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{{trope}}
[[File:critical_kick_4026.png|frame|[[Persona 4
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Maximizing the chance of one is a favorite goal of the [[Munchkin]] and those who practice [[Whoring]] in general, due to the (usual) lack of drawbacks. Said coveted [[Luck Stat]] ''might'' fix that. However, despite this Power Gamers despise it, as they do any sort of luck, and seek to eliminate it whenever possible, often resulting in Stop Having Fun Guys. Hilarity then follows.
Not to be confused with the [[Podcast]] of the [[Critical Hit (
{{examples|Examples }}
== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
* ''[[
** The best known is, of course, rolling a "natural 20"<ref>That is, a 20 on the die, before applying modifiers.</ref> in combat did bonus damage -- this started out as a common house rule which became an official option in the 2nd edition.
** In "AD&D 2.5" beating an opponent's AC by 4 or more meant at least double damage, and the detailed damage option introduced to avoid "[[Only a Flesh Wound]]" effect added injuries if the target fails an extra saving throw. Like major bleeding -- or beheading, depending on the weapon's size, type and severity roll. The same for saving throws against spells failed by 4 or more (i.e. an acid arrow may melt one's arm off) with area-affecting spells possibly injuring several locations -- i.e. surviving a fireball may still mean that one's eyes and right leg are fried crispy.
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** Unlike most examples, in D&D, creatures with odd anatomies can be immune to critical hits, including [[Golem|Golems]], most kinds of undead and [[The Blob]]. This is because D&D justifies critical hits as being regular attacks aimed at an unprotected point or vital organ. Undead and Gelatinous Cubes obviously lack vital organs and therefore can't be hit for critical damage.
** The D&D 3.5-based Star Wars RPG took it one step further, making critical hits instant-kill faceless Mooks and deal (on average) about 1.5 times as much as maximum damage with whatever weapon you were using.
** 4th edition [[
*** And then there are "High Crit" weapons,such as the scimitar, katar, and greataxe, which (on a crit) deal maximum damage and an extra weapon damage die roll. This can become absolutely ridiculous - a greataxe, if maximum damage is rolled on the extra roll, will deal 24 damage - and don't get me started on a two-blade ranger double critting on a Twin Strike with scimitars and rolling max damage each time (not counting enhancement, it deals 32 damage, enough to kill a level 1 creature.)
**** For a game where [[P Cs]] are supposed to be superhuman at relatively low levels, it seems ridiculous to need a once in a lifetime roll to kill the lowest creature in one hit...
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** In one of the previous Chaos [[Space Marine]] codexes, the [[BFS|Axe of Khorne]] granted the wielder an extra attack for each roll of 6 that came up to hit. And if any of those came up as 6. With no upper limit on the number of extra attacks. This could lead to entire squads of [[Mighty Glacier|Terminators]] being chopped down by one really pissed-off guy with an axe.
** Leadership tests in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' (one of the few rolls where rolling less is better) automatically succeed when a double one is rolled, in spite of any penalties or debuffs that would require to roll 1 or less. [[Psychic Powers]] use leadership tests where double ones and double sixes cause miscasts: The rules explicitly state that when rolling a double one, a psyker manages to cast the spell even if it kills him.
* The [[
** [[Critical Failure|The reverse]] (called a "[[Epic Fail|dramatic failure]]", or a "botch" in the old WoD) also exists. If a dice pool is reduced to negative figures by penalties, the player can still roll a "chance die", where only a 10 counts as a success, and a 1 causes a "dramatic failure", which is just as good as it sounds. Some characters also have penalties where they can't use the "10-again" rule on certain rolls, and further ''lose'' successes on rolling a 1, which can result in them having negative successes, and thus get a dramatic failure.
** Other Whitewolf games such as ''[[
** The ''[[Savage Worlds]]'' system has a similar mechanic, where rolling the highest number on a die lets you reroll it and add, and every multiple of four over the difficulty you are makes the result better.
