Penetration (PV)

PV or Penetration Value or → is a value assigned to all weapons and plays a key part in damage calculation during attacking.

How PV Is Displayed

A weapon's PV is displayed in game in one of the following three ways.

Display Format	Example
→X
→X/Y
→≈

• X is the strength-modified PV of a melee weapon
  (4 + strength modifier for one-handed weapons, or 5 + strength modifier for two-handed weapons).
  • For missile weapons, X is the weapon's intrinsic penetration value - missile weapon PV cannot be modified by strength or other attributes.
• Y is the maximum achievable PV for this melee weapon. PV is capped at this value regardless of your strength modifier.
  • The maximum achievable PV shows up in game only if you've turned on the "Display detailed weapon penetration and damage in name" option.
  • Missile weapons do not show a maximum PV in game and their PV cannot be modified by attributes.
• ≈ represents vibro penetration, which automatically sets penetration equal to the target's AV value.

Note that the description above applies only to the value that is displayed in the game UI. For the purposes of actual PV calculations, as described in the sections below, the game subtracts 4 from the values that are shown in the UI. So, for example, the fullerite maul pictured above has a penetration value of 2 for the purposes of all in-game calculations. (vibro weapons are an exception to this rule.)

Melee Weapon PV Calculation

The PV of melee weapons is calculated as the follows:

• Base penetration bonus,
  • For non-vibro weapons, the base penetration bonus is equal to the weapon penetration value shown on the equipment screen in-game, minus 4. For example, if the weapon shows →7, your base penetration bonus is 3. Typically this bonus is the same as your strength modifier (or your strength modifier + 1 for two-handed weapons), but it can be capped to a lower value depending on the weapon.
  • For vibro weapons, the base penetration bonus is always equal to the defender's AV.
• +1 bonus penetration if the weapon has the Sharp modification,
• +4 bonus penetration if the enemy is asleep,
• +1 bonus penetration to swarmer attackers for each additional swarmer enemy that surrounds their opponent,
• and additional bonus penetration from the Charge, Lunge, Long Blade Proficiency, Improved Aggressive Stance, Shank, or Slam skills as applicable.

A critical hit is guaranteed one penetration regardless of PV if the source of the critical hit is the player character.

Ranged Weapon PV Calculation

Ranged weapon PV is determined by the PV of the gun itself. The PV of the bullet does not matter. Even if the weapon is a compound or short bow, all that is derived from the "bullet" is the damage value and the effect, if any; the PV remains static.

Critical hits on ranged weapons add a flat +2 PV to the shot, increased to +4 if the weapon is a pistol and the user has Dead Shot.

Penetration Formula

Step 1 - Roll the attacker's PV value against the defender's AV value 3 times (let's call this a triplet).

Step 1a - Each individual roll within the triplet works as follows (let's call each roll a singlet):

Step 1a.i - Roll 1d10-2. Each time that the maximum result of 8 is rolled, perform the 1d10-2 roll again and continue adding the results together.

Step 1a.ii - Add the attacker's PV value to the total roll calculated in Step 1a.i.

Step 1a.iii - Note whether the total PV roll from Step 1a.ii is greater than the target's AV.

Step 1b - If at least one singlet roll was greater than the target's AV, the attack penetrates one time (or one more time if this is a subsequent triplet). If all three singlet rolls were greater than the target's AV, reduce the PV value by 2, return to Step 1, and perform another triplet of rolls to determine if the attack penetrates an additional time. (Continue this loop, reducing PV by 2 each time, until at least one singlet fails to roll higher than the target's AV.)

In summary, the attack penetrates and deals damage equal to its damage dice once for each triplet of rolls where at least one singlet was higher than the target's AV.

If all three rolls in the first triplet are equal to or lower than the target's AV, the attack fails to penetrate at all.