Sins of a Solar Empire 2 – Guide to Health and Protection Mechanics

Understanding Health and Protection Mechanics

By KarasLegacy.

A ship’s durability mitigates damage from weapons, whether it affects shields, armor, or the hull. Ships with high durability generally take significantly less damage than their base health would suggest.

A weapon’s pierce stat reduces durability. For instance, 100 pierce nullifies 100 durability. Thus, high-durability ships (like capital ships) are best countered with high-pierce weapons (such as missiles or gauss attacks). Otherwise, you risk losing a substantial amount of your damage output when targeting these ships.

Armor features a unique property called “Armor Strength,” which functions similarly to durability by reducing damage from weapons. However, armor strength only applies when the armor is hit (not shields or hull), and pierce does not diminish armor strength. Due to its uniform efficiency against all weapon types, armor is particularly effective for absorbing damage.

Given armor’s effectiveness, prioritize healing or regenerating armor over the hull, as it provides greater benefits.

Shields, armor, and hulls all naturally regenerate over time once they stop taking damage.

Quick Counters

For a quick guide on effective ship counters:

• Corvettes: Use flak attacks (e.g., Defensors, Garda, Sentinel), fighters, or ships with fast light weapons (like other corvettes). Most area effects deal full damage to corvettes (e.g., TEC radiation bomb). The Advent Tempest is effective against corvettes.
• Light Frigates: Fighters, corvettes, other light frigates, and area effects are effective. The Advent Tempest is also useful here.
• Medium Ships (Most cruisers, heavier frigates): Light frigates, heavy cruisers, and bombers work well against medium ships.
• Heavy Cruisers/Capital Ships/Structures: Use missiles (from capital or missile ships), bombers, or gauss/heavy beam attacks.
• Titans/Starbases: TEC Ogrov, Vasari Penetrator, and Advent Destra are effective. Missiles also perform decently.

Detailed Overview

A ship’s protection is composed of three layers:

Shields

• Armor (targetted when shields are down).
• Hull (targeted when shields and armor are down).

Durability

Durability is the primary “toughness” metric in Sins2. It reduces the damage from attacks affecting shields, armor, or hull using this formula:

% of Damage Done = 1 / (1 + (Effective Durability * 0.01))

Example: With an effective durability of 75, the formula is 1 / (1 + (75 * 0.01)) ≈ 0.57. A ship with 75 durability takes only 57% of the original damage.

Pierce

Pierce counters durability directly, reducing a ship’s effective durability (1 pierce negates 1 durability) but not below zero.

Example: For a ship with 75 durability and a weapon with 50 pierce, the new durability is 75 – 50 = 25. The weapon now deals: 1 / (1 + (25 * 0.01)) = 0.8, or 80% of the original damage.

Example 2: With a pierce of 100 against a 75 durability ship, durability drops to 0, and the weapon deals its full 100% damage.

Armor Strength

When armor is hit (not shields or hull), it has a secondary layer of toughness called Armor Strength. After durability reduces the weapon’s damage, armor strength further reduces it. Armor strength uses the same formula as durability, but importantly, pierce does not affect it. Armor strength provides uniform protection against all weapons.

Example: A Capital Ship with 500 durability and 100 Armor Strength faces a weapon dealing 100 damage with 200 pierce.

Against shields or hull: Effective durability is 500 – 200 = 300. (1/1+(300 * .01)) = .25 = 25% of original damage. Damage = 100 * 0.25 = 25.

Against armor: Initial damage of 25 is further reduced by Armor Strength. Since pierce does not affect armor strength, it is fully applied (100 armor strength = 100 effective durability = 50% of damage). Effective damage = 25 * 0.5 = 12.5.

Shield Burst

The Advent faction features a mechanic called Shield Burst. Once shields drop to 0, they stop regenerating and a 1-minute timer starts (even in combat). After the timer, shields instantly restore 50% of their maximum value. This mechanic can be modified with additional techs, items, and abilities.

Crippled Hull

When a capital ship, starbase, or titan is brought to 0 hull, instead of dying, it enters the “Crippled” state. You have an amount of crippled Hull points equal to 100% of your normal hull points (or 50% for a titan). There are techs and items that may further increase this. If the crippled hull points are brought to 0, then it is destroyed.

While crippled, you cannot attack, use abilities, or use any ship items (but otherwise the ship can move and tank damage like normal, and shield burst still functions if the ship has the ability). Once the crippled hull has completely healed, you will start to heal your normal hull and then the ship will return to full function.

Hull / Armor / Shield Regeneration

Protection layers begin to regenerate when they have not taken damage for a while. Shields regenerate after 20 seconds of no damage, while Armor and Hull start after 60 seconds. Regeneration rates vary by ship and can be viewed in a ship’s advanced stats.

Certain techs and ship items can accelerate regeneration and reduce the delay before it starts. Vasari ships excel in armor and hull regeneration, with techs that can eliminate the regeneration timer entirely, allowing continuous healing even under sustained fire.

I hope this was helpful to you!