Anyone figured out the damage system? (Destiny)

by RC , UK, Sunday, June 15, 2014, 07:10 (3606 days ago)

Here's what I've got:

(lists may be horrendously incomplete and subject to change)

Weapon Damage Types: (symbols on HUD next to weapons in bottom left, or next to attack value in options menu)

• Kinetic (standard, no symbol)
  
• Arc (light-blue, spikey circle)
  
• Solar (orange flame)
  
• Void (purple swirl)

Defense Types: (colours of HP bars when you put your reticle over a target)

• Red - most enemies - (health?)
  
• White - Fallen Captain, Hive Wizard - THIS LAYER RECHARGES - (Shields?)
  
• Yellow - Seen on 'Elder' Fallen, and bosses like Sepiks Prime and the Devil Walker - (armour?)

Inflicted Damage Types: (colours of numbers that pop up beside enemies on hits)

• White - a standard hit, possibly with DMG penalties depending on where and with what you hit
  
• Yellow - A critical hit. Headshots on un-whited-layer bipeds, knees of Devil Walker, 'eye' of Sepiks Prime.
  
• Blue - Arc damage hit on susceptible target (only positive ID vs. shields of Fallen Captain)
  
• Orange - Solar damage on susceptible target (possibly shields of Hive Wizard)

A few ProTips:
Use an Arc damage Machine Gun against the white-layer of Fallen Captains - it cuts them to ribbons. You can either keep using it on their Red (remember to headshot!) or quickly switch to your Primary to conserve ammo.
e.g. I have a Genghis-C Machine Gun, D83, Arc-type - it gets 183 damage per hit on a Fallen Captain's white.
Conversely, using a Genghis-C, D96, Solar-type only gets 48 damage per hit - avoid using Solar weapons against Fallen Bipeds

Solar Fusion Rifles seem good against Hive Wizard Shields. The one at the end of 'The Dark Within', 'Gotra, Eir Spawn', level 6, on Legend, I stripped his shields in one burst with a Solas FR3, D67, Solar-type.

Fallen bipeds melee with their left arms. So if you get it close and step past them to the right (their left), you can get in a cycle where you dodge an attack and can get in a free melee hit (as a Hunter anyway). Good for Fallen Captains if you're low on ammo but, watch out on the approach.

That's all I got (apart from the obvious 'go for the headshots'). Anyone else got any tips?