[GUIDE] Anthem Combat Technical Manual
Apr 2, 2019 20:13:07 GMT
n7wolf, smilesja, and 9 more like this
Post by aznricepuff on Apr 2, 2019 20:13:07 GMT
As is apparently tradition with Bioware games, many of the specific technical details of combat in Anthem are left undocumented by the developers. This has long been an issue for people who like to min-max builds, but is especially problematic in Anthem since in a looter-shooter, maximizing build efficiency is a core tenet of gameplay.
To help alleviate that problem, I've reverse-engineered many of Anthem's combat mechanics through empirical testing (and have gotten intimately familiar with the game's loading screens), and written them here. This guide is a work-in-progress; it is not complete (and likely never will be) and may contain errors due to the nature of how the information was collected. There is also always the possibility that a patch comes along and makes certain information obsolete. I will try my best to keep the guide accurate and up-to-date, however.
IMPORTANT: All testing was done at pilot level 30. Therefore, I can only reasonably guarantee that the information presented below is accurate for level 30 pilots.
Last updated May 16, 2019.
Master Damage Formula
Above is the formula used to calculate damage in Anthem.
There are some peculiarities about how generic damage modifiers are calculated for certain damage sources. I don't know if this is a bug or intended behavior, but damage from some sources receive 2x the nominal bonus (or penalty) from certain damage modifiers ("double dipping"). Details are provided in the box below.
Damage Types
There are five mutually exclusive basic types of damage in the game, each sorted into one of two supertypes:
Every instance of damage is typed as either exactly one of the above five basic types, or is typed as null. In addition, there are three special types of damage - the first is called Blast. Damage is either typed as Blast or it isn't on top of one of the basic types. So, for example, damage can be typed as {Fire, Blast}, or just {Fire}. There was/is a common misconception that Kinetic (formerly Impact) and Blast are mutually exclusive (probably due to some unfortunate/inaccurate wording on certain Ranger components). This is not true. There are plenty of sources that deal damage typed as {Kinetic, Blast}. Finally, the other two special damage types are Shieldbreaker and Armorbreaker. These function similarly to Blast in that they are applied on top of the five basic damage types.
Knowing how damage is typed is important primarily for determining which modifiers apply. As a general rule, if a modifier lists a specific damage type, it will only apply to damage of that type, and conversely, damage will use all modifiers that match any of its types (in addition to all "untyped" modifiers). So for example, damage typed as {Fire, Blast} will benefit from untyped modifiers as well as any modifiers of type Elemental, Fire, or Blast. Damage typed as {null} only benefits from untyped modifiers.
The other reason for paying attention to damage type is that damage type is one of two factors that determines the [type multiplier] used in the master damage formula. The other determining factor is the type of health being damaged, which on enemies is represented by the color of their health bar: red, blue (shield), or yellow (armor). The table below lists the [type multiplier] value used for all damage type-health type combinations.
* These damage types take precedence over the basic damage types when determining [type multiplier] value. For example, damage typed as {Kinetic, Armorbreaker} will use the appropriate Armorbreaker [type multiplier] value instead of the Kinetic value.
There are some damage sources whose damage always uses a [type multiplier] value of 1 despite its damage type. These sources are listed in the box below.
Weak-point Damage
Weak-point hits (recognizable in-game by the presence of yellow damage number floaties) receive a weak-point damage multiplier (see Master Damage Formula section above). The value of the multiplier is determined by the source of the damage, the specific weak-point that was hit, and then modified by weak-point damage bonuses:
Combos and procs are never considered weak-point hits, even if they trigger off of a weak-point hit.
Tables of [target weak-point factor] and [source weak-point adjuster] values are provided in the boxes below.
[target weak-point factor] Table
1 The Monitor's weak points have a base damage resistance of 0%, unlike the rest of his body.
2 Turrets' weak points actually behave as Red Bar health, not Yellow Bar health. This also applies to the entire "rear" portion of turrets (even the areas that are not part of the weak point).
[source weak-point factor] Table
1 Only the non-AoE portion of the Devastator's damage receives a bonus from weak-point hits. The in-game damage floaties combine the non-AoE and AoE damage values on the primary target and display the sum of the two, instead of displaying separate values.
Gear Cooldown Formula
Above is the formula used to calculate gear cooldown.
