Critical hits

Critical hits, often shortened to crits or full crits, is a mechanic that grants a damage multiplier randomly or under certain conditions, such as the Kritzkrieg's ÜberCharge. When an attack is a critical hit, it glows and crackles with a team-coloured glow, accompanied by a special sound effect as well as the text "CRITICAL HIT!!!" in green or "MINI-CRIT!" in yellow for critical hits and mini-crits respectively is displayed above the target's head. Melee attacks do not glow on random crits, but still display the critical hit text, and even play a different animation. Buildings are immune to any critical damage, so don't bother using a Kritzkrieg to take out a Building.

Certain non-damaging items can be affected by critical hits as well. A crit-boosted Sandvich triples the health granted when eaten, increasing it to 360 and allowing for overheal. Thrown critical Sandviches heal as much as a full health pack instead of a medium health pack. Mini-crit boosted Mediguns have a 35% increased healing and ÜberCharge rate.

Critical hits multiply all weapons' damage by three. For example, the Cyclops' bombs do 100 damage on a direct hit, while a critical pipe deals 300 damage instead. Furthermore, critical hits ignore damage ramp-up and fall-off. With maximum fall-off, the Hunting Revolver only deals 21 damage, but a critical hit ignores this while also tripling its damage, dealing 120 damage at any range. The only falloff that crits are affected by is splash falloff, such as the explosions of the R.P.G., Anti-Aircraft Cannon or Mine Layer.

Random Critical Hits

Random critical hits is a mechanic where many Melee weapons in TF2C have a chance to randomly deal critical damage, a chance which scales based on the amount of damage and healing done recently from 12-60%. Due to this, Snipers and Demomen have the highest random crit chance due to their high damage output, alongside Medics due to their healing abilities. The Admiralty Anchor, Harvester, Shock Therapy, Chekhov's Punch and the Knife all cannot randomly crit.

Random crits for non-melee weapons are disabled on official Vault F4 servers and are disabled by default. Toggle it server-side using the console commands tf_weapon_criticals 1 for non-melee weapons and tf_weapon_criticals_melee 1 for melee weapons.

Mini-crits

Mini-crits can be thought of as less powerful critical hits. Instead of tripling a weapon's damage, they only increase it by 35%. They also ignore damage fall-off, but unlike critical hits, they factor in damage ramp-up. Full critical hits override mini crits. For instance, if you are mini-crit boosted by the Umbrella and have a crit stored from the Chekhov's Punch, the mini-crit will be ignored and the damage will function as a critical hit. Because both 135% damage mini-crits and 300% damage crits are both fall under the term "crits", 300% damage critical hits are often referred to as "full crits" to distinguish them from mini-crits.

Crit Boost

A crit boost is a status effect that grants guaranteed critical hits for a certain duration of time, or a certain amount of shots. A crit boost is indicated by the weapon glowing in the team's respective color, with sparks of electricity surging from it.

There is also a mini-crit boost, but unlike its counterpart, a mini-crit boosted weapon does not emit electrical particle effects or a constant sound effect. The weapon does change color slightly, yellow for RED and turquoise for BLU.

Crit boosts are granted in the following ways:

• Being ÜberCharged by the Kritzkrieg grants guaranteed critical hits to all of the recipient's weapons for 8 seconds.
• During Humiliation at the end of a round, the winning team is crit boosted until the round ends.
• The first kill in Arena grants critical hits to the killer.
• The Harvester can gain a critical boost when the HEAT meter is filled. This lasts until it is used to attack an enemy player.
• The Chekhov's Punch can gain a critical hit boost when hitting an enemy with a melee attack with the Chekhov's. This stores up to 3 critical hits which can be used on the Heavy's other weapons. The Chekhov's Punch themselves can only crit when at full capacity.
• The Civilian's Umbrella can grant an eight second mini-crit boost to a teammate.
• Killing the civilian in VIP mode grants a crit boost to the killer.
• If sv_cheats is set to sv_cheats 1, the console commands addcond 11, addcond 33, addcond 34, addcond 35, addcond 37, addcond 38, addcond 39, addcond 40, addcond 56, addcond 105 and addcond 114 all grant a crit boost.

Situational Critical Hits

List of Weapons that can deal situational crits or mini-crits:

Name	Picture	Class	Notes
Brick		Scout	The Brick deals mini-crit damage when hitting an opponent from a long enough range.
Flame Thrower		Pyro	Any non-critical airblasted projectiles will deal mini-crit damage to enemies.
Flare Gun		Pyro	Flares always crit on burning targets.
Harvester		Pyro	Deals a guaranteed critical hit after building up the HEAT meter.
Anti-Aircraft Cannon		Heavy	The Anti-Aircraft Cannon mini-crits airborne targets.
Chekhov's Punch		Heavy	Each melee hit stores one critical hit, which can be used on Heavy's other weapons. When 3 critical hits are stored, the Heavy will deal critical hits with his melee.
Shock Therapy		Medic	The Shock Therapy deals mini-crits to wet players.
Sniper Rifle		Sniper	All Sniper primaries do critical damage on headshot.
Huntsman		Sniper	All Sniper primaries do critical damage on headshot.
Hunting Revolver		Sniper	All Sniper primaries do critical damage on headshot.
Knife		Spy	The Knife does guaranteed critical damage on a backstab.

List of Weapons that allow for other players or weapons to deal critical hits or mini-crits:

Name	Picture	Class	Notes
Admiralty Anchor		Soldier	Any projectiles that hit the Soldier with the Admiralty Anchor equipped will deal critical damage.
Kritzkrieg		Medic	The Kritzkrieg as stated earlier can crit-boost any class for 8 seconds.
Chekhov's Punch		Heavy	All melee damage done to the Heavy with the Chekhov's Punch equipped will deal critical damage.
Tranquilizer Gun		Spy	When a player is hit with the Tranquilizer Gun, all melee damage taken will be critical.

