Critical hits

“

There ain't enough crits in the world to kill me! Click to listen — The Scout

”

Critical hits, also known as crits or full crits, are attacks that do extra damage and have distinctive sound effects when fired and upon hitting a target. Players on the receiving end of the attack have the words "CRITICAL HIT!!!" in green, or "MINI-CRIT!" in yellow, respectively, appear above their head. Buildings are immune to both types.

Critical hits can be easily distinguished from normal hits. Most melee weapons have a unique swinging animation, projectiles such as rockets or stickybombs have a team-colored glow and sparkle effect (exemptions are the Cow Mangler 5000, the Righteous Bison, and the Pomson 6000), bullets have team-colored trails, and flamethrowers produce additional team-colored particles. These visual effects are accompanied by a crackling electric sound upon firing and receiving a critical hit.

Self-inflicted critical hits do not deal critical damage to the user, but still play the sound effect.

Critical hits deal three times the base damage of the weapon and ignore both the distance modification and the random damage modification of normal shots, though explosive weapon critical hits still suffer from splash damage fall-off. As a result, weapons that are normally merely nuisances at long range (such as Miniguns) can become dangerous when critical hitting. The extra damage is of the "critical" type instead of matching the weapon's original type, meaning it cannot be resisted by the Vaccinator's normal healing or Upgrade Station buffs — though this also allows other mechanics to target critical damage specifically, such as the Battalion's Backup and the Vaccinator's ÜberCharge, which fully neutralize the extra damage.

When a player is killed by a critical hit, the class lets out a loud scream that differs from ordinary non-melee deaths, unless the class was gibbed (in which case they let out a larger "ouch" noise than explosive kills usually cause). The kill feed icon for a critical hit surrounds the weapon icon with a red glow.

Critical hits and mini-crits do not stack in any form — that is, meeting multiple conditions to earn a critical hit or a mini-crit do not deal any more than the normal damage boost. For example, the Frontier Justice's "Revenge" critical hits do not deal any additional damage if the Engineer is ÜberCharged by a Kritzkrieg, nor does a player marked for death and coated in Jarate suffer more than standard mini-crits. This means that team coordination is required if multiple players have ways to increase their critical hit output, or extra damage is wasted. If both a mini-crit and full critical hit occur with the same attack, the critical hit overrides the mini-crit.

Critical hit chance

See also: Damage

Critical hit chance based on damage.

The base critical hit chance for standard weapons is 2%. This is modified by a bonus percentage based on how much damage the player has done in the last 20 seconds, which scales from 0% at 0 damage to 10% at 800 damage. For example, if the player has dealt 200 damage in the past 20 seconds, the additional bonus percentage is 2.5% and so the overall critical hit chance is 4.5%. As a result, the highest natural critical hit chance attainable is 12%.

Melee weapons are designed to critical hit far more often than ranged ones in order to encourage their usage at close range. Their base critical hit chance starts at 15% — higher than attainable for ranged weapons with the recent damage bonus maxed out — and their recent damage bonus scales from 0% to 45%, meaning a player that has done 800 damage or more in the last 20 seconds has a melee critical hit rate of 60%.

Among those weapons that trigger randomly, critical hit probability is determined differently based on the type of weapon. Single-shot weapons, such as the Shotgun, Revolver, and the Rocket Launcher, determine the chance to critical hit with every shot. Thus, every shot of the Shotgun has a 2% chance to launch a flurry of critical pellets, assuming no previous damage done. Rapid-fire weapons, which include the Minigun, Syringe Gun, Flamethrower, and the Pistol, check for critical hits once a second. With weapons like these, a positive critical hit determination results in all shots for the next two seconds being critical. This only applies to the active weapon; getting two seconds of critical hits on one's Pistol does not cause their Shotgun to fire critical hits during this time.

Special cases

An Engineer with the Frontier Justice's Revenge Crits available.

There is a wide variety of situations that affect whether a weapon can deal critical hits or not.

Weapons that can gain both random critical hits and situational critical hits

The following weapons can deal guaranteed critical hits in specific situations in addition to being capable of scoring them at random.

List of weapons able to deal random and situational critical hits
Scout	Melee		Deals critical hits when striking a burning enemy.
		Sun-on-a-Stick
			Ornament will crit if it hits from a significant distance.
		Wrap Assassin
			Will crit at any time it would normally mini-crit.
		Fan O'War
Pyro	Secondary		Will score a critical hit if it hits a player who is already on fire.
		Flare Gun†
Heavy	Melee		Will grant 5 seconds of crit boost to all of the Heavy's weapons upon killing a target.
		Killing Gloves of Boxing
			Will always critical hit from behind. Any critical hits with this weapon will force the target to laugh instead of dealing damage.
		Holiday Punch
Notes		†Includes Festive variant.

‎

Weapons that cannot gain random critical hits but can gain situational critical hits

The following weapons have a 0% chance of random critical hits in all situations, but can still deal critical hits in specific situations or if the user is crit-boosted.

List of weapons unable to deal random crits but able to deal situational crits
Soldier	Melee			Deals critical damage while the Soldier wielding it is rocket jumping (or otherwise airborne via explosion).
		Market Gardener
Pyro	Primary			Guaranteed to crit from behind.
		Backburner
				Gradually fills a "Mmmph" meter as fire damage is done, allowing a Pyro to begin a guaranteed 10-second crit period when full. This boost only affects the Phlogistinator.
		Phlogistinator
	Secondary			Accrues a critical hit each time it is used to extinguish a teammate.
		Manmelter
	Melee			Сrits against wet enemies. This includes those who are in or have recently emerged from a source of water, and those coated in Jarate, Mad Milk, or Gas Passer.
		Neon Annihilator
Engineer	Primary			Accrues 2 Revenge Crits for every kill and 1 for every assist made by the user's Sentry Gun once it is destroyed.
		Frontier Justice†
	Melee			Will perform a critical punch on a third successful consecutive punch, causing a different kill icon.
		Gunslinger
Sniper	Primary			Automatically score critical hits on successful headshots. Rifles can only perform headshot crits while scoped (except for the Classic, which instead only performs headshot crits when fully charged).
		Sniper Rifle†	AWPer Hand
		Machina	Shooting Star
		Bazaar Bargain	Hitman's Heatmaker
		Huntsman†	Fortified Compound
		Classic
	Melee			Will critical hit at any time it would normally mini-crit.
		Bushwacka
Spy	Primary			Automatically scores critical hits on successful headshots. Only when at full accuracy. The damage of critical hits scales on distance fall-off from 102 to 54. Any shots further than 1200 hammer units will deal only base damage.
		Ambassador†
				Stores one critical hit for every successful backstab and every building destroyed with the user's Sapper attached.
		Diamondback
	Melee			The Spy's melee weapons always and only crit on backstabs, boosting the damage of a backstab from 2x the victim's current health to 6x. Knives can still be forced to crit, but this will only result in triple the melee damage, not backstab damage.
		Knife†	Saxxy
		Sharp Dresser	Black Rose
		Golden Frying Pan	Prinny Machete
		Your Eternal Reward	Wanga Prick
		Conniver's Kunai	Big Earner
		Spy-cicle†
Notes		†Includes Festive, Australium, Botkiller and Decorated variants.

Weapons that cannot gain random critical hits and cannot gain situational critical hits

The following weapons have a 0% chance of random critical hits in all situations and do not have a means of scoring critical hits on their own, though they can still deliver critical hits if another effect is in play, such as a Kritzkrieg.

List of weapons unable to deal random or situational critical hits
Swords
	Eyelander†	Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker	Nessie's Nine Iron	Claidheamh Mòr	Ullapool Caber	Half-Zatoichi	Persian Persuader
Other weapons
	Flying Guillotine	Rocket Jumper	Sticky Jumper	Southern Hospitality	Sydney Sleeper	Enforcer	Dragon's Fury
Notes	†Includes Festive, Botkiller, Australium, and Decorated variants.

Weapons that cannot critical hit in any way

The following weapons cannot deal critical hits in any way because they mini-crit when they normally crit. Mini-crits work like normal on these weapons.

List of weapons unable to deal Critical hits in any way
Soldier	Primary		The Cow Mangler 5000 is unable to deal Critical damage, with Crit boosts being converted to Mini-Crit boosts instead.
		Cow Mangler 5000
Demoman	Secondary		The Chargin' Targe is unable to deal Critical damage, but can deal Mini-Crits under respective buffs or enemy debuffs.
		Chargin' Targe
			The Splendid Screen is unable to deal Critical damage, but can deal Mini-Crits under respective buffs or enemy debuffs.
		Splendid Screen
			The Tide Turner is unable to deal Critical damage, but can deal Mini-Crits under respective buffs or enemy debuffs.
		Tide Turner
Engineer	Secondary		The Short Circuit is unable to deal Critical damage, but can deal Mini-Crits under respective buffs or enemy debuffs.
		Short Circuit
	Building		Sentry Guns will never inflict Critical hits. However, they Mini-Crit enemies if the owner is under a Mini-Crit boost or the target has a Mini-Crit-accepting status (such as being Marked For Death).
		Sentry Gun
All classes	Action		The spells cannot be Crit boosted, however they can still be Mini-Crit boosted to deal additional damage.
		Magic Spells
	Taunts		All kill taunts are unable to deal Critical damage, but are still able to Mini-Crit.
Note			The bleeding and afterburn mechanics do not Crit, but do Mini-Crit if the attacking player is Mini-Crit boosted or if the target is under a Mini-Crit debuff.

Weapons that are exempt

The following items cannot deal critical hits or mini-crits at all, usually because they cannot deal damage. Note that some of the items still glow when crit-boosted; there is simply no effect.

List of weapons unable to deal critical hits or mini-crits
Lunchbox items
	Bonk! Atomic Punch1	Sandvich1	Dalokohs Bar	Buffalo Steak Sandvich	Fishcake	Robo-Sandvich
	Second Banana
Jars2
	Mad Milk	Mutated Milk3	Gas Passer	Jarate1	Self-Aware Beauty Mark3
Backpacks
	Buff Banner1	Battalion's Backup	Concheror	B.A.S.E. Jumper	Thermal Thruster	Cozy Camper
Boots
	Gunboats	Mantreads	Ali Baba's Wee Booties	Bootlegger
Shields
	Razorback	Darwin's Danger Shield
Medi guns
	Medi Gun1	Kritzkrieg1	Quick-Fix1	Vaccinator
Cloaking devices
	Invis Watch	Cloak and Dagger	Dead Ringer	Enthusiast's Timepiece	Quäckenbirdt
Sappers
	Sapper1	Red-Tape Recorder	Ap-Sap	Snack Attack
Other
	Wrangler1	PDA	Disguise Kit	Giger Counter
Notes	1Includes Festive, Botkiller, Australium, and Decorated variants.
	2Jars may appear to crit when thrown, glowing and trailing team-colored particles, but this has only a cosmetic effect.
	3If either of these weapons are crit boosted when the projectile is thrown, the bread monster's size on targets it hits directly is drastically increased. This effect is purely cosmetic.

Crit Boost

A crit boosted Rocket Launcher.

Crit boost is a state in which a player is guaranteed to deal critical hits with any weapon that is not specifically unable to score critical hits. A crit boost is indicated by the player's weapon glowing in their team color, with sparks of electricity surging and crackling from it. This affects most weapons that do not normally deal random critical hits, such as the Knife, Sniper Rifle, Gunslinger, and Eyelander, causing them to deal critical attacks for the duration of the boost; however, weapons that do not damage enemies (for example, Mad Milk, Jarate, Bonk! Atomic Punch, or Crit-a-Cola) do not gain any benefits from crits. Only the Cow Mangler 5000 is exempt from this rule, as it does mini-crits instead of critical hits.

