abstract
| - So you've been managing well with your current skills, dispatching enemies with your familiar attacks and weapons. Now you've encountered a Heavily Armored Mook. Using your basic attacks and abilities you ... fail to hurt the Mook at all. Not good. So what do you need? You need Armor Piercing! Basically, it's an attack, weapon, or munition that rips through the armor that your enemies wear (or their special shield, or whatever's protecting them), often as if they had no armor to begin with. Sometimes this goes to the point of Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors, with the anti-armor weapon useless against foes with no armor; another option is that the weapon or attack will destroy the armor, after which your normal attacks will work. Destroying some kind of armored shell is a pretty common first step in a multi-stage Boss Battle. This can also be turned against the player; for example, if normally their life bar only decreases once their armor bar is depleted, late-game enemies might get attacks that damage both bars at once, or even ignore the armor bar entirely. Obviously, this isn't how things work in real life; firstly, even a non-piercing hit to armor can deal damage. This is especially true of soft body armor, but can even affect tanks (a phenomenon called spalling, which some types of anti-tank round attempt to cause). Second, there's no magic on / off state to armor; the only things you can do are to hit it harder, which has limits depending on who's supposed to be using the weapon in question, or hit a smaller area. The latter is how most modern anti-tank weapons work, using either focused jets of molten material (HEAT rounds) or dart-shaped heavy penetrators with sharp tips. See also Depleted Phlebotinum Shells and Clothing Damage (if the armor is destroyed). Might cross over with Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors if the armor is made from one element and the skill or weapon uses the opposed element. Not related to Armor-Piercing Slap. May be used in combination with Armor Is Useless and/or One-Hit Polykill. Examples of Armor-Piercing Attack include:
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