Conan Exiles - Armor Penetration Guide (2024)

A guide on what armor penetration is, its relations to armor and damage reduction., and some rough numbers on damage increase using varying amounts of armor penetration.

Guide to Understanding Armor Penetration

Introduction

Welcome to the Understanding Armor Penetration guide!

I hope to be able to answer some questions you may have on the subject, including:

• What is armor penetration?
• How does it work?
• How much damage does it add to my attacks?

For those who want to know damage numbers and don’t care for math, you can skip ahead to Results.

Let’s begin.

What Is Armor Penetration?

Armor penetration is defined as the percentage of armor a weapon can bypass when it makes contact with an opponent.

For example, a weapon with an armor penetration value of 10% will ignore 10% of the target’s armor. Pretty straightforward. Some armor penetration values per weapon class are listed below (keep in mind these are the min-max ranges):

• 2 Handed Swords have armor penetration values ranging from 19% to 22%.
• 2 Handed Maces have armor penetration values ranging from 26% to 31%.
• 2 Handed Spears have armor penetration values ranging from 7% to 9%.
• Katanas have armor penetration values ranging from 11% to 13%.
• 1 Handed Swords have armor penetration values ranging from 7% to 9%.
• 1 Handed Maces have armor penetration values ranging from 22% to 27%.
• 1 Handed Spears have armor penetration values ranging from 16% to 18%.
• Shortswords have armor penetration values ranging from 7% to 9%.
• Daggers have armor penetration values ranging from 14% to 18%.
• Bows (combined with arrows) have armor penetration values ranging from 22% to 27%.
• Shields have armor penetration values ranging from 11% to 13%.

Note that 1 Handed Axes, 2 Handed Axes, and Throwing Axes have no armor penetration.

• Wait, shields have armor penetration?! Yes, it’s a long story.
• Its Relation To Armor and damage reduction.
• Unfortunately, determining the effectiveness of armor penetration is not so cut-and-dry. This is because of the relationship between armor values and damage reduction..

Damage reduction. Functions by calculating the total amount of armor worn and matching that value on a curve Funcom created to assign a damage reduction. Percentage.

• I sourced this graph from the Conan Exiles wiki on damage reduction.:

We can see from the graph that there are diminishing returns for damage reduction. relative to the amount of total armor worn. This makes calculating real effectiveness of armor penetration a more challenging task.

Armor Penetration Against Armor Sets

Now for the meat of the guide.

Because of the nature of the damage reduction. curve, determining a concrete value of effectiveness for armor penetration is out of reach. However, by testing various armor penetration values against specific armor thresholds, we can get a rough idea of its efficacy.

Thus, we come to the armors that will be tested. I have tested nine total sets of armor: 3 light, 3 medium, and three heavy sets, stratified across Low Tier (base DLC/Iron), Medium Tier (base Nordheimer), and High Tier (base Epic). They will be assigned the following abbreviations:

• Low Tier / Light “LowLight”.
• Low Tier / Medium “LowMed”.
• Low Tier / Heavy “LowHeav”.
• Medium Tier / Light “MedLight”.
• Medium Tier / Medium “MedMed”.
• Medium Tier / Heavy “MedHeav”.
• High Tier / Light “HighLight”.
• High Tier / Medium “HighMed”.
• High Tier / Heavy “HighHeav”.

As well, weaponry will need to be addressed. An average armor penetration value will be assigned per weapon, with outlier numbers in-class removed, so we can determine effectiveness with the “average” weapon in that class. Note that some have been rounded slightly:

• 2 Handed Swords: 21% penetration.
• 2 Handed Maces: 28% penetration.
• 2 Handed Spears: 8% penetration.
• Katanas: 12% penetration.
• 1 Handed Swords: 8% penetration.
• 1 Handed Maces: 25% penetration.
• 1 Handed Spears: 17% penetration.
• Shortswords: 8% penetration.
• Daggers: 17% penetration.
• Bows: 25% penetration.
• Shields: 12% penetration.

And now for our armor and damage reduction. numbers (I have shuffled them around to be in order by armor class):

• LowLight: 31 armor @ 11% damage reduction.
• MedLight: 51 armor @ 16% damage reduction.
• HighLight: 80 armor @ 24% damage reduction.
• LowMed: 134 armor @ 34% damage reduction.
• MedMed: 211 armor @ 45% damage reduction.
• HighMed: 337 armor @ 57% damage reduction.
• LowHeav: 320 armor @ 56% damage reduction.
• MedHeav: 503 armor @ 66% damage reduction.
• HighHeav: 800 armor @ 76% damage reduction.

Methodology

Now that we have the numbers with which to perform the tests, a brief explanation of the tests involved. To determine the amount of armor after armor penetration, we will use the equation:

• y = a(x)

where y is the resulting armor value, a is the initial armor value, and x is the resulting percentage of armor after armor penetration, found by (1 – armor pen).

• Example: 600 = 800(0.75), where the armor penetration is 25%.

I have gone through the process of checking these resulting armor values in-game to determine the new damage reduction. values. They will be listed after armor. And yes, it was really annoying to do.

Now for the real numbers. The number listed will be the armor post armor penetration (note some numbers will be rounded to the nearest integer), as well as the new damage reduction. percentage. As well, because some weapons share average armor penetration percentages, for the sake of keeping this as short as possible those that can will be combined:

2 Handed Sword

• LowLight: 24 armor @ 8% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• MedLight: 40 armor @ 13% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• HighLight: 63 armor @ 20% damage reduction. (4% difference).
• LowMed: 106 armor @ 29% damage reduction. (5% difference).
• MedMed: 167 armor @ 39% damage reduction. (6% difference).
• HighMed: 266 armor @ 51% damage reduction. (6% difference).
• LowHeav: 253 armor @ 50% damage reduction. (6% difference).
• MedHeav: 397 armor @ 61% damage reduction. (5% difference).
• HighHeav: 632 armor @ 71% damage reduction. (5% difference).

