 1x multiplier, Chargers have a 1.5x multiplier, and Bile Titans have a 1.7x multiplier,.
- Robotic and large enemies have higher status thresholds and take longer to ignite than organic.
Damage Comparison Table
See Damage Comparison.