Punch Through

Punch Through is a mechanic that allows weapons to shoot through a set distance of material, whether this material is cover, objects or enemies. The total amount of material that a weapon's bullet, beam or projectile can pass through before despawning is determined by the Punch Through value (measured in meters). Punch Through is typically gained through Mods, though certain weapons have innate Punch Through values.

With higher Punch Through values, a skilled player can estimate and strike the location of enemies' weak spots while they're in total cover, without waiting for them to expose themselves to the player's line of sight. High values of Punch Through can also be used to penetrate multiple enemies at once, which can greatly boost a weapon's ammo efficiency against swarms of enemies.

Mechanics[]

Geometry Punch Through[]

Geometry Punch Through is the total distance of material (object or enemy) that a weapon's projectile, bullet or beam can pass through before dissipating. Punch Through values listed in the arsenal and from mods are this type of Punch Through. This Punch Through value is gradually diminished as the projectile passes through objects or enemies. Once a projectile's Punch Through distance is used up, the projectile despawns normally as if it were fired from a weapon with no Punch Through. A Punch Through value of 1.2m is sufficient to pass through most enemies at least once (Infested Boilers being one of the notable exceptions).

For example, when using a weapon with 1.2m of Punch Through distance against a line of four Grineer Butchers at chest height, a shot will only pass through the first two targets but not through the third, since the torso hitbox of three butchers combined adds up to over 1.2m of material. This results in only three of the four Butchers being hit. Increasing the punch through to 2.1m will result in all four Butchers being hit.^[1]

It is important to note that there are some objects that cannot be Punched Through by any means; barriers from abilities such as  Snow Globe (both the  Frost and Arctic Eximus variants) or Nullifier Crewman fields will block all projectiles regardless of the amount of Punch Through they may otherwise be capable of. Additionally, some Bosses have weakspots that periodically close, and cannot be penetrated by any means until they open up (such as General Sargas Ruk's exhaust vents, which only open after he performs certain attacks).

Non-hitscan weapons with Punch Through will function as expected. However, projectiles that fully penetrate geometry and pass through will lose a significant amount of their velocity.

Infinite Body Punch Through[]

Some weapons that shoot wide projectiles or a stream of particles possess infinite body Punch Through. Infinite body Punch Through allows these weapons to pierce an unlimited amount of enemies, but not level geometry, objects, or barriers. The following is a list of weapons with infinite body Punch Through:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Melee
• Archgun

 Alternox (Primary Fire)

 Arca Plasmor

Primary Catchmoon

 Cinta (Perfect Shot)

 Dread (Incarnon Form)

 Exergis

 Felarx

 Fulmin (Semi-Auto Mode)

 Fulmin Prime (Semi-Auto Mode)

 Ignis

 Ignis Wraith

 Lanka

 MK1-Paris (Incarnon Form)

 Nataruk (Charged and Perfect Shot)

 Paris (Incarnon Form)

 Paris Prime (Incarnon Form)

 Phantasma (Primary Fire)

 Phantasma Prime (Primary Fire)

 Quellor (Alt-Fire)

 Steflos

 Tenet Arca Plasmor

Area of Effect Weapons[]

With a very few exceptions, weapon projectiles with an area of effect (AoE) component will not Punch Through level geometry at all. Instead the projectile will explode on first contact. Note that some weapons have multiple modes though, where an AoE mode won't benefit but another mode will.

Weapons[]

Some weapons come with an innate amount of Punch Through without any installed mods. Most weapons with a charged shot mechanic will add Punch Through upon full charge, while their uncharged shots may not penetrate anything. In both cases, their innate Punch Through values will stack with any mods that grant Punch Through.

• Primary
• Secondary
• Melee
• Archgun
• Robotic

 Aeolak (Primary Fire only: 1.0m)

Artemis Bow (1.0m)

 Battacor (Alt-Fire only: 2.0m)

 Boltor (Incarnon Form only: 0.6m)

 Bubonico (Primary Fire only: 1.9m)

 Cedo (Primary Fire only: 0.8m)

 Cernos (Charged Shot only: 1.0m)

 Cernos Prime (Charged Shot only: 1.0m)

 Cinta (Charged Shot only: 2.0m)

 Convectrix (0.6m)

 Daikyu (Charged Shot only: 3.0m)

 Drakgoon (Charged Shot only: 1.5m)

 Dread (Charged Shot only: 2.5m)

 Exergis (0.5m)

 Ferrox (Charged Shot only: 1.5m)

 Flux Rifle (0.5m)

 Gotva Prime (0.5m)

 Kohm (1.5m)

 Komorex (First zoom level only: 2.0m)

 Kuva Drakgoon (Charged Shot only: 1.5m)

 Kuva Hek (0.3m)

 Kuva Karak (0.2m)

 Kuva Kohm (1.5m)

 Kuva Quartakk (While aiming: 0.5m)

 Kuva Zarr (Barrage Mode only: 1.6m)

 Lanka (Charged Shot only: 5.0m)

 Miter (Charged Shot only: 2.5m)

 MK1-Paris (Charged Shot only: 2.0m)

 Mutalist Cernos (Charged Shot only: 1.0m)

 Nagantaka (When wielded by  Garuda ( Prime): 1.0m)

 Nagantaka Prime (When wielded by  Garuda ( Prime): 1.0m)

 Opticor (1.0m)

 Opticor Vandal (1.0m)

