Delta Force Ammo Types: Damage, Penetration, Price

Ammo is the most under-rated purchase in Hazard Operations. Players spend on guns and armor, then feed them whatever rounds are cheapest — and lose fights to enemies in armor their rounds cannot crack. The right ammo sits at the center of a three-way trade: damage, penetration, and price. Pull one corner and the other two move.

The triangle

• Damage decides how fast an unarmored or lightly armored target drops.
• Penetration decides whether your damage lands at all against armored targets, and how much of it survives the hit.
• Price decides whether you can afford your chosen round across an entire session of raids, not just one good fight.

No round wins all three corners. The skill is matching the round to the situation.

Reading penetration against armor levels

Penetration is rated by level, and armor is rated by level. When your round’s level is below the target’s armor, damage drops off sharply; when it meets or exceeds the armor, far more of the round’s damage lands. The penetration tiers page explains how to read the ratings, and the armor levels page covers what the defense side looks like. The practical rule: identify the armor level you expect to face on your map and in your budget bracket, then buy the cheapest round that clears it.

What the official numbers teach

Official data (values verified for Season 11, Oct 2026) documents two loads that show the trade clearly:

• 5.7x28 HT+ — penetration level 4, with 1.2x base damage and 0.2x armor damage. A round tuned for volume against lighter protection.
• 7.62x51 LS — penetration level 5, with 40% higher muzzle velocity, 8% more vertical recoil, and headshots that deafen for about 10 seconds. A heavy round that punches through and kicks more.

Read them as design patterns rather than a shopping list: lighter, faster-firing calibers trade penetration for controllability and volume; heavy rounds trade recoil and cost for penetration and impact. Availability and prices follow the player market rather than a fixed table, so the useful habit is checking what your budget buys before you commit to a build — the caliber choice usually costs more than the round tier.

Choosing per raid, not per gun

The decision runs before you buy the gun, not after:

Situation	Ammo priority
Broke recovery and knife runs	Cheapest viable round; you cannot afford to feed a premium habit yet
Budget kits on mid-tier maps	Round that clears the common armor level, price secondary
Hard maps with a geared population	Penetration first — the population is armored by definition
Farming low-threat areas	Damage and price; penetration is wasted on unarmored targets

Feeding a gun the wrong round is the same as bringing a weaker gun. And when the numbers move between seasons, the season economy framework tells you what to re-check before your next purchase.