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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 against units is:

  • m denotes melee attack / armor.
  • p denotes pierce attack / armor.
  • If the attacker has a bonus AttackBonusi against the armor class i, then the bonus (minus BonusResisti) is added to the total damage. Usually, and . The attacker is said to deal bonus damage against the target when and .
  • kelev is the elevation multiplier (applied to both cliffs and hills), equal to 0.67 if a melee unit attacks below its target, 1.5 if a ranged unit attacks above its target, and 1 otherwise.

The damage formula against buildings is:

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 units, technologies from the Storage Pit must be researched.

The Ballista line, ships, and buildings (except walls and towers) have 0 pierce armor and it cannot be increased by technologies or bonuses.

Age of Empires II[]

Damage formula[]

In Age of Empires II, the damage formula is:

Cavalierinfo

Cavalier infobox (fully upgraded)

  • m denotes melee attack / armor.
    • If the attacker is a Leitis or a Dravidian infantry/cavalry unit with Wootz Steel researched and the target is a non-siege land unit, .
  • p denotes pierce attack / armor.
    • If the attacker is a Composite Bowman, .
  • If the attacker has a bonus AttackBonusi against the armor class i, then the bonus (minus BonusResisti) is added to the total damage. Usually, . When , the target is said to have the armor class i (in those cases BonusResisti is usually less than 100).
    • kresist is the bonus reduction multiplier, equal to 0.67 if the target is a Sicilian infantry, cavalry, or archer unit; 0.75 if the target is a Bengali elephant or a Persian Castle with Citadels; and 1 otherwise.
  • kelev is the elevation multiplier. It is 1.25 if a unit attacks above its target (hills and cliffs), 0.75 if a unit attacks below its target (hills only), and 1 otherwise.
    • For Tatars, this value is changed to 1.5 when a unit attacks above its target (hills and cliffs).
    • If the target is a Georgian unit or building above its attacker (hills only), this value is changed to 0.6.
  • kcracked is equal to 1.2 if the target is a building on a desert cracked terrain, and 1 otherwise.

Units dealing pierce damage[]

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

* Fire Galleys also deal 0 melee damage, while Fire Ships and Fast Fire Ships deal 1 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
Archers
Cavalry
Siege units
Ships

Ships have higher pierce armor than most land units.

Other

Technologies and bonuses[]

The first place to upgrade a military unit's pierce armor is the Blacksmith. Infantry, cavalry, and archers can get +4 pierce armor there.

Infantry
Cavalry
Archers

At the Dock, the pierce armor of all ships can be improved:

  • CareeningDE Careening: Improves pierce armor of ships (+1).

At the Town Center, Villagers are improved:

  • LoomDE Loom: Improves pierce armor of Villagers (+2).

Also, a few unique technologies researched at the Castle improve the pierce armor of certain units:

Technology Unit(s) Addition
UniqueTechCastle-DE Carrack Ships 1
UniqueTechImperialDE Fabric Shields Eagle Warriors, Kamayuks, and Slingers 2
UniqueTechImperialDE Hauberk Knight line 2
UniqueTechImperialDE Howdah Battle Elephants 1
UniqueTechCastle-DE Pavise Condottiero
Foot archers except Skirmishers
1
UniqueTechCastle-DE Silk Armor Scout Cavalry and Steppe Lancer
Mounted archers
1
UniqueTechImperialDE Supremacy Villagers 2
UniqueTechImperialDE Tower Shields Skirmisher, Genitours and Spearman 2

The following civilization bonuses improve the pierce armor of certain units:

Buildings can also get their pierce armor upgraded at the University.

Furthermore, most buildings gain +1 pierce armor per Age.

If the pierce armor of a unit is improved with technologies or bonuses, the added value is separately shown in the infobox (see image above).

Age of Empires III[]

In Age of Empires III, pierce armor has been replaced by the resist parameter.

Main article: Resist

Age of Empires IV[]

In Age of Empires IV, pierce attack and armor are called ranged attack and armor. This is a simplification of the first two games of the series, since these games had some ranged melee attacks, most notably by siege units, siege ships, and Fire Galleys. However, here too not all attacks at range are called ranged attacks. Excluding melee weapons and torch throwers which have negligible range, there are some ships and siege units which deal siege attacks, which ignore all armor (siege armor for all units and buildings is 0).

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Gameplay elements in the Age of Empires series
Age · Ability (M · III · IV) · Architecture set (II · III) · Area of Effect (Trample damage) · Armor/Resists (hack/melee · pierce/ranged · crush/siege)  · Armor class/Tag (I - original · I - Return of Rome · II · IV) · Artificial intelligence · Attack (Attack bonus/Multiplier) · Attack delay · Attack ground · Aura · Auto Scout · Building (I · II · M · III · IV) · Civilization (I · II · M · III · IV) · Civilization bonus · Cheat code (I · II · M · III · IV) · Conversion · Counter · Diplomacy · Gaia/Mother Nature · Game modes · Garrison · Gather Point · Healing · Hit points · Hotkey · Line of Sight · Mini map · Player · Population · Range · Rate of Fire · Regeneration · Relic (II · M · IV) · Renewable resources · Repairing · Resource · Scenario Editor (I · II · M · III · IV) · Score · Signal Allies/Flare · Soundtrack (I · II · M · III · IV) · Speed · Stealth mode · Taunt · Technology (I · II · M · III · IV) · Technology tree (I · II · IV) · Town Bell · Trade · Tribute · Unit (I · II · M · III · IV) · Unit formation · Unit stance (III) · Upgrade (I · II · III) · User interface · Victory
Genie Engine
Frame delay · Full Tech Tree · Team bonus
ReturnRome-AoEIcon Age of EmpiresRuins · Discovery
AoE2-DLCicon-0 Age of Empires IIPass-through damage · Projectile duplication
Bang Engine
Autoqueue · Snare
Aom original icon Age of MythologyGod (Major · Minor) · God power · Settlement
3Icon48px Age of Empires IIIAge-up methods (Politician/Tribal Council/Wonder/Federal State/Alliance· Banner army · Consulate · Damage Cap · Home City · Home City Card · Inspiring Flag · Promotion · Revolution · Target Lock · Trade Monopoly · Trade Route · Treasure
Essence Engine
GameIcon-AoE4 Age of Empires IVBounty · Dynasty · Fire armor · Imperial Council (Vizier Point) · Influence · Landmark · Religion · Sacred Site · Variant civilization
If a gameplay element has different pages across games, like civilization, the individual pages are linked in brackets.
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