How do the different ammunition types affect weapons

planetside-2

Most weapons in Planetside 2 can be loaded with soft-point or high-velocity ammunition. Shotguns have slugs, and crossbows have explosive and sensor bolts.

It should be fairly obvious what their general effects and purpose are. However, hard data (with numbers. Numbers are good) is nowhere to be seen. What are the exact values of things?

  • How are damage, range, bullet velocity and trajectory affected?
  • Does slug damage depend on the shotgun?
  • Are these different for each empire and NS weapons?

Best Answer

Attachment stat changes were data-mined from the game in September 2014. Here is the spreadsheet I will use as a source.

Soft Point

  • Increases maximum damage range to 15m (Effectively reduces hits to kill by 1 in the 10m-15m range)
  • Reduces bullet velocity by 5% for all weapons (Negligible change)
  • Widely considered the best ammunition slot attachment.

High Velocity

  • Increases bullet velocity by 5% for most weapons with some exceptions listed below (Negligible change)
  • Increases vertical recoil by 10% for all weapons except 7.5% for Battle Rifles (More difficult to keep bursts on target)
  • Increases minimum damage range by 10m (Reduces shots to kill in a tiny number of scenarios for SMGs and Carbines)
  • Widely considered to be pointless, as the drawbacks are more significant than the benefits when equipped for its intended purpose of long range combat. May be okay on the few exceptional weapons that gain more than 15% velocity.

Slug Ammunition

  • Decreases number of pellets per shot to 1
  • Increases damage per pellet based on shotgun class: 500 @ 8m -> 334 @ 40m (Automatic and Semi-Automatic) 800 @ 8m -> 400 @ 40m (Pump Action)
  • Increases cone of fire by 75%
  • Does not change the 1.5x headshot damage multiplier of shotguns compared to other weapons 2x
  • Widely considered to be amusing, but not particularly effective with the exception of pump action slugs having the potential to 1HKO on a headshot within about 15m.

High Velocity Exceptions

  • T32 Bull: 670 -> 672 (0.3%)
  • CME: 670 -> 672 (0.3%)
  • Gauss Rifle Burst 650 -> 650 (0%)
  • NC6S Gauss SAW-S 630 -> 650 (3.2%)
  • Razor GD-23 560 -> 650 (16.1%)
  • Reaper DMR 555 -> 650 (17.1%)
  • T1B Cycler 580 -> 650 (12.1%)
  • T5 AMC 570 -> 650 (14.0%)
  • T9 CARV-S 600 -> 650 (8.3%)
  • Corvus VA55 600 -> 650 (8.3%)
  • Equinox VE2 Burst 615 -> 650 (5.7%)
  • SVA-88 630 -> 650 (3.2%)
  • Gauss Compact Burst 500 -> 600 (20%)
  • HC1 Cougar 520 -> 600 (15.4%)
  • TRAC-5 Burst 490 -> 600 (22.4%)
  • Solstice Burst 515 -> 600 (16.5%)
  • AC-X11 480 -> 550 (14.6%)
  • NS-11C 450 -> 550 (22.2%)
  • Pulsar C 515 -> 550 (6.8%)
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