To help alleviate that problem, I've reverse-engineered many of Anthem's combat mechanics through empirical testing (and have gotten intimately familiar with the game's loading screens), and written them here. This guide is a work-in-progress; it is not complete (and likely never will be) and may contain errors due to the nature of how the information was collected. There is also always the possibility that a patch comes along and makes certain information obsolete. I will try my best to keep the guide accurate and up-to-date, however.
IMPORTANT: All testing was done at pilot level 30. Therefore, I can only reasonably guarantee that the information presented below is accurate for level 30 pilots.
Last updated May 16, 2019.
Master Damage Formula
[final damage] = [base damage] * (1 + [damage modifier]) * [type multiplier] * (1 - [resistance modifier]) * [weak-point multiplier]
Above is the formula used to calculate damage in Anthem.
- [base damage]: the "starting" damage value, if you will. You can find the base damage values for weapons and gear listed on the appropriate item card in-game. Damage from "item-less" sources (melee, ultimate, DoT, combos, procs) are not listed anywhere in-game, but you can find a list of them farther down in this guide! For the "item-less" sources, the [base damage] value is the value after average gear score scaling has been applied (see the appropriate section for more details).
- [damage modifier]: (generic) modifiers to damage. These come from inscriptions, components, temporary buffs/de-buffs, and other sources. All damage modifiers stack additively. This means that if you have a +50% (0.5) and +25% (0.25) modifiers, they will add to give a +75% (0.75) total modifier.
- [type multiplier]: a multiplier based on damage type and target health "type". See table below.
- [resistance modifier]: modifiers to the damage resistance of the entity taking damage. All resistance modifiers stack additively.
- [weak-point multiplier]: a multiplier applied for weak-point hits. This takes a value of 1 for non-weak-point hits. See the section on Weak-point Damage below.
There are some peculiarities about how generic damage modifiers are calculated for certain damage sources. I don't know if this is a bug or intended behavior, but damage from some sources receive 2x the nominal bonus (or penalty) from certain damage modifiers ("double dipping"). Details are provided in the box below.
Damage Modifier Multipliers for Various Damage Sources
1 If a damage source isn't listed here, assume it receives the nominal bonus values from all damage modifiers.
2 These can come from any source: inscriptions, components, temporary buffs, sigils, etc.
3 As long as the in-game description of the bonus doesn't say it only applies to a specific damage type or supertype (see section on Damage Types below), it is an untyped modifier. Damage bonuses that apply to things like gear, melee, ultimate, etc. are still considered untyped (the aforementioned things are damage sources, not types).
4 +Physical or +Elemental.
5 Excluding "+X% Combo Dmg" and "+X% Combo Imp Dmg" inscriptions.
6 Excluding +Combo damage modifiers (see last column).
As an example of how this all works, consider an Interceptor with Thunderbolt of Yvenia (electric procs), Detonating Strike (electric damage + applies electric status), the Vengeance Matrix component (+50% to all damage), the Conductive Lattice component (+35% to electric damage *actually this is bugged right now but we'll pretend it works here) and an inscription that provides "+15% Elemental Dmg":
Damage Source1 | Untyped Damage Modifiers2,3 | +[supertype] Damage Modifiers2,4 | +[type] Damage Modifiers2 | +Combo Damage Modifiers5 |
Procs | 1x | 2x | 2x | N/A |
Electric DoT | 1x | 1x | 2x | N/A |
Electric DoT (from Ranger Melee) | 1x | 0x | 2x | N/A |
Fire DoT | 1x | 1x | 1x | N/A |
Fire DoT (from Flame Mortar) | 1x | 2x | 2x | N/A |
Venom Bomb DoT | 2x | 2x | 2x | N/A |
Combos (All) | 1x6 | 0x | 0x | 2x |
1 If a damage source isn't listed here, assume it receives the nominal bonus values from all damage modifiers.
2 These can come from any source: inscriptions, components, temporary buffs, sigils, etc.
3 As long as the in-game description of the bonus doesn't say it only applies to a specific damage type or supertype (see section on Damage Types below), it is an untyped modifier. Damage bonuses that apply to things like gear, melee, ultimate, etc. are still considered untyped (the aforementioned things are damage sources, not types).
4 +Physical or +Elemental.
