DPS Calculator — Damage per Second with Crits and Reloads

A DPS calculator for any game

DPS — damage per second — is the simplest way to compare weapons, heroes, builds and towers. This DPS calculator combines damage per hit, attack speed, critical-hit chance and multiplier, damage bonuses, projectiles per attack, the number of units, and magazine reloads into one expected number, then turns it into the time to kill a target.

Because it is generic, it works for shooters, action RPGs, MOBAs and tower defense games alike: switch the attack rate between attacks per second, rounds per minute or seconds between attacks, and compare build A with build B side by side.

How to calculate DPS

1. Enter the damage per hit and the attack rate, choosing per second, per minute (RPM) or seconds between attacks.
2. Add the crit chance and crit damage multiplier (2 means a crit does double damage).
3. Open Bonus, projectiles, units and reload for damage buffs, shotgun pellets, several towers, and magazine size with reload time.
4. Enter the target’s HP and resistance to get the time to kill.
5. Fill in build B to compare; untick the comparison for a single build.

DPS Calculator features

The DPS formula

Average damage per hit is damage × (1 + bonus) × (1 + crit chance × (crit multiplier − 1)) × (1 − resistance). DPS is that average hit × projectiles per attack × attacks per second × number of units.

Example: 45 damage, 2.5 attacks per second, 25 % crit chance and ×2 crits. The crit factor is 1 + 0.25 × (2 − 1) = 1.25, so the average hit is 56.25 and DPS = 56.25 × 2.5 = 140.6. A slower weapon doing 120 damage at 0.8 attacks per second with 10 % crits at ×1.5 has a factor of 1.05 and only 100.8 DPS, even though each hit is bigger.

Rate units: 600 RPM is 600 ÷ 60 = 10 attacks per second; a 0.5 s cooldown is 1 ÷ 0.5 = 2 attacks per second.

Sustained DPS and reloads

A magazine of m shots at r shots per second empties in m ÷ r seconds, then the reload adds its own time. Sustained DPS = burst DPS × (m ÷ r) ÷ (m ÷ r + reload). At 600 RPM a 30-round magazine lasts 3 s; with a 2 s reload only 3 of every 5 seconds are spent firing, so 450 burst DPS becomes 270 sustained.

For short fights, burst DPS matters; for bosses and long waves, sustained DPS does.

Time to kill

Time to kill counts the volleys needed for the expected damage to reach the target’s HP. The first volley lands at zero seconds, so a target that needs 18 hits at 2.5 attacks per second dies after 17 ÷ 2.5 = 6.8 s. With a magazine, the tool adds a reload each time a magazine empties.

Since crits are random, real kills can be faster or slower than the expected figure. Resistance here is a percentage reduction; games with flat armour, damage falloff, headshot multipliers or shields need those worked into the damage per hit first.

Tips for tower defense and builds

• Enter one tower’s stats and the number of towers to see the combined DPS of a lane.
• For splash or multi-target attacks, multiply the damage by the typical number of enemies hit.
• Compare two upgrades as A and B: the table shows the percentage difference and highlights the better value in each row.
• For the pacing of attacks against frame rate, see the frame time calculator.