Related achievements

Achievement		Description
	Deep Sleep	As a Spy, kill 10 tranquilized players with your melee weapon.
	Fraudulent Transaction	As a Spy, kill the Civilian using the boost given by him.
	Employee of the Month	Kill 3 enemies while under the effect of your VIP's buff.
	World's Best Boss	Have a teammate buffed by your Umbrella kill 3 enemies.
	Hostile Takeover	Kill 2 enemies with the crit boost provided by killing the enemy team's VIP.
	Molten Steal	Land a Flare Gun crit on an enemy that somebody else set on fire.
	Rude Awakening	Using your melee weapon, help a friendly Spy finish off a tranquilized enemy.
	Dead Air	Kill an enemy with a headshot while they are airborne.
	Summary Execution	Decapitate all 9 classes with the Harvester. Scout Soldier Pyro Demoman Heavy Engineer Medic Sniper Spy
	Head Rush	Decapitate 3 enemies with the Harvester in a single life.
	Setup and Payoff	Get a crit kill with Chekhov's Punch at maximum crit storage.
	Chekhov's What?	As a Heavy, get 10 critical kills with the Shotgun.
	It's Dead!	Give an enemy Heavy who has the Chekhov's Punch equipped a heart attack!
	Duck Season	Kill 9 airborne enemies with the A.A. Cannon's mini-crits.
	Unsinkable	Kill an enemy Soldier equipped with the Admiralty Anchor with a projectile airshot.

Update history

1.6.0

• Added tf_weapon_criticals
• Added tf_weapon_criticals_melee

1.6.6

• Fixed tf_weapon_criticals being at 0 giving constant crits

1.9.0 (First Community Map Pack Update)

• Reduced crit chance to match live TF2
• Fixed a bug with 'tf_weapon_criticals'
• Fixed 'tf_weapon_criticals' acting inverted
• Fixed crit detection

2.0.0 (BETA)

• Added Crit Powerup
• Fixed a bug with crit multiplier
• Made melee weapons use ACT_VM_SWINGHARD when they're about to crit

2.0.0 (BETA 2)

• Fixed various issues with crit particles

2.0.0 (BETA 3)

• Fixed client crashing if player disconnects while crit boosted
• Fixed Kritzkrieg sound getting stuck on if player respawns while crit boosted

2.0.0 (Death & Taxes Update)

• Reworked the Fishwhacker: Crits on bleeding enemies.
• Fixed a bug preventing the attacker from hearing crit sound on headshot.
• Fixed disguised Critboost for the local player
• Disabled capture crits in CTF (0 by default, 10 before the update)
• Added team colored critical explosion particles.
• Ported crit-pumpkin, pumpkin bombs and Halloween pickups.

2.0.2

• Reworked the Shock Therapy: Removed guaranteed crits against wet enemies
• Reworked the Tranquilizer Gun: Tranquilized enemies now take full crits from Knives

2.1.0 (Fight or Flight Update)

• Updated the Hunting Revolver: Now has damage falloff (Does not apply to crits)
• Reworked the Tranquilizer Gun: Tranquilized enemies now take crits from any melee attack, effect duration is no longer affected by falloff if the weapon fires a crit or minicrit
• Support score is now more consistently awarded for minicrit or crit boosting teammates
• Bonus score is now awarded for deflecting crit projectiles, defusing crit Dynamite Packs, destroying crit stickies
• Added the following visual item schema tags: trail_effect, trail_effect_crit, explosion_effect, explosion_effect_crit (Azzy, Trotim)

2.1.1

• Crit boosted Mediguns now require tf2c_medigun_critboostable 2 to gain a heal rate bonus (set to 1 by default, only for minicrits)

2.1.2

• Extra damage dealt from headshots no longer contributes to the random crit chance bucket

2.1.3

• Updated the Harvester:

Afterburn tick heals while active no longer apply while crit is ready

Crit now instantly heals for 195HP upon hit

A sound cue audible to all players now plays when crit is ready

Wearable now has critglows when crit is ready and weapon is holstered

• Updated the Minigun:

Each stored Chekhov's Punch crit now takes 1.5s of firing to deplete (from 0.75s)

• Updated the Sandvich:

Can now be critboosted

Consumes one Chekhov's Punch stored crit when thrown or eaten

Critical Sandviches heal 3 times the amount of health of a non-critical Sandvich when eaten, allowing for overheal

Thrown critical Sandviches heal as much as a full health pack

• Updated Chekhov's Punch:

The chain wearable now critglows in both first person and third person

• Updated the Fishwhacker:

Removed no random critical hits penalty

• Cloaked Spies now correctly take 20% less damage even from crits

2.1.4

• Updated the Sandvich:

Fixed crit particles not showing on the throwable

• Updated Chekhov's Punch:

Sounds for gaining or losing crits are now audible to all players

Crit glows are now only visible on the weapon's own model if crits are full 2.2.0 (Double Down Update)

• Updated the Brick:

Now deals Mini-Crits to enemies after 0.6 seconds of being airborne 2.2.3

• Updated the Admiralty Anchor:

Updated sound effects for drawing, swinging and crit swinging

• Fixed a bug that caused a looping crit sound when killed while crit boosted

Comparisons from Team Fortress 2

• Team Fortress 2 Classic introduced two distinct glowing effects behind a kill icon: a yellow effect when the weapon used mini-crits on kill, and a purple effect when dealing melee kill on a tranquilized enemy.