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Destiny's weapon damage system has been the topic of a lot of heated debate among the gaming industry and its fans. This is especially so during Destiny's Iron Banner PvP event, which claims to take damage equalization off the board. That said, there's still plenty of controversy surrounding the game's PvE material, which has ended up being the focus of most gamers anyway.
Reddit user CaptainKev91 has gifted players with a guide to understanding how weapon damage works in Destiny. This data is the result of many painstaking hours spent testing different weapons and such in Destiny, so we're glad to have some science backing gossip.
Take a look at the outcome of this user's research:
THE RESULTS:
The damage output of your character does NOT increase as your level surpasses that of your enemy. Example: facing a level 30 enemy, you will dish out the exact same damage per shot as a level 30, 31, or 32.
Your damage per shot decreases as your level drops below that of your enemy's in the following manner: (% of max damage)
- Equal/Above: 100%
- Minus 1 Level: 68%
- Minus 2 Levels: 55%
- Minus 3 Levels: 48%
Compared to a guardian of equal or greater level to a given enemy, your damage decreases as follows: (% less damage)
- Equal/Above: 0%
- Minus 1 Level: 32%
- Minus 2 Levels: 45%
- Minus 3 Levels: 52%
So if you have a level 29 or 30 on your team fighting Crota, they're going to be dishing out about half the damage than that of a level 32.
Attack DOES increase weapon damage in a linear fashion against enemies at or around your own level*. As a level 28+ facing a level 30 enemy, a 331 attack weapon will do ~15% more damage than an identical 300 attack version.
*Against low-level mobs using high-tier weapons, damage seems to be calculated purely from impact. In addition, weapon damage is scaled down significantly to prevent us all from running around with low-impact, high-RoF assault rifles and one-shotting everything in patrol.