5 Excluding "+X% Combo Dmg" and "+X% Combo Imp Dmg" inscriptions.
6 Excluding +Combo damage modifiers (see last column).
As an example of how this all works, consider an Interceptor with Thunderbolt of Yvenia (electric procs), Detonating Strike (electric damage + applies electric status), the Vengeance Matrix component (+50% to all damage), the Conductive Lattice component (+35% to electric damage *actually this is bugged right now but we'll pretend it works here) and an inscription that provides "+15% Elemental Dmg":
- The direct electric damage from Detonating Strike will deal +(1 x 50% + 1 x 35% + 1 x 15%) = +100% damage.
- The electric status effect applied by Detonating Strike will deal +(1 x 50% + 2 x 35% + 1 x 15%) = +135% damage.
- The electric procs from Thunderbolt of Yvenia will deal +(1 x 50% + 2 x 35% + 2 x 15%) = +150% damage.
Damage Types
There are five mutually exclusive basic types of damage in the game, each sorted into one of two supertypes:
- Physical (supertype)
- Kinetic
- Acid
- Fire
- Electric
- Ice
Every instance of damage is typed as either exactly one of the above five basic types, or is typed as null. In addition, there are three special types of damage - the first is called Blast. Damage is either typed as Blast or it isn't on top of one of the basic types. So, for example, damage can be typed as {Fire, Blast}, or just {Fire}. There was/is a common misconception that Kinetic (formerly Impact) and Blast are mutually exclusive (probably due to some unfortunate/inaccurate wording on certain Ranger components). This is not true. There are plenty of sources that deal damage typed as {Kinetic, Blast}. Finally, the other two special damage types are Shieldbreaker and Armorbreaker. These function similarly to Blast in that they are applied on top of the five basic damage types.
Knowing how damage is typed is important primarily for determining which modifiers apply. As a general rule, if a modifier lists a specific damage type, it will only apply to damage of that type, and conversely, damage will use all modifiers that match any of its types (in addition to all "untyped" modifiers). So for example, damage typed as {Fire, Blast} will benefit from untyped modifiers as well as any modifiers of type Elemental, Fire, or Blast. Damage typed as {null} only benefits from untyped modifiers.
The other reason for paying attention to damage type is that damage type is one of two factors that determines the [type multiplier] used in the master damage formula. The other determining factor is the type of health being damaged, which on enemies is represented by the color of their health bar: red, blue (shield), or yellow (armor). The table below lists the [type multiplier] value used for all damage type-health type combinations.
vs. Red Bar | vs. Blue Bar (Shield) | vs. Yellow Bar (Armor) | |
Null | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Kinetic | 1 | 0.75 | 0.75 |
Acid | 1 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
Fire | 1 | 0.75 | 1.25 |
Electric | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 |
Ice | 1 | 1.25 | 0.75 |
Shieldbreaker* | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 |
Armorbreaker* | 1 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
* These damage types take precedence over the basic damage types when determining [type multiplier] value. For example, damage typed as {Kinetic, Armorbreaker} will use the appropriate Armorbreaker [type multiplier] value instead of the Kinetic value.
There are some damage sources whose damage always uses a [type multiplier] value of 1 despite its damage type. These sources are listed in the box below.
- Melee (all javelins)
- Storm: Ultimate
- Colossus: Flamethrower
- Colossus: Lightning Coil
- Colossus: Shock Coil
- Interceptor: Venom Spray
Weak-point Damage
Weak-point hits (recognizable in-game by the presence of yellow damage number floaties) receive a weak-point damage multiplier (see Master Damage Formula section above). The value of the multiplier is determined by the source of the damage, the specific weak-point that was hit, and then modified by weak-point damage bonuses:
[weak-point multiplier] = 1 + [target weak-point factor] * [source weak-point adjuster] * (1 + [weak-point modifier])
- [target weak-point factor]: a value representing the base additional damage dealt relative to a non-weak-point hit, before any adjusters or modifiers are applied. Determined by the specific weak-point that was hit. For example, a value of 0.5 means that the weak-point hit will deal 50% more damage than a non-weak-point hit (before any adjusters or modifiers are applied).
- [source weak-point adjuster]: a value used to adjust the multiplier, based on the source of the damage (weapon or gear).
