Tarkov Ammo Guide: Best Ammo by Caliber

How Penetration Works

Every bullet in Tarkov has two main stats: damage and penetration power. Penetration power determines whether a round passes through armor and deals full damage to the body underneath, or gets absorbed by the armor plate and only causes chip damage.

Each piece of armor has a class (1 through 6) and a durability value. The higher the class, the more penetration power you need to reliably punch through it. But class alone doesn't tell the full story — armor durability also plays a critical role. As armor takes hits and its durability drops, its effective protection decreases. A Class 5 armor at 30% durability is much easier to penetrate than the same armor at 100%.

The penetration formula works roughly like this: your ammo's pen value is compared against the armor's effective protection (based on class and remaining durability). If pen greatly exceeds protection, the bullet penetrates nearly every shot and deals full damage. If pen is close to or below protection, you get a low percentage chance per shot, and some rounds will be blocked entirely. This is why shooting at someone in Class 6 armor with bottom-tier 9mm rounds is essentially useless — your bullets bounce off and they receive minor chip damage at best.

Damage vs Penetration — The Tradeoff

High-penetration ammo typically deals less raw damage per shot. High-damage ammo (flesh rounds) typically has terrible penetration. This is the fundamental balance in Tarkov's ammo system. Understanding when to use which is the difference between a player who wins gunfights and one who doesn't.

Against armored opponents (which is almost everyone in PvP after early wipe), you want penetration. A round that penetrates deals full damage to the thorax, which has 85 HP. A round that doesn't penetrate deals a fraction of that as armor damage and chip damage — often 5–15 HP per shot. Killing someone with flesh rounds through their armor requires dozens of shots that won't come fast enough.

Against unarmored targets (AI Scavs, budget players, leg-shooting), high-damage flesh rounds are excellent. Scavs typically wear no armor or very low-class armor. A single high-damage shotgun blast or heavy pistol round can kill in two shots because nothing blocks the raw damage. Some veteran players even run "leg meta" setups — low penetration, high damage rounds aimed exclusively at legs, which have no armor — to bypass expensive armor entirely.

Armor Classes and What Ammo Beats Them

Best Beginner Ammo (Available from Traders)

Early in a wipe, many high-tier ammo types aren't available — they're locked behind trader loyalty levels or crafts you don't have yet. These are the best options you can buy directly from traders at the start of a wipe. They're not the best in the game, but they're enough to win fights against other new players and handle Class 3–4 armor.

5.45×39 (AK-74, AKS-74U, AK-74M)

7.62×39 (AKM, AKMS, VEPR)

9×19 (MP5, PP-19, Glock, MP9)

5.56×45 (M4A1, HK 416, ADAR)

7.62×51 (SA-58, RSASS, SR-25, SWORD)

Common Ammo Mistakes

These mistakes cost new players thousands of roubles per raid and cause them to lose fights they should win.

The Practical Rule: Minimum B-Tier Always

Whatever caliber you're running, use at least B-tier ammo. In practice, this means: at minimum, ammo with 30–40 penetration power for budget kits, and 50+ for any kit where you expect to fight armored players. C-tier and below ammo is only acceptable for dedicated Scav-hunting runs on maps with very low PMC activity.

As a rule of thumb, if the ammo costs less than 100–150 rubles per round, check its penetration value before running it in PvP. Budget ammo is fine for early Scav kills, but the moment you push a player, you want rounds that have a realistic chance of punching through their vest.