COMBAT
Damage Formula Calculator
Tune base damage, attack scaling, armor, mitigation, and crits — see normal, crit, and expected hits live.
COMBAT BALANCE
Tune your damage formula
Damage formula guide
Every combat game is a stack of multipliers: base damage, attack scaling, armor reduction, flat mitigation, and crits. Change one and the whole feel shifts. This calculator lets you tune all of them at once and see normal hits, crits, and expected damage-per-hit update live.
The formula
This tool uses a common action-RPG structure: base × (1 + attack%) × armorFactor × (1 − flatMitigation), where armorFactor = 100 / (100 + defense). Expected damage adds crits: flat × (1 + critChance × (critMult − 1)).
The exact numbers are yours to tune — the point of the tool is seeing how sensitive the output is to each knob. Small defense changes barely matter at high values; crit multipliers compound fast.
Reading the results
Normal hit is what a player sees most. Critical hit is the ceiling. Expected DPH is the number that matters for balance math — it is the average over many swings, which is what DPS and TTK are built from.
Tip: Balance around expected damage, not max damage. A 10% crit at 2× is only a 10% damage increase on average — easy to underestimate when playtesters fixate on big crit numbers.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good armor curve?
100/(100+armor) is the standard: 50 armor = 33% reduction, 100 = 50%. It makes each point of armor worth less than the last but never useless.
Should I use flat mitigation or armor?
Armor scales with incoming damage; flat mitigation reduces everything by a fixed %. Use armor for tankiness, flat mitigation for skills or debuffs that need predictable output.
How do I balance crit?
Compare expected DPH with and without crit. If a weapon has higher crit but lower base, the expected value tells you if it is actually stronger.
Privacy note: damage calculations happen in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.