Gunfire Reborn – Simple DPS Guide

An actual guide on how damage is calculated in game. Especially useful considering the last boss has a DPS check or you lose.

Guide to DPS

All credit goes to JDEndure!

Intro

In this guide, as the title suggests, will be a semi detailed and simplified explanation on how damage is calculated in game and why you will notice some damage numbers are differently coloured. I will also cover portions of base damage versus elemental damage as well as express my personal views on some specific Talents and Scrolls to help clarify what I believe are essential to a successful run (in terms of damage output).

How Is My Damage Calculated?

Obviously some things actually need a little explaining so that you get a clear representation on what affects the formula and how it affects the end value…. “Additive” and “Multiplicative”. Exactly like simple maths, when two numbers are added you get a lower value than what the value would be if they were multiplied.

Additive Example: 2 + 4 = 6
Multiplicative Emaple: 2 x 4 = 8

One important factor to also recognise, is that multiplicative values will increase significantly more than what additive values would.

Additive Example: 2 + 4 + 6 = 12
Multiplicative Emaple: 2 x 4 x 6 = 48

With that out the way, we can look at what the actual damage formula is and how certain variables can interfere with the equation.

The following is essentially what the game considers a value to factor into the formula.

• Base Weapon Damage – BWD
• Talent, Scroll and Ascension effects – Buffs
• Hitting a weak spot – CritX
• Lucky Shot – LuckS

Simplified Damage Formula

BWD x Buffs x CritX x LuckS = Damage

It is important to note that BWD refers to 1 Shot out of the weapon.

Shotguns have listed a base damage value per pellet in the shot fired. The formula DOES NOT calculate the damage of each pellet, but rather the entire shot itself. The only exception to this is when a portion of the pellets hit a weak spot and others do not.

If a weapon fires more than one bullet in one shot due to the inscription ‘Projectiles +’ the game will treat this exactly like it does a shotgun. Obviously, with the exception of where the bullet hits the target.

Formula in Action [Weapon DMG + CritX]

With the formula in mind and to keep this very simple, here will be a short explanation on how the formula works for just regular non-elemental damage.

Lets take a look at the Foundry.

This is a raw, un-upgraded Foundry at the start of the game:

Disclaimer: Base CritX value of the Foundry is actually 2.0x, this image shows one effected by Talent and Scroll upgrades.

As highlighted above, the base damage value is 145 so without hitting a weak spot, lets put that into the formula.

BWD x Buffs x CritX x LuckS = 145 x 1 x 1 x 1 = 145

Note that all other values start at 1

As highlighted, the CritX value is 2.5.

If a weak spot is hit, this means that the initial value of 1 is replaced with the CritX value of the weapon, as seen below (This is the only value that gets replaced, other values get added).

145 x 1 x 2.5 x 1 = 362.5

This is how the damage is calculated with just base damage without modifiers, as well as dealing a critical hit.

Formula in Action (Damage Modifiers)

With raw damage and CritX explained, we can start to delve into how buffs can affect damage and what it looks like in the equation. There are quite a few variables that will affect a weapon’s base damage both positively and negatively. These are:

• Ascension Upgrades
• Weapon Levels
• Elemental Damage
• Talents
• Scrolls
• Effective Range
• Charge Time(s)

Before going in depth into these categories we can wipe out explanation of a few of the lesser ones here. Anything that increases a certain damage by ‘+[value]%’ directly involves BWD and Buffs in the formula. The below Star Devourer I’ve chosen to analyse has been upgraded and modified to suite this quite well. First, lets only look at the modifiers that affect our base damage for now.

We can see that the BWD is 85, CritX is 3.7. There are also some buffs we can add to our formula to allow us better damage. However, only if certain conditions are met.

85 x 1 x 3.7 x 1 = 314.5

The first one I want to address is our ‘+50% weapon damage against enemies in Burning Effect’. Should our target have said defuff, this will allow us to add ‘.5’ to Buffs in the equation.

85 x 1.5 x 3.7 x 1 = 471.8

The other modifier is our ‘+2% Damage for each ammo in the Magazine’. Even though the wording is funny, this still only affects our Buffs in the equation. The magazine is 200 which means our first shot has +400% Damage, thus we can add ‘4’ to Buffs along side our other modifier.

85 x 5.5 x 3.7 x 1 = 1729.8

With only two modifiers added to Buffs, our damage on our first shot has gone from 314.5 to a whopping 1729.75. and we’re still not finished with all of the factors in the equation.

Elemental Damage

Elemental damage (not to be confused with Elemental Effect Damage) for specific weapons add more values to Buffs in the equation. Refer to the table below for how each damage type effects different health types.

Note that not all of the values in the above table are positive.

Those highlighted in green are bonuses that we can add to our Buffs (The value past 100%). Those highlighted in red are actually values we have to take away from Buffs (The value taken out of 100%).