* ''[[
** Also, a 'Mech's head is generally its weakest spot. A big enough gun (like a Gauss rifle, which also doubles as one of the longest-range weapons in the game) can amputate it in one shot regardless of the target's weight class because heads are "one size fits all", and even lesser, non-penetrating hits will hurt and potentially knock out (or sometimes even kill) the pilot. This doesn't quite fall under the [[Boom! Headshot!]] trope because the game goes out of its way to make actually ''aiming'' at the head hard at the best of times and flat-out impossible at others -- but it can still come up as a random result on the hit location table.
* ''[[
* Much like ''[[
** 4th edition upped the ante by having a natural 3 ''or'' 4 (and, with a high enough skill level, 5 or 6) count as critical successes. (Rolling three six-sided dice and getting a 3 has only a 1/216 chance of occurring, so the improvement to up to a 9% chance was welcome.) Conversely, a natural 18 or 17, or any roll that's 10 or more greater than your skill level, is a critical ''failure''.
** In combat, the most likely result of a critical hit is a blow doing ordinary damage. Editors have noted that this is realistic, since under many circumstances, a person might be lucky to get a hit *at all*, never mind do extra damage with it.
* In ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'', a 00 (rolling two ten-sided dice) is always a critical success. Any successful rolls that are doubles are also critical successes. Conversely, doubles on a failed roll is a critical failure, and 99 is always a critical failure.
* ''[[
* ''[[New Horizon]]'' lists a one on the [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|black die]] as an instant success, to be measured by the level of the white die.
* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' has some brilliant critical rules. The "Natural 20 = Critical rule" also works outside combat. In a normal skill check, you figure out the degree of success as normal and then add another degree on top of it.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the ''[[Growlanser]]'' series, characters can learn skills that increase critical rate and some techniques that are guaranteed to do extra damage.
* ''[[
** In addition, ever since the inclusion of "jobs" to the Dragon Quest series, there's always been a skill that allows a character to either land a critical hit or miss entirely every round.
*** This move is very useful for when fighting a [[Metal Slime]]. You see, in Dragon Quest a Critical Hit works by ignoring the enemy defense. The usefulness of such an attack against a Metal Slime, with its insane defense but low hit points, is obvious.
** Let's not forget that in the original game, you could get a critical hit, yet miss! "Excellent move! It is dodging!"
*** Or your attack could be blocked by stronger enemies. "Thy attack failed and there was no loss of hit points!"
*** It's not just the original. ''[[
** A couple of characters in the series can do EVEN MORE damage on a 'Trip and fall on the enemy' critical.
** At least in some of the later games, there are enemies that can get critical hits too, which the game refers to as "desperate attacks". Depending on how strong your party is, and the strength of the enemy, a desperate attack could leave you at death's door. Your best bet is to keep your party fully healed and try to disable any monsters that you know are capable of desperate attacks. ''[[
** In later games, spells can also "go haywire", which is the same thing.
** Some items and skills have in their description that they can "cause a critical hit". It ''does not'' mean that their damage can be increased like in a normal critical hit, but rather that they have a chance to cause a [[One-Hit Kill]].
* Any game based on ''[[
* The ''[[
** Holding either a Razor Claw or a Scope Lens raises the level by one.
** Using the move Focus Energy or the item Dire Hit raises the level by 2 until you switch. (This is what "Foe Machop's getting pumped!" actually means.) Consuming a Lansat Berry gives the same effect, but they do not stack on each other.
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** Also, the severity of each critical is determined at random. You can have several times normal damage, armor bypass, knockdown, knocking the target unconscious, status penalties... Meanwhile, it's entirely possible to have a lackluster critical hit, or appear to; if the person you're hitting has high damage resistance, it won't affect the critical hit's outcome. The Better Criticals perk increases the probability of a more severe critical (but not the chance of a critical happening) and is the only way for the [[Random Number God]] to roll above 100 on the critical hit table which results in an instant kill regardless of how much damage the attack actually dealt. Yes, it's possible to [[Cherry Tapping|kill someone with a hit doing zero damage]].
** The combined Luck and Perk options really enable you to build a crit-heavy character [[For Massive Damage]]. Easiest to do with unarmed or small guns, a reliable crit-hitter has damage output that puts the [[BFG|Bozar]] to shame.
* ''[[
** After a certain point in the game, most of the weapons found are magical (psynergical?) in nature, and have unique 'Unleash' abilities that activate randomly. Criticals and Unleashes are independent - you can miss your Unleash but still get a critical hit.
