Damage (DX)

This page describes the mechanics of the damage system in Deus Ex.

Base damage
See Weapons (DX) and individual weapon pages for the base damage values of the weapons in the game. Note that for some weapons, the base damage is incorrectly displayed in the in-game inventory interface.

Some weapons inflict multiple instances of a base damage. For example, a value of "20x5" (for the Dragon's Tooth Sword) indicates that a base damage of 20 is inflicted 5 times. A base damage of 20x5 is generally equivalent to a hypothetical base damage of 100. However, when attacking objects that have a minimum damage threshold (as described below), only the individual per-hit damage (which is 20 in the case of the Dragon's Tooth Sword) is measured against the minimum damage threshold.

Damage types
Different weapons or ammunitions of weapons may inflict different damage types. For purposes of damage calculations, different rules may apply to different damage types.

Percentage-based bonuses
Weapon skill and the Targeting and Combat Strength augmentations provide percentage bonuses that extend the weapon's base damage. The bonuses for Targeting and Combat Strength apply only if these augmentations are in active use.

The total percentage bonus is applied to the base damage. For example, with a +240% bonus, the Dragon's Tooth Sword's 20 base damage is modified to 68.

Note that in the in-game inventory interface, the bonuses for weapon skill and targeting are incorrectly displayed at half of their actual values, and the bonus from combat strength is not displayed at all.

Situational modifiers
Against humanoid targets, damage is further modified under the following conditions.

Body part modifiers
Against humanoid targets, damage is further modified based on the body part of the target that is hit. A target dies when head or torso health reaches zero. When limb health reaches zero, further damage taken by the limb is rerouted to the torso. As shown above, the riot prod and baton do not benefit from the normal x8 multiplier for headshots. This is because the "stunned" and "knocked out" damage types (the damage types inflicted by the riot prod and baton, respectively) are excepted from the x8 multiplier for headshots. Consequently, for these weapons, attacks to the head are less effective than attacks to other body parts.

Body part and situational multipliers stack multiplicatively. For example, with a weapon other than the riot prod or baton, a headshot from behind at point blank range would result in a combined multiplier of x80.

Resistance
The final damage is multiplied by a "% damage taken" value corresponding to the target's resistance to the particular damage type. For example, the MJ12 Commando has a resistance (% damage taken) value of 50% for the poison damage type. Therefore, the MJ12 Commando only takes 50% of damage from the mini-crossbow's tranquilizer darts, which inflict poison damage. A "% damage taken" value of 0% indicates that the target is fully immune to the given damage type.

Minimum damage threshold
Many world objects have a minimum damage threshold. Objects with a minimum damage threshold do not receive damage unless the attack meets or exceeds the minimum damage threshold.

Turrets, cameras, and alarm panels have a minimum damage threshold of 50. These objects can only be harmed by non-sabot attacks that do at least 50 damage. The sabot damage type, which is inflicted by sabot rounds of shotguns, is not subject to the minimum damage threshold of these devices.

Other destructible objects, such as locked doors, may also have a minimum damage threshold. The minimum damage threshold is a hidden attribute and is not the same as door strength. However, doors with a high door strength are more likely to also have a high minimum damage threshold.