Damage Types

Damage is split into many different types, with different descriptors and death messages for injuries, different interactions with different targets and armor types, and different default stats. Not to be confused with health difficulties.

Name	Label	Category	Armor Category	Overkill Percent To Destroy Part	Death Message	Hediffs (General / Skin / Solid / Additional)	Harms Outer Layers	Affects shields	Stun duration	Source
Cut	cut	Melee Weapon	Sharp	0% - 10%	{0} has been cut to death.	Cut / - / Crack / -	true	false	-
Crush	crush	Melee Weapon	Blunt	40% - 100%	{0} has been crushed to death.	Crush / Cut / Crack / -	true	true	-
Blunt	blunt	Melee Weapon	Blunt	40% - 100%	{0} has been beaten to death.	Crush / Bruise / Crack / -	true	false	-
Poke	blunt	Melee Weapon	Blunt	40% - 100%	{0} has been beaten to death.	Crush / Bruise / Crack / -	true	false	-
Demolish	blunt	Melee Weapon	Blunt	40% - 100%	{0} has been beaten to death.	Crush / Bruise / Crack / -	true	false	-
Stab	stab	Melee Weapon	Sharp	40% - 100%	{0} has been stabbed to death.	Stab / - / Crack / -	true	false	-
RangedStab	stab	Ranged Weapon	Sharp	40% - 100%	{0} has been stabbed to death.	Stab / - / Crack / -	true	false	-
Bullet	bullet	Ranged Weapon	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been shot to death.	Gunshot / - / - / -	true	true	-
Arrow	arrow	Ranged Weapon	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been shot to death by an arrow.	Cut / - / Crack / -	true	true	-
ArrowHighVelocity	arrow	Ranged Weapon	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been shot to death by an arrow.	Stab / - / - / -	true	true	-
Scratch	scratch	Melee Weapon	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been torn to death.	Scratch / - / Crack / -	true	false	-
ScratchToxic	toxic scratch	Melee Weapon	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been torn to death.	Scratch / - / Crack / Toxic buildup	true	false	-
Bite	bite	Melee Weapon	Sharp	0% - 10%	{0} has been bitten to death.	Bite / - / Crack / -	true	false	-
BiteToxic	toxic bite	Melee Weapon	Sharp	0% - 10%	{0} has been bitten to death.	Bite / - / Crack / Toxic buildup	true	false	-
Bomb	bomb	Misc	Sharp	?	{0} has died in an explosion.	Shredded / - / Crack / -	true	true	-
BombSuper	bomb	Misc	Sharp	?	{0} has died in an explosion.	Shredded / - / Crack / -	true	true	-
Flame	flame	Environmental	Heat	?	{0} has burned to death.	Burn / - / - / -	false	false	-
Burn	burn	Environmental	Heat	?	{0} has burned to death.	Burn / - / - / -	false	false	-
Thump	thump	Misc	Sharp	?	{0} has been shot to death.	Crush / - / Crack / -	true	true	-
TornadoScratch	scratch	Environmental	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been killed by a tornado.	Scratch / - / Crack / -	true	false	-
Frostbite	frostbite	Environmental	-	?	{0} has succumbed to frostbite.	Frostbite / - / - / -	true	false	-
Surgical cut	surgical cut	Medical	-	?	{0} has died during surgery.	- / - / - / -	false	false	-
Execution cut	execution cut	Medical	-	-	{0} has been executed by cutting.	Cut / - / - / -	false	false	-
EMP	-	Stun	-	-	{0} has been EMPed to death.	- / - / - / -	true	true	0.25 s
Stun	-	Stun	-	-	{0} has been stunned to death.	- / - / - / -	false	true	0.33 s
Smoke	smoke	Misc	-	-	-	- / - / - / -	-	?	-
Deterioration	-	Misc	-	-	-	- / - / - / -	-	?	-
Rotting	-	Misc	-	-	-	- / - / - / -	-	?	-
Mining	-	Misc	-	-	-	- / - / - / -	-	?	-
Extinguish	-	Misc	-	-	-	Covered in firefoam / - / - / -	-	?	-
AcidBurn	acid burn	Misc	Sharp	-	{0} has burned to death.	Acid burn / - / - / -	-	?	-
Decayed	decayed organ	Misc	-	-	{0} died from metabolic disruptions caused by organ decay.	- / - / - / -	-	?	-
Vaporize	vaporize	Misc	Heat	-	{0} has been vaporized by extreme heat.	Burn / - / - / -	true	?	-
MechBandShockwave	mech-band shockwave	Stun	-	-	{0} has been shocked to death.	- / - / - / -	-	?	1,200 ticks (20 secs)
ToxGas	tox gas	Misc	-	-	-	- / - / - / -	-	?	-
Beam	beam	Misc	Heat	0% - 70%	{0} has been beamed to death.	- / - / - / -	true	?	-
BulletToxic	toxic bullet	Ranged Weapon	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been shot to death.	Gunshot / - / - / Toxic buildup	true	?	-
ElectricalBurn	electrical burn	Environmental	Heat	-	{0} has died from electrical burns.	Electrical burn / - / - / -	-	?	-
Digested	digestion	Misc	-	-	{0} died from being digested.	- / - / - / -	-	?	-
EnergyBolt	energy bolt	Misc	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been killed by an energy bolt.	Energy bolt / - / - / -	true	?	-
Nerve	nerve	Misc	Sharp	0% - 70%	{0} has been killed by nerve shock.	Cut / - / Crack / -	true	?	-
NerveStun	nerve stun	Misc	-	-	-	- / - / - / -	-	?	240 ticks (4 secs)
Psychic	psychic	Misc	-	-	{0} has been killed by a psychic attack.	Psychic burn / Psychic burn (skin) / Psychic burn (solid) / -	-	?	-
DeadlifeDust	deadlife dust	Misc	-	-	-	- / - / - / -	-	?	-
NociosphereVaporize	vaporize	Misc	Heat	-	{0} has been vaporized by extreme heat.	Burn / - / - / -	true	?	-