** In ''[[Golden Sun Dark Dawn
* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games often play this one straight, although some have [[Action Commands]]. Sometimes, there will be weapons that always score critical hits, at the expense of some MP per swing (as such, those weapons are great for units that don't have a lot of magical strength, but still have MP)
** Though interestingly, the "consume MP to inflict mortal blow" weapons in ''[[
* The ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' series use a Luck stat which determines a unit stack's chance to deal critical hits (or lucky hits). If it's negative, a feature of only a few games, the units may deal only half damage instead. This could get vicious with ranged units in melee, most of whom only deal half-damage anyway...
** Some units also have special attacks that trigger randomly and may qualify as Critical Hits, but most of them aren't straight multipliers. One, such as the Dread Knight's death strike in III, is straight double damage...meaning quad damage if they're also lucky. Dread Knights being a high-level unit, such can get vicious. It's a good thing that, as undead, they can't be affected by morale and be allowed to attack again the same turn...
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** [[Fragile Speedster|Swordmasters]] and Berserkers are [[An Adventurer Is You|designed]] to score lots of criticals. With the right kind of weapons they can raise this ability even further.
*** Not to mention that most criticals ([http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120101043343/fireemblem/images/9/93/Carlyle_swordmaster_sword_critical.gif Swordmasters especially]) are [[Rule of Cool|just plain awesome to watch.]]
* ''[[
** In the DS version, Robo has a weapon that works like a max level Ayla's, except that it has an attack power of zero, so its damage is well below average when it doesn't hit a critical. Crono gets an Infinity Plus ''Two'' Sword that has a '''''90% chance'''''. Finally, there's the Dragon's Tear, which raises critical ratio like the Hero's Badge, except it works for any character and any weapon. Can we say "[[For Massive Damage|Murder In a Can]]"?
** The game is also notable for having special animations for most of the crits. While the screen just flashes for Marle and Lucca's criticals (they use ranged weapons), everyone else jumps in instead of running when they crit. Crono, Frog and Magus go one step further and land ''two'' blows instead of one.
*** ''[[
* The ''[[
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' there is actually a feat the player can learn called "critical strike". In this scenario however, the feat may temporarily paralyse the enemy rather than do more damage.
** Since the KOTOR games are based off the DnD dice system, there is a critical hit range for each weapon. If the game rolls within a certain range on an attack, the damage is increased (Power Attack feats also make this increase larger). It is also possible to upgrade weapons with Massive Criticals - added damage upon critical hits. Abusing this system can make the game obscenely easy, since you're essentially able to make a One Hit Kill ''anything''.
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** Stalkers also have an interesting property in that each teammate nearby increases their chance of dealing critical damage. Apparently your chances of doing something impressive go up when there are more players to witness it, though the explanation is that the other players are distracting the enemies enough for you to do your thing more often.
* The ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' RPG for the SNES had two levels of critical - a "Crushing attack!" for 2x damage and a "Greatest attack!" for 3x. It was quite amusing when cannon fodder enemies pulled these off for a whopping 3HP damage.
* The [[First-Person Shooter]] ''[[
** However, [[Boom! Headshot!|headshots]] from sniper rifles and [[Back Stab|back stabs]] from a Spy automatically crit and are almost always instant kills.
** Melee weapons, without taking the damage modifier into consideration, are almost eight times more likely to get a crit than any other weapon. This was done to give players a reason to use melee weapons, which are otherwise unremarkable.
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*** Just one step further, there are some servers that make ALL attacks Crits. Even weapons that don't deal random Crits, will always deal them. This essentially makes almost all the characters save the Heavy/Soldier, a [[Glass Cannon]]
* The mecha-anime inspired FPS ''Shogo'' featured critical hits, and landing one restored a bit of your character's health. This was important since the game was particularly unforgiving about getting hit by any attack.
* The [[Real Time Strategy]] game ''[[
* The ''[[Warlords Battlecry]]'' [[Real Time Strategy]] series use a critical hit table that's based on the difference in Combat skill between the attacker and attacked. The special effect this had depended on the attack type.
