Armour Hardness

Armour Hardness, also known as Armour Rating, is an innate characteristic of a ship's hull that determines how damage from specific weapons will be inflicted on the hull of the target. In general, larger ships tend to have high Armour Hardness values, while smaller ships tend to have low Armour Hardness values. This value is specific to each model of ship, and cannot be improved or otherwise altered through Outfitting or Engineering options.

Effect on Damage

If a weapon's Pierce Rating is higher than the targeted ship's Hardness Rating, then it will deal its full damage to the hull of the targeted ship. If the Pierce Rating is lower than the Hardness Rating, then damage will be calculated as follows:

$\text{Dealt Damage to Hull}=\text{Weapon Damage}\times \frac{\text{Weapon Armour Pierce Rating}}{\text{Ship Armour Hardness Rating}}$

This means that a Mining Laser, the weakest of all standard weapon modules with a Pierce Rating of 18, used on a Type-10 Defender with an Armour Hardness of 75 will inflict only 24% of its total damage potential. The Cytoscrambler, a specialized anti-shield variant of the Burst Laser, performs even more poorly and will inflict only 1.33-5.00% of its damage, rendering it near useless against hulls.

Armour Hardness Ratings

Ship	Rating
Type-10 Defender	75
Federal Corvette	70
Fer-de-Lance
Imperial Cutter
Mamba
Panther Clipper Mk II
Python Mk II
Alliance Chieftain	65
Alliance Challenger
Alliance Crusader
Anaconda
Corsair
Python
Type-9 Heavy
Beluga Liner	60
Caspian Explorer
Federal Assault Ship
Federal Dropship
Federal Gunship
Imperial Clipper
Type-8 Transporter	58
Type-11 Prospector
Kestrel Mk II	55
Krait Mk II
Krait Phantom
Lynx Highliner
Mandalay
Orca
Vulture
Type-7 Transporter	54
Asp Explorer	52
Asp Scout
Keelback	45
Diamondback Explorer	42
Cobra Mk V	40
Diamondback Scout
Adder	35
Cobra Mk III
Cobra Mk IV
Dolphin
Type-6 Transporter
Viper Mk III
Viper Mk IV
Imperial Courier	30
Eagle	28
Imperial Eagle
Hauler	20
Sidewinder

Armour Pierce Ratings

The Armour Pierce Rating depends on the type and class of the weapon used.

Class independent	Weapon type	Rating
	Mining Lasers	18
	Mines	60
	Missiles (normal and AX)
	Remote Release Flak Launchers
	Plasma Accelerators	100
	Railguns
	Torpedoes	>100
Class dependent	Beam Lasers	18-60
	Burst Lasers	20-65
	Pulse Lasers
	Cannons	30-90
	Fragment Cannons	20-45
	Multi-Cannons	22-68
Exceptions	Cytoscrambler (Burst Laser)	1
	Enforcer Cannon (Multi-Cannon)	30