This guide is designed to inform you of which weapons work with the 120% physical damage mods, as well as provide some logic as to why and where the mods are applied.
INTRO
- Below are weapons compatible with the 120% physical damage mods.
- Sorted alphabetically according to damage and weapon type.
- These tables are designed to inform, not tell you which weapons are good. Weapons featured may or may not be current meta.
- Information such as base weapon damage values are taken straight from the game and are updated regularly.
- The IPS acronym in reference to impact, puncture and slash will be frequented in this guide.
- It is advised that mods only be used in builds against their respective faction.
IMPACT (80% BASE IMPACT)
* Denotes sentinel weapons.
PUNCTURE (80% BASE PUNCTURE)
* Denotes sentinel weapons.
SLASH (80% BASE SLASH)
* Denotes sentinel weapons.
** Denotes rounding to nearest significant figure.
MISC. (75% BASE IPS)
These weapons do not make the 80% base cut-off point. They do however make their way into this list for the sole fact that they can still use the mods mentioned below, although to not as great effect as the weapons listed above.
FORMULA
Compatibility formula is as follows:
Sum of base damage (Impact+Puncture+Slash) divided by 80%
Example: Atterax (Melee)
2.3 Impact
2.3 Puncture
40.5 Slash
(2.3+2.3+40.5)*0.8 = 36.08
- The number given (36.08) is the minimum* amount of slash damage needed, because it is primarilly a slash weapon, to use the 120% puncture mod "Buzz Kill".
- In conclusion, since 40.5 is greater than or equal to 36.08, Buzz Kill can be used on the Atterax.
*The term "minimum" is used loosely, as it only takes 75% base Slash damage to interchange Buzz Kill with that of an elemental, but in order to receive more damage than a single 90% elemental, the base must be equal to or greater than 80%.
LOGIC
So what does this information mean to you? Well quite a few things really.
The common standard in physical damage output is as follows:
- Impact does well against Corpus units.
- Puncture does well against Grineer units.
- Slash does well against Infested units.
Before the release of the physical damage event mods, the only way to increase physical damage was to use mods that were in the very sense of the word "useless". These mods only increase physical damage by 30% at their maximum rank for primaries, 60% for secondaries, and 90% for melee.
Why were these mods useless? Here's my reasoning.
- 30% physical damage for primaries, especially when it is based off of the damage type it was meant for and not the entire IPS of the weapon, is much less in comparison to a 90% or 60% elemental damage mod, which does use the entire IPS of the weapon.
- 60% physical damage for secondaries, when used on weapons that lack the 80% IPS base required, are outclassed by their 60% elemental/status damage cousins, otherwise they are interchangable on a per element basis (i.e Cold v. Puncture).
- 90% physical damage for melee shares the same fate that the physical secondary mods do, and for sheer lack of the 80% IPS base, are outclassed by their 90% element counterparts; otherwise, again, are interchangable on a per element basis.
- Because of all this, players will typically build for elements, and completely avoid physical damage.
- Although, with the release of these new mods, more build possibilities are available, but only to a certain extent. The lists provided contain weapons that passed the equation test mentioned, and are able to use the 120% mods to their full potential.
Keep in mind when modding, most elemental combinations (Radiation, Viral, etc.) can have a damage cap of 1.75% against certain enemies whereas physical damage caps at 1.5%.
Upon closer inspection, one might find a differential in the actual IPS base of certain weapons, such as the Dread with 90% Slash damage or the Buzlok with 75% Impact damage. Mentioning both of these instances is a key point that this guide was designed to provide.
The logic behind it is shown here:
Keep in mind, these are all percentages in simplified form.
1.) 90% (the elemental mods) of 100 (the entire base damage of the weapon) is equal to 90 (the elemental damage of the weapon).
This is the logic behind elemental mods when they are applied to any weapon, where 90% of that base damage will become elemental.
2.) 120% (the physical damage mod) of 80 (the IPS base being applied) is 96 (the physical damage of the weapon).
This is the logic behind physical mods when they are applied to a weapon with 80% IPS base, where the weapon is given a 6% marginal increase to damage.
3.) 120% (the physical damage mod) of 75 (the IPS base being applied) is 90 (the physical damage of the weapon).
This is the logic behind physical mods when they are applied to a weapon with 75% IPS base, where the weapon is given no increase to damage comparatively to the before mentioned.
Conclusion: Weapons with 80% Impact/Puncture/Slash base receive more benefits from these mods than weapons with 75% base, and should be modded accordingly.
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Credits: Special thanks to Madcodebreaker for this guide.