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Resident Evil 2 - Weapon Damage Calculations

Written by tuxedocritter / Jan 29, 2019

Ongoing calculation on how many rounds it takes to down enemies.

Other RE2 Guides:

Current Values Calculated

While playing the resident evil 2 remake, i was testing weapon damage values on Leon (Normal). Here are the results so far:

Zombies, aiming, and what is the best handgun in Resident Evil 2 Remake?:

Fully aiming until there is a dot at the center of your reticle increases damage by approximately 75%! therefor, increased accuracy speed should be seen as an overall dps increase.
Zombie headshot damage vs body shot damage (both aimed) is an overall 40% damage increase.
Jill/chris handguns (15 seconds for 12 aimed rounds) are slightly faster at aiming than matilda/albert handguns (16.5 seconds for 12 aimed rounds), therefor have my recommendation as being slightly better. it is worth mentioning that once the 3 round burst is acquired for matilda, it can aim SIGNIFICANTLY faster (10 seconds for 12 rounds) and is therefor a higher dps handgun (firing it semi-auto). any weapon with a laser sight ( JMB HP3 Pistol) is automatically at maximum aim (and therefor the +75% damage). because accuracy is power, lasers are even more awesome than they appear.

Other interesting tidbits:

The shotgun has surprisingly high damage (even without upgrades), very comparable with the magnum.
The flamethrower is especially effective against Birkin 2 (crane). currently birkin 2 and the veggie zombies are the only recommended monsters to kill it with.
Tyrant (final form) can be stunned from his charge with 2-3 handgun bullets you just have to wait out his two minutes.
Zombies tend to fall down with 3 headshots, 6 bodyshots, or 5 legshots.
Player character health is 1200.
(Obvious) always have a knife equipped if you plan on killing something. You can get 3 uses.
(Obvious) save your grenades for bosses/high threat enemies, and flash grenades for stunning MR X/lickers.

Comparative damage values (based on MR X/Birkin Battles):

Knife – 1 damage
Handgun (all types) – 2 damage.
Handgun (high power) – 3 damage.
Shotgun (no upgrades – 5.3 damage.
Shotgun (upgraded) - 6.6 damage.
Magnum (no upgrades) – 6.6 damage.
Magnum (upgraded barrel) – 10 damage.
Hand grenade - 26 damage.
Flamethrower: 100 fuel = appr. 17 damage, or 0.17 (only zombies tested) (damage on birkin 2 is closer to 80 per 100 fuel).
Flamethrower (upgraded): 100 fuel = appr. 42.5 damage (or .425 per fuel on zombies) (pending birkin 3 test).

Knife testing:

Knife has approximately 50 "swipe” durability – tested on zombies (center-mass)
Durability value verified 1000. avg 11.85 (84 swipes) verified by JpDeathBlade
Damage varies based on Frames per second:
At 75 FPS, killed on average in 15 body slashes
At 30 FPS, killed on average in 21 body slashes
3 "defense” uses per knife (each defense uses approximately 40% durability)

Zombie testing (hits until dead)(10 tests performed each):

Knife - 15-20 center-mass

Note: Aiming on average increases damage by 75%, and headshots increase damage by appr. 35% (aim for the head, and fully aim!)

Results with different pistol variants (albert/matilda/etc.) yielded extremely similar damage results.*
Given that aiming results in a large increase in your dps, quicker aiming speed should be seen as higher damage (in practice)*
Albert has the slowest aiming speed, with matilda in the middle, and both chris and jill aiming speeds being very fast, therefor, faster damage overall!*

Pistol: FULLY AIMED 8.7 body shots (5.1 headshots) OR 14.6 body shots and 12.3 headshots if not aimed
Pistol (albert): (ALL AIMED) 7 body shots, or 5.2 headshots
Pistol (chris): (ALL AIMED) 5.1 headshots
Pistol (jill): (ALL AIMED) 5.2 headshots
Pistol (matilda):(ALL AIMED) 6.8 body shots, or 4.9 headshots

M-19 (high powered pistol): FULLY AIMED 5.4 body shots (or 3.2 headshots)
Shotgun (no upgrades): 2.16 (84% headshot instant-kill)
Magnum (no upgrades): 2 (instant kill)
Magnum (upgraded barrel): 2 (instant kill)
Flamethrower: 100 fuel (zombies do not appear to take burn damage over time).
Flamethrower (upgraded): 40 fuel (60% reduction in fuel usage)

MR X testing (hits until downed)(3 tests performed each):

Hand Grenade: 2
Pistol: (44 aimed body shots, or 64 non-aimed body shots)or ( 7.8 aimed headshots, or 13.7 non-aimed headshots)
M-19 (high powered pistol): (21 aimed body shots, or 36 non-aimed body shots) or (4.4 aimed headshots, or 7.5 non-aimed headshots)
Shotgun (no upgrades): 14 (or 4 headshots)
Shotgun (upgraded): 12 (or 4 headshots) (all headshots will throw him backwards)
Magnum (no upgrades): 13 (or 3 headshots)
Magnum (upgraded barrel): 11 (or 2 aimed headshots)(or 3 non-aimed headshots)
Flamethrower (upgraded): 35-40 fuel

Birkin (form 2 - crane battle):

Handgun(infinite): appr 37 body shots
Handgun (M19 high power): 25
Hand grenade: 3 hand grenades
Upgraded magnum: 4 upgraded magnum shots (2 in eye)
Upgraded shotgun: 6 (4 in eye)
Flamethrower: 100 flamethrower (body) (extremely effective!)

Birkin (form 3):

Back eye (3-5 handgun) (2 upgraded shotgun)
Leg eye (6 handgun) (2 upgraded shotgun)
Arm eye (8-10 handgun) (1 upgraded shotgun)
*Optional "Reveal state"* although it makes some difference if you attack him during the reveal stage, it seems to have minimal impact on his final stage health.
Core eye: (8 grenades with no reveal damage) (11 upgraded magnum with no reveal damage) (190 upgraded flames, or 304 flames un-upgraded) (15 upgraded shotgun).

Tyrant (MR X) Final Form:

For this boss fight, as long as you manage to stun him with damage, the rocket launcher drops after 2 minutes of fighting. only the launcher can kill him.
During his instant kill charged attack, it doesn't take much damage to stop him, you can stop him with as little as 2 handgun rounds.

Birkin 5 (blob):

*Weapons have limited effectiveness until his eye opens at the front of the cart*

4 hand grenades
3 rockets
8 upgraded magnum shots
9 upgraded shotgun blasts
Flamethrower is ineffective
Handgun not enough dps before death (unless you start firing from beginning of fight nonstop. then 70 rounds).
Matilda burst: 33 rounds to the eye.

Lickers testing: