Critical hits

“

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

”

Critical hits, also known as "Crits", are attacks that do extra damage and have distinctive sounds, both when fired and when hitting a target. Players on the receiving end of the attack will have the words "Critical hit!!!" appear over their head in green letters, accompanied by a loud ding.

Critical hits can be easily distinguished from normal hits. Most melee weapons have a unique swinging animation. Explosives projectiles, such as rockets or Stickybombs, have a team-colored glow and sparkle effects. Bullets have team-colored trails.

Self-inflicted critical hits will not deal critical self-damage but will still play the sound effect.

Critical hits deal 300% of the base damage of the weapon, and ignore both the distance modification and the random damage modification normal shots are susceptible to, though explosive weapon crits still suffer from splash damage fall-off.

When a player is killed by a critical hit, the class will let out a loud scream that differs from ordinary deaths, unless the class was killed by a critical explosive. The kill feed icon for a critical hit can be easily recognized, as the weapon will be surrounded by a red glow.

Critical hit chance

See also: Damage

Critical hit chance based on damage.

Standard weapons have a 2% base chance to crit, while melee weapons have a 15% chance. An additional bonus percentage is added based on the total damage done by the player in the last 20 seconds, which scales from 0% at 0 damage to 10% at 800 damage. For example: dealing 200 damage in the past 20 seconds, the additional bonus percentage is 2.5%.

Among those weapons that trigger randomly, critical hit probability is determined differently based on the type of weapon. Single-shot weapons, which, for example, include Shotguns, the Revolver, and the Rocket Launcher, determine the chance to crit with every shot. Thus, every shot of the Shotgun will have a 2% chance to launch a flurry of critical pellets, assuming no previous damage done. Rapid-fire weapons, however, which include the Minigun, the Syringe Gun, the Flamethrower, and the Pistol check for critical hits once a second. With weapons like these, a positive crit determination results in all shots for the next two seconds being critical.

Special cases

An Engineer wielding the Frontier Justice with revenge crits.

