Delta Force Ammo Chart: Ammo Tiers & Armor Penetration

🎯 The core idea

Quick answer: every shot compares your ammo's penetration level against the target armor's protection level. Below it, you deal full HP damage; at the same level, roughly half gets through; above it, zero HP damage reaches the target until the armor breaks. Never run below blue-tier ammo — gray and green are cheaper but can't touch anything above the lowest armor tiers.

Updated for Season 11 (Reorientation): no changes have been found to the core penetration-vs-protection mechanic itself. Season 11 did add several new ammo types alongside the MDR and Thompson (including a new .45 ACP round for the Thompson, plus a handful of others shown in the pre-launch developer stream) — exact penetration numbers for those new rounds aren't yet confirmed against patch notes, so check their in-game detail panel rather than assuming they match any figure quoted below.

free costs nothing
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How damage actually splits between armor and health

Practice range stat overlay showing HP Damage 49.9 and Armor Damage 0 against an unarmored target

On an unarmored target, a gun simply does its listed damage number to health — if a gun does 37 damage and you hit an unarmored chest, that's 37 health damage. The moment armor enters the equation, the gun's armor penetration number takes over: it becomes the amount of armor damage dealt until the vest breaks, at which point the gun reverts to dealing flesh damage. This applies identically to vests and helmets, so the same math governs headshots and body shots against armored enemies.

Read the gun's damage and armor penetration as two separate numbers freeDamage applies to unarmored health; armor penetration applies to armor durability. They are not the same stat and matter in different situations. 0:01

Ammo tier vs armor tier: what a single shot actually does

Ammo and armor share one color ladder — gray, green, blue, purple, gold, and red for some specialized types — and the outcome of a hit depends purely on how your ammo's tier compares to the target's armor tier.

Ammo tier vs. armor tier	HP damage dealt	What happens to the armor
Ammo is 2+ tiers above the armor (or armor is absent)	Full damage	Still takes damage and eventually breaks
Ammo is 1 tier above the armor	~75% damage (25% reduction)	Grinds down steadily
Ammo matches the armor's tier exactly	~50% damage	Half damage per hit until durability is spent, then every hit is full damage
Armor is 1+ tiers above the ammo	0% HP damage	Armor damage only, and less of it the bigger the gap, until fully broken

Once a vest's durability is fully spent, it's broken — from that point on every hit does full damage as if the target had no armor at all, regardless of the tier gap. Separately, within this same system, Penetration Level (a numeric stat, Lv.1–Lv.6) and Armor Protection Level work the same way: if your ammo's penetration level is lower than the vest's protection level, you cannot deal health damage at all — you'll just chip armor durability indefinitely. Penetration Level Lv.6 armor is a special case confirmed in-game: it blocks anything below Lv.6 ammo outright, partially blocks Lv.6 ammo, and cannot block anything above Lv.6 — the highest armor tier in the current game.

Matching ammo quality to armor tier

Damage readout showing 18.5 HP Damage and 40 Armor Damage from purple ammo against purple armor

When ammo quality matches the armor's tier — for example, purple ammo against purple armor — you deal your full armor penetration number to the vest and also bleed a percentage of your gun's damage straight to health. The video's demonstrated example: a gun with 40 armor penetration and 37 damage against purple armor deals 40 damage to the armor and 50% of 37 (18.5) directly to health, confirmed on-screen by the HP Damage 18.5 / Armor Damage 40 readout. Lower-tier armor than your ammo quality bleeds an even higher percentage to health.

Armor penetration falloff by armor level

Armor Penetration Falloff tooltip showing 100% damage against ballistic vest levels 1 through 5 and 60% against level 6

Every ammo type has an armor penetration falloff rating (low, medium, or high) that reduces how much of your penetration number actually applies as armor tier increases. The frame above shows a real example: this ammo has medium falloff, dealing 100% of its armor penetration against protection levels 1 through 5, but only 60% against level 6. With 40 armor penetration, that means 40 damage to a purple (mid-tier) vest but only 24 damage (60% of 40) to a red or gold level-6 vest. A second ammo type shown later in the video has much steeper medium/low falloff — 40% at level 1, dropping to just 20% at levels 3 through 6 — which shows falloff curves vary significantly between ammo types and aren't a single fixed scale. 6.8x51mm PLY-I ammo detail panel showing Penetration Level 3, 100% Damage Ratio, and Medium Armor Penetration Falloff

