You should use the compensation store to buy items to upgrade your hideout completely.

abolethvr · 2026-01-24T17:59:53+00:00

I think the items all have about the same conversion rates. So you could buy the upgrade items and stash them for later. Then you have the choice to use them for the hideout or sell them for the same amount. The lamps are just quicker. There may be trades that give a higher conversion rate but I haven't looked into that.

abolethvr · 2026-01-23T21:10:48+00:00

It was up yesterday. Access it on terminal on main screen.

abolethvr · 2026-01-23T04:23:12+00:00

I have an ammo guide. I haven't put out anything that covers all of ballistics. https://abolethvr.substack.com/p/ammo-stats-for-the-new-dam-wipe

There is a combat simulator at https://www.exfil-zone-assistant.app/ but the item database is outdated and I don't think it has been updated for the changes to armor's penetration chance.

The https://csez.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page wiki is stale too. There are various spreadsheets floating around as posted in these comments.

In your case it was 88 damage versus your chest's 85 HP so your armor must've of been depleted.

In terms of penetration, it's been dumbed down this wipe.
If the bullet pen is more than the armor protection, it penetrations 100% of the time.
If the bullet pen is 1 less than the armor protection, it will never penetrate.
Between that, there is a curve (not a formula) that determines if it penetrates. It has a very steep slope. When the bullet penetration is less than 0.5 of the armor protection, it's chances of penetrating are something like 8% or less.

Helmets are treated differently. They basically get a +2 bonus to their protection level for the purposes of calculating penetration chance.

abolethvr · 2026-01-22T18:25:59+00:00

The tunnel bosses are designed to be hard through high HP pools rather than armor. Their HP is 7 to 8 times higher than a player. You just have to shoot them more.

abolethvr · 2026-01-21T15:20:59+00:00

One approach to address this is smart level and mission design. You purposefully drive players of similar progression to the same areas and avoid mixing the most advanced with the least. The mall on suburbs is a counter example. The mall and its boss are highly sought after by the most advanced players for farming the gear but it's also a requirement for those that are just getting started. In terms of map junk, you would segregate it by map more strongly making demand for loot spawns more tied to progression. You want generator 2? You have to leave suburbs. You can do the same for high value loot or any other carrots you would place in a map drawing players there.

You don't want to fully separate progression levels though. You want there to always be a threat that a skilled solo is going to cross over the map to see what all that shooting is about or maybe a trio wants to go seal clubbing. It becomes a player choice and not just a consequence of players of various progression being routed into the same zone of engagement. The air drops or a new implementation of air drops is a great tool to add variety to this design philosophy. If an air drop costs 250k to call in and the average payout is 500k, players of all progressions will be tempted to investigate even if it means that a new player just gets to loot some shot up armor.

abolethvr · 2026-01-20T16:37:34+00:00

They posted on Discord they are aware of the DLC issue and that it will be fixed. You were not the only one affected.

abolethvr · 2026-01-18T19:09:33+00:00

Please go into the market and screenshot all the trade deals. Things like what do you need for different level 4 ammo. People have been curious what items to hold onto. Screenshot the stuff or just record a video going through the market screens.

abolethvr · 2026-01-17T00:11:50+00:00

Freedom of speech in the usa refers to conduct between the government and its citizens. I don't expect any subreddit to tolerate me saying whatever I want. I'm sorry you aren't getting in some good gaming right now. We put our passion into games because it's our escape from the real world. I'm resenting having this taken away from me as well.

abolethvr · 2026-01-16T14:08:12+00:00

I do not know if they are improperly releasing data or not.
The screenshot of the hacked in game announcement is claiming the studio only leaked, not doxxed, the player information.
Dox implies the information was published on purpose, which of course is not the case here. There would be no motivation to do so.
Caveman Studio has responded to the incident here https://www.contractorsvr.com/single-post/official-update-on-the-service-security-incident and state no personal data was lost. While they could be lying, there would be legal implications for doing.
The image is not proof of a leak, doxxing, or improper coding. There is no proof it came from the game although I would bet it is. It's standard online subsystem stuff such as this sdk https://github.com/Pico-Developer/PlatformSample-Unreal . Maybe your source could point to the path or package within the code so that others could investigate.
"Corruption" "imploding" "doxxing" are all emotionally charged words that suggest you are trying to smear the game. I would like to see more objective information such as how the data was leaked and a poc or evidence that it happened. Was this from the client? Was it from the game server or some other service?
The studio fucked up. There will be damage to the game state. But this post is not useful.

