Damage

Damage is the amount of health lost when a target is hit by bullets, grenades, melee attacks, or Action Skill attacks.

There are five main damage types: Physical, Incendiary, Corrosive, Shock, and Explosive.

Conventional (Non-elemental) weapons simply inflict the base damage listed in the weapon's item card. An elemental gun will firstly inflict the listed base damage of the gun as physical, then the elemental damage with the multiplier; therefore, most elemental weapons have lower listed physical damage.

Enemy level

 * If an attacker hits a higher level target, then less damage is done to the the target. Some observation suggests a 20%/level subtraction is in place where each level that a target has over the attacker results in a cumulative deficit until a difference of five levels results in 0 damage.
 * If the level difference is too great, an attacker will inflict 1 or even 0 damage to the target.
 * Attackers inflict additional damage to targets below their level, but the multiplier is capped at approximately 200%.
 * Badass enemies of the same level receive the same amount of damage; they just have much more health.

Distance

 * Distance does not affect the damage done, but due to inaccuracy and recoil of the gun, one will have less chance to hit the target. Bullet velocity will also be taken into account; guns with slower bullets will require the user to lead the target.
 * Characters will always take 100% of a weapon's listed damage and cannot sustain critical hits, regardless of whether the weapon is wielded by an enemy AI or another player.

Armor

 * Armored enemies of the same level take the same amount of damage if hit at an unarmored section. Shots hitting armor will have greatly reduced damage.

Elemental damage
Elemental guns all have a chance to trigger (or "proc") elemental bonus damage. Incendiary, shock and corrosive weapons deal Damage Over Time (DOT) when they trigger. Additionally, fire and acid attacks will inflict splash damage in a small area when triggered; corrosion has the chance of spreading to nearby enemies.

The additional damage from triggers are defined by: the weapon's listed damage, enemy level difference, and total health of the enemy. Explosive shots inflict substantially higher damage when triggered (displayed as two separate hits - one from the bullet, one from the explosion), while inflicting explosive damage to nearby enemies as well. Elemental enemies are resistant to the damage of their specified element.

For a more thorough explanation of elemental weapons, see Elemental Damage.

Multipliers

 * Multipliers on a weapon define the tech pool size and the potential damage multiplier of the triggered damage. Maliwan guns have the best potential tech pool.

Incendiary
Incendiary damage is best against flesh, and has the chance to light enemies on fire.


 * Incendiary damage does 120% damage to flesh, but 50% damage to shields.
 * Incendiary damage has a chance to ignite the enemy, and deal incendiary damage over time.

Shock
Shock damage is the best against shields, and has the chance to electrocute the enemy.


 * Shock damage does 90% damage to flesh, but 150% damage to shields.
 * Shock damage has the chance to shock the enemy, and deal shock damage over time. The duration of shock effects is shorter than that from incendiary ignition.

Corrosive
Corrosive damage is good against armor, and has the chance to corrode the enemy.


 * Corrosive damage does 80% damage to both shields and flesh, but does additional damage to armor.
 * Corrosive damage has a chance to corrode the target's armor, and deal corrosive damage over time. As the enemy's armor corrodes, it will lose its damage reduction and the enemy will take more damage. I KNOW THIS ELEMENTAL EFFECT STUFF IS WAY MORE COMPLICATED THAN THIS WEBSITE MAKES IT SOUND. WHEN USING ELEMENTAL DAMAGE IN GAME THE NUMBERS ARE SO VARIED THAT THERE HAS TO BE MORE TO IT. WHERE IS THERE A SITE THAT ACUTALLY HAS GOOD INFO???????????????????

Critical hits

 * Critical hits multiply the damage inflicted on the enemy. The multiplier differs from monster to monster; more specifically, the area being hit (e.g. skag mouths, spiderant abdomens, human heads). The multiplier can be further enhanced by weapon properties (e.g. Gamble sniper rifles or the Jakobs Bessie) and skills (e.g. Lilith's Slayer or Mordecai's Deadly).