General mechanics

Each damage type applies its damage in its own way - in the armor type it opposes, in the body parts it can target, in how damage is split between body parts, the multipliers it gets against certain target types, and a multitude of other effects. Most melee damage types have their hit damage multiplied by a random factor of .8-1.15 before application.

This often makes comparisons of pure damage and DPS poor determining factors when comparing weapons of different damage types, even after accounting for the different armor types the attack opposes.

Overkill prevention

Overkill prevention is mechanic by which the destruction of body parts that would reduced to 0 HP or below, is occasionally prevented.

Overkill prevention works as follows: If the damage would be insufficient to reduce the HP of the body part in question to 0 or below, full damage is dealt. If the damage would be sufficient, two outcomes are possible - either the part is destroyed or the part is reduced to 1 HP and any remaining damage is lost. First, the amount of damage over the current HP of the part is determined. This is then divided by the maximum health of the body part when completely healthy. This is the "Overkill Percentage". For example, a body part is totally health and has a maximum HP of 10. It is dealt 15 damage by a single attack, which would reduce it to -5. That results in an Overkill Percentage of 50%.

This overkill percentage is then compared to the "overkillPctToDestroyPart" range unique to the damage type. For example, Scratch has a range of 0~0.7, or 0 to 70%. An inverse lerp is then performed using the Overkill Percentage and this range. This then provides the final chance for this attack to destroy the body part.

Chance to Destroy = (OVERKILL PERCENTAGE - LOWER)/(UPPER - LOWER)

This result is the chance that the body part is destroyed by the attack. For example, if the attack deals 70% of the parts maximum health as Scratch Type Overkill Damage, then there is a 100% chance the body part would be destroyed. If the chance is failed, the part is not destroyed and instead reduced to 1 HP.

The end result is that weapons that deal high single attack damage are more likely to result in body part destruction than lower damage attacks of their damage type, and that the chance of a body part getting destroyed by a single attack goes up as its HP goes down. It also makes the overkillPctToDestroyPart of each damage type an important factor in the combat performance of weapons that use it.

Damage types

Blunt

If a strike from an attack dealing blunt damage is sufficient to destroy the struck body part, damage can propagate to the parent part of the destroyed part, if and only if that parent part is considered an outside part. How the damage is divided between the two attacks is currently unclear. This allows blunt damage to deal significant damage to important body parts even if they were not the part directly targeted.