- [weak-point modifier]: bonuses applied to weak-point damage from inscriptions, buffs, etc. All weak-point modifiers stack additively.
Combos and procs are never considered weak-point hits, even if they trigger off of a weak-point hit.
Tables of [target weak-point factor] and [source weak-point adjuster] values are provided in the boxes below.
[target weak-point factor] Table
Target | [target weak-point factor] |
Ash Titan (chest,back) | 1 |
Ash Titan (hands) | 0.5 |
Brute (head) | 0.5 |
Dominion Brute (head) | 0.5 |
Dominion Frost Hound (head) | 0.5 |
Dominion Fury | TBD |
Dominion Stormtrooper (head) | 0.75 |
Dominion Valkyrie (head) | 0.5 |
Monitor (head)1 | 2 |
Monitor (ribs)1 | 1 |
Outlaw (head) | 0.75 |
Outlaw Elementalist (head) | 0.5 |
Outlaw Lancer (head) | 0.5 |
Scar Destroyer (head) | 0.75 |
Scar Destroyer (back) | 0.1 |
Scar Enforcer (tanks, all) | 0.5 |
Scar Escari | TBD |
Scar Hunter (jetpack) | 0.5 |
Scar Scout (head) | 0.5 |
Scar Scrapper (head) | 0.75 |
Skorpion Digester (belly) | 0.5 |
Skorpion Soldier (mouth) | 0.5 |
Skorpion Worker (sac) | 0.01 |
Swarm Tyrant (sac, popped) | 1.5 |
Swarm Tyrant (sac, unpopped) | 1 |
Turret (all) (tank/battery)2 | 0.5 |
The Unfathomed (shoulder) | 1 |
Wyvern (head) | 0.5 |
1 The Monitor's weak points have a base damage resistance of 0%, unlike the rest of his body.
2 Turrets' weak points actually behave as Red Bar health, not Yellow Bar health. This also applies to the entire "rear" portion of turrets (even the areas that are not part of the weak point).
[source weak-point factor] Table
Source | [source weak-point factor] |
Assault Rifles: Defender/Hammerhead | 1 |
Assault Rifle: Warden | 1.75 |
Autocannons (All) | 1 |
Heavy Pistols (All) | 2.4 |
Light Machine Guns (All) | 1 |
Machine Pistols (All) | 1 |
Marksman Rifles (All) | 1.75 |
Shotguns (All) | 1 |
Sniper Rifle: Deadeye | 3 |
Sniper Rifle: Devastator1 | 7 |
Sniper Rifle: Whirlwind | 1.75 |
Colossus: Rail Gun | 1 |
Colossus: Siege Artillery | 1 |
Colossus: Venom Spitter | 1 |
Interceptor: Plasma Star | 1.5 |
Ranger: Blast Missile | 1 |
Ranger: Pulse Blast | 1 |
Storm: Glacial Spear | 1 |
1 Only the non-AoE portion of the Devastator's damage receives a bonus from weak-point hits. The in-game damage floaties combine the non-AoE and AoE damage values on the primary target and display the sum of the two, instead of displaying separate values.
Gear Cooldown Formula
[final cooldown] = [base cooldown] / (1 + [cooldown modifier])
Above is the formula used to calculate gear cooldown.
- [base cooldown]: the "starting" cooldown value. Can be found in-game listed on item cards (usually referred to as "Recharge").
- [cooldown modifier]: modifiers to cooldown from inscriptions, components, buffs/debuffs, etc. All cooldown modifiers stack additively.
Item-less Base Damage Scaling
Damage from the following sources are not tied to specific items and so are called "item-less" sources:
Because these damage sources don't have items to take their base damage values from, their base damage values are calculated from hard-coded "initial" values that are then scaled to the "final" base damage value:
To summarize the above formulae: for every one-point increase in average gear score, the base damage from item-less sources increases by roughly 7.1785%, following a simple exponential (geometric) curve.
With respect to the master damage formula, it's important to keep in mind that the above scaling directly changes the [base damage] values of damage from item-less sources instead of being applied through [damage modifier]. This means that aGS-scaling of item-less damage effectively stacks multiplicatively with all other damage modifiers.
