Ammunition

Ranged Weapons
Firearms
Handguns Rifles Shotguns Submachine guns
Archery
Bows Crossbows Other
Other ranged weapons
Flamethrowers Grenade Launchers Rocket Launchers
Other
Ammunition Modifications Firearms (by ammo type)

Stuff which goes in guns. Also includes arrows and, for some reason, tinder. Anything which can be reloaded into something. But if you hear someone say "ammo" they mean bullets (or, rarely, arrows). A prized possession in the cataclysm, although it's a happy coincidence if you possess the correct ammunition for your gun! Hilariously, you may end up finding empty guns without ammo and ammo for guns you don't have. And if you do find the correct ammo, firing bullets comes with their own drawbacks! Noise and a scarcity of ammo can leave you with more zombies you can shake your empty twelve gauge at.

Bullet damage calculation

Bullets do cutting damage.^{Verify (What about incendiary, plastic, etc?)} When hitting a target, the armor piercing (AP) value of the ammo will first be subtracted from the target's cut protection value. Once this is done, any remaining cut protection will be subtracted from the ammo damage.

Bullet penetration = bullet damage - max(0,(target cut protection - bullet AP))

If the penetration is equal to or less than zero, then the shot will be reflected off the target and no damage will be done. Otherwise, the damage dealt will be based on the resulting bullet penetration and how well placed the shot was (grazing hit, normal hit, good hit, critical or head shot).

You can see pre-made calculations by hovering your mouse over an ammo damage value in any list of this section. These calculations assume the target's cut protection is zero.

Hand-loaded ammunition

It is possible to reload spent casings with hand press. You obviously need respective casings, some lead or copper for bullets and either gunpowder or black gunpowder as well some some Fabrication and Marksmanship skills.

Gunpowder can be tricky to get as it requires some chemicals and cooking skill. The simpler but unintuitive way to acquire it would be to disassemble some ammunition that you don't require - this requires kinetic bullet puller.

Gunpowder vs Black Gunpowder

Gunpowder is harder to acquire(unless you're dismantling ammo) but it's better than black gunpowder in all aspects - damage, recoil, dispersion, armor-piercing and fouling. Black gunpowder, while marginally easier to get, will cause high amounts of fouling just after few rounds shot. This can be a serious threat if you lack access to Firearm repair kit or similar tool - misfire after a misfire is no fun.