Soak
Soak is applied at Step 8 of an attack.
For example, 4B/2L means a soak rating of 4 against bashing damage and 2 against lethal. A character's total soak is calculated as the sum of natural soak (granted by Stamina, as well as innate adaptations of some mutants and nonhuman species and most soak-boosting Charms) and armored soak (granted by some form of armor, with a rating dependent on the protection worn; see Armor). Three differences separate the subcategories. First, armor has an aggravated soak equal to its lethal soak rating, while natural soak does not. Conversely, effects that bypass armor (in full or part) only pierce armored soak and do not reduce the protection afforded by natural soak in any way. The most common armor-bypassing effect is called piercing damage, a special tag used by some weapons (such as target arrows) and Charms. Piercing weapons ignore four points of soak from the target's armor. If this would give the armor in question an effective soak value of less than 2, the weapon does not ignore the armor's final 2 points of soak.
You may not stunt to add to your soak, because—unlike soak—your DV is assumed to be a rolled value.
Provided that Hardness does not eliminate the possibility of injury, subtract the defender's soak from the raw damage. In most cases, this is the final damage of the attack.
The minimum damage value of attacks not absorbed by Hardness is one die, rather than the attacker's Essence rating. Attacks made with weapons possessing the Overwhelming tag, as well as certain Charms (such as Violet Bier of Sorrows Form), may produce higher minimum damage values.