ARMOR AND AMMO

Fallout 2 ammo effectiveness: JHP is superior, FMJ is neutral, AP is weak. Learn about energy weapons and specific ammo types.

Ammo Effectiveness:

• JHP (Jacketed Hollow Point): Always the superior choice for damage.
• FMJ (Full Metal Jacket): A neutral ammo type that works okay on both armored and non-armored targets. It penetrates better than JHP but doesn't suffer the damage penalty of AP ammo.
• AP (Armor Piercing): More expensive and deals very little damage, making it useless against most targets, even though it penetrates slightly more than JHP.
• Shotgun Shells: Deal good damage regardless of the target.
• 7.62mm and .45 caliber: Effective only on lightly armored targets.
• Caseless ammo: Generally good penetration, but quality degrades against stronger armor.
• EC ammo (used in Gauss weapons): Has excellent penetration.

Weapon Effectiveness Against Heavily Armored Targets:

• Generally, even the strongest "normal" weapons deal little damage to heavily armored targets.
• Exceptions: The Bozar and guns that use either caseless or EC ammo.

Energy Weapon Effectiveness:

• Laser weapons: Not as effective as plasma weapons on armored targets.
• Plasma weapons: Good against anything except Tesla armor.
• Pulse-weapons: Use a different technology and are very effective against every type of armor; no armor type in the game engine can effectively block this attack.

Burst Weapons:

• For burst weapons, armor modifiers are added to each bullet fired. If you use burst mode to fire 10 rounds, the armor absorbs damage from each bullet, and the unabsorbed damage is added up to give the total damage dealt.