Talk: Armor-Piercing Ammo

"This ammo does extra damage against armor and enemies with no defenses."

Does this mean it does extra damage to health?

No is pierces the armor of a target to get to the health. It does damage to both. Once the armor is out of the way it does normal damage.

Actually, it does. It's a lot like Incendiary Ammo, except that it does not set the target on fire.BronzDragon 16:21, February 20, 2010 (UTC)

So, which does more damage to armor? I dont see any info on the Incendiary ammo page relating to armor damage.24.87.4.53 06:44, June 23, 2010 (UTC)

AP Ammo does, but not by much. When both are evolved to their "highest bonus" option, AP Ammo does 70% extra damage to armor (and health), while Incendiary Ammo does 60% extra damage. There's a post by the developers on the bioware forums that explains how it works, I'll try to find it after this and add it to the Incendiary Ammo article if it's not already there. Basically, against armor, the 60% bonus to damage is applied instantaneously, but if you hit someone's health, then the 60% damage is done over time, as it states in the description.

What it boils down to: AP Ammo is not worth it if you already have access to incendiary ammo. It does minimal extra damage, plus it doesn't have the "panic" effect that incendiary ammo does. Dammej 06:54, June 23, 2010 (UTC)

Okay, stupid question coming up but if I don't ask this, I will end up screaming at the guy I'm thinking of.

I know a guy who played as a Soldier. He had access to almost every ammo power out there...but he chose AP ammo as his 'trained' power, because of the amount of weapons force it showed. His words to me were, "Oh god no, Incendiary Ammo doesn't have as good numbers as AP ammo, AP ammo must be better." I don't know if saying this here or anywhere else is important, but at the bottom of the Shredder Ammo page it has a blurb about...gah, my brain won't function...something like why it's better, or worse, than certain others. I understand, we don't want a whole section about why one ammo power is better than the other blah blah blah. And I also understand it's not my game I'm playing. But even to have a section about the pros and cons in the article (if there is one, I didn't see it, so if there is even to make it more obvious?) because to me it's just a collection of numbers, and some people just don't want to look past the numbers? Herecomethecalvary 10:46, January 14, 2011 (UTC)

The forums would serve as a better place for this question.

There is no perfect ammo power, every ammo as its advantages:

• Cryo Ammo: freezes unprotected enemies and has no bonuses against armor or shields/barriers.
• Disruptor Ammo: give a bonus against shields and synthetic enemies but has no bonuses against armor or health for organic enemies. Advanced levels of the power causes weapon overheat and overloads synthetic enemies.
• Incendiary Ammo: give a bonus against shields, apply damage over time, stops health regeneration and causes organic enemies to panic, but has no bonus against shields/barriers.
• Warp Ammo: gives bonuses against biotic barriers, armor, and health, but has no bonus against shields. It also deal double the damage against enemies effected by biotic powers. Due to this ammo power potency, the bonus percentage is lower then other ammo powers.
• Armor Piercing Ammo: gives bonuses against armor and health, but does normal damage against shields/barriers. This power gives a slightly bigger bonus percentage then other powers (I believe it has to do with the low number of enemies protected by armor - just my assumption).
• Shredder Ammo: gives a bonus against health for organic enemies, but deals normal damage against armor, shields, and synthetic enemies health. This ammo power gives a bigger bonus percentage then normal.

And all of this is mentioned in the relevant articles. --silverstrike 17:54, January 14, 2011 (UTC)

It's funny, because all I saw in this particular article was, 'this ammo power works against armour and health' and then a bunch of numbers. Now apologies if I'm taking your post the wrong way (and either way, I'm thankful you replied), but the majority of the article here, at any rate, is just a bunch of numbers that some people I know of don't look past. They see higher bonus percentages and think, oh good, anything with a lower bonus percentage means it's worse. You're going to have people who do that. It's simple. What I was trying to say was, if there's a way of avoiding that (and no, I can't actually think of a way, hence why I put this on the talk page, I'm just throwing an idea out), would it be possible to do so? I know you can't control how people think, but there could be a way to help them make more informed decisions than, oh, higher bonus percentage? Must be awesome! Herecomethecalvary 07:51, January 15, 2011 (UTC)

If you feel that the ammo powers articles are misleading or too superficial, feel free to suggest a change, what it should include, and after some time for discussion and suggestions for implementation, you or other contributor(s) can make the change (if the suggestion is approved).

