*For the purposes of this post [i]"Impact"[/i] will be used to refer to the damage dealt by a weapon's projectile as opposed to the damage dealt by the subsequent explosion, not the total damage value of the weapon.* Like many others since the time of the first Faction Rally i've wondered what the differences between Explosive Payload and Timed Payload were. After a long while I finally decided to do some testing on it. Not the first i'm sure but i'll guarantee that because i'm insane this will be the most comprehensive review you'll find. I'll give you information with absolutely no practical use whatsoever! The first thing that comes to mind is how do explosions work? Well when using weapon with Explosive Payload (henceforth refereed to as EP) or Timed Payload (henceforth refereed as TP) upon shooting an explosion will occur at the bullet's point of impact. For EP this explosion is simultaneous with the impact, where as TP the explosion will occur ~0.16s after the impact. For both perks the explosion created has a radius of 3m and has very rapid damage dropoff. However because the explosion is created at the point of impact rather than being determined by the distance of the user it is completely unaffected by the range stat. This makes EP and TP more affective at very long ranges where Handcannons would typically lose damage due to an insufficient range stat. In that case EP seems like the superior choice right? What's point of waiting for an explosion? Well here's where the weird math comes in. When choosing between using EP, TP, or just a normal bullet that doesn't explode, there are several factors to consider. EP and TP both divide their damage between an impact and an explosion. Normal bullets impart 100% of their damage on impact. EP bullets however divide their damage 56.5% into the impact and 43.5% into the explosion. This results in the majority of damage from EP being place on the bullet impact. TP bullets on the other hand divide only 38.6% damage into the impact and place 61.4% into the explosion. Thus TP places a much heavier reliance on the explosion to deal its damage. With non-critical damage, ie. bodyshot damage, exploding rounds have a clear advantage. As compared to normal rounds EP will deal 1.15x more damage. With a stronger explosion TP will deal even more with 1.165x more damage than normal rounds. This means means when it comes to body damage TP is the clear winner dealing 1.013x more damage than even EP. This may seem like a pointless distinction, and you'd be right it totally is. But things feel so much better when you can tie a number to them. When it comes to critical damage though, ie. headshot damage, everything gets turned on its head. Exploding rounds act more uniquely to critical damage as only the impact receives a critical multiplier. The explosion does not receive any damage increase. This means that normal bullets win out here because their damage is 100% impact. Because exploding rounds divide their damage normal bullets end up dealing 1.11x more damage than EP on crits. TP places more emphasis on its explosion damage so suffers even more, a normal bullet dealing 1.2x more damage than TP. This results in a reverse of the previous scenario where EP is 1.009x more damaging than TP on critical hits. Interestingly though while the total damage ends up being less, the lower impact damage means exploding rounds have a much higher crit multiplier. For 110 Handcannons the normal crit multiplier is 3.6x. For EP this multiplier increases to 5.18x the impact damage. Including the explosion this results in a 2.8x damage increase over a bodyshot. Since TP has even less impact damage its crit multiplier is even higher at 5.5x the impact damage. However since it also places more damage in the explosion this only results in a total 2.75x more damage over a bodyshot. For 140 Handcannons the normal crit multiplier is 2.991x (just couldn't make it to 3, lol). On EP rounds this is 3.99x impact damage and 2.3x total damage. For TP rounds this is 4.2x impact damage and 2.24x total damage. Now you may be thinking, well this is the useless information you were talking about right? What does the impact crit matter verses the total damage i'm dealing? Actually this is the really interesting bit, there's actually an application to this. In PvE Elites, Majors, and Ultras (enemies with orange/yellow health bars) have a built in mechanic that they half all critical damage they take. But as we discussed earlier exploding rounds only have part of their damage affected by crit multipliers, thus only part of the damage is being halved. This means that specifically against these powerful enemies exploding rounds deal more damage on a critical hit than normal bullets. For 110 Handcannons EP deals 1.08x and TP deals 1.09x more damage than normal bullets. For 140 Hancannons the affect is even greater with EP dealing 1.1x and TP dealing 1.11x more damage than normal bullets. It was interesting to see that there's really no clear winner here. All three modes have their own merits and weaknesses. Although perhaps I may find myself avoiding perks like Triple Tap and Rapid Fire combined with Explosive Payload in the future. [i]Math for nerds[/i] [spoiler]Basic Info Explosion size - 3m Timed Delay - 0.16s (5F/30FPS) Crit Multi: [110] Normal- 3.6x Explosive - Impact (5.18x) Total (2.8x) Timed - Impact (5.5x) Total (2.75x) [140] Normal- 2.991x Explosive - Impact (3.99x) Total (2.3x) Timed - Impact (4.2x) Total (2.24x) Damage comparison: [Body] Exp>Nrm - 1.15x Tmd>Nrm - 1.165x Tmd>Exp - 1.013x [Crit] Nrm>Exp - 1.11x Nrm>Tmd - 1.2x Exp>Tmd - 1.009x Vs. Elites [110] Exp - 1.08x Tmd - 1.09x [140] Exp - 1.1x Tmd - 1.11x Damage Division: [Exp] Impact- 56.5% Explosion- 43.5% [Tmd] Impact- 38.6% Explosion- 61.4% Crimil's Dagger (110) [Body] Normal- 2479 | 3037 | 3477 | 5974 Explosive- 1240+1612 (2852) | 1519+1974 (3493) | 1739+2260 (3999) | 2988+3883 (6871) Timed - 1116+1773 (2889) | 1367+2172 (3539) | 1565+2486 (4051) | 2689+4272 (6961) [Crit] Normal- 8929 | 10939 | 12523 | 21517 Explosive- 6433+1612 (8045) | 7880+1974 (9854) | 9022+2260 (11282) | 15501+3883 (19384) Timed- 6197+1773 (7970) | 7592+2172 (9764) | 8692+2486 (11178) | 14934+4272 (19206) Better Devils (140) [Body] Normal- 2306 | 2825 | 3234 | 5556 Explosive- 1153+1499 (2652) | 1412+1836 (3248) | 1617+2102 (3719) | 2778+3612 (6390) Timed- 1038+1649 (2687) | 1272+2020 (3292) | 1456+2312 (3768) | 2501+3973 (6474) [Crit] Normal- 6898 | 8450 | 9675 | 16622 Explosive- 4609+1499 (6108) | 5647+1836 (7483) | 6465+2102 (8567) | 11107+3612 (14719) Timed- 4371+1649 (6020) | 5355+2020 (7375) | 6131+2312 (8443) | 10533+3973 (14506)[/spoiler] *This post only deals with 110 RPM and 140RPM Kinetic Handcannon values as only these weapons are capable of rolling both Explosive Payload and Timed Payload. With other weapon classes, archetypes, or energy weapons precise values may differ but the general principles are expected to be the same* If you have any questions, clarifications, or corrections please leave a comment and i'll address it if I can!