Additionally, if a blunt attack hits the parentless body part of a target, e.g. the torso on humans and most other pawns, there is a small chance to Stun the target. This chance depends on the percentage of the body part's maximum HP that the attack inflicted as damage. It is determined by the following curve. I.e. if a single strike does 90% of the maximum, not remaining, HP of the torso to the torso of a pawn, it has a 15% chance to be stunned.

Alternatively, if a blunt attack hits a body part of a target that a is source of consciousness, e.g. the brain on humans and most other pawns, there is a larger chance to Stun the target. This chance depends on the percentage of the body part's maximum HP that the attack inflicted as damage. It is determined by the following curve. I.e. if a single strike does 50% of the maximum, not remaining, HP of the brain to the brain of a pawn, it has a 100% chance to be stunned.

In both cases the stun duration appears to be 0.66s

If neither the parentless body part nor a consciousness source are hit, no stun occurs.

Eyes specifically have a 0% hit chance factor against blunt damage, meaning they will never be hit by a blunt attack.

Stun Chance per Percentage of Torso's Maximum HP	Stun Chance per Percentage of Brain's Maximum HP

Bomb

Bomb damage is done by a variety of explosive weapons and is additionally effective against buildings. The default damage is 50, with a default AP of 10% and stopping power of 0.5. It does 4x Damage to Plants and to impassable buildings such as Nutrient Paste Dispensers and 2x to passable buildings such as armchairs. Additionally, Walls specifically have an additional 2x multiplier, stacking with the previous 4x, for a total of 8x damage. Each hit picks 1-4 random body part targets to affect (either internal or external, and can target the same part twice). Then split the total damage evenly across those parts. Then roll for armor penetration per each hit. For each internal part that takes damage, apply the hit damage to the parent part (even if the parent was already hit) (this is bonus damage).

Bullet

Target a single random internal or external body part. Roll for AP. If an internal part takes damage, apply the hit damage to the parent part (this is bonus damage).

Burn

Identical to Flame except that it cannot ignite targets.

Cut

Each hit rolls 0-100 for how many parts the strike damages. Result 0 - 59 is 1 target.. 60-89 is 2.. 90-99 is 3.. exactly 100 is 4 parts hit. If it's more than 1 target, multiply the damage of the hit by 1.4. Target random internal or external body parts (if a single-hit, cannot target internal parts. otherwise, can) (all multi-hit targets must be adjacent to each other). The total damage of the hit is evenly split across all targets. Roll for AP only against the first picked target regardless of the rest, and apply that damage to all targets. If an internal part is damaged without it's parent part being damaged, deal the same hit damage onto the parent part as well (this is bonus damage) (doesn't apply to bones).

Demolish

Demolish damage is done by breach axes and is additionally effective against buildings. It applies a 10x Damage multiplier when attacking buildings, but applies an additional 0.75x multiplier when attacking the target is impassible such as walls, for a net multiplier of 7.5x against that class of building. In all other ways, it is otherwise identical to Blunt damage.

EMP

EMP damage is a fairly unique form of damage that does no direct harm to organic pawns, but temporarily stuns mechanical pawns and some objects.

The weapons that deal EMP damage include:

• EMP grenades
• EMP launcher
• EMP shell
• IED EMP trap
• Zeushammer
• Persona zeushammer

Additionally, when destroyed the Defoliator condition causer will release a EMP blast with a 9 tile radius.

EMP mainly serves to stun mechanoids, revenants, metalhorrors, nociospheres, turrets, and mortars. Every stun "damage" inflicts 30 ticks (0.5 secs) of stun. Most items do 50 EMP damage, or 25 seconds of stun.

After being stunned, targets become 'Adapted', gaining immunity from further stuns for 2,200 ticks (36.67 secs). The immunity starts ticking down as soon as the stun is applied; stun duration or future stuns have no effect on adaptation. The post-stun Adapted duration is 700 ticks (11.67 secs) for most items. Some pawns such as command mechanoids and nociospheres have EMP resistance, so are stunned for less time. Metalhorrors are incapable of adapting and can be stun locked.

