Weapon Damage

[ Return to Game Mechanics ]

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 × ltsadj × rangeadj) - Monster Defense, (minimum 0)

+ [(10% to 20% of Weapon Power + 0 to 1) or 1 if barehanded or with a 0-power weapon ] × crit × tsfactor

+ Bonus Weapon Damage

+ Bonus Ranged Damage (only when wielding a ranged weapon))

x wpnpctbonus

+ (10% to 20% of Offhand Weapon Power + 0 to 1) if double-wielding

+ Elemental Bonus Damage

Where

• ltsadj is 1 for an attack other than a Lunging Thrust-Smack, 1.25 for a non-Seal Clubber's Lunging Thrust-Smack, 1.3 for when Seal Clubber's Lunging Thrust-Smack, 1.4 for a Bashing Slam Smash;
• rangeadj is 1 for melee attack or Moxious Maneuver (any or no weapon), 3/4 for ranged attack, and 1/4 for barehanded (no weapon equipped);
• crit is 1 for a normal hit, 2 for a critical hit, or 4 for a critical hit with Legendary Luck;
• tsfactor is 1 for a normal attack, 2 for Thrust-Smack and Mighty Axing, 3 for Lunging Thrust-Smack, 5 for Bashing Slam Smash and Cleave.
• You must have a melee weapon equipped for TS, LTS, and Mighty Axing.
• wpnpctbonus is 100% plus any percentage weapon bonuses.

• 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 cause no stat bonus damage above the weapon power unless your Muscle is much higher than the monster level. (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.