Hover the armor penetration falloff stat before buying ammo setupThe tooltip shows the exact percentage against each of the 6 ballistic vest levels — don't assume "high penetration level" alone means consistent damage at every armor tier. 1:41

Range falloff and hit-location multipliers

Weapon details Damage tab showing a Damage Falloff Multiplier graph dropping from 1.0 to roughly 0.8 by 100 meters

Separately from armor penetration falloff, every gun has its own range-based damage falloff, viewable under the gun's Details > Damage tab as a falloff multiplier graph plotted against distance in meters. This range falloff stacks with all the armor considerations already covered. Hit location also multiplies the final number: chest shots use the gun's base stats, limb shots do reduced damage, and headshots do increased damage, with the exact multipliers set per-gun and visible in the Part Damage body diagram.

Armor only protects what it actually covers

Armor's tier only matters on the body parts it visually covers — usually the torso, and on some armor, shoulders or the lower abdomen too. Limbs (arms and legs) take full, unmitigated HP damage from any shot regardless of what vest tier the target is wearing, since no armor in the game currently protects them. If you're shooting into a heavily-armored target and not landing kills, aiming for limbs won't help either — they take reduced base damage from most guns by default, so torso hits (buying down their armor tier advantage) or headshots remain the better play. "Protected" coverage also varies between vests at the same tier: one named vest can cover chest, abdomen and shoulders while another otherwise-identical-tier vest leaves shoulders exposed, which changes how safe you are from flanking shots — check the "Protected" list before buying, not just the headline protection number.

Zero-penetration ammo: still useful against unarmored limbs

Gold armor example showing only 7 damage dealt due to zero penetration level and 20% armor penetration falloff at tier five

Some ammo types have a penetration level of zero and low armor penetration falloff — meaning they can never deal health damage through any armor and do reduced armor damage across the board. The tradeoff is a higher damage ratio against unarmored body parts: the video's gold armor example shows this ammo only dealing 7 damage against a tier-five vest's protected chest (20% of a 35 damage base, with zero health penetration), but the same ammo does meaningfully more damage against exposed limbs like arms and legs because of its boosted damage ratio.

Special ammo types that break the normal rules

Beyond the standard tier ladder, a handful of ammo types behave differently and are worth knowing about even if you don't run them every raid:

RIP ammo: zero armor penetration but a large (140%) flat damage boost — strong against unarmored targets or exposed limbs, though a past balance pass reduced how effective it is against limbs specifically, since limb damage is already reduced by default.
PD12 (ASh-12 rifle): a dual-tip round that deals "blunt damage" through armor it can't fully penetrate (rated against up to level five armor) — it can land real HP damage on a gold-armored target while barely touching that armor's durability, useful if you want to kill a target without cracking their vest.
Dragon's Breath (shotgun): purple-tier, zero penetration, but applies a burn/fire status effect — more of a panic-inducing utility round than a top damage option, but genuinely disruptive in a close fight.
Elsewhere, Delta Force adds limited-time or seasonal ammo that can carry unique effects — a round that progressively reduces recoil the longer you hold fire, or a slow debuff on hit, for example. A portion of this special and top-tier ammo can't be bought on the auction house at all and must instead be crafted in the Black Site. Always read the full ammo description before assuming it behaves like standard ammo of its tier — penetration level, damage ratio, falloff and any listed effect are all in the item's detail panel.

Never run below blue ammo

Tier one (gray) and tier two (green) ammo actually do slightly more damage than higher tiers against fully unarmored targets — a 110% damage ratio versus 100% for blue, purple and gold on some calibers. That sounds like a discount deal, but it isn't one worth taking: gray and green ammo's low penetration level means they perform far worse against any armored target, and blue ammo is cheap enough (roughly 50,000–70,000 in-game currency for 200 rounds of most calibers) that there's no real budget case for running anything lower. Treat blue as your practical floor.

Finding the right ammo for your gun quickly

Weapon selection screen for the FS-12 Shotgun showing Damage, Armor Penetration 16x8, Fire Rate, and other stats

Finding the best ammo for each gun starts in the loadout screen: selecting a gun and then its ammo slot shows every ammo type available for that specific weapon, including any locked/craft-only ammo you don't yet have unlocked. If you're browsing from your stash instead, right-clicking a gun and selecting "Search Related" jumps straight to the auction house filtered to attachments and ammo compatible with that gun.