A crit boost can be attained under the following circumstances:

• During Humiliation, the winning team is granted a crit boost.
• The ÜberCharge from the Kritzkrieg grants the Medic's heal target an 8 second crit boost.
• Capturing the intelligence in a game of Capture the Flag gives the entire capturing team a 10 second crit boost. This value can be altered or disabled by the server host console via a command.
• On Halloween maps during Halloween, killed players randomly drop candy-filled Halloween pumpkins. When picked up, the player is awarded around 3–4 seconds of crit boost.
• On the Map Crasher, the intelligence carrier gains crits until death.
• Upon killing an enemy with the Killing Gloves of Boxing, the Heavy is crit boosted for 5 seconds. The crit boost applies not only to the Killing Gloves of Boxing, but to all the Heavy's currently equipped weapons.
• The Phlogistinator allows a Pyro to crit boost itself for about 10 seconds upon activating "Mmmph", but the crit boost only affects the Phlogistinator (or any flamethrower he picks up in that 10 second period).
• In Mann vs. Machine, players can fill their Power Up Canteen with a Critical Hit Boost buff, which grants them a 5 second crit boost upon activation.
• In the Versus Saxton Hale game mode, all melee weapons are crit boosted.
• The last player in either Versus Saxton Hale or Zombie Infection gains critical hits for all weapons.

First Blood

In Arena Mode, a 'First Blood' buff is granted to a player who achieves the first kill of a round. It consists of a five-second crit boost.

• If players switch weapons during the buff, the electricity around their weapon disappears, but critical hits are still delivered.
• Triggering the Dead Ringer's feigned death gives the attacker the 'First Blood' buff.
• The 'First Blood' buff counts as an ÜberCharge towards the Heavy achievement Supreme Soviet.
• Obtaining 'First Blood' as a Scout unlocks the First Blood achievement; killing five enemies with 'First Blood' unlocks First Blood, Part 2.
• The 'First Blood' achievement can also be earned by a Scout in Competitive Mode, but no critical hits are awarded for the first kill.

Mini-crits

Icon displayed above targets "Marked For Death", indicating they receive mini-crits from all sources.

HUD Icon displayed when the player is Marked For Death, indicating receiving mini-crits from all sources.

Mini-crits add an extra 35% damage to a weapon's damage. Like normal critical hits, they ignore damage falloff, but unlike critical hits, they are still given ramp-up at close range and random spread. Full critical hits override mini-crits. Like full critical hits, mini-crits have a glowing red outline in their kill icons and are displayed with a larger font when combat text is enabled. If the player is under a mini-crit buff state (such as the Buff Banner or Buffalo Steak Sandvich), or the victim is under a mini-crit debuff state (such as being covered in Jarate or marked for death), all taunt attacks also mini-crit. Aesthetically, mini-crits do not trigger critical death lines from victims, unlike full critical hits.

There are currently twelve ways for a player to deal consistent mini-crits to all other players:

• Attacking from behind as a Scout while using the Back Scatter from around ~9.5m - 30 cm.
• Attacking as a Scout under the effects of the Crit-a-Cola.
• Attacking as a Scout with the Atomizer whilst airborne.
• Attacking while under the effects of a friendly Soldier's Buff Banner.
• Shooting enemies with the Cow Mangler 5000's charged shot.
• Firing the Cow Mangler 5000 while crit boosted.
• Attacking as a Heavy under the effects of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich.
• As a Pyro, hitting an enemy with a reflected non-crit projectile (other than stickybombs and non-damaging projectiles).
• Melee hits midway through your Chargin' Targe or Splendid Screen charge.
• Melee hits at any point through your Tide Turner charge.
• Activating "CRIKEY" charge with the Cleaner's Carbine.
• Hitting a headshot as Sniper using the Sydney Sleeper.
• Being the last 3 remaining players in Versus Saxton Hale or Zombie Infection.

