What damage numbers actually mean

Three different "damage" numbers

Weapon pages show up to three numbers that all get called "damage". They measure different things:

1. Displayed damage: the figure the game shows, from the extracted 2.9.0.41 data. For bullets it's the upper-torso hit at close range.
2. Extracted base damage: the raw per-projectile figure in the ballistics data, before any hit-zone multiplier.
3. Damage by distance: a community-calculated falloff curve for a reference shot.

Displayed damage already includes the torso relationship, so multiplying it by a body multiplier counts the multiplier twice. I never do that on this site.

Shotguns add a fourth wrinkle. Their displayed damage counts every pellet together, while the extracted figure is per pellet. A Romero 77 showing 220 damage doesn't one-shot at every distance: spread and pellet placement decide what actually lands.

Different sites also disagree by small amounts. One table lists the Burgess at 240, another at 207. That's two different definitions, not evidence of a balance change. Before calling something a change, I compare the same ammunition, range, zone, spread model, pellet count and rounding.

Range and speed

• Drop range is not effective range. It's where the projectile starts dropping noticeably. It says nothing about where a shot stops being lethal.
• Muzzle velocity is the speed leaving the barrel, not throughout the flight.
• Cycle time is the gap between shots, not sustained fire once reloads are included.

Shots to kill

Weapon pages include a shots-to-kill table from community-calculated data. It answers one question: how many hits, to a given body zone, does it take to kill a target with a given amount of health, at a given distance? The values are numbers of shots, not seconds. The source field was originally named "ttk", which reads like "time to kill", but it isn't time.

These tables describe clean hits on an unpenetrated target. They don't account for walls, cover, armor or boss phases, so they can't promise an exact wallbang or armored-boss result. I don't offer an "exact damage" calculator, because the full penetration and boss formulas haven't been verified.

Damage and ammunition types

Type	What it does	Watch for
Compact, Medium, Long and Special Long bullets	Direct projectile damage with weapon- and ammo-specific falloff and penetration.	Special Long is its own pool, separate from Long.
Shotgun pellets and Pennyshot	Several projectiles; spread and placement decide the damage.	A high total doesn't guarantee a one-hit kill at the listed distance.
Slug	A single shotgun projectile with its own zone and falloff profile.	Pellet spread rules don't apply.
Nitro and Shredder heavy projectiles	Their own heavy-ammo zone profiles and penetration.	Ordinary bullet multipliers don't apply.
Arrows, bolts and harpoons	Damage depends on draw strength and ammunition.	Pullout damage and explosive, poison or wire variants are separate.
Piercing, rending and blunt melee	Physical attack classes.	Monsters react differently: an Immolator responds to a knife differently than to a blunt hit.
Explosion	Blast damage that also destroys parts of the environment.	Cover, fuse, water, choke, distance and defensive traits all matter.
Shrapnel	Fragment damage, often causing bleeding.	Protection against dynamite blast isn't protection against shrapnel.
Fire	Burning and damage to health capacity, plus destroyed loot.	Monsters respond differently, and fire destroys drops.
Poison	Damage plus a status that blocks healing and vision.	An Antidote Shot stops the poison status, not the physical damage of a mixed attack.
Concertina	Wire damage and slowed movement.	Some explosives and melee clear wire; a Frag Bomb isn't a universal wire remover.
Choke and water	Counter ignition, fuses and some fire monsters.	Not a heal.
Falling	Height and landing surface decide the damage.	Kiteskin, hay, water and other surfaces change it.

Custom ammunition

Use each weapon's page for what it can actually load. These are family-level descriptions, not a claim that every gun takes every type.

Ammunition	What it's for	Trade-offs
Dumdum, Shredder	Adds bleed pressure.	Scarcity and penetration differ by round.
FMJ	Better penetration and distance behavior.	Usually changes velocity and drop.
High Velocity	Faster travel, easier leading.	Handling and drop can change; check the variant.
Spitzer	Fast, penetrating special round.	Availability and scarcity changed over time; check the pool.
Subsonic	Quieter with a silencer, and hidden from Blast Sense.	Only with the right silencer; quieter is not silent.
Incendiary, Dragon Breath, Dragon Bolts	Ignite targets and pressure health capacity.	Fire-immune targets and ignition distance vary.
Poison	Status pressure and some monster clears.	Immune monsters and antidote users blunt it.
Explosive, explosive bolts, frag arrows	Area damage.	Scarcity, radius, armor and friendly fire.
Flechette	Shotgun bleed at a different engagement profile.	Doesn't follow buckshot's one-hit behavior.
Pennyshot	Close-range pellets.	Spread, pellet count and penetration differ from buckshot.
Star Shell	Illumination and ignition.	Not damage ammunition.
Concertina projectile	Area denial with wire.	The impact and the deployed wire are separate.

Use the weapon comparison to put two to four weapons side by side, including their shots-to-kill tables.