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in: Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, Gameplay elements
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Pierce armor

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Range-armoricon aoe2de.png

Pierce armor is an armor type used in the Age of Empires and Age of Empires II. Unlike ordinary armor which resists melee damage, pierce armor resists missile damage.

Age of Empires[]

Damage formula[]

In Age of Empires, the damage formula is:

DamageFormula AoE.png
  • n denotes normal attack / armor
  • p denotes pierce attack / armor
  • If the target belongs to the category i and the attacker has a bonus AttackBonus against i, then the bonus (minus BonusResist if the target has one) is added to the total damage.
  • kelev is the elevation multiplier (applied to both cliffs and hills), equal to 2/3 if a melee unit attacks below its target, 3/2 if a ranged unit attacks above its target or 1 otherwise.

Units dealing pierce damage[]

The following units and buildings deal pierce damage and are affected by their target's pierce armor:

Technologies[]

To improve pierce armor for all infantry based units, technologies from the Storage Pit must be researched.

Age of Empires II[]

Damage formula[]

In Age of Empires II, the damage formula is:

DamageFormula AoE.png
  • n denotes normal attack / armor
  • p denotes pierce attack / armor
  • If the target belongs to the category i and the attacker has a bonus AttackBonus against i, then the bonus (minus BonusResist if the target has one) is added to the total damage.
  • The elevation multiplier kelev is 5/4 if a unit attacks above its target (hills and cliffs), 3/4 if a unit attacks below its target (hills only) or 1 otherwise. For Tatars, this value is changed to 3/2 when a unit attacks above its target (hills and cliffs).

Units dealing pierce damage[]

The following units deal pierce damage and are affected by their target's pierce armor:

*Fire Ships and Fast Fire Ships also deal melee damage.

Also, all buildings deal pierce damage (the Bombard Tower since patch 1.0b of The Conquerors).

Units with high pierce armor[]

The following units have high pierce armor and excel at battle against units dealing pierce damage (values for fully upgraded units):
Infantry

The Huskarl, the horror of all archers

Archers

Cavalry

Siege units

The Siege Ram, the horror of all Castles

Ships