There are also currently six effects that force a particular player to take mini-crits from all incoming damage (see also: Marked For Death):

• Being marked by the Fan O'War.
• Being an Engineer who is hauling a building with the Rescue Ranger equipped, or has done so in the last three seconds.
• Being covered in Jarate.
• Being a Soldier who has the Escape Plan active, or had it active in the last 3 seconds.
• Being a Intelligence courier in the Mannpower gamemode who has held the flag for more than 90 seconds without capturing it.
• Carrying the JACK from the PASS Time gamemode without nearby teammates.

Finally, there are four ways of achieving mini-crits that require both the attacker and the target to be in a particular situation:

• Hitting an airborne enemy with the Direct Hit who was propelled airborne by an explosion.
• Shooting an airborne enemy who was propelled airborne by any source of knockback except Compression Blast, using the Grappling Hook, or Pyros using the Thermal Thruster with the Reserve Shooter.
• Hitting a burning enemy with the Detonator, Scorch Shot, Axtinguisher, or Postal Pummeler.
• Directly impacting an enemy within half a second before a cannonball explosion with the Loose Cannon (a Double Donk).

Mini-crit boost

A mini-crit boost is the state of having all damage being dealt modified into mini-crit damage. Currently, this is achievable while under the effects of the Crit-a-Cola, an active Buff Banner, activating the Cleaner's Carbine's "CRIKEY" charge, and while under the effects of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich. When a player is mini-crit boosted from the Buff Banner, their active weapon glows a faint yellow on RED, or a faint blue-green on BLU, while the same color effect of particles swirl around their feet, and the text "Mini Crit!" appears above their health bar. Being mini-crit boosted by the Crit-a-Cola looks more like a normal crit boost, but the weapon glows lighter.

All damage sources, including afterburn and Sentry Guns, only deal mini-crit damage when the player dealing the damage is being boosted. If the player loses the boost after firing a projectile while the projectile is in mid-flight, it loses its status as a mini-crit. Conversely, after the Pyro sets fire to several players, returning to a mini-crit boost immediately transforms any afterburn damage to mini-crit status. Sentry Guns only mini-crit while the Engineer is being mini-crit boosted.

Related achievements

 Scout

First Blood Get the first kill in an Arena or Competitive match.

First Blood, Part 2 Kill 5 enemies with the First Blood crit buff in an Arena match.

 Soldier

Crockets Are Such B.S. Shoot two non-boosted crit rockets in a row.

Tri-Splatteral Damage Kill 3 enemies with a single critical rocket.

 Pyro

Hotshot Kill a Soldier with a reflected critical rocket.

 Demoman

Beat Me Up, Scotty Use a critical swing with the Eyelander to kill 5 enemy players.

 Heavy

Communist Mani-Fisto Kill an enemy with a critical punch.

Crock Block Survive a direct hit from a critical rocket.

 Engineer

Revengineering Use a revenge crit to kill the enemy player that destroyed your sentry gun.

Unforgiven Kill 3 enemies with revenge crits without dying.

 Medic

Triage Deploy an ÜberCharge on a teammate less than a second before they're hit by a critical explosive.

Foundry achievements

Cap Trap Kill an enemy who is capturing a control point with a critical hit.

Mann vs. Machievements

Kritical Terror Use a canteen charged with 'Crit Boost' to destroy a giant robot.

Update history

December 20, 2007 Patch

• Fixed critical bullet tracers not being visible to players other than the firer.

February 14, 2008 Patch

• Added a small delay (200 ms) before a zoomed Sniper shot can get a critical hit.

February 28, 2008 Patch

• Added options for servers who want to become custom games: Disable Critical hits (tf_weapon_criticals), eliminate respawn times (mp_disable_respawn_times), and raise maxplayers above 24.

March 6, 2008 Patch

• Fixed critical modifier for explosive weapons (rockets, pipe bombs) increasing critical chance more than intended.