• Some items do not work as conventional weapons and so do not crit under any circumstance (these are mostly items which do not cause any damage). These include Bonk! Atomic Punch, Crit-a-Cola, Mad Milk, the Buff Banner, the Battalion's Backup, the Concheror, the Gunboats, the Mantreads, Ali Baba's Wee Booties, the Chargin' Targe, the Splendid Screen, the Dalokohs Bar, the Fishcake, the Sandvich, the Buffalo Steak Sandvich, the Wrangler, the Medi Gun, the Kritzkrieg, the Quick-Fix, the Razorback, Darwin's Danger Shield, Jarate, the Electro Sapper, the Disguise Kit, the Invisibility Watch, the Cloak and Dagger, the Dead Ringer, the Enthusiast's Timepiece and the PDAs.
  • Jarate and Mad Milk may appear to crit, though this has only a cosmetic effect.
  • The Rocket Jumper and the Sticky Jumper roll for random crits normally and can be Crit boosted. However, due to the weapons dealing 0 damage normally, the critical hits deal 3 times 0 damage.
• Taunt attacks do not crit, but using one while boosted by a Buff Banner or Crit-a-Cola, or when the opponent is under the effects of Jarate or Crit-a-Cola will result in a mini-crit Taunt Kill.
• The Sun-on-a-Stick crits when striking a burning enemy.
• The Cow Mangler 5000 cannot crit under any circumstances, however it can be mini-crit boosted by a Buff Banner. However, projectiles reflected by an enemy Pyro will deal full crit damage.
• The Market Gardener does not roll for random crits but deals crits while the Soldier wielding it is rocket jumping.
• The Backburner is guaranteed to crit from behind.
• The Flare Gun will score a critical if it hits a player who is already on fire.
• The Axtinguisher and the Postal Pummeler will score a critical hit if the victim is on fire, and do half damage otherwise. It may still randomly perform a crit animation, but will not inflict crit damage unless the enemy is burning. When forced to crit, it plays the crit animation and does deal extra damage, though after going through the damage modifier that weakens it.
• The Eyelander, Claidheamh Mòr, Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker, Persian Persuader, Nessie's Nine Iron and Ullapool Caber do not roll for random critical hits, but will score critical hits when under the effects of the Kritzkrieg, used by the winning team in humiliation, or when using a full charge of the Chargin' Targe or Splendid Screen. The Chargin' Targe or Splendid Screen can also be used to get a critical hit for the Bottle, Pain Train, Scotsman's Skullcutter or the Frying Pan.
• The K.G.B. will roll for critical hits like a standard melee weapon. However, upon killing a target, they grant 5 seconds of crit boost to all of the Heavy's weapons.
• The Frontier Justice does not roll for random crits. Instead, when the Engineer's Sentry Gun is destroyed, it accrues Revenge Crits, 2 for every kill and 1 for every assist the Sentry made.
• The Gunslinger will not roll for random crits. Instead, if an Engineer hits an enemy three times, it will perform a critical punch, causing a different kill icon. The Engineer can hit multiple enemies before unleashing the combo.
• Sentry Guns will never inflict random critical hits. However, it will mini-crit enemies covered in Jarate, Scouts under the effect of Crit-a-Cola, Heavies under the effect of Buffalo Steak Sandvich, and will also mini-crit all enemies if the Engineer that built it is being buffed by a friendly Soldier's Buff Banner.
• The Sydney Sleeper, Southern Hospitality, and Soda Popper do not roll for random crits.
• The Bushwacka will crit at any time it would normally mini-crit, such as: against an enemy Scout under the effects of Crit-a-Cola, a Heavy under the effect of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich, an enemy soaked by Jarate or if the Sniper is under the effects of an allied Soldier's Buff Banner. It also rolls for crits normally.
• The Bleeding mechanic does not randomly crit, but will mini-crit players covered in Jarate or using Crit-a-Cola.
• The Spy's melee weapons only critical hit on a Backstab and during crit boost (humiliation, captured intelligence, Kritzkrieg).
• The Sniper Rifle, Ambassador, Huntsman and Bazaar Bargain do not roll for crits, but rather automatically score critical hits on successful headshots. The Sniper Rifle can only perform headshot crits while scoped and the Ambassador only when at full accuracy; both will crit under the effect of Kritzkrieg.
• Backstabs instantly kill the enemy by dealing damage equal to 6x their current health (unless the player being backstabbed is a Spy using the Dead Ringer, in which case it will deal 1/6 of their current health). When forced to crit, the Knife does the backstab animation, while dealing only 120 damage. A backstab inflicts damage equal to 2x the enemy's health and scores an automatic crit, with the crit increasing the damage to 6x and producing the backstab animation.

Crit boost

Crit boost is a state in which a player is guaranteed to deal critical hits with any weapon. A Crit boost is demonstrated 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, the Sniper Rifle, the Gunslinger, and the Eyelander, causing them to deal critical attacks for the duration of the boost. The Cow Mangler 5000, on the other hand, will not receive critical hits from a crit boost.

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.

• The Knife, when crit boosted, uses the backstab animation when attacking but deals only triple its base damage on a non-backstab as opposed to killing the target outright. The Axtinguisher plays crit animations when crit boosted and will deal critical damage after the 50% damage modifier if the victim is not on fire. The Southern Hospitality and most Demoman weapons deal normal critical damage, but do not crit without a crit boost.

• In the event version of Harvest and Mann Manor during Halloween, killed players randomly drop candy-filled Halloween pumpkins. When picked up, the player is awarded around 3–4 seconds of crit boost.

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 will disappear, but critical hits will still be delivered.

• Triggering a feign death gives the attacker the First Blood buff.

• The First Blood buff counts as an ÜberCharge towards the Heavy achievement "Supreme Soviet".

Mini-Crits

Mini-Crits add an extra 35% damage to a weapon's base-damage — more accurately, they ensure that a weapon does at least 135% its base damage. Like normal critical hits, they ignore damage fall off, but unlike critical hits, they are still given ramp-up at close range and random spread. Full crits override mini-crits. Like full crits, mini-crits will have a glowing red outline in their kill icons.

Currently there are fourteen ways to achieve a mini-crit:

• Hitting Jarate coated enemies.
• Melee hits midway through a Chargin' Targe charge.
• Attacking an enemy while under the effects of a friendly Soldier's Buff Banner.
• Hitting an airborne enemy who was propelled by an explosion with the Direct Hit.
• Attacking an enemy as a Scout while under the effects of Crit-a-Cola.
• Attacking an enemy Scout who is under the effects of Crit-a-Cola.
• Attacking an enemy as a Heavy while under the effects of Buffalo Steak Sandvich.
• Attacking an enemy Heavy who is under the effects of Buffalo Steak Sandvich.
• The Pyro's compression blast 'upgrades' projectiles it reflects, other than Stickybombs, to mini-crits.
• Attacking an enemy marked by the Fan O'War.
• Attacking as a Scout while under the Hype effect of the Soda Popper.
• Shooting an airborne enemy with the Reserve Shooter during the 3-second Mini-crit period it has after switching to it.
• Hitting a burning enemy with the Detonator.
• Shooting a charged shot with Cow Mangler 5000 mini-crits players.

Former ways to achieve a mini-crit:

• The Sun-on-a-Stick originally dealt mini-crits on burning enemies. It currently deals full crits.
• The Flare Gun originally dealt mini-crits on burning enemies at close range. It currently deals full crits regardless of range.
• Formerly mini-crits could be delivered by shooting enemies to the head with the Ambassador. It currently deals full crits.
• The Pyro's compression blast was formerly able to turn enemy Stickybombs into Mini-crits by reflecting them. It now gives no mini-crit boost on reflecting Stickybombs.
• The Direct Hit formerly dealt mini-crits to any airborne target. The weapon now inflicts mini-crit damage to airborne targets who have been launched into the air by an explosion.

Mini-Crit boost

A mini-crit boost is the state of having all damage being dealt modified in to mini-crit damage. Currently this is achievable while under the effects of Crit-a-Cola, an active Buff Banner, a Buffalo Steak Sandvich, or the deployed hype meter of the Soda Popper. While being mini-crit boosted, the player's active weapon glows a faint yellow on RED, or a faint blue-green on BLU, and has the same color effect of particles swirling around their feet.

All damage sources, including Afterburn and Sentry Guns, only deal mini-crit damage when the player dealing the damage is being boosted. i.e. If the player leaves the boost (for whatever reason) after firing a projectile and while the projectile is in mid-flight, it will lose its status as mini-critical. Conversely, after a Pyro sets fire to several players, returning to a mini-crit boost will immediately transform any Afterburn damage to mini-crit status. Sentry Guns will 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.

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.

March 6, 2008 Patch

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

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.

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: the Eyelander, the Gunslinger, the Southern Hospitality, the Powerjack, the Horseless Headless Horseman's Headtaker, the Ullapool Caber, and the Claidheamh Mòr.

April 15, 2011 Patch

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

June 28, 2011 Patch

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

Bugs

• The crit boost electricity effect will randomly appear on its own in large quantities in the map at the end of a round.
• Most achievements view critical hits and mini-crits as a single aspect, allowing players to gain achievements even though the inflicted or taken damage was from a mini-crit.
• Enabling 'Display damage done as text over your target' in the game settings hides the regular 'Critical Hit!!!' text.
  • 'Mini-Crit!' text, however, is not hidden.

Trivia

• Crits and mini-crits do not stack in any form - that is, meeting multiple conditions to earn a crit or a mini-crit will not deal any more than regular critical damage. For example, the Frontier Justice's Revenge Crits do not deal any additional damage when the Engineer is Kritzkrieged, while attacking an enemy under the influence of both Jarate and the Fan-O-War will only result in a single mini-crit. This means that team co-ordination is required if multiple players have ways to increase their crit output, or extra damage will be wasted.
  • In the same way, crits override mini-crits; an Axtinguisher blow on a burning enemy marked for death will only deal the critical damage.
• In the game's code, critical hits are programmed as chemical damage.