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Critical hits, also known as crits for short, are otherwise normal weapon strikes that randomly deal increased damage on enemies. The likelihood that an attack will be a critical hit is based on the weapon's critical hit chance, and the additional damage dealt by a critical hit is determined by the weapon's critical damage multiplier. Each attack, or each pellet in the case of most shotguns and weapons with Multishot, rolls its own chance to critically hit.
When a weapon deals a critical hit, the damage is displayed as a yellow, orange or red number on the HUD instead of the usual white coloring. However, critical hits on shields are still blue, and attacks benefitting from the stealth damage bonus are always yellow even when they don't crit.
Chance that any given attack will do bonus Critical Hit Damage. Values over 100% have a chance to become Orange Critical Hits, and over 200% have a chance to become red.
—In-game Description
Each weapon has a base chance to critically hit, which can be increased through mods and various buffs.
Relative Increases[]
Most increases to crit chance are relative to the base chance. Multiple of these stack additively with each other:
Where the Relative Bonus is the sum of all applicable bonuses.
Covenant Protect nearby allies with an energy force that absorbs all damage and converts it to a Critical Chance bonus for all those under the Covenant. Headshots are amplified even further.
Harrow breaks free of his shackles in a whirlwind of impenetrable energy, imbuing himself and allies inside his Affinity Range with complete invulnerability to damage and Status Effect immunity for 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 seconds. While invulnerable, any enemy damage prevented by all affected players during this time accumulates into a total pool.
Affinity Range is not affected by Ability Range but is affected by the Mending Unity passive in the Vazarin focus school, and can be temporarily increased with Fosfors.
Status effect immunity also protects against knockdown and stagger.
After the invulnerability phase, all affected players receive the Retaliation buff which provides an additive weapon critical chance bonus lasting for 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 seconds. Retaliation provides a 5% base critical chance, plus extra critical chance converted from total damage prevented at a rate of 1.50% per 100 damage points prevented. Additionally, the combined critical chance percentage is multiplied by 4 on headshot hits.
Base critical chance and extra critical chance percentages are affected by Ability Strength, while damage points prevented and headshot multiplier are not.
Retaliation's critical chance is capped at 50% on bodyshot hits and 200% on headshot hits.
The critical chance applied to the weapons is a flat value applied after mods.
As Example: A weapon with 10% base critical chance which has a Rank 5 Point Strike equipped and is affected by a capped Retaliation buff will have 10% × (1 + 150%) + 200% = 225% critical chance on headshot.
Protection and Retaliation buffs affect both players and their Companions.
Covenant cannot be recast while its buffs are active.
Multiple Harrows can cast Covenant independently of other players' active invulnerability and critical chance buffs.
Casting animation of 3 seconds is affected by casting speed, from mods such as Natural Talent and Speed Drift. Casting Covenant stops Harrow's movement and actions.
During the invulnerability phase, the current total of damage prevented is displayed to the right of the aiming reticle, represented by a shield-like emblem.
After the invulnerability phase, the critical chance bonus and its headshot multiplied percentage are briefly displayed at the same position, represented by a bullet-like emblem.
An audible whispering sound plays when each buff's duration ends.
Covenant's buff icons for invulnerability and critical chance are displayed beside the shield and health indicators, with the critical chance bonus percentage located at the top-right of the icon and buff timers at the bottom.
Harrow and affected allies are visibly surrounded by a gust of energy while under Covenant's effects. This visual effect expands or contracts depending on the phases of the ability, and is affected by Harrow's chosen Warframe energy color.
Lasting Covenant is a Warframe Augment Mod for Harrow that increases Covenant's critical chance buff duration each time an enemy is killed with a headshot.
It synergizes well with abilities that buff critical damage, such as Electric Shield and Sonar.
Also pairs well with the Dual Toxocyst since they are at their optimal power when you are getting headshots.
Since the critical chance applied is additive, this ability can turn a Nukor modded with Primed Target Cracker (and possibly other critical damage mods such as a Riven) into a viable critical secondary.
As Covenant's critical chance buff is capped, Harrow may opt to build on Ability Duration over Ability Strength, as not only does the increased invulnerability protect him longer, the damage he negates during the extended invulnerability phase can be enough for him to cap the aftermath Retaliation buff.
Stacks with Arcane Avenger, resulting in an additive +95% critical chance on bodyshot and +245% on headshot with both effects maxed.
Casting this while attempting to revive a teammate makes for a reliable survival strategy, as the invulnerability phase will protect you from enemy fire.
If the mission has Environmental Hazards, like the toxic waste in the Grineer Shipyard tileset, you can use them to stack extra damage negation during the invulnerability phase.
Covenant synergizes well with a Kitgun equipped with Pax Seeker, with its projectiles gain benefits for critical chance to headshot from this ability.
However, headshot kills by Pax Seeker's projectiles won't trigger Lasting Covenant augmentation.
Cathode Grace Gain a brief burst of increased Critical Chance and Energy Regen, with each kill extending duration of Cathode Grace. Casting is on a cooldown.
Gyre surges a potent electric current through herself as Gyral Blocks envelop her forearms. Cathode Grace grants Gyre a 25% / 30% / 40% / 50%Critical Chance bonus to her weapons (modded critical chance) and abilities (additive critical chance), as she constantly recharges 1 / 1.15 / 1.3 / 1.5Energy points per second, lasting for an initial duration of 8 seconds. For each enemy killed directly by Gyre, or killed by any source while affected by a Status Effect inflicted by Gyre, Cathode Grace's remaining duration is extended by 3 seconds, up to a maximum duration capped at 60 seconds. In addition to the energy cost requirement, casting the ability triggers a 60 seconds cooldown before the next activation is allowed.
Casting cooldown and max duration cap are not affected by mods.
Cathode Grace's remaining duration is shown on the ability icon. Once duration elapses, the remaining cooldown timer replaces the duration timer on the ability icon.
The ability's cooldown starts immediately when Cathode Grace's duration timer begins to count down.
Audible cues play when Cathode Grace's duration ends, and when its cooldown is complete.
Kills made while manning a Railjack turret, be it with direct fire or abilities such as Shatter Burst, also extend Cathode Grace duration.
Ability Synergy:
Gyre's passive and Cathode Grace enable ability critical hits by granting 0% to 300% critical chance to damage and status effects dealt by Arcsphere, Coil Horizon, and Rotorswell.
Direct kills by Gyre's abilities, their Electricity status effects, and kill assists from allies extend Cathode Grace's duration.
Cannot be recast while active or on cooldown.
Casting Cathode Grace is a full-body animation that interrupts Gyre's grounded movement and other actions.
Gyre visually bows gracefully with hand gestures as hundreds of Gyral Blocks detach from her coil gown, electromagnetically levitating into the air. Gyre finishes her bow, culminating in a powerful posture that attracts and concentrates all Gyral Blocks to encircle her forearms in two spherical clusters. The Gyral Blocks rhythmically pulse in a wave-like pattern, while Gyre's body is enveloped in electricity.
Tips & Tricks
As Gyre already generates her own Energy while Cathode Grace is active, she can forego of, or even sacrifice, Ability Efficiency stats in exchange for amplifying other stats, such as increased Duration with Constitution or firepower such as by equipping Blind Rage.
As Cathode Grace has a rather long animation time, Gyre is vulnerable while activating the ability. Equipping Quick Thinking not only gives her a safeguard, it also can make her tankier by expending energy to prevent lethal damage - which she can quickly replenish by constantly attacking and keeping Cathode Grace up.
Because of Cathode Grace's ability to passively generate Energy, it is a useful ability to combine with Helminth-infused toggled abilities that constantly drain energy such as Sevagoth's Gloom, in a fashion similar to - but less potent than - Garuda's Bloodletting.
