Enemy Vulnerabilities/Application Examples

While it is best to go to each of these mechanic pages for the most accurate information, here are a few examples of how enemy vulnerabilities will interact in the game.

Corpus Crew
These enemies have low armor values with a x2 electricity multiplier (MP), a x0 MP for unmodded bullet damage to their head (resulting in 0 damage being dealt) as well as a x2 MP for Armor Piercing damage to the head. New players will often make the mistake of assuming that corpus crew heads have very high armor or are invincible because they typically have weapons with bullet damage. In reality, if you are wielding a weapon with a different damage type or even a bullet damage weapon with electricity and armor piercing mods, the head is the best place to shoot them for x2 head MP and x2 damage MP for armor piercing and electrical damage for devastating effects. Freeze damage also deal x2 MP to shields.

Lesson: When armor values are low, damage type and body part MPs are most important.

Medium Grineer
Medium Grineer have the highest armor values in the game other than Infested Ancients. In addition to this, every body part on their body is protected. This makes using a weapon with an ignored damage type extremely helpful. In particular, armor piercing has a x1.5 MP for Medium Grineer (not the case for Light and Heavy as some might think) making it the best damage type for this particular subgroup. Fire and Electricity also have a 1.25 damage type MP making these the best mod choices after armor pierce. As always, Medium Grineer also have a x2 head MP making this the best place to shoot them.

Lesson: When armor values are high and no unprotected parts are available, armor ignoring damage is most important.

Infested Ancients
Infested Ancients have the highest armor values in the game. As with all enemies, they have a x2 head MP. Finally, they have a x2 MP for fire damage and a 1.5 MP for bullet damage to the head. Their lower legs and lower arms are unprotected body parts, typically making this the best place to shoot them. If you are using a bullet weapon, for example, you will gain more benefit from shooting their unprotected body part rather than using the head multipliers. However, if you are using a weapon that has armor-ignore damage type limited elemental mods, you gain no benefit from shooting an unprotected body part but could benefit from the x2 head MP, making the head the ideal target. As you load this weapon up with elemental mods that are not ignored damage types, the vulnerability will shift back to the lower leg or arm. The breaking point on this will largely be based on the base damage of the weapon in question.

Lesson: When armor values are high and unprotected parts available, shooting unprotected parts will most often yield higher damage than using damage type or body part MPs.