Diablo 4 player solves “armor formula” and creates helpful calculator

A content creator figured out Diablo 4’s “armor formula” and designed an armor calculator thanks to their findings.

To some degree, Diablo 4 has proven a tough nut to crack. Its mechanics and systems may seem straightforward on the surface, but players have found that there’s a lot going on under the hood that Blizzard never explains.

Such is the case with the role-playing title’s armor system. A user may find and upgrade an impressive piece of gear, only to find themselves in need of a more powerful armor piece a few hours later.

Luckily, it seems one dedicated Diablo 4 player has solved the armor equation and come up with an easy way for players to navigate its complexities.

Diablo 4 player designs helpful armor calculator

Content creator Skyline believes they’ve “mostly” cracked the new Diablo title’s armor formula. As many are well aware, 85 percent is the maximum damage reduction that armor can provide. Reaching this maximum requires at least 100 armor.

In a video explaining the formula, Skyline claims Diablo 4 has a hidden mechanic ensuring that “as something levels up, it gains innate armor penetration” on any damage it deals. A Level 1 enemy, then, will automatically reduce a player’s armor by 50 on attack.

As a result, players should have 150 armor to hit the 85 percent max reduction. Needless to say, the pattern continuously increases as enemies level up. That super powerful armor that a user equips at Level 1 will basically be rendered useless by the time they start running into Level 8 foes.

Skyline developed a Diablo 4 armor calculator on Google Sheets to help players navigate the system’s ins and outs.

The post notes that every value is an approximation within 1 to 2 percent of the game’s values, so it’s unlikely to be totally accurate. Regardless, the differences should prove negligible.

The content creator explains how to use the calculator function as follows: “First copy the spreadsheet (file->Copy.), then simply put in the attacker’s level and the defender’s armor and it will give you the resulting damage reduction.”

This should especially prove useful to Diablo 4’s console players, since only mouse users can see their character’s damage reduction percentage when viewing the stats pane.