Bugs
When Gyre's Energy gets drained to zero either by a Magnetic proc or a strike by an Ancient Disruptor while Cathode Grace is active, her Energy regeneration is disabled. Worse, the disabled Cathode Grace timer still gets sustained by her kills.
This bug persists after Update 31.5.5 even with Rotorswell's cooldown fix.
Critical Hit Damage is multiplied by this value. The added Damage is doubled for Orange Critical Hits, and tripled for red.
—In-game Description
When a critical hit occurs, that hit's damage is increased and the damage value's color is changed to yellow. The stat describing by how much a crit is strengthened is displayed in the arsenal as a multiplier.
Volt creates an electrical energy barrier 4.25 meters high and 6 meters wide that absorbs enemy fire, lasting for 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 seconds. Shots fired through the shield made by Volt and his allies gain 50%Electricity damage and 200%critical multiplier.
Height and width of the shield as well as the damage bonus are not affected by mods.
The Electricity damage bonus is an additive bonus that's applied to the weapon's base damage, similar to an elemental mod. For an unmodified weapon that inflicts 100 base damage, firing through a shield will increase the total damage to 100 × (1 + 0.5) = 150. The weapon now inflicts 100 base damage and 50Electricity damage.
Firing through multiple Shields will cause the Electricity damage bonus to stack additively (e.g., firing through 3 shields will grant a 150%Electricity damage bonus). The critical multiplier bonus on the other hand does not stack with additional shields.
The Electricity damage bonus does not combine with other elemental types to create secondary elements; the weapon will separately proc the elements present on it and Electricity from Electric Shield.
The critical multiplier is multiplied after weapon mods, meaning it will take your modded critical damage and double it.
Volt has the ability to pickup one of his Static Shields through a context action. Doing so will cause the shield to decrease in size to 2.0 m × 3.0 m and become mobile. Activating the context action again will revert the Current Shield back into a Static Shield.
The position and movement of the Current Shield will be fixed to the target reticle, meaning the Shield will move with the camera while being within 1.5 meters of Volt.
When the Current Shield is equipped Volt will be limited to the use of only his secondary and melee weapons and will have his speed and mobility reduced.
Enemies hit by the Current Shield while Volt is sprinting will be ragdolled.
Volt will be drained 1 energy for every 4 meters he travels with the Current Shield equipped.
Distance Per Energy is affected by Ability Efficiency through the equation DPE = 4 ÷ (2 − (1 + Efficiency Mods)).
Only one shield can be equipped at a time.
A maximum of 6 separate Electric Shields can be cast at any given time. Casting Electric Shields after reaching the maximum will remove the oldest shield.
Electric Shield affects certain weapons differently:
All primary and secondary weapons will gain Electricity damage and amplified critical damage.
Pellets from gunblades, like Redeemer and Sarpa, also gain the buff.
Thrown melee weapons, such as the Glaive, are not affected by Electric Shield.
Weapons that have additional sources of damage, such as the Quanta, will have their additional sources affected by Electric Shield so long as the damage can be modified. For example, firing a Torid grenade through a Shield will affect the projectile damage and the area damage. Firing a Mutalist Quanta orb through a Shield will not affect the orb's contact damage, but it will affect the orb's explosion damage.
Held-trigger weapons will gain hitscan properties.
While most hostile gunfire and AoE damage are blocked by Electric Shield, weapons with innate punch through, such as a Scorch's Ignis, can bypass Electric Shield.
Prevents self-stagger from AoE weapons if the player shoots behind the shield.
Ability Synergy: Casting Shock through an Electric Shield will electrify it, inflicting 100% of Shock's damage to enemies that pass through it (e.g., Electric Shield will deal 260 damage if Shock's modified damage is 260).
The bonus damage from Volt's passive will also be stacked onto the damage from Shock (e.g., Electric Shield will deal 810 damage if Shock's modified damage is 260 and the Passive bonus is 550 at the time Shock is cast).
