Appreciating the Anti-Material Rifle, or the Light Vehicle Armor Distinction
TL;DR: Light Vehicle Armor is an armor type specified in the description of the Anti-Material Rifle that is in-between medium and heavy that the Anti-Material Rifle, Auto-Cannon, and HMG Emplacement can hit through. This really doesn't matter for fighting Terminids, but pretty important for Automatons as it allows you hit through certain hitzones such as the Strider Pilot Shields, Heavy Devastator Shields, and Hulk head visors and arms. This accounts for why something like the Auto-Cannon can hit through these parts of an Automaton despite medium weaponry ricocheting off of them, but being ineffective against heavily armored enemies.
Howdy everyone. Hope you are having a good Steam Server Maintenance. I also hope the following hasn't already been discussed somewhere, or that the following is redundant.
At time of writing I've sank almost 78 hours into the game, and haven't quite unlocked everything but I'm closing in on things. Because the game is so new there are a lot of mechanics that need uncovering that aren't fully elaborated on and my special interest is armor penetration. By now everyone has solidified favorite loadouts for difficulty 7 and above, and which of those choices are meta, but we have a lot of toys to play with and we should explore every option available to make sure we aren't missing anything. It's hard to find any information armor penetration, so here's my contribution. The discussions usually boil down to confirmed or unconfirmed weapons being able to hit through medium and heavy, but I want to add an extra shade to the mix, Light Vehicle.
This came about when I noticed, consistently, the Auto-Canon hit through certain types of heavy armor that medium penetrating weaponry like the Machine Gun ricochet off of, but it isn't enough to hit through heavy armor as it is on something like the Charger. So I decided to hunker down and take a look at things today. Let's highlight the Anti-Material Rifle. It's easy to write this weapon off when facing Terminids at higher difficulties as your immediate concerns are wave clearing and being able to efficiently take down Chargers and Bile Titans. But as any veteran facing down Automatons will be able to tell you this thing can take down the heavy duty clunkers from Striders to Hulks.
-Striders: Two hits aiming at the rider through the shield will take it down
-Devastators: Efficient dearming of their weapons, including the Rocket Rack on the back of the rocket variant, and of course consistent headshots .
-Heavy Devastators: Shots through the shield to hit the head are made easier since they do not ricochet off the small corner where you can see their head peaking out.
-Hulks: Two shots through the visor will put them out for good if they are insistent on not giving you the vent, and in a pinch you can shoot off the arms though it's an inefficient use of ammo.
All of these are assuming you have the range to aim down your scope, of course, but once I established this as a base line, what was left was looking at what other weapons consistently did exactly this and tested them against medium weaponry such as the Machine Gun and Liberator Penetrator, and of course the Auto-Cannon and HMG Emplacement fit the bill. Side note: The Liberator Penetrator's trade off of less damage and no full auto for medium penetration and 150M scope does not feel like a worthwhile exchange. It lacks wave clear, and punch to actually kill medium armored targets and if you like the extra scope range, you are better served by a Diligence, either of the two.
Anyway, thanks for indulging me. If anyone else has found different results please let me know, I'm constantly trying to nail down every detail I can about the dynamic armor system in this game.