February 2, 2009 Patch

• Modified critical hit calculation. Overall, critical hit chance is now much more recent-performance based:
  • Base chance is now 2% (was 5%)
  • Bonus range based on damage done changed from 0%-15% to 0%-10
  • Damage range required for bonus changed from 0-1600 to 0-800
• Sniper Rifle now supports Crit Boost state like all other weapons (i.e. Kritzkrieg makes all shots critical hits)

February 24, 2009 Patch (Scout Update)

• Added crit boosted on/off sound effects.

July 14, 2009 Patch

• Fixed Mini-Crits resulting in reduced damage for weapons at close ranges.

July 21, 2009 Patch (Xbox)

• Added Option to Toggle Critical hits.

July 13, 2010 Patch

• Improved the performance of the critboost particle effect.

September 30, 2010 Patch (Mann-Conomy Update)

• [Undocumented] The Frontier Justice now works correctly with critical boosts.

October 19, 2010 Patch

• Fixed the Holy Mackerel hit triggering the first blood event in Arena mode.

January 10, 2011 Patch

• Fixed the Heavy's Fists not playing the critical hit animation.

February 7, 2011 Patch

• The Sun-on-a-Stick was changed to always mini-crit against burning targets if the attack is not already critical.

March 11, 2011 Patch

• Fixed the revenge crit label not being localized correctly.

April 14, 2011 Patch (Hatless Update)

• Replaced the no-crit attribute with -25% damage on the following:
  • Eyelander
  • Gunslinger
  • Southern Hospitality
  • Powerjack
  • Horseless Headless Horseman's Headtaker
  • Ullapool Caber
  • Claidheamh Mòr.

April 15, 2011 Patch

• Replaced the -25% damage attribute with no-crit attribute on the following:
  • Eyelander
  • Gunslinger
  • Southern Hospitality
  • Horseless Headless Horseman's Headtaker
  • Ullapool Caber
  • Claidheamh Mòr

June 28, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a case where Crit Boost effects were being removed from players being healed.
• Fixed a problem with Arena mode first blood Crit Boost not removing itself at the correct time.

February 2, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a server crash caused by Holiday Punch critical attacks on physics objects.

April 27, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Stickybombs and grenades now have a team-colored aura when fired and a rapidly flashing critical particle effect.

December 21, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a regression with mini-crit damage calculation.

January 8, 2013 Patch

• Fixed a regression where Mini-Crits were being affected by long-range damage fall-off.

January 7, 2015 Patch

• Fixed the Crit Boost material effect for the Panic Attack.

February 11, 2015 Patch #1

• Fixed the Panic Attack not using the correct sound for crits.

March 12, 2015 Patch

• Fixed an exploit related to the Gunslinger and hitting teammates to generate a guaranteed third hit that is critical.
• Fixed the Phlogistinator's bottle not getting the crit-boost material effect.

Bugs

• The vast majority of effects and achievements cannot tell the difference between a critical hit and a mini-crit, and as a result treat all mini-crits as regular crits. This makes it possible to gain a majority of crit-based achievements using only mini-crits.
• The "MINI CRIT!" text is still displayed when combat text is enabled if a teammate assists you with a mini-crit, instead of showing the damage they dealt.
• Occasionally, when dying while being crit boosted, the particle effect and sound still play despite not giving critical hits.
  • The sound bug can be fixed by typing snd_restart into the console.
• Sometimes, when firing a shot that is a critical, it does not play the critical sound effect. This only affects random critical hits.
  • The opposite could also happen, the critical sound plays but no critical hit is fired.

Notes

• Crit indicators are still displayed even if the victim is ÜberCharged and receives no damage.
• Even when a Spy feigns death with the Dead Ringer, the "CRITICAL HIT!!!" bonus-effect text follows the cloaked Spy normally, giving away the Spy's position.

Gallery

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  Crit Arrows.

• 

  Crit Baseballs.

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  Crit Bullets.

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  Crit Flames.

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  Crit Grenades.

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  Crit Rockets.

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  Crit Stickybombs.

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  Crit Syringes.

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  Crit MONOCULUS eyeball projectiles.

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  Spark sprite.