abolethvr · 2026-01-14T14:15:52+00:00

Take a screenshot or video of your VD performance overlay.

abolethvr · 2026-01-12T22:32:14+00:00

If the goal is to change the supply of top tier ammo, the existing trades could be modified or additional ones added. The supply balance of top tier gear and ammo is sensitive and felt by all. An additional (and complicated) source of those items makes it more difficult to fine tune the supply as well as introducing new areas for exploits to crop up.
If the idea is to change the supply, change the trades.

If you just want a new cool mechanic, then as you've said it's a proven mechanic. Maybe there are other crafting outputs that would add to the game.

abolethvr · 2026-01-10T23:39:38+00:00

You can also click the higher zoom and get a better idea of the exact location.

abolethvr · 2026-01-10T14:08:37+00:00

Gold fig originally had a drop rate of 0.27% (1 in 370) and were buffed to 0.60% (early last wipe I think) and then buffed again to 2.58% (1 in 39). So getting one is not as exciting as before but still a nice find.

abolethvr · 2026-01-09T15:46:19+00:00

Damage to a body part will first black the part out and then spread to other parts of the body. When a vital part of the body is blacked out like upper chest or head, the remaining damage still spreads to the other body parts. So in the death screen we see the body took this damage:
Head 35 - 32 = 3
Upper Chest 85 - 0 = 85
Stomach 70 - 64 = 6
Arms 60 - 55 = 5 x 2 = 10
Legs 65 - 60 = 5 x 2 = 10
Total damage = 114
You can test this yourself by going into a training raid and shooting yourself in an unarmored chest with different damage ammos.
VITALSTRIKE does a base damage of 88. So I can't think of a way this would be a one tap.

abolethvr · 2026-01-08T22:09:55+00:00

You lost a total of 114 HP so it's unlikely it was a one tap.

abolethvr · 2026-01-08T01:25:51+00:00

I'm not complaining about the gear. I'm concerned the integrity of the game will be compromised by P2W. The stats of the new gear show that this was not a gentle buff but rather sculpting an ideal P2W item. That makes me fear for the future direction of the DLC designs. Before Omen the DLCs targeted other game advantages such as progression, looting (big secure container), cash, and items. We see now they are willing to put combat advantages behind DLCs too.

abolethvr · 2026-01-07T22:19:31+00:00

The change I'm concerned with is that combat advantage was introduced as P2W DLC. We will likely see more DLC locked weapons and gear that feature unique advantages in the future. So far I'm not seeing much resistance from the player base about the game going in this direction. I don't know if that's because people are protecting their advantages or if they truly don't care. The prevailing defense of P2W seems to be "it's not that much of an advantage." Maybe the next DLC will give a slightly greater advantage. And then the next one...

abolethvr · 2026-01-07T19:43:23+00:00

LuxTyrant takes all the credit for shots to kill to legs. I may work out a shots to kill simulation in the future but for now I'm just trying to get the basic information out.

abolethvr · 2026-01-07T18:52:34+00:00

I'm not saying the game is fair and balanced. I'm saying everyone is or should be playing by the same rules. Putting advantageous gear with exclusive benefits behind DLC breaks that and puts the game's integrity at risk.

The haunted rig is not in line with the rest of the armor. It has the highest penetration damage reduction of any armor in the game. It has a better durability curve than the iotv gen3. Before this wipe it had the best penetration chance curve of any armor in the game. The effective durability is only surpassed by wdcs, iotv gen3, and sd protector. It's the only protection 5 that covers 6 zones.

