Punch Through (Mechanic)

Punch Through (Mechanic) is an attribute that can be added to primary and secondary firearms as well as thrown melee weapons with the use of their respective mods. Having the attribute installed allows ranged weapon damage to pass through terrain, Shield Lancer shields, corpses, and enemies.

Weapon	Name	Stat	Mod Cost	Polarity	Dropped By/In	Rarity
Rifle	Shred	0.4 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.2	7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11		Nightmare Mode	Rare
Rifle	Metal Auger	0.7 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 2.1	11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15		Corpus	Rare
Shotgun	Seeking Force	0.7 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 2.1	11 | 12 |13 | 14 | 15		Grineer	Rare
Pistol	Seeker	0.7 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 2.1	11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15		Infested	Rare
Thrown Melee	Power Throw	0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6	5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9		Corrupted	Rare

Body Units Punctured

Value +0.1	+0.1	+0.2	+0.3	+0.4	+0.5	+0.6
Humanoid	0	0	0	0-1	1	1
Quadruped	0	0	0	0	0	0
Value +0.2	+0.2	+0.4	+0.6	+0.8	+1.0	+1.2
Humanoid	0	0	1	1	1-2	2
Quadruped	0	0	0	0	0-1	1
Value +0.35	+0.4	+0.7	+1.1	+1.4	+1.8	+2.1
Humanoid	0	1	1-2	2	2-3	3
Quadruped	0	0	0-1	1	1	1-2

^{Average data, result may differ due to width variances.}

Uses

Punch Through allows ranged weapon damage to pass through terrain, Shield Lancer shields, corpses, and enemies. A basic non-upgraded punch through mod gives a value of 0.1 punch through which is sufficient to pass through the shields of Grineer Shield Lancers. A skilled marksman would be able to estimate the location of enemies' weak spots and land a shot in those spots of covering enemies. A large enough punch through distance will allow a weapon to damage Hyena Pack through its electric shield and is useful for hitting crouching Grineer and Corpus through railings.

Punch Through distance only counts the total depth of solid material, ignoring any empty space it passes through. For example, for a listed punch through distance of 0.6 m, a weapon's damage would be able to pass through two 0.3m thick barriers or three 0.2m thick barriers in its path to the target. However, this effect is currently very inconsistent. There are also some objects and terrain that cannot be punched through at all.

Glaive's punch through mechanic, however, does not work reliably due to its bouncing mechanic. While it will punch through enemies, it will bounce off any surfaces (e.g. Shield Lancer's shield), objects or terrain.

Notes

Demonstrating how projectiles may be refracted when traveling through objects; their path becomes more perpendicular to the surface.

• As of Update 9.7, Punch Through works correctly on projectile weapons, although some projectiles may be refracted at odd angles after puncturing.
  • This may be related to the convergence system, and projectiles may thus puncture to the left if your view side is toggled.
• A number of bosses actually become invulnerable when they deploy protection rather than using a physical barrier to block attacks. Punch Through will not allow damage to be dealt during these phases. Raptor and Lephantis are good examples.
• The weapon Miter, when fully charged, has immense built-in enemy punch through, potentially for the whole distance of the projectile's life.
• Arctic Eximus snow globe shields cannot be shot through, behaving similarly to Frost's version. 
• You cannot punch through allies. 

Tips

There are specific weapons and builds that benefit from Punch Through:

• Especially useful on Defense/Survival type missions where enemies frequently cluster together.
• Allows Saryn and her teammates to burst Venom Spores through unaffected portions of an enemy's body or burst multiple spores simultaneously.
• A sufficiently high ranked Metal Auger or Shred on Deth Machine Rifle will allow the Sentinel to kill enemies who are trapped behind obstacles.