Weapon Damage

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The second step toward rifling through a dead monster's pockets, after hitting them, is dealing damage. There are two damage formulas that are used by players, depending on what type of weapon is being used. Monsters have a separate formula.

A Moxie class's Moxious Maneuver uses Moxie for damage calculations instead of Muscle, with no penalty for using a ranged weapon or fighting barehanded. Criticals still occur, although there is no in-game message to reflect this. Note that Moxious Maneuver does not count as a weapon attack, and will not be boosted by Bonus Weapon Damage.

Weapon Damage Formula

Damage done by your weapon attacks can be calculated as follows:

Total Damage =

(floor(Player Muscle × Attack-type Muscle Multiplier × Weapon-type Muscle Multiplier) - Monster Defense, (minimum 0)

+ [(Weapon Damage) or 1 if barehanded or with a 0-power weapon ] × Crit Multiplier × Attack-type Weapon Damage Multiplier

+ absolute, non-elemental Bonus Weapon Damage

+ absolute, non-elemental Bonus Ranged Damage (only when wielding a ranged weapon))

x (100% + percentage-based Bonus Weapon Damage)

+ (Offhand Weapon Damage) if double-wielding

+ Elemental Bonus Weapon Damage

Where

• Attack-type Muscle Multiplier is 1.25 for a non-Seal Clubber's Lunging Thrust-Smack, 1.3 for a Seal Clubber's Lunging Thrust-Smack, 1.4 for a Bashing Slam Smash, or 1 otherwise;
• Weapon-type Muscle Multiplier is 1 for a Moxious Maneuver (with any or no weapon), 1 for any attack with a melee weapon, .75 for an attack with a ranged weapon, or .25 for an attack with no weapon;
• Crit Multiplier is 1 for a normal hit, 2 for a critical hit, or 4 for a critical hit with Legendary Luck;
• Attack-type Weapon Damage Multiplier is 2 for Thrust-Smack, 2 for Mighty Axing, 3 for Lunging Thrust-Smack, 5 for Bashing Slam Smash, 5 for Cleave, or 1 otherwise.
• You must have a melee weapon equipped for TS, LTS, and Mighty Axing.

• Damage is normally displayed as A (+B) (+C) (+D) (+E) (+F) (+G).
• Penalties to melee damage will not reduce the damage you deal below 1 + Elemental Damage.
• Bonus Weapon Damage applies to both melee and ranged weapons.
• Percentile Weapon Bonus applies to the first four items listed above, but not off-hand or elemental damage (essentially, A above, but not B through G).
• When using Thrust-Smack, Lunging Thrust-Smack, or Lunge-Smack, only the mainhand Weapon Damage is doubled/tripled, not the Total Damage.
• Note that with a ranged weapon equipped, you will gain no bonus damage from having high Muscle unless your Muscle is more than 33% more than the monster's defense. (In which case, why the heck are you using a ranged weapon?)
• Monster Level variation may increase the apparent range of damage dealt. The above formula is for actual, not nominal, monster level.

Monster Damage Formula

Raw monster damage is given by:

Total Damage =

(Diff + 20 to 25% of Monster Attack - Damage Reduction)

× (1 - AbsorbFrac)

× (1 - ElementalFrac)

Where

• Diff = (Monster Attack - Player Moxie), minimum 0
  • except for Heroes of the Half-Shell who are wielding a shield and have more Muscle than Moxie, in which case Muscle will be substituted for Moxie.
• AbsorbFrac = (√(Damage Absorption/10) - 1)/10 (with minimum 0, maximum 0.9)
• ElementalFrac: see Elemental Resistance to determine the value based on resistance strength; remember that Mysticality classes get an innate 5% bonus

Notes

• Your damage will be followed by n Sound Effects, where n is equal to the square root of melee damage (not counting enchantments) rounded up to a maximum of 10.
• The monster's damage will be followed by n Sound Effects, where n is equal to the square root of the monster's damage rounded up to a maximum of 10.
• Damage within the given ranges have a triangular distribution. In slightly-less-math-geek, this means they are the sum of two die rolls, rather than a single die roll; so values towards the middle of the range are more common. (Try rolling a pair of six-sided dice and adding them for yourself -- you should get about 6 times as many sevens as you do twos and twelves.)
• For original spading and graphs of Damage vs. Awesomeness, see the Combat Mechanics project thread in the HCO forums.