 Paris (Charged Shot only: 2.0m)

 Paris Prime (Charged Shot only: 3.0m)

 Perigale (1.0m)

 Phenmor (Incarnon Form only: 3.0m)

 Quartakk (0.5m)

 Quellor (Primary Fire only: 0.5m)

 Rakta Cernos (Charged Shot only: 1.0m)

 Rubico (1.0m)

 Rubico Prime (1.0m)

 Snipetron (2.5m)

 Snipetron Vandal (3.0m)

 Stahlta (Primary Fire only: 1.2m)

 Stradavar Prime (Semi-Mode only: 1.0m)

 Strun Prime (0.8m)

 Telos Boltor (Incarnon Form only: 0.6m)

 Tenora (Alt-Fire only: 1.0m)

 Tenora Prime (Alt-Fire only: 1.0m)

 Vectis (1.0m)

 Vectis Prime (1.0m)

 Vulkar (1.0m)

 Vulkar Wraith (1.0m)

 Zarr (Barrage Mode only: 1.6m)

 Zenith (Semi-Mode only: 99999.0 m)

Minimum Mod Ranks for Penetration[]

Notes

• Average data, result will differ due to width variances.
• Humanoid enemies include Elite Lancer, Crewman, and Ancient Disruptor.
• Quadruped enemies include Charger.

Approximate Body Units Punctured

Seeking Fury,  Shred	+0.2	+0.4	+0.6	+0.8	+1.0	+1.2
Humanoid	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Quadruped	❌	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️
Vigilante Offense	+0.25	+0.5	+0.75	+1.0	+1.25	+1.5
Humanoid	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Quadruped	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️
Power Throw	+0.3	+0.7	+1	+1.3	+1.7	+2
Humanoid	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Quadruped	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Metal Auger,  Seeker,  Seeking Force	+0.4	+0.7	+1.1	+1.4	+1.8	+2.1
Humanoid	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Quadruped	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Primed Shred	+0.2	+0.4	+0.6	+0.8	+1.0	+1.2	+1.4	+1.6	+1.8	+2.0	+2.2
Humanoid	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Quadruped	❌	❌	❌	❌	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️

Sources of Punch Through[]

Passive[]

•  Garuda/ Garuda Prime's Signature Weapon effect with  Nagantaka/ Nagantaka Prime (1m)
•  Qorvex's Passive (3m)

Mods[]

 Sabot Rounds

 Rifle Elementalist

 Primed Shred

 Semi-Rifle Cannonade

 Shred

 Metal Auger

 Seeking Force

 Seeking Fury

 Semi-Shotgun Cannonade

 Seeker

 Semi-Pistol Cannonade

 Power Throw

 Vigilante Offense

Notes[]

• A number of bosses actually become invulnerable when they deploy protection rather than using a physical barrier to block attacks. In those cases Punch Through will not allow damage to be dealt during these phases. The Raptors, Captain Vor and Lephantis are good examples.
• The shields of Eximus Guardian cannot be bypassed with Punch Through.

Bugs[]

• The Drakgoon's real Punch Through on Charged Shots may differ from the listed Punch Through in the Arsenal/Codex and on site. It seems to be even less than 1.5m as listed in the Arsenal/Codex. Further testing/info required.

Media[]

These two containers are 22m apart, the Latron Prime has maxed Metal Auger.

The bullet can puncture the first, travel ~20m and still hit the second.

This shows Punch Through only counts solid objects, not empty space.

Trivia[]

• Beginning in Update 9.7 (2013-08-30), Punch Through functionality was given to non-hitscan weapons. However, projectiles that manage to penetrate an angled surface will veer off to the side once they exit, and with significantly reduced velocity. After an unknown update, projectiles passing through objects would no longer deviate, but would still lose velocity.

References[]

CollapseDamage Mechanics Edit
Offense		Attack Speed • Buff & Debuff • Critical Hit • Damage (Faction Damage Bonus, Positive Type Modifier, Quantization) • Damage Falloff • Damage Reflection • Enemy Body Parts • Fire Rate • Multishot • Punch Through • Status Effect
Defense		Armor • Damage Attenuation • Damage Reduction • Health (Healing) • Invulnerability • Negative Damage Type Modifier • Overguard • Shield
Damage Types
Physical (IPS)		Impact •  Puncture •  Slash
Elemental	Primary (HCET)	Heat •  Cold •  Electricity •  Toxin
	Secondary	Blast •  Corrosive •  Gas •  Magnetic •  Radiation •  Viral
Special		Tau •  True •  Void
Hidden/Internal		Cinematic • Energy Drain • Shield Drain
Status Effects
Physical		Knockback •  Weakened •  Bleed
Elemental	Primary	Ignite •  Freeze •  Tesla Chain •  Poison
	Secondary	Inaccuracy •  Corrosion •  Gas Cloud •  Disrupt •  Confusion •  Virus
Special		Bullet Attractor
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Shield, Armor, and Health Classes
Tenno		Tenno Shield • Tenno Armor • Tenno Flesh
Grineer		Grineer • Kuva Grineer
Corpus		Corpus • Corpus Amalgam
Infested		Infested • Infested Deimos
Corrupted		Orokin
Sentient		Sentient
Narmer		Narmer
Zariman		Zariman
The Murmur		The Murmur
Miscellaneous		Hit Points • Object • Overguard
Calculating Bonuses

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