2 Handed Mace

• LowLight: 22 armor @ 8% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• MedLight: 37 armor @ 12% damage reduction. (4% difference).
• HighLight: 58 armor @ 18% damage reduction. (6% difference).
• LowMed: 96 armor @ 27% damage reduction. (7% difference).
• MedMed: 152 armor @ 37% damage reduction. (8% difference).
• HighMed: 243 armor @ 49% damage reduction. (8% difference).
• LowHeav: 230 armor @ 47% damage reduction. (9% difference).
• MedHeav: 362 armor @ 59% damage reduction. (8% difference).
• HighHeav: 576 armor @ 69% damage reduction. (7% difference).

2 Handed Spear, 1 Handed Sword, Shortsword

• LowLight: 29 armor @ 10% damage reduction. (1% difference).
• MedLight: 47 armor @ 15% damage reduction. (1% difference).
• HighLight: 74 armor @ 22% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• LowMed: 123 armor @ 32% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• MedMed: 194 armor @ 43% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• HighMed: 310 armor @ 55% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• LowHeav: 294 armor @ 53% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• MedHeav: 463 armor @ 64% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• HighHeav: 736 armor @ 75% damage reduction. (1% difference).

Katana, Shield

• LowLight: 27 armor @ 9% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• MedLight: 45 armor @ 15% damage reduction. (1% difference).
• Note: I think a rounding error is involved, it should be 2%.
• HighLight: 70 armor @ 21% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• LowMed: 118 armor @ 32% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• MedMed: 186 armor @ 42% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• HighMed: 297 armor @ 54% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• LowHeav: 282 armor @ 53% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• MedHeav: 443 armor @ 64% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• HighHeav: 704 armor @ 74% damage reduction. (2% difference).

1 Handed Mace, Bow

• LowLight: 23 armor @ 8% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• MedLight: 38 armor @ 13% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• HighLight: 60 armor @ 19% damage reduction. (5% difference).
• LowMed: 101 armor @ 28% damage reduction. (6% difference).
• MedMed: 158 armor @ 39% damage reduction. (6% difference).
• HighMed: 252 armor @ 50% damage reduction. (7% difference).
• LowHeav: 240 armor @ 49% damage reduction. (7% difference).
• MedHeav: 377 armor @ 60% damage reduction. (6% difference).
• HighHeav: 600 armor @ 70% damage reduction. (6% difference).

1 Handed Spear, Dagger

• LowLight: 26 armor @ 9% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• MedLight: 42 armor @ 15% damage reduction. (2% difference).
• HighLight: 66 armor @ 21% damage reduction. (3% difference).
• LowMed: 111 armor @ 30% damage reduction. (4% difference).
• MedMed: 175 armor @ 41% damage reduction. (4% difference).
• HighMed: 280 armor @ 52% damage reduction. (5% difference).
• LowHeav: 266 armor @ 51% damage reduction. (4% difference).
• MedHeav: 417 armor @ 62% damage reduction. (4% difference).
• HighHeav: 664 armor @ 72% damage reduction. (4% difference).

Results (Skip Here For TL;DR)

With the results above, we can finally determine the effectiveness of armor penetration. The differential in damage reduction. percentages is our de facto damage increase. I shall list the ranges of differential out, separated by weapon and armor type.

2 Handed Swords

• Light: 3-4% increased damage.
• Medium: 5-6% increased damage.
• Heavy: 5-6% increased damage.

2 Handed Maces

• Light: 3-6% increased damage.
• Medium: 7-8% increased damage.
• Heavy: 8-9% increased damage.

2 Handed Spears

• Light: 1-2% increased damage.
• Medium: 2% increased damage.
• Heavy: 2-3% increased damage.

Katanas

• Light: 1-3% increased damage.
• Medium: 2-3% increased damage.
• Heavy: 2-3% increased damage.

1 Handed Swords

• Light: 1-2% increased damage.
• Medium: 2% increased damage.
• Heavy: 2-3% increased damage.

1 Handed Maces

• Light: 3-5% increased damage.
• Medium: 6-7% increased damage.
• Heavy: 6-7% increased damage.

1 Handed Spears

• Light: 2-3% increased damage.
• Medium: 4-5% increased damage.
• Heavy: 4% increased damage.

Shortswords

• Light: 1-2% increased damage.
• Medium: 2% increased damage.
• Heavy: 2-3% increased damage.

Daggers

• Light: 2-3% increased damage.
• Medium: 4-5% increased damage.
• Heavy: 4% increased damage.

Bows

• Light: 3-5% increased damage.
• Medium: 6-7% increased damage.
• Heavy: 6-7% increased damage.

Shields

• Light: 1-3% increased damage.
• Medium: 2-3% increased damage.
• Heavy: 2-3% increased damage.

Conclusion

What can we learn from this? Well, for one, math can be incredibly tedious. Second, we see from our damage numbers that there is a sweet spot in the mid-to-high tier medium armor range where armor penetration seems to be most effective. We also see less effectiveness against both lightly and highly armored opponents.

Keep in mind that this, despite its length, is not a conclusive study. There are many, many armor sets out there, with a nearly infinite set of combinations. There are also several outlier armor penetration numbers that were not tested for the sake of brevity. Other people in other situations may come to different conclusions.

Sunder was also not tested, but you could apply the same logic to that, with 10/20/30/40/50% armor penetration increments, in addition to your chosen weapon.

Another important thing to note is that armor from agility cannot be bypassed via armor penetration.