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[]
Chance that any given attack will do bonus Critical Hit Damage.
Values over 100% have a chance to become Big Critical Hits (orange), and over 200% have a chance to become Super Critical Hits (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.
As an example, a 
Braton with 
Point Strike and Argon Scope has a crit chance of:
Absolute Increases[]
A few effects grant absolute amounts of crit chance which are applied after relative bonuses.
Puncture's status effect "Weakened"
Arcane Avenger
Cat's Eye- Ballistic Bullseye
- Shadow Haze
Covenant
Wrathful Advance
- 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[]
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[]
|
 4  100
|
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. Introduced in Update 21.0 (2017-06-29) |
 Strength:5% (base critical chance)1.50% (critical chance 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) |
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 3 75
|
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. Introduced in Update 31.5 (2022-04-27) |
Strength:x 25 / 30 / 40 / 50 % (weapon crit chance) + 25 / 30 / 40 / 50 % (ability crit chance) 1 / 1.15 / 1.3 / 1.5 EP/s (energy regen) |
| Duration:8 s (initial timer) 3 s (extra time per kill) | |||
| Range:N/A
| |||
|
Misc: 60 s (casting cooldown and max duration cap) |
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 4 100
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Crystallize
Citrine summons crystal fractals. The fractals rush forward, seeking enemies. Enemies touched by the fractals are paralyzed crystalline growths. Hit the growths to deal Critical Damage. Introduced in Update 32.3 (2023-02-15) |
Strength:250 / 300 / 400 / 500  Impact damage
|
| Duration:5 / 6 / 7 / 8 s
| |||
| Range:30 m
| |||
|
Misc:
190° sight detection cone |
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 1 25
|
Wrathful Advance
(TAP) Kullervo charges a Heavy Attack, then teleports to his target and strikes. His rage-filled focus temporarily increases his Melee Critical Chance. (HOLD) Teleport to any marked location. Introduced in Update 33.5 (2023-06-21) |
Strength:+ 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 % melee final critical chance
|
| Duration:7 / 8 / 9 / 10 s melee crit buff duration
| |||
| Range:20 / 22 / 23 / 25 m teleport distance
| |||
|
Misc:
1 s Cooldown | |||
| Subsumable to Helminth |
Critical Damage (Critical Multiplier)[]
Critical Hit Damage is multiplied by this value.
The added Damage is doubled for Big Critical Hits (orange), and tripled for Super Critical Hits (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.
The base critical multiplier of a weapon is quantized.[1][2] This applies before mods, but after certain effects that are additive to the base value. The quantized base critical multiplier can be calculated as:
As an example, a Braton with Vital Sense excluding quantization for simplicity, has a crit multiplier of:
- 1.6 × (1 + 120%) = 3.52x
Another similar example, now including quantization, and now with the incarnon perk Critical Parallel yields a crit multiplier of:
Sources of Critical Damage Bonus[]
Mutalist Quanta's alternative fire; shooting bullets through the Infested orb will boost the weapon's critical multiplier
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 3 50
|
Electric Shield
Volt deploys an obstacle of energy, providing cover in any situation. Introduced in Update 5.3 (2013-01-10) |
Strength:N/A
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| Duration:10 / 15 / 20 / 25 s
| |||
| Range:N/A
| |||
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Misc:
+50% (damage bonus) |
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 3 75
|
Grave Spirit
Supercharge Dagath's weapons with extra Critical Damage. The effects are doubled on Doomed enemies. Escape fatal blows by briefly assuming a spectral form. Introduced in Update 34.0 (2023-10-18) |
Strength:35 / 40 / 45 / 50 % critical damage bonus 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 % Doom critical damage bonus |
| Duration:7 / 8 / 9 / 10 s invulnerable time
| |||
| Range:N/A
| |||
|
Misc:
∞ duration (not deactivatable) |
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 1 25
|
Shroud of Dynar
(TAP) Dynar shrouds Voruna with invisibility and accelerates her speed. Invisibility ends when Voruna attacks. For a short time, melee attacks have increased Critical Damage and Status Chance and inflict Bleed. Melee kill an enemy during this time to extend the buff. (HOLD) Dynar guards Voruna, increasing her Parkour Velocity. Introduced in Update 32.2 (2022-11-30) |
Strength:+ 0.5 / 1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 flat melee critical damage bonus
|
| Duration:8 / 10 / 12 / 14 s Invisible duration 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 s max melee buff duration | |||
| Range:N/A
| |||
|
Misc:
+ 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 % Movement Speed bonus |
Crit Tiers[]
| 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) | |
| Tier 5 | ||
| x = 500% | All hits red crit (tier 5) | |
| 500% < x < 600% | Chance for a red !!! crit (tier 6) | |
| ... | ||
| ... | ... |
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. Every tier above 3 will produce an additional exclamation mark (!) up to three times.
