Apologies, as I'm new and trying to wrap my head around the rules. With regards to Viral Ammo; it seems to state that viral ammo is really just a combined ammo of DA+Shock and a check is on BTS. So if I understand this correctly, anyone hit would be forced to make 3 saving throws (per hit) against their BTS stat (2 saves for the DA ammo and 1 save for the shock). Is this correct? Furthermore I'm still trying to understand the choices they've made for which defence you roll against. DA ammo has you roll against ARM, shock ammo has you roll against ARM, but combine them together and you now roll against BTS. Confusing.
No, there's just 2 rolls against BTS. Viral is different from a DA + Shock hit in that you roll against BTS and not armor.
Any given weapon has an Ammo Type and a Saving Attribute. So DA ammo doesn't inherently have you roll against ARM. Rather, it makes you save twice against the weapon's Saving Attribute. For example, a Tactical Bow has DA ammo and ARM saving attribute, whereas a Viral Tactical Bow has DA+Shock ammo and BTS saving attribute. From the "Combined Ammunition" rule: "Combined Ammunition works as a single Ammunition that adds the effects of the different Ammunitions that compose it." So a weapon with DA+Shock ammunition causes two saves against the Saving Attribute, and if it puts you unconscious, puts you straight to dead.
Ammunition types aren't linked to ARM or BTS in N4, the saving roll used is determined by the weapon. For Viral weapons this will be BTS. When combining Ammunition types you combine the effects, the effect of DA is that you make 2 rolls per hit, the effect of Shock is that if you fail any saving rolls the target skips the Unconscious state and goes straight to dead. So a Viral rifle causes two BTS saves per hit, each fail causes a lost wound, and if any saves are failed the Unconscious state is skipped.
Wow, you guys are quick. HAHA. Thanks for all the insightful replies! So basically the "hits" of combined ammo don't stack; only the effects. I am surprised there is no proper description of every weapon in the online rules; just a basic chart of stats.
They tried that in the previous editions, and people complained that it was just obfuscating the weapon stats. :-/
I guess it has been done to death, but I can't find it it in the Wiki nor on the forum, so... sorry in advance for bringing it back. Guys, how does Viral weapon interact with Shock Immunity? I had to deal with some Aleph (so NWI + Shock Immunity), and had used some Viral on them. Now, historically, Viral used to override Shock Immunity (on the grounds it wasn't Shock, but it's very own thing, despite the instant kill effect being identical), but in N4, it isn't clearly written as such. So whether it is a thing or not I really don't know The DA part of Viral certainly works (as Shock Immunity has nothing to do with Double Action ammo). At the same time, it is Viral, not DA+Shock weapon (notably, it has no Anti-Material trait DA weapons have). I'm puzzled.
Shock immunity works just fine against viral weapons, this is change from N3. There's no such thing as Viral ammo any more, viral weapons are modeled as having shock and DA ammo with BTS as the saving roll. DA is no longer Anti-materiel by default (no more nested rules was a design goal of N4) however pretty much all DA weapons that go against ARM do have the trait.
