Missile mechanics

This article takes a look at mathematics behind missiles. It looks at the equations that govern how much damage missiles 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	damage reduction factor	Note: The smaller the better

Note that unlike the turret damage equation, missile damage takes absolute velocity into account, not angular 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 (V_t) is the speed of the target. If your overview is set up according to the Overview Guide, you can see the velocity of any ship near you on your overview.

Target signature radius (S) is the effective size of a ship. It is affected by various factors, for example the ship type, modules, rigs, skills or implants. It is not displayed in the overview.

Finding the missile values

The Base damage of a missile (D) can be found in the missile information under “EM damage”, “Kinetic damage”, “Thermal damage” or “Explosive damage”. Base Shield Damage and Base Armor Damage are not relevant for this calculation.

The Explosion radius of a missile (E) represents the size of the explosion. It can be found in the missile information under “Explosion radius”.

The Explosion velocity of missile (V_e) is the rate of expansion of the explosion. It can be found in the missile information under “Explosion velocity”.

Finding the damage reduction factor of a missile

The “damage reduction factor” (drf) of a missile is not mentioned in the game, it is however 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	4,7
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 with some basic information.

The base damage of the missile is multiplied by min(1, S/E, (S/E*Ve/Vt)^(ln(drf)/ln(5.5)). This means that the base damage is multiplied by the smallest of either 1, S/E or (S/E*Ve/Vt)^(ln(drf)/ln(5.5). This leads to the base damage being no higher than 100%, due to the fact that as soon as the other values exceed 1, 1 will always be selected in the calculation.

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. In this case, only the signature radius of the target and the explosion radius of the missile affect the missile damage. Further decreases the ships speed will not increase the damage; however increases the signature size will, until the damage reaches 100%.

An important fact that derives from the equations is the fact that there is a minimum speed that a ship needs to fly before the velocity becomes a factor. This has major implication for the use of MWD since the minimum required speed increases as well and bigger ships will not be able to match the speed requirements since their base speed is lower.

Shiptype	Signature radius	Minimum Velocity to reduce damage	Minimum Velocity to reduce damage with activated MDW
Frigate (T1)	30 m - 50 m	19,44 m/s - 32,4 m/s	97,2 - 162 m/s
Destroyer (T1)	7 5m - 90 m	48,6 m/s - 58,32 m/s	243 - 291,6 m/s
Cruiser (T1)	100 m - 150 m	64,8 m/s - 324 m/s	97,2 - 486 m/s
Battlecruiser (T1)	240 m - 300 m	155,52 m/s - 777,6 m/s	194,4 m/s - 972 m/s
Battleship (T1)	320 m - 500 m	207,36 m/s - 1036,8 m/s	324 m/s - 1620 m/s

Increasing Missile Damage

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

Skills

• Guided Missile Precision

Guided Missile Precision reduces the impact of the target signature radius 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

Target Navigation Prediction reduces the impact of the target velocity on the damage. This effectively increases the explosion velocity by 10% per skill level. Works for all missiles, guided and unguided.

• Warhead Upgrades

Warhead Upgrades provides a straight forward 2% increase in missile damage per 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

Ballistic Control Systems increase, amongst other things, missile damage.

• Warhead Calefaction Catalyst

A Warhead Calefaction Catalyst increases the damage of the missile by 10% but increases the CPU requirement for the launcher.

• Warhead Flare Catalyst

A Warhead Flare Catalyst increases the explosion velocity of the missile by 15% but increases the CPU requirement for the launcher.

• Warhead Rigor Catalyst

A Warhead Rigor Catalyst decreases the explosion radius by 15% but increases the 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 substantially increased by affecting the target ship in order to change these parameters.

• Target Painters

Target Painters can increase the signature size of the ship by a percentage.

• Stasis Webifier

A Stasis Webifier can decrease the ships velocity (speed) by a percentage.


Due to the fact that the usual MWD increases the ships signature and speed, these effects nullify each other. The missile damage on a target flying with MWD is essentially identical to the one flying without it, as the bigger signature radius offsets the faster speed. 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 radius 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 afterburners only increase the speed, but do not penalize the signature size.