List of Base Damage Values from Item-Less Sources
Below is a table of base damage values from item-less damage sources at various average gear scores. Note that the value at aGS = 1 is equal to [base damage]_initial in the above formula. Because the tabulated values were calculated using a formula derived from statistical regression of data gathered from sampling, the values may not exactly match the actual, in-game damage values. However, they should be accurate within a reasonable margin of error (usually +/- 0.1%).
* Value confirmed from empirical testing.
1 Aerial melee attacks use these base damage values but then intrinsically apply a +50% damage modifier (stacking additively with other generic damage modifiers).
2 Actual damage seems to decrease with increasing distance between target and where the rocket explodes; the value presented here is an estimate of the maximum possible value (rocket exploding right on top of target). It is not known if the distance penalty scales [base damage] directly or if it is applied via [damage modifier].
3 Combo damage seems to deviate from the regular scaling formula at low aGS (below 20); at this end of the scale combo damage will be higher than what the formula predicts. Once aGS increases past 20, combo damage scales normally with apparent [base damage]_initial values equal to what is reported in this table.
Combos
Combos are triggered when a primed enemy (one with a Fire, Electric, Ice, or Acid status effect) is hit with a detonator. Once a primed enemy is detonated for a combo, the status effect primer is considered "consumed" (although the status effect will persist) and cannot be used to detonate another combo. The status effect will remain in a "consumed" state if it is refreshed (by another application of the status effect) before it times out. As long as an enemy has a "consumed" status effect active, no combos can be detonated on it, even if it has other, non-"consumed" status effects. Only when the "consumed" status effect expires can an enemy potentially be detonated for another combo.
If multiple status effect primers are active on an enemy when it is detonated, only one primer will be consumed and a single combo is detonated. The choice of which status effect primer is consumed is based on a simple priority ordering:
The status effect that appears highest on the above list will be the one that is consumed. Other considerations like which status effect was applied first or last do not matter.
When a combo is detonated, bonus combo damage is dealt to the enemy. Combo damage is item-less, so it scales with average gear score as described in the section above, with [base damage]_initial values determined by the type of javelin that detonated the combo. The damage type of the combo damage is determined by the consumed primer.
When applying the master damage formula to combo damage, there are several things to note:
The table below provides details of the different types of combos in the game.
1 Storm combo damage from an acid primer does not appear to be consistent with any known damage type, and also does not scale with aGS as expected. More testing is needed here to figure out exactly what's going on.
Enemy Health Scaling with Gear Score
At pilot level 30, enemy health does not seem to scale in any way with gear score.
I have yet to exhaustively test every possible scaling scheme related to gear score but all the schemes I have tested have been negative. Because some people are convinced gear score affects enemy scaling/damage numbers are made up/stats don't matter/etc, and because this is a rather complicated thing to test, I have listed below exactly which scenarios I have tested and have yet to test.
Damage from the following sources are not tied to specific items and so are called "item-less" sources:
- Melee
- Ultimate
- Damage over Time (DoT)
- Combos
- Procs
Because these damage sources don't have items to take their base damage values from, their base damage values are calculated from hard-coded "initial" values that are then scaled to the "final" base damage value:
[base damage]_final = [base damage]_initial * 1.071785 ^ ([aGS] - 1)
[aGS] = max(1, round([GS]/[num_slots]))
- [aGS]: average gear score. This value is an integer greater than or equal to 1.
- [GS]: gear score. This is the number shown in-game and is simply the sum of the gear scores of all equipped items. (Exception: the level 1 "default" items you receive when creating a new loadout do not actually count toward your gear score for this calculation, even though the in-game UI will add up their gear scores.)
- [num_slots]: number of unlocked item slots for your javelin. At pilot level 30 this is always equal to 11.
- round(x): returns x rounded to the nearest integer.
- max(x,y): returns the greater of x and y.
To summarize the above formulae: for every one-point increase in average gear score, the base damage from item-less sources increases by roughly 7.1785%, following a simple exponential (geometric) curve.
With respect to the master damage formula, it's important to keep in mind that the above scaling directly changes the [base damage] values of damage from item-less sources instead of being applied through [damage modifier]. This means that aGS-scaling of item-less damage effectively stacks multiplicatively with all other damage modifiers.
