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:
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
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 |