Escape from Tarkov ammo chart - what do we shoot today?

If you know about the ballistics and armor, and how the entire system of taking damage works in Escape From Tarkov, ammo chart is most likely what you are looking for. If you do not know about the mechanics behind this system, we advise you to take the time to learn them. Things above are absolutely crucial to understand which ammo will be the most effective. If you grasp how the system works, you will be able to determine for yourself which ammo is the most useful, after you perform the necessary calculations. 

Different ammo types have different properties. You will not put a shotgun Grizzly 40 slug, copper sabot premier slug, or dual sabot slug into the assault carbine chamber, and light machine gun bullet won’t fit into designated marksman rifle. That’s quite obvious. However, in a game as realistic as Escape from Tarkov, there’s more to this. Although with subsequent wipes, updates and patch notes some bullet types may undergo minor changes, the premise remains the same. High flesh damage values ammo will do poorly against armor, and ammunition with strong penetration power will be suboptimal against unarmored opponents. You can have it updated at will - it stays the same. Choosing a correct bullet type is a difference between one-shotting someone with class 3 armor, or letting them slip.

It is why it’s so important. You don’t want to spend thousands of Roubles on Flea Market to buy wrong ammo. Also, there are many different charts, one of which being the cost per shot chart. Cheaper ammo will do worse than a high caliber slugs, but it will cost you less per shot. If you are a casual player going in to shoot someone every once in a while, you don’t need much for success. You simply go in for your PMC run, grab anything of value, and extract. But if you want to be at the top of the leaderboard - you will need to calculate a lot. These recent Escape from Tarkov Ammor Charts should help you.

Special Ammunition Stats

As you can see below, each weapon in the game has certain properties. And those should be explained before we go any further with this guide.

Damage

The pure value of the damage that will be dealt to the target if no protection is at play. Of course, the damage will still be reduced by factors, e. g. bullet drag, meaning that the further your target is, the less damage your bullet will deal. 

Each unprotected part of the body will receive the damage specified in each ammo’s description. Body parts can blackout when they take damage that reduced their own health pool to 0. Blacked out parts will spread the damage to all other body parts when they get damaged again in that state. The rates at which the damage spreads across the body depend on which blacked out limb receives damage:

* Head/Thorax - No rates. If the head or chest blackouts due to taking a shot, you die immediately. If you have any of those reduced to 0 due to bleeding, you won’t die instantly, but any further damage to them (through direct shots or shooting another blacked out limb) will kill you.

* Stomach - when blacked out, your hydration and energy will decrease considerably faster. Any additional damage taken to the stomach through taking shots will result in 1.5x of the damage dealt to your other body parts.

* Arms - After the blackout, each body part will receive 0.7x of the damage, when the arm receives a hit.

* Legs - After legs are blacked out, each hit to the legs will transfer the same damage to other body parts.

Penetration Value 

Penetration Value translates almost directly into effectiveness against armor. As we described it before, it will have a high chance to penetrate the armor, when its value is higher than Armor Class x 10 (about 90% chance of successful damage penetration). 

Therefore, when a round with 62 Pen. Value hits Armor at 6 AC with 80/80 durability, it will have about 90% of penetrating through it.

On the other hand, when you use a bullet with 50 Pen. against AC 6 Armor, you will have only 10% of penetrating with the first shot. 

Since it also depends on the durability of the armor if the bullet goes through it, a bullet with 50 Pen. The value will have a 90% chance of breaking through the AC6 Armor after a few shots that reduce the durability of the protected area.

Projectile speed

This stat affects the bullet drop, recoil control, and accuracy, but it does not influence the damage at any point, as it's a constant value modified only by armor and blacked limbs. Thus, we do not include it in our list. 

Armor Damage Ratio

As you already know, a brand new armor has 80/80 durability. However, don’t take the Armor Damage too literally. It’s a value that has to go through some calculations. If you have a bullet with 30 AD Ratio, it doesn’t mean that it will take away 30 durability from the armor with each shot. 

Instead, this value is put into an equation. It’s still a black box that might not be 100% accurate, but it appears to be that it’s dependant on the material, current durability, armor damage value, and whether the shot has penetrated the armor or not.

Fragmentation Chance

The chance of your bullet fragmenting upon hitting a surface, dealing bonus damage, sometimes even turning 90 degrees to hit other limbs. The maximum probability of fragmentation is 1. If the fragmentation chance in tables below is at 0.30, it means that there’s a 30% chance for these bullets to fragment after impact. 

Ricochet Chance

This chance applies only to rounds hitting surfaces. And the likelihood is also a part of a bigger equation that depends on things like the surface material, as well as the angle of the impact.

