Mass-effect – How does the Assault Rifle Piercing Mod work

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The Assault Rifle Piercing Mod I has the following description which I find somewhat confusing:

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Allows bullets to pierce 0.50-meter thick objects, but at 60% reduced
damage. Ignores 25.00% of defenses on armored targets.

So, does this reduce my damage to 60% in exchange for armor-piercing, or does 25% of my damage go straight to health, but of that only 60%? How does this work with enemies that have just an armor bar and no health bar like Brutes?

Best Answer

Any projectiles which benefit from the piercing (in this case, penetrate a .5 meter thick object) will deal reduced damage (60%). Projectiles which don't need to penetrate cover or an obstacle to hit their target do normal damage. This includes the visual armor that Husks / Cannibals can get, and the shields of Cerberus Guardians.

Additionally, depending on the type of enemy and the difficulty, some enemies have "Armor" (not to be confused with the yellow Armor bar some enemies have on top of / instead of health). This armor reduces damage by a flat amount, and it is this Armor that the piercing mod works against. So you do get some benefit when attacking all colors of health bar.

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