* ''Castlevania: Symphony of the Night'' stole many RPG statistical features. Critical Hits were a part of this and rates of making them were tied to each weapon.
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* In ''[[Fatal Frame]]'', you can snap weak photos of hostile ghosts at will. Letting the camera build up spiritual power yields stronger attacks, and waiting for the enemy to attack you first and ''then'' snapping them, mid-animation and at point-blank range, would yield the critical-hit Zero Shot.
* ''[[Diablo II]]'' has both Critical and Deadly strikes. They serve the same "you do double damage" purpose, but come from difference sources- Critical Strike bonuses come from skills, while Deadly Strike bonuses come from items. However, success on one cancels the other (so there's no 4x damage). You can also get a chance of Crushing Blow from an item, which directly takes off a large percentage of the target's HP; gaining high crushing blow chances and a fast attack is how the Paladin "smiter" and Assassin's Kicksin archetypes function (they tend be a bit of [[Crippling Overspecialization]], only worthwhile on bosses/duels).
* ''[[
** Note that these aren't ''actual'' critical hits - the game does feature traditional critical hits, which may or may not overlap with this.
* Crimson Gem Saga lampshades this by having a system that lets you actually continuing a critical hit into a series of follow up attacks. The result is that when you critical, you do it in a BIG way. To top this off, there is a character in the game that is deoted specifically for this purpose and has a 7 HIT CONSECUTIVE COMBO.
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'', scoring a Critical Hit will score the attacking party (the player's or the enemies) a free turn in the Turn Press System.
** Likewise, ''[[
*** In ''[[
* ''[[
** A different mechanic is more of the random bonus variety, however; All elemental weapons have a chance of exploding in their element rather than just plain shooting. When this triggers it either starts the enemy taking continuous damage or does boosted damage for that one hit. Better guns do it more often.
* ''[[
* Some of the ''[[Seiken Densetsu]]'' games (''Mana'' in English) have critical hits which not only do more damage, but also ignore the enemy's defenses. This can be handy since enemies in this series are notoriously picky about what weapons will damage them. If you don't have the right weapon, your best chance to win is to keep attacking till you get a critical hit.
* The [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' features critical hits, but it makes you work for them. Unlike some [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMOs]], you select your stat increases on levelup. The game features a pile of useful stats, and a single barely-worthwhile LUK (luck) stat. The sole things this stat covers are critical hit chances, and "perfect dodge" (normal dodging can be overwhelmed by numbers, but LUK dodging is set). The problem is that you have to pump large amounts of LUK every level to get any appreciable crit rating. Further, these are points that are NOT spent on bread-and-butter damage stats. The only ones who can really get any use out of it are Assassins, who can equip crit-chance-doubling katars. For everyone else it's a controversial and generally weak stat, and even for Assassins, auto-attack-reliant "Crit Builds" have fallen out of favor given the absurd burst damage that player skills have
** It should be noted that LUK builds are also fairly popular with hunters, who have falcon companions. The bird's signature attack is a multi-hit [[Ao E]] strike called Blitz Beat, which can be activated by chance on a normal attack at a chance roughly equivalent to the crit rate. What this means is that a DEX-LUK Hunter, properly buffed for attack speed by allies and potions, can have a fairly high chance of each shot essentially doing six times the normal damage. That could itself be considered a Critical Hit.
** There's also a somewhat popular LUK build for Knights, utilizing the Muramasa, a powerful two-handed sword that increases attack speed by 8% and crit rate by 30%, with the downside of a small chance of Cursing yourself. A Knight using this method would keep his LUK just above his level, preventing the Curse status from taking effect and further boosting his crit rate.
* Every ''[[Wild Arms]]'' game uses critical hits in some way or another, but the [[Wild Arms 4
* ''The [[Super Robot Wars]]'' series uses critical hits, they do either 1.2 or 1.5 times the damage depending on the game. There's also a spirit command in some of the games that makes every attack made by that unit a critical attack for one turn.
