CS2 wallbang penetration: weapon values, the materials that block bullets, and the sniper number guides disagree on

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CS2 wallbang penetration: weapon values, the materials that block bullets, and the sniper number guides disagree on

Quick summary

Wallbanging means shooting through a surface and still hurting the player behind it. The damage that comes out the far side depends on three things: the material, the weapon's penetration power, and how far the bullet has to travel through. SMGs, shotguns and most pistols have weak penetration, rifles and machine guns are stronger, and snipers are the strongest, although the exact sniper value is reported differently by different references. Wood keeps the most damage. Concrete and thick multi-layer walls can remove most of it, and low-penetration weapons can end up doing nothing at all through them.

How the damage is calculated

Three factors decide what survives:

• The surface's penetration modifier, which belongs to the material.
• The weapon's penetration power value, which runs from 0 to 300 in the older documentation.
• The distance the bullet has to travel through the material before it exits.

A bullet loses some damage on contact with the surface and keeps losing it while it travels through. If it runs out of damage before it exits, it never comes out the far side. When the entrance and exit surfaces are made of different materials, the damage lost is calculated from the average resistance of the two.

There is also a hard cap on the number of surfaces one bullet can pass through in a single flight: four.

Weapon penetration values

The Counter-Strike wiki puts penetration power on a 0 to 300 scale. On that scale, submachine guns, shotguns and most pistols sit around 100. The Desert Eagle and the R8 Revolver are the only pistols at 200. Rifles and machine guns are usually around 200, sniper rifles are usually around 300, and the Nova is the lowest at 1.

A CS2-specific guide gives the same broad split with different sniper numbers. It lists 100 percent for SMGs, shotguns and most pistols, 200 percent for assault rifles, machine guns, the Desert Eagle and the R8, and 250 percent for all sniper rifles. The same guide says CS:GO used 300 for snipers, so the sniper value is the one number the two references disagree on. If you want to settle it yourself, the buy menu shows each weapon's penetration power, and that in-game value is the one to trust.

What each material costs you

Softer surfaces let more damage through. A CS2 coaching guide gives rough retention figures:

• Wooden doors retain about 50 to 80 percent of the original damage.
• Thin metal and drywall retain about 40 to 70 percent.
• Concrete or multi-layered walls can cut damage by 70 to 90 percent, which is often enough to make an SMG or pistol useless through them.

Thickness matters as much as the material. A thin wooden crate is a different target from a wooden door, and a single sheet of drywall is different from a brick wall standing behind it.

Using it in a match

• Learn the surfaces on the maps you play most. A wall that is safe on one map can be paper on another.
• Use sound. Footsteps, reloads and grenade pins tell you where someone is standing behind cover.
• Practice on a private server with bots so you can measure what a spot actually does instead of guessing.
• Call it out. A teammate who knows a spot is penetrable can hold a different angle while you shoot through it.

One thing worth knowing: bots never wallbang, even at the highest difficulty, so they will not punish you for learning the spots.

FAQ

• Does armor penetration work the same way? No. Bullet penetration and armor penetration are separate numbers, and their effects on damage are stacked together.
• Can every weapon wallbang? No. Weapons with a penetration power of 0 cannot penetrate anything, and in the older list that means the Nova.
• How many walls can a bullet go through? Four surfaces per flight.
• Does the AWP wallbang better than anything else? It usually does the most visible damage through cover because it has the highest penetration power and the highest base damage, but rifles and the Deagle still work on wood and thin cover.
• Do I need to hit the exact spot the enemy is standing? Yes. The bullet has to travel through and reach them, so the angle and the distance through the material both matter.
• Does the distance to the target matter? Yes. The farther away the target is, the less damage the bullet carries, and that applies to wallbangs too.

Sources

• Counter-Strike Wiki: Bullet Penetration (penetration power scale, surface rules, four surface cap, buy menu)
• Key-Drop: Wallbangs in CS2 guide and tips (CS2 weapon values and the 250 percent sniper figure)
• CS2 Pulse: CS2 Wallbangs Guide (material retention ranges)