Damage	Sources	Stun Duration	Post-Stun Adaption Duration	Ideal Stun Uptime
9	Zeushammer, Persona zeushammer	270 ticks (4.5 secs)	1,930 ticks (32.17 secs)	12%
45	Awful quality EMP launcher	1,350 ticks (22.5 secs)	850 ticks (14.17 secs)	61%
50	All other sources	1,500 ticks (25 secs)	700 ticks (11.67 secs)	68%
62.5	Masterwork quality EMP launcher	1,875 ticks (31.25 secs)	325 ticks (5.42 secs)	85%
75	Legendary quality EMP launcher	2,250 ticks (37.5 secs)	0 ticks (0 secs)	100%

Any amount of EMP damage will also:

• Inflict brain shock on pawns with brain implants (Learning assistant , Neurocalculator , Circadian assistant , Circadian half-cycler )
• Inflicts vomiting on pawns with certain stomach implants (Nuclear stomach , Reprocessor stomach , Sterilizing stomach )
• Break shield belts, which will recharge as if they reached 0 HP normally.
• Disable the power generation of generators.
• Disable low-shield packs for 600 ticks (10 secs); the burnout timer continues to run while stunned.
• Disable mech low-shields and mech high-shields for 1,200 ticks (20 secs). For mech high-shields, an EMP shell must impact the actual shield; the blast will not disable it.
• Reveal revenants and sightstealers.
• If an EMP attack does more EMP damage to a mortar than the remaining HP it has, the mortar will explode.

Using EMP attacks against friendlies counts as an attack, even if they aren't hurt.

RangedStab

RangedStab is unlike other damage types in that it can directly apply its damage to an internal body part without damaging the exterior parent. That is, it can deal full damage to a liver but somehow not damage the torso on the way in. In comparison, melee stabs will split damage between internal and parent, while ranged attacks like bullets and arrows will duplicate the damage in its entirety for each part.

The exception to this is when RangedStab damage is mitigated by armor, at which point it will deal damage to both internal child and external parent, splitting it 50/50. This disparity in damage modes is likely a bug, and it is probably intended that damage is dealt to the parent regardless.

Flame

Flame damage has a default damage of 10 and typically has no armor penetration at all. If any damage is dealt by flame damage at all, i.e. it is not fully negated by protective apparel, there is a chance to ignite the pawn.

This chance does not scale with the damage done i.e. a partial mitigation does not reduce the chance. However, it does scale with the Flammability of the target, and is defined by the following graph:

Ignition Chance per Target Flammability

For example, a normal human has a flammability of 70% and so has a 100% chance to ignite if any flame damage is taken, while a human wearing phoenix armor has a flammability of 2% and so has a 1.4% chance to ignite if any flame damage is taken.

Factors	Flammability	Ignition Chance upon Flame Damage Taken
Default Human	70%	100% (1 in 1)
Fire resistant	10%	7% (1 in 14.3)
Phoenix armor	2%	1.4% (1 in 71.4)
Phoenix armor + Fire resistant	0.2%	0.14% (1 in 714.3)
Default Mechanoid	0%	0% (Never)

If the pawn is ignited the size of the fire is randomly selected between 15% and 25%, which affects the difficulty of putting it out and the chance to spread.

In addition to weapons that deal flame damage, lightning also deals 10 flame damage its area of effect.

Scratch

Scratch damage does damage differently depending on what part is initially targeted.

If the part targeted is internal, then a count is made of all parts from the targeted part, and that part's parent, and that part's parent, etc. until a part that is external is found. The damage dealt is then evenly divided among these parts, including the targeted part and the final outside part. Note that in testing, no scratch attack was seen initially targeting an internal part. It is unclear if this is even possible to occur in game.

If the part targeted is external, then a list is created including: the originally targeted part, the children parts of the original part, the parent of the original part, and the children of the parent of the original part. Two parts are then selected from this list at random,^[Verify] and then 67% of the original post-armor damage is dealt to both parts. Note that is can result in DPS 33% higher than the weapon's nominal value, though damage may be also limited by overkill prevention.

In this instance, Scratch has a overkillPctToDestroyPart range of 0~0.7, or 0% to 70%. This means there is a linear probability from 0% chance of destruction when the no damage over current HP is dealt, to 100% chance the body part would be destroyed when the attack deals 70% of the parts maximum health as Scratch Type Overkill Damage. If the chance is failed, the part is not destroyed and instead reduced to 1 HP.