Keep in mind that this stat has zero impact on helmets. Helmets have their own ricochet chance, and ammunition types don’t matter in that regard.

Effects

Each shot in the game can have some additional effects, depending on the kind of ammo. There are only several of them.

* Tracer Rounds - Rounds that are easy to spot when they fly out of the barrel of your gun (e. g. 9x19 green tracer). They’re lit up and bright, everyone will be able to see them flying through the air. They are handy for a few situations. It makes zeroing and sniping easier because you know where the bullet goes after a cold shot. Teammates will easily notice where your shots are going, making it easier for them to spot targets that you’re shooting at. You can tactically place tracer rounds in your mags, so you know how much ammo you have left.

Also, it’s scary to get shot at with tracer rounds, because you can see every bullet flying past you. It’s like getting shot at with laser guns. Nobody wants to get shot at with laser guns, trust us.

* Subsonic - quiet ammunition that won’t make as much noize as other types of bullets. Combined with a good suppressor - it can be a silent yet deadly combo. Hiding your presence in Escape From Tarkov is crucial, and this kind of ammo helps you with it. However, you have to remember that these bullets have reduced velocity, which will change the way that your bullets fly, they will be slower. They might deal less damage at longer ranges, in addition to additional zeroing needs.

* Explosive - bullets that explode on impact. It only exists on mounted, stationary weapons on some maps. 

Escape from Tarkov Pistol Ammunition types

Ammo: 7.62x25mm Tokarev

Pistols: TT Pistol

Pistol .45 ACP

Pistols: M1911A1

9x18mm Makarov

Pistols: APB, APS, PB Pistol, PM (t) Pistol, PM Pistol;

SMGs: PP-9 “Klin”, PP-91 “Kedr”, PP-91-01 “Kedr-B”;

9x19mm Parabellum

Pistols: GLOCK 17, GLOCK 18C, M9A3, MP-443 “Grach”, P226R;

SMGs: MP5, MP5K-N, MPX, PP-19-01 Vityaz-SN, Saiga-9, MP9, MP9-N;

9x21mm Gyurza

Pistols: SR-1MP Gyurza

Escape from Tarkov PDW Ammunition types

4.6x30mm HK

SMGs: MP7A1, MP7A2

5.7x28mm FN

Pistols: FN 5-7

SMGs: P90

Escape from Tarkov Shotgun Ammo types

12x70mm

Shotguns: M870, MP-133, MP-153, Saiga-12;

20x70mm

Shotguns: TOZ-106

Escape from Tarkov Rifle Ammunition types

5.45x39mm

Assault rifles: AK-105, AK-74, AK-74M, AK-74N, AKS-74, AKS-74N, AKS-74U, AKS-74UB, AKS-74UN

LMGs: RPK-16

5.56x45mm NATO

Assault rifles: ADAR 2-15, AK-101, AK-102, DT MDR, HK 416A5, M4A1, TX-15 DML

7.62x39mm

Assault carbines: OP-SKS, SKS;

Assault rifles: AK-103, AK-104, AKM, AKMN, AKMS, AKMSN, Vepr KM/VPO-136;

7.62x51mm NATO

Assault carbines: Vepr Hunter/VPO-101;

Assault rifles: SA-58, DT MDR .308;

DMRs: M1A, RSASS, SR-25;

Sniper rifles: DVL-10, M700, T-5000;

7.62x54mmR

DMRs: SVDS;

Sniper rifles: Mosin, Mosin Inf., SV-98;

9x39mm

Assault carbines: AS VAL;

DMRs: VSS Vintorez;

.366 TKM

Assault rifles: Vepr AKM/VPO-209;

Sniper rifles: VPO-215;

12.7x55mm STs-130

Assault rifle: ASh-12;

12.7x108mm

HMGs: NSV "Utes";

Summary

That's pretty much it for this guide. We hope that our tables, as well as the content that we shared with you, will be helpful in your Escape From Tarkov gameplay. Feel free to share our article with other people, so they can no longer have to search for the best ammo for themselves but also learn a bit about how to differentiate the good bullets from bad ones, with the help of understanding how the whole damage system works. See you in Tarkov! Hopefully, you'll manage to reach the extraction points more often once you read this guide. Have a great run overall.

If you want, you can share your point of view in the comments section, or go ahead and buy Escape from Tarkov money.

FAQ

What is the best ammo type for Tarkov?

It all depends on a situation that you face, and weapon types that you are using. Thus, instead of “the best” term, we’d use “the most suitable for now.” 

What is the strongest sniper rifle in Tarkov game?

It’s a matter of players preference, but we’d go with a Mosin.

What is FOAM ammo chart?

It is an impressive spreadsheet made by a player named NoFoodAfterMidnight. You can find it here. It’s one of the most useful things in the game.

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