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[]
This picture displays a headcrit dealing 4x (old : now, it would be 6x) 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 3.0x multiplier, but if the strike is a critical hit, then it receives an additional damage bonus of 2.0x on top of the location multiplier and the crit multiplier:
As an example, a 
Lanka with Vital Sense, and a head shot multiplier of 3.0 will have an orange crit multiplier of:
- 3.0 × (1 + 2 × (2 × 2.0 × (1 + 120%) − 1)) = 49.8x
The Headshot Multiplier is 3.0x 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 increase damage if critically hit. Corpus humanoids do not receive headcrits, instead only taking the normal 3.0x 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 affected by how often critical hits occur and at what critical multiplier. The following equation accounts for critical hits that are not headshots:
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 basic critical mods, the damage is multiplied by 3.55 on average; yellow crits of 4.4x for 75% of the shots.
Notes[]
See also[]
Patch History[]
Hotfix 35.0.9 (2024-01-17)
- Removed the ability for enemies to deal critical hits to players, Defense targets, Extractors, Rescue targets, and all other friendly targets.
- In most cases, enemies equipped with “player” weapons (Grineer Ballista using the Vulkar for example) could land critical hits due to those weapons using the same crit setup as their player counterpart. With a lack of feedback to inform players as to why or how sudden damage spikes were occurring, these enemies could easily jeopardize a mission. Additionally, while it makes sense to reward players for landing critical headshots, whether an enemy hits a head or not is outside of player control - which ultimately made countering it near impossible. So, in an effort to provide more consistent and predictable damage output from enemies, we have removed their ability to deal critical hits.
Update 34.0 (2023-10-18)
Missed Note From Abyss of Dagath:
- Updated our Damage Number system to add an exclamation point (!) for every Crit Tier above Super Crits, up to 3 total. Now you'll really be able to tell when you're doing a lot of damage!!!
Hotfix 33.6.1 (2023-07-31)
Missed Notes:
- With the new Ability Damage qualifier with the Enhanced Damage Numbers system, some players may think that certain Warframe abilities have had their Critical Chance nerfed. In truth, some Warframe abilities had a Critical Chance multiplier simply to add “oomph” to their damage numbers, without having an actual impact on Damage output. With this new Enhanced Damage System, that extra oomph is no longer needed, so those non-functional Critical Change values were removed, but the overall damage of these abilities are unchanged.
Hotfix 28.0.4 (2020-06-12)
- Fixed Critical Hits not triggering for Glaive mid-air detonations.
Update 21.0 (2017-06-29)
- 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.
Update 14.10 (2014-10-08)
- 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.
Update 13.5 (2014-05-28)
- Changes to Crit calculations:
We have made changes to the way Criticals work on weapons that have been modded to have a crit chance greater than 100%. You may recall the existence of ‘red crits’ from many updates ago, which occurred with no clear formula other than “Synapse!”. Here is some clarity into the new system:
The brief:
A weapon with a critical chance greater than 100% will receive 2 calculations:
1) a guaranteed critical damage value - this normally appears as a yellow value.
2) a secondary red crit chance based on the remaining percent- this will appear as a new RED crit if successful!
This means:
If your rate is 125% you get one guaranteed crit and a 25% chance of a red crit.
If this Second Crit occurs, you will see a deadly Red crit value!
| CollapseCritical Hit Mods Edit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle | Chance | Point Strike • Critical Delay • Argon Scope ( Galvanized)
| |
| Damage | Vital Sense • Hammer Shot • Bladed Rounds
| ||
| Shotgun | Chance | Blunderbuss • Critical Deceleration • Laser Sight
| |
| Damage | Ravage ( Primed) • Shrapnel Shot
| ||
| Pistol | Chance | Pistol Gambit ( Primed) • Creeping Bullseye • Hydraulic Crosshairs ( Galvanized)
| |
| Damage | Target Cracker ( Primed) • Hollow Point • Sharpened Bullets
| ||
| Melee | Chance | Blood Rush • Maiming Strike • True Steel ( Sacrificial)
| |
| Damage | Gladiator Might • Organ Shatter ( Amalgam)
| ||
| Arch-gun | Chance | Critical Focus • Parallax Scope
| |
| Damage | Critical Focus • Hollowed Bullets
| ||
| Arch-melee | Chance | Critical Meltdown • Tempered Blade
| |
| Damage | Bleeding Edge
| ||
| Weapon Augment | Deadly Maneuvers • Deadly Sequence • Exposing Harpoon • Hata-Satya • Amalgam Ripkas True Steel
| ||
- ↑ BaeckerSkins (2022, January 15). Accurate eidolon damage and a convenient spreadsheet comparing weapon builds/rivens. Reddit. Archived from the original on 2023-12-03.
- ↑ Anon (2023, December 3). Critical multiplier quantization. Imgur. Archived from the original on 2023-12-03.