For example, a power claw deals 22 scratch damage. If the initial attack targets the nose, the head's child part, then an eye could be selected as it is also a child part of the head. If the initial attack was also halved by armor, then this attack would deal 7.37 damage to the nose and 7.37 to the eye.

Toxic bite

Identical to Bite, but also inflicts a 1.5% severity increase of toxic buildup for each point of Bite damage inflicted, multiplied by the Toxic Resistance of the target and inversely proportional to the body size of the target i.e. a target with 50% Toxic Resistance and a body size of 2 will take 25% of the toxic buildup.

Animals will not apply the toxic buildup hediff when hunting for food, even when using an attack with this damage type. This is to prevent them from rotting their prey with toxic buildup, and being left unable to eat, only to have to repeat the cycle.^[Wildmen?]

Toxic bullet

Identical to Bullet, but also inflicts a 0.65% severity increase of toxic buildup for each point of Bullet damage inflicted, multiplied by the Toxic Resistance of the target and inversely proportional to the body size of the target i.e. a target with 50% Toxic Resistance and a body size of 2 will take 25% of the toxic buildup.

The tag is set such that animals will not apply the toxic buildup hediff when hunting for food, even when using an attack with this damage type, however it is unclear if this is functional or merely a hold over from copying the standard set by toxic bite as that condition cannot occur in vanilla. It is also unclear whether it would apply to colonists hunting with such weapons.^[Verify]

Toxic scratch

Identical to Scratch, but inflicts a 1.5% severity increase of toxic buildup for each point of Scratch damage inflicted, multiplied by the Toxic Resistance of the target and inversely proportional to the body size of the target i.e. a target with 50% Toxic Resistance and a body size of 2 will take 25% of the toxic buildup.

Animals will not apply the toxic buildup hediff when hunting for food, even when using an attack with this damage type. This is to prevent them from rotting their prey with toxic buildup, and being left unable to eat, only to have to repeat the cycle.

Thump

Thump damage is done by Thump cannon, and is exceptionally effective against buildings. The default damage is only 5, with 0 AP, however it does 4x Damage to Plants, 15x damage to impassable buildings such as Nutrient Paste Dispensers, 7.5x to passable buildings such as armchairs. Additionally, both walls and natural rock walls specifically have an additional 2x multiplier, stacking with the previous 15x, for a total of 30x damage.

Vaporize

Vaporize damage is done by the hellsphere cannon of Diabolus and the fleshmelter bolt of Nociosphere. The default damage is 800, with a default AP of 100% and stopping power of 1.5. It does 4x to impassable buildings such as Nutrient Paste Dispensers, 2x to Plants and passable buildings such as armchairs, and 0.1x damage to corpses.

It is resisted by heat armor and heats up the area in which it is fired.^{[Detail needed]}

Decayed Organ

A result of Organ decay, which can apply to the Heart, Lungs, and Kidneys.

Acid Burn

Can be received via the various acid spits: Fleshmass spitter acid, Corrosive heart acid, and Acid spray acid. Devourers also inflict this damage to the swallowed pawn.

Psychic

An awoken unnatural corpse will psychically incinerate the target's brain.

Nerve

Damage dealt from the Nerve spiker.

Nerve Stun

The stun ability of the nerve spiker.

Mech-band Shockwave

From the Apocrition shockwave upon its death^[Verify].

Energy Bolt

One of the projectiles fired by the Nociosphere.

Digestion

Inflicted to corpses by the Harbinger tree, and to pawns swallowed by a Devourer^[Verify].

Electrical Burn

Electrical burns are periodically received by entities connected to an Electroharvester.

Version history

• Beta 19/1.0 - Bomb damage now does 2x damage vs plants. Note: this was increased in a later version to 4x, as noted above.
• 1.2.2719 - New visual effects for the EMP state on mechs or turrets, with electrical arcs and sparks.
• 1.3.3200 - Thump damage multiplier versus walls reduced from 4x to 2x. Demolish damage multiplier versus impassible buildings reduced from 1 to 0.75.