List of Base Damage Values from Item-Less Sources
Below is a table of base damage values from item-less damage sources at various average gear scores. Note that the value at aGS = 1 is equal to [base damage]_initial in the above formula. Because the tabulated values were calculated using a formula derived from statistical regression of data gathered from sampling, the values may not exactly match the actual, in-game damage values. However, they should be accurate within a reasonable margin of error (usually +/- 0.1%).
Damage Source | aGS = 1 | aGS = 38 (full Epic) | aGS = 59 (full Masterwork) | aGS = 72 (full Legendary) |
Electric Status DoT (per tick) | 25 | 325 | 1394 | 3432 |
Fire Status DoT (per tick) | 20 | 260 | 1114* | 2746 |
Colossus: Melee1 | 170 | 2210 | 9478 | 23340 |
Colossus: Melee (shield bash) | 200 | 2600 | 11150 | 27459 |
Colossus: Melee (shield charge) | 75 | 975 | 4181 | 10297 |
Colossus: Ultimate (per rocket)2 | 920 | 11961 | 51290 | 126310 |
Colossus: Combo3 | 200 | 2600 | 11150 | 27459 |
Colossus: Grand Entrance Proc | 100 | 1300 | 5572 | 13729 |
Colossus: Titan's Hail Proc | 75 | 975 | 4181 | 10297 |
Colossus: Vanguard Emblem Proc | 125 | 1625 | 6965 | 17149 |
Colossus: Vassa's Arc Proc | 125 | 1625 | 6965 | 17149 |
Interceptor: Melee (small) | 25 | 325 | 1394 | 3432 |
Interceptor: Melee (large)1 | 70 | 910 | 3903 | 9611 |
Interceptor: Combo3 | 200 | 2600 | 11150 | 27459 |
Interceptor: Combo Aura DoT (per tick) | 10 | 130 | 558 | 1373 |
Interceptor: Absolute Zero Proc | 150 | 1950 | 8363 | 20594 |
Interceptor: Conductive Lattice Proc | 100 | 1300 | 5572 | 13729 |
Interceptor: Sudden Death Proc | 125 | 1625 | 6965 | 17149 |
Ranger: Melee1 | 100 | 1300* | 5572* | 13729 |
Ranger: Ultimate (per rocket) | 375 | 4875 | 20894* | 51485 |
Ranger: Combo3 | 500 | 6501 | 27875 | 68646 |
Ranger: Argo's Mace Proc | 125 | 1625 | 6965 | 17149 |
Ranger: Ember's Lance Proc | 125 | 1625 | 6965* | 17149 |
Ranger: Explosive Blaze Proc | 100 | 1300 | 5572 | 13729 |
Storm: Melee | 150 | 1950 | 8363 | 20594 |
Storm: Ultimate (per meteor) | 1350 | 17552 | 75263 | 185346 |
Storm: Combo3 | 200 | 2600 | 11150 | 27459 |
Storm: Mark of Wrath Proc | 125 | 1625 | 6965 | 17149* |
Storm: Stasis Chain Proc | 100 | 1300 | 5572 | 13729 |
Storm: Venomous Blaze Proc | 100 | 1300 | 5572 | 13729 |
Weapon: Divine Vengeance Proc | 100 | 1300 | 5572 | 13729 |
Weapon: Ralner's Blaze Proc | 100 | 1300 | 5572 | 13729 |
Weapon: Thunderbolt of Yvenia Proc | 125 | 1625 | 6965* | 17149* |
* Value confirmed from empirical testing.
1 Aerial melee attacks use these base damage values but then intrinsically apply a +50% damage modifier (stacking additively with other generic damage modifiers).
2 Actual damage seems to decrease with increasing distance between target and where the rocket explodes; the value presented here is an estimate of the maximum possible value (rocket exploding right on top of target). It is not known if the distance penalty scales [base damage] directly or if it is applied via [damage modifier].
3 Combo damage seems to deviate from the regular scaling formula at low aGS (below 20); at this end of the scale combo damage will be higher than what the formula predicts. Once aGS increases past 20, combo damage scales normally with apparent [base damage]_initial values equal to what is reported in this table.
