Defense

Your defense is the amount by which you reduce incoming damage.

Defense from Armor sets

Armor provides 5 distinct levels of defense. This page will refer to these as 'base', 'class', 'special', 'plate' and 'heavy plate'.

All numbers are measured at depth 25, within Lockdown, for 5* armors. The numbers are different for other depths and other star rankings, but the ratios remain representative.

• 'Base' defense is the lowest amount. A full set of base defense, (two pieces), have been measured at 125.
• 'Class' defense is the second most common amount of defense. A full set of class armor have been measured at 142.
• 'Special' defense is seen on defensive armor sets. A full set has been measured at 150.
• 'Plate' defense is seen for the normal defense on the plate sets of armor. It has been measured at 201 for a full set.
• 'Heavy plate' can only be found on the Ancient Plate Helm and Ancient Plate Helm. It's been measured at 301 for a full set.

Defense from other sources.

• 5* defense trinkets have been measured at 32 for a pair of trinkets at depth 25.
• Defense from UVs have been measured at 52 for a double max at depth 25.
• The Battle Sprite perks are equal to UVs.

Monster defense

Monsters have a fixed amount of defense depending on depth. Neutral defense will always be double of weak defense, but it can vary on a depth depending on buffs and debuffs from poison, yesmans, danger rooms and similar buffs. It is not yet known how much strong defense monsters have, nor is it certain if strong defense utilizes the same formula as weak and neutral.

Here are some measured defense numbers. They are not exact, as the actual amounts are not integers. Instead, they are displayed as minimum for the first depth and a maximum for the last depth of a stratum.

Some monsters are exceptions to this. Oilers that are lit on fire get their elemental defense increased to strong defense. Lord Vanaduke has his own amount of defenses, not being tied to any family. These values are 150 piercing, 180 normal, 200 elemental and 200 shadow. His mask has 150 normal, 180 normal, 200 elemental, shadow and piercing defense.

The Formula

When raw damage > 2x defense, final damage is simply calculated as

Final damage = raw damage - defense

It gets more complicated when raw damage is less than 2x defense. We can be certain that the final damage will be less than (raw damage / 2), but beyond that, we can't be certain. Defense starts off being more effective when raw damage is close to 2x defense, but it diminishes as the defense' grows larger compared to raw damage.

A practical example

Depth 24, the raw damage of both Leviathan Blade and Final Flourish is 324. Upon attacking a wolver with the Flourish, which has about 65.5 piercing defense, the final damage turns out to be 258. When attacking a gremlin, which has about 131 normal and piercing defense, the final damage comes out to 193. Defense is applied after damage bonus from abilities and other sources.