# How WFSim judges a build How WFSim judges a Warframe build: each rule is what the calculator does, why it does it, and the readings it rests on. ## A score belongs to its ruler **A build is judged in a named fight, its ruler, which states the target, its level, how long the fight lasts and what is counted, and a score compares only with scores under the same ruler.** ### Why - What a hit is worth depends on what it hits: armour, Overguard, faction, elemental weakness and how many bodies stand in reach each change it. A number without its fight cannot be reproduced or compared. - A ruler states every term, so anyone can run the same fight and get the same score. - The best build under one ruler can differ from the best under another; that is the fight answering a different question. ### How to apply it - Before comparing two builds, check that both were scored under the same ruler; under different rulers, do not compare the numbers. - Quote a score together with the name of its ruler. ### The readings behind it - In game · The same Void instance reads 14 on a Thrax Centurion's body and 9 on another unit's body. [M98-void-weakness-overguard-and-thrax-body](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/measurements/M98-void-weakness-overguard-and-thrax-body.md) ### The rulers - **Standard Single Target · Thrax Centurion Lv 9999 SP · 180 s · KPM**: Standard means one set of conditions for every build: one tough, unaffiliated target, the same fight and the same rules, so a number reproduces on any machine and any two builds compare directly. Your own conditions are set in the simulator. - **Standard Multi Target · 5x5 at 3 m · Thrax Centurion Lv 9999 SP · 180 s · KPM**: Standard means one set of conditions for every build: a crowd of tough, unaffiliated targets, packed as close as every elemental area effect still reaches and no larger than holds them whole, the same fight and the same rules, so a number reproduces on any machine and any two builds compare directly. Your own conditions are set in the simulator. - **Demolisher · one target · Demolisher Devourer Lv 9999 SP · 4-player health · 180 s · KPM**: One specific fight players run, measured as it is rather than as a stand-in for most play: a Demolisher a full squad meets, taken apart by one weapon. - **Heavy Gunner · one target · Eximus Corrupted Heavy Gunner Lv 9999 SP · 180 s · KPM**: One specific fight players run, measured as it is rather than as a stand-in for most play: the Eximus Corrupted Heavy Gunner of the Void Fissures, taken apart by one weapon. https://wfsim.app/benchmark ## The fight is run, not assumed **Under a ruler, stacks, buffs, status effects, Overguard and armour start where the game starts them and change hit by hit during the fight; nothing starts at its cap because a card allows one.** ### Why - A buff that stacks on kills is worth what the fight lets it earn. Against a target that dies twice a minute it is rarely earned; against one that dies every second it is held almost all the time. - Each hit lands on what the hits before it left: a status already on the target, armour already stripped, a pile about to detonate. - Only a buff with no timer that nothing spends starts full, because anyone can hold it for the whole fight. ### How to apply it - Do not credit a timed or on-kill buff at full stacks against a tough target; ask how often the build earns it there. - A build that leads against weak targets can trail against tough ones, and the reverse. ### The readings behind it - In the engine · One build scored 60% lower against a level 9999 Steel Path target when its timed buffs started at zero and had to be earned, and 0.9% lower at level 30. [M27-buff-seed](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/measurements/M27-buff-seed.md) ## Kills per minute, not damage per second **A ruler counts kills per minute, including the part of a target already gone, so damage that reaches a body already dead, or a pile already full, adds nothing.** ### Why - Damage per second counts every number a weapon deals, including damage on a body already dead. Kills per minute counts only what removes targets. - Multishot adds instances to the weapon's own rounds: each its own number, crit and status, landing where the round lands. - Counting the part of a target already gone lets a build that never finishes a kill still rank. ### How to apply it - Judge a build by its kills per minute under a ruler, not by its damage per second. - Do not count multishot as extra rounds reaching other targets. ### The readings behind it - In game · A three-round burst at a body that dies to one round kills that body, and nothing of the burst reaches the body behind it. [M119-multishot-rides-the-round](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/measurements/M119-multishot-rides-the-round.md) - In game · A shot that brings a Blast pile to ten detonates it once, and the rest of that shot's Blast procs are lost. [M108-blast-pile-drops-the-rest-of-its-shot](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/measurements/M108-blast-pile-drops-the-rest-of-its-shot.md) ## The game is the authority **Where a reading taken in the game, the wiki and DE's public export disagree, the reading wins, then the wiki, then the export; every formula in the engine names its source.** ### Why - A card's text and the wiki describe the game, and they can leave out how two effects combine or what a listed number means. A reading in the game settles it. - Each reading the engine applies is published with its numbers, so anyone can take it again. - A tested value changes only with a new reading in the game. ### How to apply it - Where a card's wording and a reading in the game disagree, follow the reading. - Where your own reading in the game disagrees with WFSim, yours is the one to trust. ### The readings behind it - In game · Headshot bonuses of +50% and +30% read 1.1998 times the first in game: they add (1.2), they do not multiply (1.3). [M60-headshot-bonuses-add](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/measurements/M60-headshot-bonuses-add.md) - In game · A throw reloads after every throw, so its cycle is the wind-up plus the reload, 1.6 s rather than the 1 s its fire rate suggests. [M43-throw-cycle-includes-reload](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/measurements/M43-throw-cycle-includes-reload.md) ## A score is computed, never typed **A board build is one anyone submitted or a search found, and its score is the engine's: the ruler's fight run many times under a pinned seed.** ### Why - Chance decides much of what a build does, so one trial cannot rank it: one run's spread can put a minus sign in front of a status mod worth +30%. - A pinned seed makes every score reproducible by anyone with the source. - A submission is a build, never a number, so no score on the board was typed in. ### How to apply it - Do not rank builds from a single trial. - Link to a board row rather than restating it: the link opens the build in the calculator, where it can be run again. ### The readings behind it - In the engine · One run per candidate put a status mod at +30% give or take 39 points; four hundred runs still left it give or take 5.6. [M24-one-run-gain-cannot-rank](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/measurements/M24-one-run-gain-cannot-rank.md) ## The weapon first, without a riven **The board leads with the best build that has no riven; a riven is ranked as a shape, which stats it rolled and which is the malus, scored at its best roll beside the riven-free leader.** ### Why - A riven is one player's random item, and ranking items would rank luck. A shape is something anyone can roll for. - Every build is scored at full investment: full Forma, every card at max rank, the maximum Valence bonus. The board ranks choices, not how much someone farmed. ### How to apply it - Quote the riven-free row as what a weapon does, and a riven row as what that shape adds to it. - Compare rivens by their gain over the riven-free leader of the same ruler and mode. ### Further reading - [BOARD.md](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/BOARD.md): How the board stores and ranks a riven shape. ## What is not modelled is said **A weapon, a mod, an arcane, an evolution and an enemy each state what the engine does not model of them, and a score holds only inside what is modelled.** ### Why - A number with a gap nobody stated reads as complete. A stated gap says where to check the game yourself. ### How to apply it - Carry a weapon's notes on what is not modelled along with its score. - Where a gap bears on the question, say so instead of estimating around it. ### Further reading - [UNMODELLED.md](https://github.com/magenie33/wfsim/blob/main/docs/UNMODELLED.md): Every mechanic the engine does not model, in one register.