* ''[[Disgaea]]'' has its weapons have a fixed chance for criticals, with Axes having the highest natural chance (30%). ''[[Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories]]'' added the Professional specialist, which upped the critical hit chance proportional to its level (and it caps at 100), and the Item World's Item Assembly can up the critical hit chance. The Male Warrior dealt increased critical hit damage when at 25% health, and the Berserker unit in ''[[Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice]]'' can get an evility that gives him guaranteed Critical hits when he has an axe.
** ''[[Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories]]'' also has an unusual in-story example. Very early in the game, a Prinny sneaks up behind Rozalin while she's not paying attention, and drops a bomb on her. Adell cracks the fourth wall to mention that it's this trope.
* Critical hits are essential to Warriors and Rogues' special attacks in ''[[
** As a nice touch, a critical hit on a frozen solid non-boss enemy will shatter said enemy. No matter what his/her/its health level, that is an instant kill and an excellent way to improve your odds when a large group attacks.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Shining Force]]'', there are three damage modifiers: the enemy evades the attack, the chance for a second attack, and the [[Critical Hit]]. Critical hits give off a special sound and are not evaded (otherwise how would you tell?). They also increase the damage from attacks, generally anywhere between 1.5 and 2.0 times the damage. As it's independent from the chance for a second attack, ''rare'' luck could result in 4 times the damage. As it is damage and ''not'' attack power, an attack that only inflicts [[Scratch Damage]] will still only inflict 1 HP of damage. This is a useful for the first game's [[Lightning Bruiser]] [[Meat Shield]], Domingo, who attracts a lot of attacks due to being a magician.
* Referenced in ''[[Bully (
{{quote| '''Algernon:''' Ooooh, critical hit...!}}
* The only way of reliably killing an opponent by conventional means in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', which uses the [[Chunky Salsa Rule]] and [[Subsystem Damage|organ damage]] instead of traditional [[Hit Points]].
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== Webcomics ==
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick
* Spoofed in ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'', where Red Mage uses it in a game of [[Rock-Paper-Scissors]].
* In a joke in [http://deathbychibi.comicgenesis.com/index.html this] webcomic, which the author plans to reuse in the reboot, a character rolls a natural 20, but it's for initiative, and is pissed there's no such thing as critical initiative. Made funnier by the fact that some games do have critical initiative (picking when you go instead of going first).
* Spoofed in the webcomic [http://www.commissionedcomic.com/ Commissioned], the main characters have DnD sessions where it switches from the POV of their characters to them, and occasionally they try something completely off the wall... and end up rolling a natural 20. [http://www.commissionedcomic.com/?p=2134 this comic] is a more recent example even though it's actually a bluff check.
* In ''[[D
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* Boxing. Joe Louis Vs. Max Schmeling both parts might qualify. In part one, Schmeling specifically said in interviews that he aimed for a spot where he knew Joe Louis would drop his guard. He apparently learned about it from watching the tapes. Once that one punch was landed, experts say the fight was over.
** In their rematch, Max Schmeling claimed that he turned the wrong way and instead of taking a body blow where he was trained to, he took a kidney blow. He said after the fight that his entire side went numb.
* In an MMA fight chronicled by Seanbaby in a Cracked article, similar to the above, one fighter took a body blow in exactly the wrong place - in this case, his liver. Before the crippling pain and unconsciousness took him, he threw one final, wild punch... [[Double Knockout|and knocked the other guy out cold,]] [[Taking You
* Dental work is much less painful nowadays than it used to be, but there are still... quirks. Usually, when your dentist injects your gum with freezing solution, it only hurts a little. But there's a very small chance that the needle will pinch a nerve -- and that hurts ''like you would not believe''. (Don't tell [[Lucky Star
* The Code Duello specifies that any injury that prevents a combatant from holding a weapon steady ends the duel automatically.
* Happened not once but twice in the [[World War II|hunt for the Bismarck]]: once when the ''Bismarck'' scored a one-in-a-thousand hit on the ''HMS Hood'' [[For Massive Damage|right in the magazine]] and blew her in half, and once again when a last-ditch flight of Swordfish torpedo bombers managed an equally improbable shot [[Attack Its Weak Point|into the Bismarck's rudder]]. That crippled the ''Bismarck'' and left her at the mercy of the entire British fleet. Had either of the events not transpired the way they did, the chase could have turned out wildly different.
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