Kinetic Weapon vs. Energy Weapon Damage Calculations

Energy Weapons do 5% less base damage than Kinetic in PvE. The elemental burst is a flat value based on the shield. Energy and Kinetic weapons do exactly the same damage in PvP.

• Energy weapons do roughly 10% less base damage in the same Impact class/Archetype as their Kinetic counterparts in PvE.
• Neither Kinetic nor Energy can land Precision Hits on shielded enemies until their shields are brought down. As someone said in the comments, how can you hit an enemy's weak spot if you're just shooting a shield? Makes sense!
• Energy-slot weapons do roughly 3.0x base damage to shields regardless of hit location or whether weapon element matches shield element. This has been confirmed for Energy Sidearms, Submachine Guns, Hand Cannons, Auto Rifles, Pulse Rifles, and Scout Rifles.
  • Aside: Power-slot weapon types have their own type-based shield-damage multipliers. From lowest to highest:
    • ~0.5x: Rocket Launchers (despite the reduction, their base damage is so high that they will usually destroy the shield with the initial impact, then kill the enemy with splash damage).
    • 1.5x: Swords
    • ~1.7x: Shotguns
    • 2.0x: Sniper Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles and Grenade Launchers
    • 3.0x: Non-Linear Fusion Rifles
• The Elemental explosion from a same-element Energy shield last hit seems to be irrespective of the weapon used and simply pops for 50% of the total shield amount (measured over many different attempts and weapon types).
• Ultras (yellow-bars) take substantially less Precision Damage than their Normal (red-bar) counterparts, but take the same body shot damage.
  • Specifically, they take 50% less Precision Damage. For example, a Lightweight Frame Hand Cannon would do 3.0x damage on a Precision Hit to a red-bar, but would only do 1.5x damage to an Ultra.
  • Furthermore, Guardians in the Crucible benefit from this 50% Precision Damage reduction as well.
• There is no difference in damage between Kinetic and Energy weapons in the Crucible except with regards to damaging Roaming Supers. So when in doubt, use Energy weapons in the Crucible if you're concerned about swapping fast enough, or just whatever guns you feel most comfortable with.
• Precision Multipliers are equivalent between Kinetic and Energy counterparts.
• Damage to Guardians in their Super Armor is cut by 2/3rds by default (this may be reduced even further if this adversary is using at least one piece of Masterwork Armor). Energy weapons (regardless of element) deal 10% more damage than Kinetic to Super Armor Guardians, but this damage is usually a 1-4 point spread depending on weapon class.