Regarding the issue with misleading percentages: the description for the ammo powers include the advantages and drawbacks of the power (bonus to X but normal damage to Y). The percentages are part of the power evolution on each level of the power - we could create or modify one of the current power articles to include some sort of comparison chart, but we don't have the actual numbers (although the AP ammo power deals X% damage against armor, it deals less percentage against health - as far as I know). I suggest you create a topic in the projects forum with an explanation of what you want to achieve (not how you want to achieve it - you mentioned you have no idea) and further discussions could continue there. --silverstrike 18:42, January 15, 2011 (UTC)

Synthetic Health Damage?

I'm not sure, does this ammo do extra damage to synthetic health as well as organic? Tali's no.1 fan 23:21, January 22, 2011 (UTC)

Yes it does equal damage to both. Lancer1289 01:55, January 23, 2011 (UTC)

Spiffing. Tali's no.1 fan 17:51, January 23, 2011 (UTC)

Mass Effect 3 - Cover Penetration

Has anyone tested whether or not this effect stacks with weapons' default penetration or the piercing mod? For example, would a (1)Javelin sniper rifle (2)with a piercing mod[1] attached and (3)armor-piercing ammo activated experience stacking depths of penetration from all of these modifiers? Incrognito 17:42, March 13, 2012 (UTC)

This is mostly anecdotal evidence, but it appears weapons like the Black Widow have a level 1 Piercing mod on them. When stacked with a level 5 mod, I've shot through 2 meter objects with almost undiminished damage, but I should do a study on it. RunningHawk April 13, 2012

I was using this setup myself on my infiltrator in the single player campaign. Towards the end, I shot at an angle through two back-to-back shelving units and killed a cannibal on the other side. Not sure how much stacking happened, but I imagine there was at least some, given that. --Zet X Hikari (talk) 18:56, October 18, 2012 (UTC)

Since none of the pages explain this...

Weapon Penetration and Armor Piercing

• The "penetration" mechanic (going through walls) has no impact by itself on the amount of damage a weapon does against armored enemies (the yellow health bar). The Javelin, for example, has a penetration value of 100 = 1.00 meter so it can penetrate through a total of 1 meter of solid objects but it doesn't do extra damage to the yellow armor health bar. The Javelin will, however, penetrate through other solid objects like the detachable armor plating on the Brutes, Husks, and Cannibals, and the Guardian shield. Whenever a weapon hits a target after going through a solid object, the amount of damage done is reduced by a flat amount.

• The weapon mods, equipment (MP), and Armor Piercing Ammo can all increase the distance that weapons can penetrate through solid objects. So if you add a penetration mod on the Javelin, the penetration distance gets even larger, but that won't increase the damage done to enemies after penetrating through objects.

• The penetration mods and Armor Piercing Ammo have another (damage reduction) mechanic called "piercing" which affects the damage done to armored targets. By default, enemies with the yellow armor bar will chop off a set amount of damage done to them from weapons. This makes low damage weapons less effective against armor and high damage weapons very effective against them. So even if a weapon has a really fast fire rate but each bullet does a low amount of damage it will get penalized for hitting armor since a big chunk of every bullet's damage is ignored. When equipping penetration mods and using Armor Piercing Ammo, the weapon's "armor piercing" (to partially ignore damage reduction) goes up, which means a lot less damage is cut off. For example, equipping rank 1 Armor Piercing Ammo will reduce the amount of damage that armor cuts off by 50%. By default, weapons do not have any base armor "piercing."

• Armor can never negate weapon damage completely. There is a minimum damage value that weapons will always do to armor.

--Falconeye 06:24, June 6, 2012 (UTC)

This power seems to negate my extra ammo.

When I use the armor-piercing ammo power with my M-98 Widow V my ammo reserve drops from 19 to 16. I haven't tried it with my other sniper rifles, but it doesn't do it with my other guns. Just a weird glitch, I guess. 66.234.200.195 07:04, July 29, 2012 (UTC)Hollywood

What are you gaining the extra ammo from? Thermal clip mod, class power, a different ammo power? Trandra (talk) 11:56, July 29, 2012 (UTC)