Bullet Cost

A weapon's bullet cost determines its starting ammunition, maximum ammunition (when combined with magazine size), and how much ammunition it receives from using an Ammunition Pack.

## How ammunition works in GTFO

At first, the ammopack appears to behave rather inconsistently, filling up different weapons by different amounts, and sometimes giving an extra bullet (or not). This is a byproduct of the way that ammunition works in GTFO.

Ammunition works on a *bullet cost* system, and every single weapon has its own defined *bullet cost*. For ease of reading, this article shall measure them in terms of *units* (easier to write that way).

Prisoners can carry up to 460 *units* of ammunition in reserve for main weapons, but only 230 *units* of ammunition in reserve for special weapons, and *150* units of tool ammo. Ammo in the weapon's magazine **does not count towards this limit** - therefore, prisoners are *always* encouraged to reload when resupplying, to avoid wasting a resupply. To explain this in form of an equation:

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{\displaystyle maxAmmo = \Bigg(reserveCapacity = \left\lfloor \frac{\Bigg(\Bigg\{\begin{array}{ c l }
 460 & \textrm{if } main \\
 230 & \textrm{if } special \\
 150 & \textrm{if } tool
 \end{array}\Bigg)}{bulletCost} \right\rfloor\Bigg) + magSize}

The amount of bullets a prisoner has in reserve is calculated via dividing their current reserve *units* by the weapon's *bullet cost*, and then **rounding down**, like so:

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{\displaystyle currentReserveBullets = \left\lfloor \frac{reserveAmmoUnits}{bulletCost} \right\rfloor}

Prisoners will start missions with exactly 300 *units* of primary ammo (in total), 150 *units* of secondary ammo (in total), and 100 *units* of tool ammo - (the only exception to this being during Training and R7C3, where prisoners are sent in with nothing). The magazines of the weapons will be filled with ammo from this pool, so the reserve pool will initially contain less ammo than the advertised starting capacity (so, in the case of the Pistol:

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 bulletCost

=
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{\displaystyle \frac{300 \textrm{ units}}{3 \textrm{ bulletCost}} = 100}

 bullets, then with

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15

{\displaystyle magSize = 15}

 we get starting magazine/reserve is 15/85 (and

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255

{\displaystyle 85\*3 = 255}

 *units* in reserve - with space for another 235 *units*)).

Reloading a weapon subtracts

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{\displaystyle reloadedBullets \* bulletCost}

 *units* of ammo from the *reserve*. Tools don't reload.

The bullet costs of many weapons in GTFO aren't integers, and neither is the count of ammo *units* currently held by a prisoner - but, of course, one cannot load a weapon with half of a bullet (at least in GTFO). Hence why **bullet counts are always rounded down**. For example, if a prisoner has a full

230

{\displaystyle 230}

 *units* of ammo in reserve for their Sniper - the sniper's (pre-ALT://R4) *bullet cost* of 25 means that the prisoner has

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{\displaystyle \frac{230 units}{25 cost}=9\frac{1}{5}}

 bullets in reserve. And as that last

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{\displaystyle \frac{1}{5}}

 of a bullet is rather useless, the prisoner only has 9 bullets. **However**, if the player then exhausts their ammunition supply (by using those 9 bullets, or, rather, 225 full *units* of ammunition), the prisoner will still have those lingering 5 *units* of ammunition in their reserve - which can then potentially be used later on upon resupplying enough to turn that partial bullet into a full bullet.

## So, what exactly does the ammopack do?

The ammopack provides

90

{\displaystyle 90}

 *units* of ammunition to the *reserve* ammunition capacities of a player's primary and secondary weapon. If resupplying would cause the primary to have more than 460 *units* in reserve or the secondary to have more than 230 *units* in reserve, the reserve quantities would be capped at 460/230 units respectively.

**Magazine capacity does not count towards this cap**, but **ammopacks do not refill the weapon's magazine**. Therefore, to get maximum value from an ammopack, **prisoners must ensure that they fully reload their weapons, to ensure that as much space as possible will be free in reserve**.

And if prisoners **really** wish to maximize bang for their buck with ammopacks, they may wish to refrain from fully refilling their weapons, unless they have space in their reserve ammunition for the full 90 units of ammo.

## What about Tool Refill packs?

Tool Refill Packs replenish

30

{\displaystyle 30}

 *units* of tool ammunition to your equipped tool (bear in mind the total tool ammo capacity of 150 *units*) - in other words, it provides **exactly 20%** tool ammo (but all tools besides the C-Foam Launcher do not have a bullet cost which cleanly divides by 150, 30, and 100).

Also, on the topic of tools - Sentry Guns internally have a bullet cost multiplier of 0.285 (effectively having 526.315789474 total *units* of sentry ammo, starting expeditions with 350.877192982 *units*, tool refill packs replenishing 105.263157895 *units*) - but this bit of internal multiplication is only of interest when looking into the raw stats behind the sentries and trying to make sense of them - and is of very little practical use.

And, of course, the Biotracker does not use ammo in any way, shape, or form.

## Sidenote: the awkward numbers, and implications for optimal ammopack usage

You may have noticed that pretty much every single weapon (barring the Scattergun) has a total ammo capacity which isn't neatly divisible by its magazine size. You may also have noticed that very few weapons have a *bullet cost* which is a factor of 90 (resupply amount), 460 (primary *unit* limit), or 230 (secondary *unit* limit). And, of course, that 90 isn't a factor of 230 (or 460), and that 150 isn't a factor of 230 (likewise for 300 and 460).

All of this ultimately suggests that these numbers are **intentionally awkward**, to contribute to GTFO's overall vibe of making players feel underequipped (knowing that full ammo leaves you with a partial reload means that players may not feel confident about their supposedly 'full' ammo reserve) and rather powerless (not entirely feasible for players to assert control by fully optimizing ammopack usage without leaving themselves far from their full ammo capacity), and the fact that this *bullet cost* system is completely hidden from players leaves lingering uncertainty about the effectiveness of resupplies (even after a player (such as yourself) learns about it).

Ultimately, attempting to fully optimize ammopack usage is a fool's errand (unless, of course, one is prepared to do quite a lot of maths when deciding whether or not to resupply), leaving players who are seeking to optimize it mostly reliant on heuristics.

**However**, as the overall *unit* capacities of special weapons are half as much as that of main weapons, but both special and main weapons gain 90 *units* of ammunition per resupply, **prisoners are advised to use 2 *units* of special ammo from their special reserve for every 1 *unit* of main ammo they use from their main reserve** once both weapons have similar amounts of reserve ammo, to ensure that both weapons can always get roughly the same amount of ammo back from a resupply (minimizing wastage caused by overfilling either weapon).

## Refill Amounts (rough amounts)

Please note the data shown below was *not datamined* - it was collected in-game by emptying all weapons so they had 0% ammo (but not necessarily 0 *units* of ammo) then using the Ammo Refill Pack (and reloaded) until they reached 100% ammo. **The article pages for the (non-removed) weapons contain the exact resupply amounts (non-rounded), along with their bullet costs** - alternatively, **check out u/RaybanYoda's complete GTFO weapon data spreadsheet**