Missile mechanics

This article takes a look at mathematics behind missiles. We look at the equations that govern how far your missiles will travel and how much damage they deal. There's some math at the beginning, but you can skip over this if you wish.

Missile Damage Output

Damage Equation

Here is the equation for missile damage:

Here are the terms in the equation:

S	Signature radius of target	Note: The bigger the better
Vt	velocity of target	Note: The smaller the better
D	base damage of missile	Note: The bigger the better
E	explosion radius of missile	Note: The smaller the better
Ve	explosion velocity of missile	Note: The bigger the better
drf	explosion velocity of missile	Note: The smaller the better

• drf: damage reduction factor of missile (Note: the smaller the better)

Note that unlike the turret damage equation, the missile damage does not care about angular velocity, but absolute velocity.

To find your damage, the game computes each of the three numbers you see, picks the smallest of them, and multiplies that by the base damage.

You can also write the form more abstract as a = b1 * min (c1, c2, c3). the lowest of the 3 numbers (c1, c2, c3) will be multiplied with b to result in a.

Finding the target values

Target velocity / the speed of the target (*V_t): if you set up the overview to the Overview Guide, you can see the velocity of any ship near you on your overview.

Target signature radius (S): The target signature radius is not displayed in the overview and is affected by various factions. The main factor is the ship size it self, the bigger the ship, the bigger its signature. But other things like modules, rigs, skills and implants and more affect the signature of a target ship. The article Signature radius can give you a general overview about the expected signature size of a ship.

Finding the missile values

Base damage of missile (D):
You can find this in the missile information under" EM damage", "Kinetic damage", "Thermal damage" or "Explosive damage", Base Shield Damage and Base Armor Damage are not relevant here.

Explosion radius of missile (E):
You can find this in the missile information under "Explosion radius".

Explosion velocity of missile (V_e):
You can find this in the missile information under "Explosion Velocity".

Finding the damage reduction factor of a missile

The quite mysterious "damage reduction factor" of a missile is not mentioned in the game, however it is included in the data that CCP publishes [1].
The current table is based on Inferno 1.2.

Missile Type	DRF
Precision Light Missile	2,6
Precision Heavy Missile	2,7
Auto-Targeting Light Missile	2,8
Light Missile	2,8
Rocket	3
Heavy Missile	3,2
Auto-Targeting Heavy Missile	3,2
Javelin Rocket	3,2
Fury Light Missile	3,2
Precision Cruise Missile	3,5
Cruise Missile	4,5
Auto-Targeting Cruise Missile	4,5
Rage Rocket	4,5
Citadel Cruise Missile	4,5
Fury Heavy Missile	4,5
Heavy Assault Missile	4,5
Javelin Heavy Assault Missile	4,6
Fury Cruise Missile	4,78
Rage Heavy Assault Missile	4,8
Torpedo	5
Javelin Torpedo	5,2
Rage Torpedo	5,2
Citadel Torpedo	5,5

Practical application of the equation

The equation provides us first of all with some basic information.

The base damage of the missile can only be multiplied with a value that is 1 or below. This means that the base damage of the missile is 100% of the missile damage that can never be exceeded.

The damage of the missile is dependent on four things: Signature radius of the target, speed of the target, explosion Radius of the missile and explosion velocity of the missile.

If the ship is moving below a specific threshold, the explosion velocity and the speed of the ship do not affect the missile damage. Only the signature radius of the target and the explosion radius of the missile affect the missile damage then. Further decreases the ships speed will not increase the damage, however increases the signature size will, until the damage reaches 100%.

Increasing Missile Damage

There are many things a player can do to increase the missile damage.

Skills

• Guided Missile Precision

The target signature radius has less impact on the damage. This effectively decreases the explosion radius of the missile by 5% per skill level. Notice that this only affects guided missiles (Light, Heavy and Cruise Missile).

• Target Navigation Prediction

The target velocity has less impact on the damage. This effectively increases the explosion velocity by 10% per skill level. Works for all missiles, guided and unguided.

• Warhead Upgrades

A straight forward 2% more missile damage per skill level.

Keep in mind these are only skills that affect the missile damage as such. For a more information about skills that affect missiles and their launchers in general review the article about Missile Launchers.

Modules and rigs

Ballistic Control System
This low slot module increases, among other things, the damage of the missile.

Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
This rig increases the damage of the missile by 10% at increased CPU requirement for the launcher.

Warhead Flare Catalyst I
This rig increases the explosion velocity of the missile by 15% at increased CPU requirement for the launcher.

Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
This rig decreases the explosion radius by 15% at increased CPU requirement for the launcher.

While other rigs affect missiles and launchers as well, they do not affect the missile damage as such.

Affecting the target ship

Due to the fact that missile damage is affected by signature radius and velocity (speed) of the target ship, the missile damage can be substantial increased by affecting the target ship.

Target Painter [2] can increase the signature size of the ship by a percentage.

Stasis Webifier [3] can decrease the ships velocity (speed) by a percentage.

Due to the fact that the usual MWD drive increases the ships signature and the ships speed, both effects nullify each other. The missile damage on a target flying with MWD is identical to the one flying without it. Keep in mind that this is only applicable to the most basic T1 MWD, T2 versions of the drive increase the velocity bonus without increasing the signature penalty which decreases the missile damage. The same goes for other effects that increase the velocity bonus of the MWD.

For afterburner this is not applicable since they only increase the speed but do not penalize the signature size.