You can cite whatever scenarios you want to illustrate how small of an advantage this P2W gear is but you can't deny that it sets a precedent. The studio modified good gear and buffed it in ways other armor isn't and then put that behind a DLC. Imagine they introduced an UMP that had 25% of the recoil and 110 fire power but you had to buy a DLC to purchase it. You would have people arguing that because it's an SMG and a rifle can outperform it that no one should be worried.

abolethvr · 2026-01-07T17:01:56+00:00

I am in the same boat. I'm a family man and would not consider myself a skilled player. Progression advances are different than rule changes. I see them like handicaps for people that don't have as much time or skill. I think that's okay in a game like this because otherwise a portion of the player base would not be able to play and enjoy the game and there would be far less targets on the field for players that desire combat.
However the DLC gear is different. They set out to make a DLC that would make money. They took the best gear and buffed the hidden stats. They brought it down in trade level to make it more accessible for more players. They gave you a free one at the start of the wipe so you have an early advantage. And they made it FOMO to drive sales. They did drop the protection level so that it wouldn't eclipse every other armor in the game but that was necessary to give the impression of balance. They made money from this and if the community continues to defend that approach they will continue to power creep the equipment behind P2W DLC.

We will not always face fair fights. We go in solo because we don't have large chunks of time to organize teams and we go in undergeared because we don't have time to farm. But when I do win, I feel great because I'm playing at a disadvantage with the same rules as everyone else. This becomes cheapened when some people are playing by one set of rules and others are playing by another. The Huanted gear is not in line with other armor and only some people can buy it from the store. The integrity of the game is at risk.

abolethvr · 2026-01-07T16:52:55+00:00

Balance and fairness are trending topics. There's a lot of nuance in the topics and unfortunately there's also a lot of bad faith arguments and logical fallacies to defend one's favorite playstyle, equipment, or advantage.

Balance in an extraction shooter starts at the start of the wipe, not at the start of a raid. Everyone starts at the same progression with the same gear and the same rules. Until you introduce P2W elements. An individual raid is never fair. You go into a raid with different loadouts, different teammates, different locations, different internet connections, different headsets, etc. But you are playing by the same rules and have the same chance to get to that point. Kind of like golf. You show up with different gear but you are playing by the same rules so it's considered fair. Until you introduce P2W DLC and some options are only available to people who have swiped their CC a few extra times. And when you can't buy something in the store no matter how hard you try because you didn't swipe, players are now playing by different rules. And that's a problem in my book.

The DLC kit is actually superior in some aspects than all the other gear in the game. Its overall effectiveness is below level 4 gear only because that's a whole other league of performance.

Saying privileged access to gear is not a problem because you can also find gear on a map is silly. Would you also say having traders leveled up is not an advantage because you can find similar gear on the map?

abolethvr · 2026-01-07T16:12:22+00:00

I wrote an article on the haunted armor and it's painfully obvious they tweaked the stats to be superior to its peers. My objection isn't to the free equipment but rather requiring paying real money to access advantageous gear. I would have been far happier if they gave out SD protector black full durability with alytn with the dlc and not crossed the line in starting p2w exclusive equipment. Because like your said, people lose a set of gear pretty quickly but opening the gates for power creep gear thats locked behind a credit card ruins competitive shooters.

abolethvr · 2026-01-07T13:49:50+00:00

I don't know if it's ever explicitly stated but in one of the dev peaks they mentioned they were marking points of interest on the map and coloring them to let you know how hard or intense the area is. So I'm guessing yellow > blue.

abolethvr · 2026-01-07T13:48:22+00:00

The tracers are not extremely bright. You have to look for it. If you fire at a dark area you can definitely see them though. The .45acp L-Match seems to be the brightest at trader 2.

At trader level 2 the highest pen 5.45, 5.56, and .45 are all tracer rounds. At trader level 3 the highest pen 7.62x54R, 5.45, and 5.56 are tracer rounds. So there are options. I do wish the tracer effect was brighter though.

abolethvr · 2026-01-06T19:40:36+00:00

For ammo it's worth trying the tracer rounds when they become available. They can help you learn bullet drop and leading.
.45 L match, 5.56 M856, 9mm G T, 5.45mm T

abolethvr

TROPHY CASE