Low-energy impact tests were performed on a polyamide 6 using a dart test technique with a 20-mm-diameter hemispherical striker. partial penetrations at controlled and increasing energies allowed to visualize the different steps of the deformation. The evolution of the deformation is described, taking into account the shape and the thickness of the samples, the crystalline orientation, the microstructure and the resulting mechanical properties of the polymer. The deformation results from several steps, which are revealed by the evolution of the force measured on the striker. The deformation induces important and inhomogeneous changes in the microstructure and the orientation of the polymer. Variations may be abrupt. The resulting mechanical behavior is strongly dependent on this evolution and, as a consequence, depends on the location in the sample. These observations confirm that it is impossible to predict such a complex behavior using data from simple tensile tests.