Reading armor stats: protection level, coverage, and repair cost

Character stash screen showing armor protection level tooltip explaining what ammo levels a Lv.6 vest blocks

On the armor side, Protection Level maps directly to the vest's tier — if your ammo's penetration level is lower than the vest's protection level, you simply cannot penetrate it, consistent with everything above. Repair Efficiency determines how much durability a repair kit restores (higher is better), while Durability Cost determines how much of the armor's maximum durability is permanently lost every time you repair it (lower is better) — favor low Durability Cost armor if you expect to repair it often, since that saves money on replacements over the vest's lifetime. Some helmets also carry hidden tradeoffs like bonus hearing range at the cost of reduced field of view, or higher protection at the cost of aim speed and movement speed — always check the full effects list, not just the headline protection number.

How this guide was fact-checked

The penetration/falloff mechanics and worked examples are read directly from Consmaster's "Delta Force Operations Ammo & Armor Stats Explained" video (2026-08-06), cross-verified against extracted in-game stat panel frames. The color-tier ladder, the four-outcome damage model, limb-coverage rule and the RIP/PD12/Dragon's Breath special-ammo details are merged in from this catalogue's companion Armor Tiers Explained guide, sourced from The Beard Guys' firing-range demonstration and independently cross-referenced against this guide's own numbers — the two sources' mechanics agree throughout. Named vest and tier terminology was separately checked against the BitTopup Delta Force wiki's Protective Gear page. Season 11's new ammo types are acknowledged above without invented penetration numbers, since no patch notes confirming their exact values were found at the time of writing — treat the specific figures elsewhere in this guide as accurate to each source's capture date and verify current values in-game before an important raid.

FAQ

What ammo beats level 5 armor? Ammo with a penetration level of 5 or higher deals full damage against level 5 armor; penetration level 4 or below only chips armor durability with zero HP damage getting through. Check the ammo's own detail panel for its exact penetration level and armor-penetration-falloff percentage before assuming a given round is enough.

Is blue ammo enough? For most situations, yes — blue is this guide's recommended floor. It's cheap (roughly 50,000–70,000 for 200 rounds in most calibers) and penetrates blue-tier and lower armor reliably. It won't reliably punch through purple, gold or red armor, so upgrade for fights where you expect heavily-armored opponents.

Does armor protect limbs? No. Armor only covers the body parts it visually shows — usually the torso, sometimes shoulders or the lower abdomen on specific vests — and no armor in the game currently protects arms or legs. Limb shots always deal full, unmitigated HP damage regardless of armor tier, though they take reduced base damage from most guns by default.

What happens if my ammo's penetration level is lower than the target's armor? You deal armor damage only — zero HP damage gets through, no matter how long you shoot — until the armor's durability is fully spent. Once it breaks, every subsequent hit deals full damage as if the target had no armor at all.

Why does a vest at the same tier as another vest still feel weaker? Protection Level isn't the only variable — "Protected" coverage (which body parts the vest actually shields) varies between named vests at the same tier, and Repair Efficiency and Durability Cost also differ. Two same-tier vests can have meaningfully different effective survivability depending on these secondary stats.

Frequently asked

What ammo beats level 5 armor?

Ammo with a penetration level of 5 or higher deals full damage against level 5 armor; penetration level 4 or below only chips armor durability with zero HP damage getting through. Check the ammo's own detail panel for its exact penetration level and armor-penetration-falloff percentage before assuming a given round is enough.

Is blue ammo enough?

For most situations, yes — blue is this guide's recommended floor. It's cheap (roughly 50,000-70,000 for 200 rounds in most calibers) and penetrates blue-tier and lower armor reliably. It won't reliably punch through purple, gold or red armor, so upgrade for fights where you expect heavily-armored opponents.

Does armor protect limbs?

No. Armor only covers the body parts it visually shows — usually the torso, sometimes shoulders or the lower abdomen on specific vests — and no armor in the game currently protects arms or legs. Limb shots always deal full, unmitigated HP damage regardless of armor tier, though they take reduced base damage from most guns by default.

What happens if my ammo's penetration level is lower than the target's armor?

You deal armor damage only — zero HP damage gets through, no matter how long you shoot — until the armor's durability is fully spent. Once it breaks, every subsequent hit deals full damage as if the target had no armor at all.

Why does a vest at the same tier as another vest still feel weaker?

Protection Level isn't the only variable — "Protected" coverage (which body parts the vest actually shields) varies between named vests at the same tier, and Repair Efficiency and Durability Cost also differ. Two same-tier vests can have meaningfully different effective survivability depending on these secondary stats.

Delta Force Ammo & Armor Penetration Guide: Tiers Explained