This page explains in detail how damage is calculated in TWD: No Man's Land.
Summary[]
Damage in the game is built up of two elements: base damage and weapon damage. These are added together, with their relevant modifiers, to get the Total Damage. A hit can then be either a normal hit, a body shot, a critical hit or a charge attack critical hit. These all have their own modifiers to damage. This Final damage is then modified by damage based on the target's health and Carol's Cookies, after which finally damage resistance is applied to get the damage dealt to the target.
The main formula is
- (Base Damage × (1 + Normal Stars Modifier + Hero Boost Modifier) + Weapons × (1 ± Weapon Modifier)) × (1 + Razor Modifier (4%)) × (1 + Damage Traits Buffs) × (1 + Damage Badges)
- If it is a Critical hit; by (1 + Class Critical Damage Boost + Critical Damage Traits Buffs + Critical Damage Badges);
- If it is a Charge attack, by (1 + Class Charge Damage Boost1 + Critical Damage Traits Buffs+ Critical Damage Badges) × (1 + Traits Charged Attacks Damage Buffs)
To make the calculation more concrete, let's use Michonne at lvl 31 as an example. The damage shown on her profile picture, when wielding a lvl 34 Skeggox, is 30,953.
Base Damage[]
The Base Damage is a fixed amount and varies depending on class and level, as can be seen in the table below (with a full version found here). Michonne, a warrior at lvl 31, would then have 4,714 in base damage.
The base damage is for a common (1-star) survivor. Damage is increased by 10% for each rarity until legendary (5 stars), after which it increases with 5% for each pink star. Our example Michonne has 4 pink stars, so the bonus is 60% (40% for legendary and 20% for four pink stars).
Additionally, all Heroes have a fixed damage (and Health) bonus, as shown in the table on the hero page. Michonne has a 30% bonus to dmg. These are added together and any fractions are rounded down, so Michonne's final base damage is then 4,714 * (1 + 60% + 30%) = 8,956.
Note that it is not possible to see the base damage in-game anywhere.
Weapon Damage[]
Weapon damage also starts from a fixed list, but unlike base damage this is the same regardless of class:
The weapon damage is similarly for a common (1 star) weapon, with the same 10% bonus for each higher rarity, so 40% bonus for legendary (gold) weapons. This damage is additionally then adjusted for based on the class. Note that the modifier is sometimes different for normal attacks and charge attacks. Additionally, there is a damage variation, which causes the damage to not be exactly the same on every attack.
Michonne is wielding a gold Daryl's Skeggox at lvl 34. Its damage is then 6,072 * 1.4 (for legendary rarity) * 1.0 (warrior weapon modifier) = 8,500 (also here any fractions are rounded down).
Finally, many special weapons will have a unique modifier instead of the default modifier for the class. For example, the Commonwealth Assault Rifle and the Bulldozer have a modifier of 90, instead of the normal 80 for assault weapons. Sometimes (but not always) the weapon description will say "Deals extra damage".
Weapon damage is shown on the weapon picture in-game.
Adjustments to printed damage[]
After Base damage and Weapon damage are determined, there are still a few things to add before reaching the damage shown on the Profile Picture. If the survivor has any flat value damage badges, these are added now (it's not possible to craft flat damage badges since a long time, but long-time players might still have such badges). Michonne doesn't have such badges, so the damage is now 8,956 + 8,500 = 17,456.
Now add any modifiers to damage, so the Lethal Trait on weapons, as well as Strong and Marksman. Also add leader traits that are always active, such as Abraham's Bitch Nuts or Jesus' Hand-to-Hand. All other Leader Trait damage modifiers are also added at this stage, even though they might not be shown on the printed damage (as they depend on some condition, like Merle's LT requiring that the target is of a higher level). In our example, Michonne doesn't have Strong, but the Skeggox has silver Lethal so it adds 10%. Her damage is thus 17,456 * 1.1 = 19,201.6.
Finally, percentage value damage badges are added. Note that the values shown on the badge screen are not usually fully correct so to get the exact values you have to look at the badge's base value and then modify by set and bonus activations. Michonne has three 17% damage badges, with no bonus activations but each one boosted by the set bonus, so her badges add (0.17+0.17+0.17) * (1.2) = 61.2 %
The final damage as shown on her profile picture is then 19,201.6 * ( 1 + 61,2% ) = 30.953.
Razor[]
The Razor weapon trait has an undocumented feature in that it adds 4% of damage. This is not shown on the profile picture damage figure, but it is added to damage of any attack. This is strangely enough added as a separate multiplication before other modifiers. Note that the Piercing trait does not have this hidden functionality.
So Michonne's real damage is not 30,953 but rather 17,456 * 1.04 * 1.1 * 1.612 = 32,191.
