I don't mean the modules (I know those boost ship HP; pretty obvious), but the armor stat in the tooltip when you mouse-over a ship, or when "armor" is mentioned in battle cards.



I have a dreadnought right now with 2060.2 HP (as listed under HP in the tooltip) and "+216 HP" under armor (as listed under the tooltip). Obviously, that +216 HP isn't just a reminder of how much extra HP my armor modules give me (ship HP without the armor modules is only 960, down from 1200 due to High Energy Coupling).



The Barrier battle card adds 10% of HP to armor, and the Dust Barrier battle card adds 25% of HP to armor, for example.



That's the armor I'm talking about... that +216, +10% and +25%.



Is it basically "temporary, phantom HP" that enemy weapons have to go through before they start damaging your "actual" HP? If so, I'm guessing that the "extra HP" from armor modules (the 216 mentioned above, for example--not the core HP that's added to the hull) applies throughout the battle, whereas the "extra HP" from battle cards is only present during the phase it's played it?



Or am I completely off-base with my guesses? Anybody have any insight to share about this?

There's 3 phases, 3 rounds per phase, in a combat. I believe armor blocks the amount damage it says, for each of those "rounds". Afiak it's as simple as that. Flak works different and I don't know how.

I'm not talking about the various weapon-specific defenses (which do that, yes), but I guess that's basically how I'm guessing it works, except that armor is "general" instead of being weapon-dependent.



You bring up an interesting point/question, though: assuming I'm correct in my assumption, is armor "per battle", or "per combat phase"? Defenses are per phase, I believe; basically, every time you get hit, your defense rating for that weapon type comes into play. But for armor, I'm not so sure...



Like the +216 HP from my example above, is that for a whole battle, or does it "regenerate" for each phase?

good question, would like to know as well.

liq3 wrote:
There's 3 phases, 3 rounds per phase, in a combat.

I'm not sure that's true. I've heard it's 8. Or 6. Or 4. But it is definitely not 3.

ElegantCaveman wrote:
... +216 HP ...

ElegantCaveman wrote:
Like the +216 HP from my example above, is that for a whole battle, or does it "regenerate" for each phase?

Check your armor module. Add all of the ower: noted for your armor. The number you get should equal +.



I believe it is a typo and an incorrect icon.





As for how armor works in this game: Armor = HP, so just think in terms of +HP and +%HP.

Do not think of Armor as Defense in the sense of damage reduction--Defense Modules are damage reduction.



As for combat healing without nanorepair card, I have no clue how that works. Sometimes, I get healing bulge at several points during each phase, but that is just looking at a non-descript hp bar.



Also, if you want to understand how to optimise HP based on the tonnage you have available check out the link in my sig

ElegantCaveman wrote:


You bring up an interesting point/question, though: assuming I'm correct in my assumption, is armor "per battle", or "per combat phase"? Defenses are per phase, I believe; basically, every time you get hit, your defense rating for that weapon type comes into play. But for armor, I'm not so sure...



Like the +216 HP from my example above, is that for a whole battle, or does it "regenerate" for each phase?

I'm fairly certain armor is just added directly to your max HP in case of armor modules and is repaired the same way as normal HP.

Draco18s wrote:
I'm not sure that's true. I've heard it's 8. Or 6. Or 4. But it is definitely not 3.

There are 4 rounds per phase.