Ammo

Q: What is "Damage"?

The amount of damage inflicted to your PMC when there is no armor to absorb or mitigate any damage from the round. Also called "Flesh Damage."

Q: What is "Penetration" (Pen Value)?

The ammo penetration value determines how efficiently an incoming round will penetrate your armor and how much armor damage will be applied to the hit armor piece.

Q: What does "Recoil" mean on ammunition?

The recoil value represents the recoil index of that round, which will either increase or decrease the recoil of your weapon when it's fired.

Q: What is Effective Distance? (Eff. Dist.)

The distance at which the fired round has lost 25% of its damage and penetration. It's best to stay under this effective distance value when selecting ammunition.

Q: What does "Maximum Headshot Distance" really mean? (Max HS Dist.)

The maximum distance at which you can instantly kill another PMC with a headshot using this ammunition. Beyond this distance, a headshot may not be an instant kill.

What the numbers on an ammo chart actually mean, plus a link to NFAM's full per-round data.

The Essential Tool

NFAM Ammo Chart

Per-round stats — damage, penetration, fragmentation chance, and more, for every caliber in the game — aren't hosted on the handbook itself. NoFoodAfterMidnight's ammo chart is the community-standard reference for that data, kept up to date every wipe. The FAQ below explains what each column on that chart actually means.

Open NFAM Ammo Chart

Ballistics

The mechanics behind the numbers on the NFAM chart — why penetration and damage work the way they do. See Armor Math for the matching armor-side calculation.

Flight Ballistics

Bullets are simulated realistically: they have speed, are affected by gravity and air friction, and can penetrate or ricochet off objects. Flight characteristics come from the ammo type; penetration/ricochet chance comes from the struck object's material and the bullet type. Bullets lose both damage and penetration power as they lose speed to air friction over distance.

Terminal Ballistics

Damage is dealt to the specific body part at the point of impact; a bullet can penetrate multiple surfaces or body parts, letting one round damage more than one part. Damage is based only on the bullet itself, not the gun that fired it. Armor is simulated realistically — it stops bullets entirely rather than applying a flat damage reduction like most other games.

Penetration and Blunt Damage

Penetration chance is calculated from the armor's protection class, its remaining durability %, and the ammo's penetration power, then rolled to determine pen or no-pen. Angle of impact does not affect this roll (helmets are the one exception — see below). If it penetrates, damage is reduced by 0–40% depending on how effective the round/armor matchup was — most penetrations land around 20% reduction, with very effective matchups (e.g. a PACA vs. 5.56x45mm M995) reaching 0%. If it doesn't penetrate, a percentage of the round's base damage still passes through as "blunt damage," based on the armor's blunt throughput stat and the ammo's pen value — this is low and rarely a meaningful factor in time-to-kill.

Angles and Ricochets

Impact angle has no effect on regular body armor — helmets are the exception. A bullet striking a helmet within a certain range of shallow angles has a chance to ricochet, depending on the angle and the helmet's own ricochet chance (both vary per helmet). A ricochet is treated identically to the helmet stopping the round for damage purposes. Blunt and durability damage still apply, but at significantly lowered values — almost no blunt damage gets through, and the helmet nearly always takes only the minimum durability damage.

Effectiveness Rating Chart

What the 0–6 effectiveness rating on ammo comparisons actually means against a given armor.

Level	Rating	Avg. Bullets to Stop	Explanation
0	Pointless	20+	Can't penetrate in any reasonable number of hits.
1	It's possible, but...	13–20	Typically doesn't penetrate across a large number of hits, or starts with a very low chance that barely increases.
2	Magdump only	9–13	Very low or no initial penetration chance, very slow to increase.
3	Slightly effective	5–9	Low initial chance that slowly increases, or quickly damages armor down until it penetrates.
4	Effective	3–5	Low-medium initial chance that increases quickly.
5	Very effective	1–3	Penetrates a large percentage of the time initially, often quickly reaching >90%.
6	Usually ignores	<1	Initially penetrates >80% of the time.

Ammo FAQ

What is "Damage"?

The term "damage" on NFAM's ammo guide refers to the amount of damage that is inflicted to your PMC when there is no armor to absorb or mitigate any damage from the round. This term could also be called "Flesh Damage."

What is "Penetration" (Pen Value)?

Penetration, "Pen.", or "Pen. value" all refer to the ammo penetration value. This value determines how efficiently an incoming round will penetrate your armor and how much armor damage will be applied to the hit armor piece.

What is "Fragmentation Chance" (Frag %)?

Fragmentation is when an incoming round fragments, splitting into 2 or more pieces, on impact. When this happens, the round deals 50% more damage to the impacted entity. Fragmentation chance is currently bugged in EFT, and the actual chance of fragmentation is lower than the assigned chance implies. Any ammunition with a fragmentation chance less than 20 will not fragment.

What does "Recoil" mean on ammunition?

The "recoil" value represents the recoil index of that round. This value will either increase or decrease the recoil of your weapon when this round is fired.

What is Effective Distance? (Eff. Dist.)

Effective distance is the distance at which the fired round has lost 25% of its damage and penetration. It is best to stay under this effective distance value when selecting ammunition.

What does "Maximum Headshot Distance" really mean? (Max HS Dist.)

This is the maximum distance you can instantly kill another PMC with a headshot using this type of ammunition. If the target is beyond this distance, you may not kill them with a headshot.