Damage Variation[]
As mentioned above, the damage dealt inside a mission will vary, so sometimes you will do more and sometimes less than the expected damage. The variation depends on the class (see the table above), with bruisers only having a 10% variation while Assaults have a large 30% variation. This variation, however, is only to the weapon damage so will in practice be about half of the stated percentage.
So again using Michonne as an example, the damage variation would be 20% on warriors, so 8,500 * 20% = 1,700. The lowest possible damage on a normal attack would then be (8,956 + 8,500 - 1,700) * 1.04 * 1.1 * 1.612 = 29,056 and the highest correspondingly (8,956 + 8,500 + 1,700) * 1.04 * 1.1 * 1.612 = 35,326.
Note that the damage variation can also be set uniquely for special weapons, even if this is very rare.
Critical Hits[]
Any non-bodyshot hit can be upgraded to a Critical Hit, based on the criterias mentioned in combat mechanics. The base chance is pretty low (10% for all classes except warriors, that have 20%), but various modifiers can greatly increase this - for example Power Strike or Sure Shot, or a big level difference.
Again, any flat critical damage badges will be added directly to the normal damage in the same way as flat damage badges.
The Critical Hits will first be adjusted with a class bonus, which is 50% for all classes except Assaults and Bruisers, that only get a 25% boost. The Destructive trait will be added, together with any critical damage percentage badges. In our example, Michonne's Critical Damage badges give in total a 91.2% boost. The Skeggox has gold Destructive, so that adds 60%. So the critical boost is in total 50% + 60% + 91.2% = 201.2%
Michonne's Critical Damage would then be 17,456 * 1.04 * ( 1 + 2.012 ) * 1.1 * 1.612 = 96,959, with a variation between 87,516 - 106,402.
Charge Attacks[]
Charge Attacks are always critical hits (except in the rare cases that you attack a human defender in GW and its Fortified Armor activates, avoiding the critical hit), so the modifiers of Critical Hits are also applied to charge attacks. However, charge attacks have their own weapon damage base modifier (see table above), which is different for Scouts, Bruisers and Shooters. Additionally, Scouts and Shooters have the "Brain Stab" special trait, which adds 50% to the charge damage.
Add now any Ruthless and Charging traits, as well as any Leader Traits only affecting charge damage (Survivalist Rick's LT mainly).
Michonne only has Ruthless as a trait, giving a 41% boost. So Michonne's Charge Damage is 17,456 * 1.04 * ( 1 + 2.012 ) * 1.1 * 1.612 * 1.41 = 136,712. Gold Ruthless on the armor would have bumped that with 30 k to 165,800.
Body Shots[]
Attacks against high-level walkers will be guaranteed body shots (as explained on the combat mechanics page). Body Shot damage will be reduced to 50% (for ranged) or 65% (for melee classes). This is calculated at the very end so in our example is simply the regular damage of Michonne 32,191 * 0.65 = 20,924.
Damage based on Target's Health[]
Mercer's Leader Trait and the Burazi Spear cause damage based on the target's Health. This is added as a separate calculation (i.e. damage is not reduced by body shots or boosted by critical hits) , but is included in the total damage dealt. So assuming you do a critical hit with Michonne on a walker with 250,000 in Health with 40% Men-At-Arms, the damage will be 96,959 (+- variation) + 250,000 * 40% = 96,959 + 100,000 = 196,959.
Carol's Cookies[]
Carol's Cookies are unique, in that its damage boost is added after everything else, including Health-based damage.
So assuming Michonne makes a regular attack with lvl 4 cookies (+130% damage) and with Mercer at lvl 10 in lead (60% of target health for melee classes) on an undamaged lvl 34 walker. Health-based damage would then be 14,070 * 60% = 8,442.
The damage would then be (32,191 + 8,442) * ( 1 + 1.30) = 93,456.
With good level Men-At-Arms and Carol's Cookies, all normal hits will kill any enemy, as long as Men-At-Arms activates. That is, regardless of damage dealt by the weapon or body shots. With Men-At-Arms at lvl 9 (40%) AND Carol's Cookies at lvl 5 (+150%), damage dealt by Men-At-Arms will always be 40% * (1+150%) = 100% of the target's health, or probably more commonly, Men-At-Arms of a maxed Mercer (45%) and Cookies at lvl 4 will deal 45% * (1+130%) = 104% of target health. And these are normal attacks. With Charge attacks you can often kill everything at Cookies lvl 3 and Mercer's LT at lvl 9 as that does 96% of health, and the weapon damage will also be high.
Damage Reduction[]
The very final step before inflicting damage is to take into account any damage reduction. Assuming an attack done by Mercer on a Metalhead, with Men-At-Arms activating and with Carol's Cookies, the damage could look like (reg dmg 20,000 + health-based damage 100,000) * (cookies +130%) = 276,000 - 50% damage reduction = 138,000 damage to the Metalhead. This is the reason they are so hard to kill even with Cookies activated.