Combos
Combos are triggered when a primed enemy (one with a Fire, Electric, Ice, or Acid status effect) is hit with a detonator. Once a primed enemy is detonated for a combo, the status effect primer is considered "consumed" (although the status effect will persist) and cannot be used to detonate another combo. The status effect will remain in a "consumed" state if it is refreshed (by another application of the status effect) before it times out. As long as an enemy has a "consumed" status effect active, no combos can be detonated on it, even if it has other, non-"consumed" status effects. Only when the "consumed" status effect expires can an enemy potentially be detonated for another combo.
If multiple status effect primers are active on an enemy when it is detonated, only one primer will be consumed and a single combo is detonated. The choice of which status effect primer is consumed is based on a simple priority ordering:
- Fire or Ice (only one of these two can be active on the same enemy at the same time)
- Electric
- Acid
The status effect that appears highest on the above list will be the one that is consumed. Other considerations like which status effect was applied first or last do not matter.
When a combo is detonated, bonus combo damage is dealt to the enemy. Combo damage is item-less, so it scales with average gear score as described in the section above, with [base damage]_initial values determined by the type of javelin that detonated the combo. The damage type of the combo damage is determined by the consumed primer.
When applying the master damage formula to combo damage, there are several things to note:
- Combo damage only receives damage modifiers from the detonating javelin.
- Combo damage does not benefit from typed damage modifiers (e.g. +Fire, +Elemental, etc.). Untyped damage modifiers still apply (see Master Damage Formula section above).
- Combo damage receives 2x the nominal bonus values from damage modifiers that specifically modify combo damage, except from "+X% Combo Dmg" and "+X% Combo Imp Dmg" inscriptions (see Master Damage Formula section above).
The table below provides details of the different types of combos in the game.
Detonating Javelin | Combo Damage [base damage]_initial | Combo Damage Type | Unique Effect(s) | Other Notes |
Colossus | 200 | Acid Primer: {Acid} Fire Primer: {Fire} Electric Primer: TBD Ice Primer: {Ice} | AoE combo damage. | |
Interceptor | 200 | Acid Primer: {Acid} Fire Primer: TBD Electric Primer: {Null} Ice Primer: {Null} | Applies [Status Effect] Aura to the detonating javelin. This aura grants an AoE DoT effect around the javelin (DoT damage is typed according to the consumed primer). Additionally, the aura will spread the status effect of the same type that was consumed to enemies around the javelin. If another combo is detonated while an Aura is still active, the current Aura is refreshed, and the type of Aura will not change even if a different type of primer was consumed. | Acid combo damage uses [type multiplier] values normally assigned to Fire damage (i.e. 1.0 vs. Red Bar, 1.25 vs. Yellow Bar, 0.75 vs. Blue Bar). |
Ranger | 500 | Acid Primer: {Null} Fire Primer: {Fire} Electric Primer: {Null} Ice Primer: {Ice} | None. | Combo damage does not benefit from "+X Combo Dmg" inscriptions, but does benefit from "+X Combo Impact Dmg" inscriptions. |
Storm | 200 | Acid Primer: ??1 Fire Primer: {Fire} Electric Primer: {Electric} Ice Primer: {Ice} | Spreads the primer status effect to all enemies in an AoE around the detonated enemy. Status effects spread this way cannot be used as primers. |
1 Storm combo damage from an acid primer does not appear to be consistent with any known damage type, and also does not scale with aGS as expected. More testing is needed here to figure out exactly what's going on.
Enemy Health Scaling with Gear Score
At pilot level 30, enemy health does not seem to scale in any way with gear score.
I have yet to exhaustively test every possible scaling scheme related to gear score but all the schemes I have tested have been negative. Because some people are convinced gear score affects enemy scaling/damage numbers are made up/stats don't matter/etc, and because this is a rather complicated thing to test, I have listed below exactly which scenarios I have tested and have yet to test.
Things that definitely do not change enemy health:
Things that still need testing:
- Your gear score or average gear score
- The gear score of the item with the highest gear score that you have equipped
- The gear score of the item with the lowest gear score that you have equipped
- The gear score of the weapon/gear that was the source of the damage
- The highest/lowest/average gear score of everybody in your session in Freeplay
- The relative or absolute difference in gear score between you and the highest/lowest/average gear score of everybody in your session in Freeplay
Things that still need testing:
- The highest/lowest/average gear score of everybody in your squad
- The relative or absolute difference in gear score between you and the average/highest/lowest gear score of everybody in your squad