Armor Piercing

Armor Piercing, or AP, bullets are specifically designed with a single purpose: to penetrate armor.

AP bullets usually have a sharp point, and are coated in copper. They are generally tipped with a solid metal, such as copper or steel, and have cores filled with tungsten carbide or hardened steel. In Fallout, AP bullets have the effect of lowering the target's damage resistance, while decreasing the overall damage that weapon does. Due to a mistake in their design, AP bullets are actually vastly inferior to JHP or FMJ variants(Oddly enough, "FMJ" stands for Full Metal Jacket. Full Metal Jacket bullets are generally classified as "armor piercing" rounds). Even against targets with high damage resistance, the reduced damage does not make up for the reduced resistance. In addition, AP bullets do nothing to reduce the damage threshold of the target's armor, making the armor piercing aspect less powerful than intended.


 * There is an unofficial patch for the US Fallout 2 game that corrects the problems with the Armor Piercing Rounds, actually making them somewhat useful. Unofficial Patch 1.05 can be found here: http://www.moddb.com/games/fallout-2/downloads/unofficial-v105-patch


 * Fallout 3 doesn't have AP bullets. The only two armor penetrating weapons in the game are the player created unarmed melee weapon, the Deathclaw Gauntlet, and the Unique Auto-Axe, The Man Opener. They are not the strongest weapons in the game, but they have the unique property of ignoring target armor, which make them as effective against an adversary in power armor as they would be against an unarmored raider.