Helldivers 2 Explosion Radii: Inner and Outer Damage

Inner radius versus outer radius

Every explosive has two radii. Inside the inner radius, the blast deals full penetration value, so it ignores the armor it would normally bounce off. Between the inner and outer radius, penetration is reduced by one level. A target sitting at the edge of the blast can suddenly fail to penetrate armor that the same grenade would have crushed at point-blank.

Why your 500kg sometimes whiffs

The Eagle 500kg Bomb is the classic example. A direct hit deletes almost anything, but if a Charger or Bile Titan is only caught at the outer edge, the penetration drop can leave it alive. The same logic applies to Orbital Precision Strike, Autocannon shells, and grenades: center mass matters more than raw yield.

Angle is ignored, but the edge is not

Explosive penetration ignores impact angle — you do not get graze penalties like bullets do. What you do get is the outer-radius penetration drop, so aim to land the blast on the enemy, not beside it. Combined with the armor penetration guide, this means explosives are your best answer to high-durability parts (see the durable damage page) precisely because they both bypass durability and, at the inner radius, bypass armor.

Aim for the center

Because only the inner radius keeps full penetration, aim to land the blast on the enemy rather than near it. A 500kg that catches a Bile Titan at the edge can drop below the penetration needed for its AV 5 head, while a dead-center hit strips it. The same logic rewards direct impacts over near-misses for every explosive tool.