Secrets to unlocking more Damage
by MarcoStyle

This is essentially a typed out summary of MarcoStyle’s video series on Secrets to Unlocking more Damage in The Division 1. I highly recommend watching part 1 and part 2 of his explanation before reading this summary, as his visuals will make things much easier to understand.

Tom Clancy's The Division uses both additive and multiplicative calculations to make up overall damage output.

Additive Calculation: 100,000 x (1+0.10+0.10) = 120,000

Multiplicative Calculation: 100,000 x 1.10 x 1.10 = 121,000

Damage will come from different categories (with a few exceptions):

1. All Weapon Damage (AWD)

2. Weapon Type Damage (WTD)

3. Enemy Armor Damage (EAD)

4. Damage to Elites (DTE)

5. Out of Cover Damage (OOC)

6. Headshot Damage (HSD)

7. Critical Hit Damage (CHD)

All Weapon Damage and Weapon Type Damage are calculated additively, and are most likely built up from gear set bonuses like Alphabridge, Predator's Mark, and Lone Star. 

Enemy Armor Damage and Damage to Elites are calculated multiplicatively, and mostly comes from gear attributes and weapon talents.

Out of Cover Damage is calculated multiplicatively, and mostly comes from the Responsive weapon talent, the LMG in-class bonus, and the Banshee's Shadow gear set bonuses.

Headshot Damage is calculated multiplicatively and comes mainly from weapon talents, attachments, in-class bonuses, and gear set bonuses.

Critical Hit Damage is calculated multiplicatively and comes mainly from weapon talents, attachments, gear set bonuses, and attributes.

Both Headshot Damage and Critical Hit Damage are calculated multiplicatively with other additive bonuses, however, together they are calculated additively. i.e. Total Damage = Base Damage x (Additive Bonuses) x (Multiplicative Bonuses [ex: Responsive, Prepared, etc]) x (HSD+CHD)

Headshot Damage multipliers are increased by 100% of the base weapon damage (doubled base damage) for PvE, while it is 80% in PvP combat (or 0.80 instead of 1.00).

Critical Hit Damage deals X% more damage than the base damage (If your CHD is 140%, your critical hits will be 140% more than the weapon base damage).

The Formula

New Damage output = Base damage x (1+additive damage bonus + additive damage bonus, etc) x (1+multiplicative damage bonus + multiplicative damage bonus, etc)

The main difference between additive and multiplicative is that with additive bonuses, they are being quite literally added together in the first part of the formula, and multiplicatives are multiplied at the end of the formula.

Weapon Talents

All weapon talents are additive except for:

• Prepared: 15% multiplicative damage increase

• Responsive: 10% multiplicative damage increase

• Elevated: 10% multiplicative damage increase

• Distracted: 18% multiplicative damage increase

Skills

All damage increases from skills are additive aside from Tactical Scanner Pulse: 5% multiplicative damage increase

All Weapon Damage / Weapon Type Damage

Each weapon has an in-class bonus that add multiplicative bonuses:

• Large Machine Guns (LMG's): Out of Cover Damage (≤ 22% multiplicative damage increase)

• Assault Rifles (AR's): Enemy Armor Damage (≤24% multiplicative damage increase [to armor only])

• Snipers (MMR's): Headshot Damage (≤172% multiplicative damage increase)

Notes:

• Other weapons will have in-class bonuses that have an effect on other bonuses, such as Critical Hit Chance on Small Machine Guns (SMG’s), but otherwise won’t add any damage increases alone.

• The LMG's in-class bonus of Out of Cover Damage will calculate additively with Banshee's Shadow bonuses, but otherwise this bonus will calculate multiplicatively.

Gear Set Bonuses

All damage bonuses from gear sets in the game are additive with the exception of:

• Banshee's Shadow x3-6: +10% multiplicative damage increase for x3 Banshee, +10% more multiplicative damage for x4 Banshee, +5% more multiplicative damage for x5 piece Banshee.
  Note: Marco did not mention (or I didn’t catch it) that the extra 2% damage bonus to Manhunt players for each Manhunt Level the enemy team has (for a total of 10%), I am not sure if this is additive or multiplicative damage, but since the other bonuses are multiplicative–it’s safe to assume this bonus is too.

• FireCrest x4: 15% multiplicative damage increase

Calculation Examples: Each piece is color-coded to showcase where they plug into the formula.

1. Booster Shot + Competent = 100.000 x (1 + 0.10 + 0.15) = 125,000

2. Banshee x3 + Prepared = 100.000 x 1.10 x 1.15 = 126,500

3. 5000 base weapon damage + Tactical Scanner Pulse + booster shot + Skull MC Gloves + Unforgiving + Competent + 100% headshot damage + 70% critical hit damage = 5000 x (1 + 0.10 + 0.15 + 0.16 + 0.10 + 0.10) x (1 + 1.00 + 0.70) = 21,735
   Note: 0.10 from Unforgiving will change to 0.25 if more than one health segment is missing.

4. 5000 base weapon damage + Tactical Scanner Pulse + booster shot + Skull MC Gloves + Unforgiving + Responsive + 100% headshot damage + 70% critical hit damage = 5000 x (1 + 0.10 + 0.15 + 0.16 + 0.10) x 1.10 x (1 + 1.00 + 0.70) = 22,423
   Note: 0.10 from Unforgiving will change to 0.25 if more than one health segment is missing.