Continuing from where we left off on the last equation, say our Star Devourer’s first shot hit an enemy target’s weak spot, who still had a Shield and was under the Burning Effect (only add the value that is on top of 100%, in this case, we get another 50% damage, or .5 to buffs).

85 x 6 x 3.7 x 1 = 1887

However if our first shot hit a target that met all conditions, bar the shield. Lets say our target has Armour instead.

This time we have a negative effect on our Buffs. In this case we minus the value that was taken away from 100% in the table above, being -25% or -.25 for the equation).

85 x 5.25 x 3.7 x 1 = 1651.1

Note that Elemental Damage and Elemental Effect Damage are completely separate. This scroll will allow another ‘.5’ to be added to Buffs in damage equations should the right element hit the right health type. Totalling ‘1’ to be added to Buffs in the equation instead of the normal ‘.5’. However you cannot trigger a Elemental Effect such as ‘Burning’, ‘Shock’ or ‘Decay’

True Damage

Also listed in the table above is ‘True Damage’. It is important to be aware that True Damage is completely separate and not included in the damage formula. Instead, it is on its own so it essentially means extra damage that is not effected by any modifiers. The other good thing to understand is that it also completely ignores any Defence / Resistance stats that targets may have.

Formula in Action (Lucky Shot Chance)

The lucky shot stat is the last thing to add to our equation to give us our total damage from 1 shot. However, one thing to bare in mind here is that Lucky Shot is a random chance to add to the equation based on ‘Lucky Shot Chance’, but it can stack above 100%, granting guaranteed bonus damage and a chance for even higher damage.

Beginning the game for the first time, Lucky Shot Chance is 0% meaning it is impossible to increase that value in the equation without buffs from Scrolls, Ascension and Inscriptions. However, even if we had those buffs to increase our Lucky Shot Chance, we wouldn’t be able to see that stat. LuckS is a hidden stat that you can only really see the effects from your damage numbers and colours.

Lets use our Star Devourer again.

Same stats and modifiers.

Let’s meet all the criteria as before. First shot in the mag hits a critical shot and the target is under Burning Effect with a Shield. With 0% Lucky Shot Chance.

85 x 6 x 3.7 x 1 = 1887

Now, for example, lets meet all the criteria and say we had a scroll that gave us +10% Lucky Shot Chance. This means that only 1 out of 10 shots will follow the this equation:

85 x 6 x 3.7 x 1.1 = 2075.7

Say we earned another scroll that gave us +30% LuckS and we got another inscription on our weapon that added +20%. This means 60% of our shots would use the following equation:

85 x 6 x 3.7 x 1.6 = 3019.2

The total damage we deal is increasing massively from just small changes. But this is hardly a finished product. As stated above, Lucky Shot Chance can be well over 100%. What if we had +275% Lucky Shot Chance? This would mean all of our shots will follow an equation where LuckS is = 3.

But 75% of our shots will follow this equation where LuckS = 3.75.

85 x 6 x 3.7 x 3.75 = 7076.3

Every 100% Lucky Shot chance guarantee’s the next whole number to multiply. As seen below.

Every shot made with all of those modifiers would deal 7076.3 damage. Better yet, how cool do our damage numbers look!?

Damage Colours

The game does an amazing job at allowing you to identify what formulas your bullets are using via the colour of text used to display how much damage you just dealt.

Dealing damage with a weapon without triggering CritX or LuckS will result in regular white or grey damage numbers. Dealing damage with a weapon triggering CritX but without LuckS will result in Yellow Damage numbers.

Dealing damage with a weapon triggering LuckS and your Lucky Shot Chance is 1-130%, will result in Orange text with a chance at Purple. Dealing damage with a weapon triggering LuckS and your Lucky Shot Chance is 131-230%, will result in Purple text with a chance at Red. Dealing damage with a weapon triggering LuckS and your Lucky Shot Chance is 231%+, will result in Red text.

Even if you hit triggering CritX, also triggering LuckS will always result in the LuckS colour.

After Calculation

After all of the damage is calculated there isnt anything that will prevent any damage from happening with a few exceptions… 1 scroll in particular…

Fish or Bear Paw Scroll

The Fish or Bear Paw Scroll has incorrect wording when it comes to an in depth look at the damage calculation. Notice it state “-50% weapon damage”. Unfortunately this does not affect BWD individually, but rather it actually means that your total damage is halved.

You may also notice that it states “…but each attack deals the damage twice”. This, to my knowledge is also incorrect as skills are not effected by this scroll.

The scroll should say: “Total damage is halved but all shots hit twice”

This is because the scroll is intended to allow a second chance to proc weapon effects and elemental effects. The scroll doesn’t actually reduce DPS by any means, it just allows a second proc chance.

Hex Smoke

While playing Crown Prince, the Ascension ‘Hex Smoke’ to my knowledge actually multiplies the total damage dealt by the specified value, depending on the level of Ascension.

• Lvl 1 = Total Dmg x 1.2
• Lvl 2 = Total Dmg x 1.3
• Lvl 3 = Total Dmg x 1.4