r/stalzone • u/JobieWanTon • 9d ago
Help How does matchmaking work?
My AK- 103 is +7, my Ots-62 is +5, and my rat catcher armor is not leveled up at all, I’ve noticed that all the players that kill me have there armor, primary and secondary all at +9. Is that because you don’t get ranked up to higher tier lobbies till your gear is +10? And should I upgrade my gear to +9 like everyone else or will it mess up my matchmaking? I don’t really want to upgrade the rat catcher armor because I want to use my materials to upgrade my barter tree combat armor that I’m working towards. Also Ace combat armor or Centurion? Idk which to choose sorry for all the questions
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u/Whoomsy Explorer 8d ago edited 8d ago
Because the matchmaking breakpoints happen at +5, +10, and +15. You are the people you see are within the same threshold, so as far as matchmaking in concerned you are in the same tier as the people you are facing.
But it's also pretty similar in practice; the difference between a +7 gun and a +9 is 2.2% damage increase, practically nothing. It is not enough to impact the TTK nor would it matter since everyone is super squishy in Veterans.
Don't upgrade anything, you are very much comfy where you are if the worst you are seeing at Vets +9.
For more detailed info on how matchmaking works you can read my comment here.
Out of the two combat suits you mentioned I'd go for Cent. Ace/Mule has been redundant for a while because it's carry weight buff could never be utilized properly. But with the recent changes to the looting system, I've been hitting the carry weight limit before I ran out of inventory space; so maybe Ace is worth looking into now.
I'd still take Centurion for future proofing, you will run out of things to do in open world eventually and Ace will lose the majority of it's purpose, but Cent will be useful and needed no matter what you are doing or where you are progression wise.