AoE is a modifier on weapon (or NPC) attacks indicating that the damage is Area of Effect. This has a few effects on the mechanics of AoE attacks:
- Bypass damage locations, meaning that they do not get reduced by Armor, and it will not trigger a counterattack from armor with a "condition effect".
- The "AoE #" will determine the theoretical maximum number of people affected by an AoE attack.
- AoE attacks have an effectively higher accuracy when aimed at installation objects because it "rolls to hit" the "AoE #" of times.
Notes
- Inside and outside of buildings count as separate tiles for the purposes of AoE targeting.
- Valid targets differ between different AoE weapons/attacks. Some target the same race as the selected target, some target enemies only, and some are random.
- Hidden players are not valid targets until found.
- Installation objects (buildings, barricades, walls, generators, TVs, wax figures, flags, etc.) will not be hit unless specifically selected as the target.
- To illustrate these points: Assuming sufficient number of valid targets on the same tile, then a "single-hit AoE 4 attack", for example, will roll-to-hit 1 attack per target against each of 4 targets.
- The chance to hit each target may differ between the "first attack" against the selected target and the "additional attack(s)" against non-selected valid targets, though currently this is uncommon.
- See Weapons, Crafted Weapons, and Infectious Spew for AoE attacks you can do. See NPCs for AoE attacks to watch out for.