Transistor Shield is a Warframe Augment Mod for Volt's Electric Shield that allows allies to pick up and move Electric Shields, with no energy cost for moving them. Additionally, a percentage of enemy damage absorbed by the Electric Shield(s) will add up to Volt's Static Discharge passive.
Multiple instances of the Electric Shield can provide a 360o wall of protection, or can be used once if backing up into a tight space, blocking enemy fire from all angles.
Note that Electric Shield does not protect its users from above and below attacks. Placing them above and below the player can be done to counter this.
As Electric Shield doesn't buff Warframes directly but instead the weapons fired through it, it's one of the only ways to increase Operator damage output. This is particularly useful for Eidolon hunts.
If Shock is cast through Electric Shield with the max bonus damage from Static Discharge (1000) the total damage dealt may be slightly lower than expected (e.g., if Shock adds 100 damage to Electric Shield plus the 1000 bonus damage from passive, the amount of damage inflicted will only be 1098 instead of 1100).
Three different color tiers of critical hits along with normal damage color
When a weapon achieves a crit chance higher than 100%, every attack will crit but it also gains a chance to deal an even stronger crit. As the critical hit chance increases, the tier of critical damage does so as well.
Although the coloration remains red after a certain point, crit tiers continue to increase.
In addition, each mod of the Vigilante Mod Set has a 5% chance to increase a Primary Weapon's critical hit's tier by 1. This effect stacks with other Vigilante Mods installed, up to a 30% chance with all six Vigilante Mods equipped.
Critical Headshots[]
This picture displays a headcrit dealing 4x regular headshot damage using an unmodded Lex.
Certain body parts on enemies, most notably heads, will receive additional damage when struck. This location-based damage increase is usually a 2.0x multiplier, but if the strike is a critical hit, then it receives an additional damage bonus of 2.0xon top of the location multiplier and the crit multiplier:
As an example, a Lanka with Point Strike and Vital Sense, and a head shot multiplier of 2.0 will have an orange crit multiplier of:
The Headshot Multiplier is 2.0x in almost all cases. The bonus damage from headshot crits is specific to heads and not generalized to all special body parts. The MOA, for example, has a "fanny pack" which normally receives 3.0x damage, but does not receive any additional multipliers from a critical hit. The Jordas Golem, however, has a 1.0x multiplier on his engines, but still receives quadruple damage if critically hit. Corpus humanoids do not receive headcrits, instead only taking the normal 2.0x headshot damage even after their helmets are removed.
Average Damage[]
When comparing builds it can be helpful to calculate how much damage the weapon will deal on average, which is effected by how often critical hits occur and at what critical multiplier. The following equation accounts for critical hits.
As an example, a Paris has an average damage multiplier of:
So for a Paris without any critical mods, the damage is multiplied by 1.3 on average; yellow crits of 2x for 30% of the shots.
With the 2 base critical mods, the damage is multiplied by 3.55 on average; yellow crits of 4.4x for 75% of the shots.
With Harrow's enhancement to Criticals, we have slightly tweaked the colour gradient in which Critical hits are displayed. Introducing: Orange Crits! These now occur in between Yellow and Red Crits. Before, Crits became Red when 100% Crit Chance was achieved. Now Crits will be ORANGE in the 100.01-200% range, and Red will start at 200.01%+! This is solely a visual change.
Changed Critical Chance logic by allowing it to occur on Radial Explosions (both friendly and enemy where applicable). This fixes an issue with the Torid’s gas cloud not allowing for criticals.
Braton with 
Point Strike and 
Arcane Avenger, 
Covenant. These are applied after relative bonuses.
Gram with maxed 
120%) = 3.52x
Mutalist Quanta's alternative fire; shooting bullets through the Infested orb will boost the weapon's critical multiplier
Lenz with 
Lex.
Lanka with 
Paris has an average damage multiplier of:
