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.
Critical Chance[edit | edit source]
Each weapon has a base chance to critically hit, which can be increased through mods and various buffs.
Relative Increases[edit | edit source]
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.
As an example, a Braton with
Point Strike and
Critical Delay has a crit chance of:
Absolute Increases[edit | edit source]
A few effects grant absolute amounts of crit chance. This includes Arcane Avenger, Cat's Eye and
Covenant. These are applied after relative bonuses.
- Where the Absolute Bonus is the sum of all applicable bonuses.
As an example, a Braton with Point Strike (relative) and
Arcane Avenger (absolute) has a crit chance of:
Blood Rush[edit | edit source]
Blood Rush and the Gladiator Set Bonus are unique in that they scale off of Melee Combo, stacking additively with other critical chance mods:
As an example, a Gram with maxed
True Steel and
Blood Rush, with a x7 combo multiplier :
Critical hit chance can surpass 100%, for further information read Crit Tiers.
Sources of Critical Chance Bonus[edit | edit source]
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![]() ENERGY: 100 KEY 4 |
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. |
Strength:1.50% (critical per 100 damage) |
Duration:3 / 4 / 5 / 6 s (invulnerability time) 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 s (critical chance time) | |||
Range:N/A | |||
Misc:4.0x (headshot multiplier to bonus critical chance) 50/250 m (affinity range/open-world affinity range) |
Critical Multiplier[edit | edit source]
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.
As an example, a Braton with
Vital Sense has a crit multi of:
- = 1.6 × (1 +
120%) = 3.52x
Sources of Critical Multiplier Bonus[edit | edit source]

![]() |
![]() ENERGY: 50 KEY 3 |
Electric Shield Volt deploys an obstacle of energy, providing cover in any situation. Meters per Energy Drained: 4 m |
Strength:N/A |
Duration:10 / 15 / 20 / 25 s | |||
Range:N/A | |||
Misc:50% (damage bonus) 200% (critical damage bonus) 6 m x 4.25 m (static shield) 2 m x 3 m (current shield) 6 (shields limit) |
Crit Tiers[edit | edit source]
Modded Crit Chance |
Crit Tier & Coloration | |
---|---|---|
x = 0% | No hit can crit | Tier 0 |
0% < x < 100% | Chance for a yellow crit | |
Tier 1 | ||
x = 100% | All hits yellow crit | |
100% < x < 200% | Chance for an orange crit | |
Tier 2 | ||
x = 200% | All hits orange crit | |
200% < x < 300% | Chance for a red crit (tier 3) | |
Tier 3 | ||
x = 300% | All hits red crit (tier 3) | |
300% < x < 400% | Chance for a red crit (tier 4) | |
Tier 4 | ||
x = 400% | All hits red crit (tier 4) | |
400% < x < 500% | Chance for a red crit (tier 5) | |
... | ||
... | ... |

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.
As an example, a Lenz with
Point Strike has a crit chance of:
- = 50% × (1 +
150%) = 125%
This means it will have a 25% chance to trigger an orange crit, while all other hits (75%) will yield a yellow crit.
The critical damage multiplier for these can be calculated as follows:
As an example, a Lenz with
Point Strike and
Vital Sense will have an orange crit multiplier of:
- = 1 + 2 × (2.0 × (1 +
120%) − 1) = 7.8x
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[edit | edit source]

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. For yellow crits, this is another 2.0x multiplier on top of the location multiplier and the crit multiplier but in general, it uses the formula:
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[edit | edit source]
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:
- = 1 + 30% × (2.0 - 1) = 1.3x
Paris with
Point Strike and
Vital Sense 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.
See also[edit | edit source]
Hunter Munitions, a chance to apply
Slash on critical hit for primary weapons.
Patch History[edit | edit source]
- Fixed Critical Hits not triggering for Glaive mid-air detonations.
- 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.
Damage Mechanics | |
---|---|
Offense | Attack Speed • Critical Hit • Damage (Type Modifier) • Damage Falloff • Enemy Body Parts • Fire Rate • Multishot • Punch Through • Status Effect |
Defense | Armor • Damage Reduction • Health • Shield |
Damage Types | |
Physical | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Elemental | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Combined | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Unique | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Effect Only | ![]() |
Critical Hit Mods | |||
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Rifle | Chance | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
Damage | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
Shotgun | Chance | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
Damage | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
Pistol | Chance | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
Damage | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
Melee | Chance | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
Damage | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
Weapon Augment | ![]() ![]() |