Critical hits
From TF2 Wiki
| “ | Dere ain't enough crits in the world ta kill me!
— The Scout
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” |
Overview
Critical hits or Crits are attacks that do extra Damage and have distinctive sounds both when fired and when hitting a target. When you hit a player with one, the words "critical hit!!!" appear over the target's head in green letters (see image), accompanied by a loud "ding." Critical hits with melee weapons usually have a unique swinging animation to go with it (for example the bottle has an overhead swing). Explosives projectiles (such as rockets or sticky bombs) have a team colored glow and sparkle effects. Bullets have team-colored trails.
When a player is killed by a critical hit, the icon that shows the weapon doing the damage is surrounded in a red glow (to differentiate it from any other kill).
Critical hits usually deal three times as much damage as the base damage of the weapon, and ignore both the distance modification and the random damage modification normal shots are susceptible to. Explosive weapon crits still suffer from splash damage.
When a player dies from critical hits(including headshots and backstabs), the class will let out a loud scream that differs from ordinary deaths.
Critical hit chance
Standard weapons have a 2% base chance to critical, while melee weapons have a 15% chance. Added on top of that chance is an additional number that increases linearly from 0% to 10% based on total damage done by the player in the last 20 seconds, with a cap of 800 damage. For example, having only killed a 200 health soldier will add a 2.5% chance to critical, totaling at 4.5%.
Among those weapons that trigger randomly, critical hit chance is polled differently based on the type of weapon. Single-shot weapons, which, for example, include Shotguns, the Revolver, and the Rocket Launcher, roll the chance to crit with every shot. Thus, every click 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, Pistol, and Flamethrower, check for critical hits once a second. With weapons like these, a successful crit roll results in all shots for the next two seconds being marked as critical.
Special cases
A knife only critical hits on a Backstab, and does not roll for criticals otherwise. A backstab deals exactly enough damage to kill the victim, bypassing the normal multiplier. When forced to crit, it plays the backstab animation, but does normal slash damage.
The sniper rifle and Huntsman do not roll for crits, but rather automatically score critical hits on successful headshots.But this can only be achieved when scoped with the Sniper, or with a headshot with the Huntsman.
The Axtinguisher scores a critical only if the victim is on fire, and does half damage otherwise. It may still randomly perform a crit animation, but will not inflict crit damage unless the enemy is burning, and behaves identically to the knife under the Crit boost effect.
The Backburner scores normal critical hits like any other weapon, but also has a guaranteed chance to critical from behind.
The K.G.B. 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 Ambassador rolls for critical hits like a normal one shot weapon. However, it always scores a crit on a headshot.
The Eyelander does not roll for random critical hits, but will score critical hits when under the effects of the Kritzkrieg, humilation, or when using a full charge of the Chargin Targe. The Chargin Targe can also be used to get a critical hit for the Bottle or Grenade Launcher.
Jarate may crit, though this has only a cosmetic effect.
Some items do not work as conventional weapons and so do not crit under any circumstance. These include Bonk! Atomic Punch, the Sandvich, PDAs, the disguise kit, Razorback, Invisibility watch, Cloak and Dagger, Dead Ringer and Electro sapper. Taunt attacks also do not crit, however taunt killing a player under effects of Jarate will result in a mini-crit.
Crit boost
Crit boost is the state of having a weapon critical hit on every fire.
During humiliation every shot fired by the winning side is forced to critical hit, including body shots with the sniper rifle. However, swings with the knife and Axtinguisher appear to crit during humiliation (with the backstab and overhead swing animations, respectively), but hit for normal damage unless the trigger is properly met.
All of your shots are critical while ÜberCharged with the Kritzkrieg. This does affect the Huntsman and the sniper rifle, but not the knife or Axtinguisher.
A 5 second crit boost is received upon getting first blood in an Arena map. If you happen to switch weapons during this period, the electricity around your weapon will disappear, but you will still be able to fire criticals until the end of the crit boost.
Also, capturing the flag in a CTF game mode gives the entire capturing team 10 seconds of critboost.
Lastly, in the event version of Harvest, killed players randomly drop candy-filled Halloween pumpkins, which give you around 3-4 seconds of critboost when picked up.
Disable Crits
To disable crits on a server, use the server cvar command tf_weapon_criticals 0. Note that this does not affect situational crits or mini-crits such as; Jarate, Headshots, Backstabs, Kritzkrieg, Buff Banner or attacking from behind with the Backburner.
Patch Notes
The formula for crits changed on February 2, 2009. Base chance is decreased from 5% to 2% for standard weapons and is 15% for melee weapons [1]. The bonus range based on damage done changed from 0%-15% to 0%-10, and the damage range required for bonus changed from 0-1600 to 0-800.
Mini-crits
Mini-crits add an extra 35% damage to a weapon's base-damage. Like normal critical hits, they ignore damage variance and fall off, but unlike critical hits, they are still given ramp-up. As of now there are five ways to achieve a mini-crit; by attacking an enemy that has had Jarate thrown on them, melee without a full Chargin' Targe charge, by hitting a burning enemy with a flare, by a friendly soldier activating his Buff Banner or by hitting an airborne target with the Direct Hit.
Notes
- Buildings are not affected by critical hits.
- Critical Rockets, Grenades and Stickies used on yourself will provide a greater knockback than non-crits and you will hear the "ding" sound. However, they don't deal any additional damage to yourself.
- Crit kills are marked in the recent kills section with a red glow behind the regular weapon icon.
Trivia
- If you taunt as a Soldier with the Rocket launcher equipped, the soldier will make an "L" sign with his hand while yelling "Cuh-rit".
- Killing someone with a critical rocket will sometimes result in the Soldier yelling: "Cuh-rit".
- Upon dominating a Soldier, the Scout sometimes will shout "Dere ain't enough crits in da world ta kill me!"
- If a player covered in Jarate is set on fire, each afterburn tick with play the Mini-Crit sound and animation, and will deal the extra damage.
- Mini-Crits do not stack to make a Crit. E.g. Player covered in Jarate hit midair with Direct Hit by a Buff Bannered Soldier.
See also
