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This article explains the mechanics of damage calculation in Arknights.

All damage are calculated to the exact value, accounting the decimals, but if the damage is to be shown in-game (see Trivia) or in the menu, the value is rounded up (e.g. 99.9 is shown as 100).

By default, the damage dealt by attacks or use of skills that scales with ATK are calculated by the following formula:

Where:

  • a represents the final damage.
  • b represents the original ATK.
  • x1 represents the sum of all base ATK buffs.
  • x2 represents the value of ATK Inspiration.
  • y represents the final ATK multiplier.

For example, the damage dealt by SilverAsh with Power Strike γ who are being buffed by Castle-3's Tactical Configuration, Warfarin's Unstable Plasma, and Sora's Hymn of Battle would be calculated by the following method with the following assumptions:

  • SilverAsh is at Elite 2 Level 45 and 100% Trust (with an ATK of 694), and his Power Strike γ is at Level 7 (thus multiplying his ATK by 225%).
  • Since SilverAsh is at Elite 2, his first talent Leader buffs his ATK by 10%.
  • Castle-3 is at Potential 6 (with Tactical Configuration 6 that buffs ATK by 20%).
  • Warfarin's Unstable Plasma is at Level 7 (which buffs ATK by 60%).
  • Sora is at Elite 2 Level 40 and 100% Trust (with an ATK of 356), and her Hymn of Battle is at Mastery 3 (thus it adds 100% of Sora's ATK).
  • To simplify the calculations, all percentages are converted into decimals.

As the result, under the above assumptions, SilverAsh's Power Strike γ will deal a whopping 3767.85 damage.

However, the exact damage dealt is determined by their type (Physical, Arts, and True) and interaction with the target's defenses (DEF and RES). Regardless of the type, the final amount of damage dealt will always be at least 5% of the attacker's ATK before independent percentage-based modifiers are factored in.

Technically HP recovery or healing is considered as a damage type, but not listed here due to its simplicity. It is worth noting however, that the healing "damage type" encompasses any form of HP restoration which shows the value as green numbers above them, such as those of Medics, and cannot be "inflicted" on targets with full HP.

As a general rule, enemies with high DEF usually have low RES and vice-versa, but certain elite enemies and most bosses have identical levels of DEF and RES. Against such enemies, the following should be used:

  • Sources of True damage and ways to ignore DEF/RES.
  • Extremely high Arts damage (at least 1000 in a single hit). For instance, when an Operator with 500 ATK hits enemies with an A rating on their DEF and RES (~800 and ~50, respectively), the enemy will take only ~25 physical damage but takes ~250 Arts damage (10 times the physical damage they would have taken).
    • Conversely, if the Operator deals high enough physical damage, for example 1200, the enemy would take 400 physical damage, making it more effective than Arts at extremely high levels. However, such Operators are few and far in between, leaving Arts damage as the most reliable option.
    • In general, physical damage has a higher damage ceiling, while Arts damage has higher consistent damage.
  • DEF and/or RES debuffs.
  • Damage amplifications (only if the initial hit dealt a non-negligible amount of damage).

Lethal[]

A lethal or fatal damage is defined as any damage that exceeds the target's current HP, or in other words, would reduce the target's HP to 0.

Trivia[]

  • If the final damage (after factoring in skill, talents, and other effects) dealt by an attack is at least 50% higher than the original damage (i.e. if only visible ATK and DEF/RES were used for the calculation), the damage dealt will be displayed as a red number above the target. This includes but is not limited to the following scenarios:
    • On-hit ATK multipliers.
    • Damage amplification, such as Fragile.
    • Abilities that increase the 5% minimum damage threshold (like Projekt Red's Chill or Aciddrop's Slideshot Style).
    • Attacks that ignore a certain amount of DEF or RES on hit.
    • Attacks that hit an invulnerable target (such as an attack fired at a target that was put to Sleep before it hit) will appear as dealing 0 damage.
  • The damage indicator (see above) is capped at 10 digits (i.e. 9,999,999,999), although this normally cannot be achieved.
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