How do gear levels work? | Forums

[Virtual-Chris]

We know from Ubisofts FAQ that a large difference in gear score between you and enemies means it takes more body shots to down an enemy.

We know that some enemies like Wolves and behemoths have fixed levels (e.g 150 and 40).

Do normal human PMC enemies have fixed levels or their level is matched to your gear level?

It seems every time I find gear, it gets progressively higher level. Is the RNG loot system basically using my gear score + some random amount to decide the gear level of new gear?

I would like to understand how the loot system decides what level the random loot it generates has for me?

I would also like to understand if I’m on a hamster wheel...
1. Get higher level gear
2. Enemy level increases to match
3. Goto 1

[mesh_actual]

Normal human enemies are always the same level you are, at least as far as I could see in the beta.
I noticed it on several occasions when using the recon drone (and I think the binoculars) so I'd say it's a pretty safe bet.
I also think that when playing coop with a friend who isn't the same level as you, the normal enemies are always at your level for you and at your friend's level for him.
Also, he'll be getting loot drops appropriate to his gear level and you'll be getting them according to yours. That part I've tested and 100% confirmed.
The system works much like the difficulty levels in WIldlands when one player is playing on let's say arcade difficulty and another is playing on advanced etc.

As far as how the RNG loot system determines the level of gear it drops for you, that is tied to your total gear level (aka "gear score") + a range of 0 to 9 as far as I have seen.
The first pieces of gear you pick up after your helicopter crashes are at about level 10 and your starting gear is all at 1. As you progress towards the max gear score of 40, that range shrinks and is between 0 (i.e. your current level) and 5.
Again, all of this is according to what I've seen in my testing within the limits of the beta.

An interesting side note:
I spent most of my time in the beta playing my main character and using only 1 primary weapon + side arm.
If you do this then you'll hit a "cap" when you reach a total gear level of 22. Each of your weapons and pieces of gear individually will be at level 27-28 and you'll be unable to progress any further simply because the game won't drop any gear that is above L28 for you, forcing the player to equip a second primary weapon if they want to progress.
The quick and dirty explanation:
So if max total gear level in the beta is 40, the 27-28 "cap" is 2/3rds of 40 (using 2 out of 3 possible weapon slots, 13.3+13.3=26.6=27, all three weapon slots would be 13.3.+13.3+13.3=39.9=40)
As soon as you equip a second primary weapon, the drops continue to progress normally and you are able to reach the max of 40.

The biggest problem I see with this is if it stays that way in the final release, that means you'll most likely get locked out of the endgame content if you don't use 3 weapons- total gear score (by 33%) too low.
A price I personally am perfectly willing to pay if it enables me to play with only 1 primary, at least on this one character. (think of it like Ghost Mode)

[Jay_Aitch]

That's a terrible system. I don't want another weapon sticking from my back either and played with only one primary as the lord intended. I wonder if the difficulty has any other effect than to challenge yourself with? If not, we could just leave the game on easy to balance the lower gear score. IMO the difficulty should affect the rarity drops or at least increase XP gains.

[mesh_actual]

If not, we could just leave the game on easy to balance the lower gear score.

As I said, the low gear score isn't really a problem because the game world is always at the player's gear score. The only exceptions I've seen are the fixed "danger areas" with drones that are clearly marked on the map and seem to be kind of intended as a challenge / farming points, so completely optional and can easily be completely left out of your playthrough.

The problem I was pointing to is the endgame raid mission and the rest that is coming after release which will require a certain gear score to take part in.

[Jay_Aitch]

I hope Ubi addresses this somehow, by giving the option of hiding the second weapon on your back or something.

[mesh_actual]

Or simply give us Ghost Mode - 1 primary, no loot (all weapons & gear are regular white versions, available only in chests/lockers in bases, not appearing magically out of thin air) & no gear score, realistic reloads (the reload system as it was in OTT2 was great), menu with toggleable gameplay options like lonewolf or with AI team (when they are added), a bunch of settings like in Wildlands etc.

[xdevnull]

Honestly I'm not sure what the gear actually does. The only really higher level enemies were crazy high and I don't know if anyone did any testing to see what gear actually does.

I like the leveling system for weapons since you can improve a weapon and every type of that kind you get receives all the improvements you add (though I wish it would also keep attachments as well). But since you only add a point or two of damage when you level I don't get what it does for weapons. Is it a percentage of something? Since I don't remember encountering enemies below my level it seems to not have a floor - you won't ever be over leveled.

And please, I am not interested in the "headshot" thing. First of all headshots aren't always easy to pull off and second drones don't have heads.

I assume that gear just adds some kind of armor of damage resistance percentage, but since it doesn't effect the way your character looks it's not that bad if the drops continue at the rate they did in the beta.

DId anyone actually try and check out what gear and weapon level actually does. Ubi hasn't shared anything meaningful about it at all.

[Rookfoot]

I didn't understand guns damage level.

I had an SVD sniper rifle equipped. It was there from the start mostly. It had 60 damage at first. Then later I noticed it about 200 damage, even though I had not upgraded it or changed it.

Meanwhile another identical gun in my inventory had 60 damage still.


Guns must level with the player. However that is horrid because it means I don't know the real damage of guns in my inventory. I had another sniper rifle with 125 damage. However I was never sure if it was better or worse than the gun which had 200 damage. I thought if I equip it, will it level up. Why would I even have to equip a gun to see its real damage level.

Secondly I was too worried about unequipping the level 200 damage gun that I had. Would it go back to 60 damage when unequipped.

I think I am over complicating this. However it is complicated. Say I started again with the gun with 60 damage. I then never pick up another gun identical gun with 60 damage. My gun levels up to 200 damage, but I forget it originally had 60 damage. I find another different model gun with 125 damage. On the surface it looks like it has less damage than the gun which I have equipped. The one which now has 200 damage.

How do I know what the real damage of the 125 damage gun is unless I equip it? If Breakpoint really is like this, I won't buy it. I hate being confused by games.

[Flanker1Six]

As I said, the low gear score isn't really a problem because the game world is always at the player's gear score. The only exceptions I've seen are the fixed "danger areas" with drones that are clearly marked on the map and seem to be kind of intended as a challenge / farming points, so completely optional and can easily be completely left out of your playthrough.

The problem I was pointing to is the endgame raid mission and the rest that is coming after release which will require a certain gear score to take part in.

My experience as well. I ventured into drone swarm areas twice. They were both VERY short trips!

Good info and tips in your first post (this thread) on weapon leveling and campaign progression! TY!

I did not have any trouble with what ever weapon I wanted to use through out the BETA. Between weapon buffs, and skill perks (however much you wish to use, or not use them) the weapons got the job done. Base damage, range, and ballistic drop off were nothing like their real world counter parts (no surprise for an Ubi game), and the pistols and subguns were either OPed, or the rifles were UPed (no surprise there either).

[Zascha.]

Honestly I'm not sure what the gear actually does. The only really higher level enemies were crazy high and I don't know if anyone did any testing to see what gear actually does.

I like the leveling system for weapons since you can improve a weapon and every type of that kind you get receives all the improvements you add (though I wish it would also keep attachments as well). But since you only add a point or two of damage when you level I don't get what it does for weapons. Is it a percentage of something? Since I don't remember encountering enemies below my level it seems to not have a floor - you won't ever be over leveled.

And please, I am not interested in the "headshot" thing. First of all headshots aren't always easy to pull off and second drones don't have heads.

I assume that gear just adds some kind of armor of damage resistance percentage, but since it doesn't effect the way your character looks it's not that bad if the drops continue at the rate they did in the beta.

DId anyone actually try and check out what gear and weapon level actually does. Ubi hasn't shared anything meaningful about it at all.

I did not notice anything, and I was wondering about this myself. I looted everything I could, and occasionally, I would get items that were higher GS than my current item, but it would be a Blue or Green variant. I could see the advantage of those, but I still have no idea what the actual GS of the item does for my character. Only thing I can think is that the point is to get your GS equal to these 150 dudes walking around so that you're on an even scale with them, and otherwise, it might not matter.