Every gun lists the damage it deals and that damage can be increased or decreased by various weapon mods. Most mods increase damage by 2 some by 5 or 10 depending on the weapon. The problem is, I don't know if that is significant. Does increasing the damage of a weapon from 23 to 25 really matter? That is to day, does it take fewer bullets to kill an enemy? I have noticed a difference between very low and very high damage weapons such as a silenced Bernetti (pistol @ 15 damage silenced) compared to the Bronco (revolver @ 60 damage with mods). Is there a damage threshold that you should target when considering what mods to add to a weapon? There are sometimes drawbacks to mods and it would be useful to know if I am losing concealment, stability or accuracy for a useful and effective increase in damage.
14 Answers
Swiped directly from the Payday 2 Weapons Spreadsheet
Enemy Health Headshot Mul
Security 30 3.00
GenSec 50 5.00
Cop 30 3.00
FBI 50 5.00
Swat 80 4.00
Heavy Swat 100 1.67
FBI Swat 130 3.25
FBI Heavy Swat 200 2.00
Sniper 40 2.00
Shield 100 1.67
Taser 360 1.80
Bulldozer 5500 22.92
Gangster 40 4.00
Biker 80 4.00
Cloaker 320 5.33The spreadsheet also contains a section that answers your other question about how many bullets it takes to kill any particular enemy, but it's much too complex to copy and paste here.
Keep in mind that an unaware enemy will be immediately one-shotted no matter what weapon you have equipped. Another reason to stay in stealth as long as possible.
4An update for newer people getting into this thread.
Some of the stats shown in this thread might have been correct for their time but for now they are incorrect which is in most cases due to balance over time from OVERKILL, the creators of the game:
The first chart with enemy hitpoints is up to date. The second one isn't, enemies don't get the 1.7x hitpoint boost. They stay at the same health as on overkill and lower difficulty. The spawns however are slightly different and there are some new enemies not listed here such as Captain Winters and his shield guards and the black dozer.
Weapons such as the heavy eagle rifle and m308 deals 80 damage, not around 40-50 damage. That means that with the 2x multiplier on the Tan you do 160 damage.
This is why, if you have the passive Headshot dmamage bonus from the Technician tree, that 40 is the magical number. The FBI Heavy SWAT are the tan armored guys that can only really be damaged with a headshot from the front. If you can get your weapon to 40 damage, you can drop them with a quick double-tap. Look at the math:
40dmg x 2.0 headshot multiplier = 80 x 1.25 (25%) Tech headshot bonus = 100 damage.
Or you can one-shot them with a M308 that does at least 80 damage:
80dmg x 2.0 headshot multiplier = 160 x 1.25 (25%) Tech headshot bonue = 200 damage.
You can get to 40 or 80 damage per bullet with the following weapons...
CAR-4, 40dmg w/ 150ammo: Long Barrel, Competitor's Compensator, Gazelle Rail, Exotique Receiver
Commando 553 Rifle, 40dmg w/ 150ammo: Long Barrel, Fire Breather Nozzle, Heat Treated Body
UAR Rifle, 40dmg w/ 120ammo: Long Barrel, Fire Breather Nozzle, A3 Tactical Foregrip
M308 Rifle, 80dmg w/ 40ammo: Any loud barrel extension will add at least +5
While this can also be accomplished with the AK7.62, AMR-16, and Eagle Heavy rifles, their comparatively smaller ammo pools (90/90/80 respectively) make then less efficient. They can often do more than 40 damage but not quite the M308's magical 80 damage, and thus a lot of their extra damage is 'lost' as the FBI Heavy SWAT still take 2 headshots to kill, but now you only have 80/90 rounds of ammo instead of 150 or 120.
From The Long Guide – Appendix – Enemy Health and Weapons by Frankelstner:
The following list specifies enemy hitpoints and their weapons. Enemy hitpoints remain the same from Normal to Overkill difficulty. Deathwish usually multiplies the hitpoints by 1.7 and the headshot multiplier by 0.75, though there are exceptions. I state the hitpoints in the format hitpoints/headHitpoints, with hitpoints being the health against body hits and headHitpoints being the health if only the head was hit. Conveniently, the headshot multiplier itself can be obtained by calculating that fraction. For example, an enemy with 130/40 hitpoints has 130 hitpoints against body hits, but 40 hitpoints against hits to the head. The headshot multiplier is 130/40 = 13/4 = 3.25.
Enemy — Non–Deathwish hit/headHitpoints — Deathwish hit/headHitpoints
Security Guard – 30/10 – 51/22.67
Gangster – 40/10 – 68/22.67
Cop – 30/10 – 51/22.67
Gensec – 60/10 – 60/10
FBI – 50/10 – 85/22.67
SWAT – 80/20 – 136/45.33
Heavy SWAT – 80/20 – 136/45.33
FBI SWAT – 130/40 – 130/40
Heavy FBI SWAT (Tan) – 200/100 – 340/226.67
GenSec Elite/Murkywater – 130/40 – 240/147.69
Sniper – 40/20 – 68/45.33
Shield – 100/60 – 160/136
Cloaker – 600/140 – 1020/317.33
Taser – 360/200 – 612/453.33
Bulldozer – 5500/240 – 9350/544
