Hey folks, I constantly see people argue back and forth on whether helmets are "worth it" to run. What some folks may not be aware of- is over the last few wipes helmets have been buffed considerably via ricochet chance- especially so against higher tier high pen ammo. I spent a considerable amount of time testing with friends to see what helmet protection really looks like because we have all noticed marked improvement in helmet protection
Ultimately, a helmets "Ricochet chance" use to dictate the size of the ricochet zone, while the ammo's "ricochet chance" used to dictate the chance of ricochet if it hits in the ricochet zone. Either intentionally or via a bug, it seems that most helmets (particularly high chance) now seem to have a chance to ricochet across the entire surface of the helmet. This seems to be particularly more noticeable with "high pen" rounds. There were also rumors that armor level of the helmet mattered- where it was believed that a level 3 helmet will never ricochet a 60+ pen round, and this is definitely not the case. Currently- the published statistical "ricochet chance" for each ammo seems to either be incorrect across the board or at least mostly incorrect.
Granted- the test sample is relatively small, so there should be some expected deviation, but there are obvious trends
How the test was performed:
- all shots fired from roughly 10m
- all tests done with perfect durability helmets
- no suppressors were used
- all similar ammo types were fired from the same guns
- all data is averaged across 10 tests against each helmet at each angle
- 2 "high" ricochet chance helms, one "medium" and one "none" were tested
- shots that did not ricochet but were blocked by the armor of the helmet itself were not counted as ricochets
- the "angles" of the shots were tested by standing directly in front of the target. 90 degree is direct center of helmet, 45 degree is about halfway between center and edge, 60 degree is aiming about 2 inches in from the edge of the helmet.
- In all, 1200 individual tests were completed and recorded over the course of 3 days
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| Ammo Type | Ricochet ~90 deg angle | Ricochet ~45 deg angle | Ricochet ~60 degree angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.62×39 PS | 0% | 10% | 20% |
| 7.62×39 BP | 20% | 40% | 50% |
| 9×19 PST | 0% | 10% | 20% |
| 9×19 AP 6.3 | 20% | 20% | 40% |
| .45 FMJ | 10% | 10% | 20% |
| .45 AP | 10% | 20% | 30% |
| 5.45 BP | 10% | 20% | 20% |
| 5.45 BS | 10% | 30% | 60% |
| 7.62×51 m80 | 0% | 10% | 30% |
| 7.62×51 m61 | 10% | 30% | 50% |
| Ammo Type | Ricochet ~90 deg angle | Ricochet ~45 deg angle | Ricochet ~60 degree angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.62×39 PS | 0% | 10% | 10% |
| 7.62×39 BP | 20% | 30% | 60% |
| 9×19 PST | 10% | 10% | 20% |
| 9×19 AP 6.3 | 10% | 20% | 30% |
| .45 FMJ | 0% | 10% | 20% |
| .45 AP | 10% | 30% | 40% |
| 5.45 BP | 10% | 20% | 20% |
| 5.45 BS | 10% | 30% | 60% |
| 7.62×51 m80 | 0% | 10% | 30% |
| 7.62×51 m61 | 10% | 30% | 50% |
Notes: Seemed to perform nearly identically to the fake fast helm when it comes to ricochet, so it is likely mathematically identical. One could infer that all similarly rated helmets perform similarly to each other for ricochets
| Ammo Type | Ricochet ~90 deg angle | Ricochet ~45 deg angle | Ricochet ~60 degree angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.62×39 PS | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 7.62×39 BP | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 9×19 PST | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 9×19 AP 6.3 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| .45 FMJ | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| .45 AP | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 5.45 BP | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 5.45 BS | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 7.62×51 m80 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 7.62×51 m61 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Notes: "None" ricochet chance really means none it would seem
| Ammo Type | Ricochet ~90 deg angle | Ricochet ~45 deg angle | Ricochet ~60 degree angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.62×39 PS | 0% | 10% | 10% |
| 7.62×39 BP | 0% | 20% | 30% |
| 9×19 PST | 0% | 10% | 10% |
| 9×19 AP 6.3 | 0% | 10% | 20% |
| .45 FMJ | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| .45 AP | 0% | 10% | 10% |
| 5.45 BP | 0% | 20% | 20% |
| 5.45 BS | 0% | 20% | 30% |
| 7.62×51 m80 | 0% | 10% | 20% |
| 7.62×51 m61 | 0% | 20% | 20% |
Notes: Despite being the "strongest" helmet tested, it hands down performed worse when it came to ricochets compared to even the fake fast- likely due to the lower ricochet rating
My personal takeaway: There is nearly no reason not to run a helmet- even if it is the fake fast, the upwards of 60% chance to ricochet a shot that would have otherwise killed you is pretty huge. Granted in close quarters you are highly likely to take multiple shots to the dome so level 1 armor isn't likely to hold up. I haven't tested face shields at all, getting identical tests for face shields would be extremely difficult since there are a lot of cases of hitbox overlap, and getting angled shots is incredibly more difficult.
It is interesting to see ricochets happen even with dead on shots, though it only seems to happen with "high" chance helmets. And the seeming better performance against higher penetrating rounds does act as a micro-buff to some economy rounds. It would seem that something like m80 might indeed be superior in many cases vs m61 when going for head shots, especially if you are sniping long range and have less precision
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EscapefromTarkov/comments/wr3gsx/helmets_are_not_useless_test_data_inside/
