Critical hit

:For the status that makes all attacks landed critical hits, see: Critical (status).
A critical hit , also known as a Critical Strike, Mighty Blow, and Mortal Blow, or simply as Critical, is the term given to a physical attack that is somewhat stronger than the attack's normal version. Critical hits commonly have a chance of occurring when the Attack command is used. They commonly deal double the normal damage, but cannot naturally break the damage limit. In some games, other commands like Limit Breaks, special abilities and spells can also deal critical hits.
Depending on the game, critical hits either play a different sound effect, cause the screen to flash, or have the word "Critical" displayed. The chance of a critical hit is usually related to the attacker's Luck stat.
Some equipment or support abilities may increase the hit rate. Some command abilities also always connect with a critical hit, albeit sacrificing the accuracy of the strike. Some games also have a status effect that makes all attacks deal critical hits while the status is in effect.
==Appearances==
===Final Fantasy===
An attacker's critical hit rate is equal to the weapon's index number, though this is a bug as each weapon has a value defined that was intended to be used for critical hit chances. For unarmed Black Belt/Monks, their critical hit rate is equal to double their level. For unarmed player characters of any other class, their critical hit rate is 0. Enemies all have a fixed critical hit rate as a hidden stat, though for most enemies their critical hit rate is a mere 1.
Critical hits are determined by the same random 0 to 200 roll as accuracy calculations. If the number rolled is equal to or less than the attacker's critical hit rate, the attack will be a critical hit, though the attack must first pass the accuracy check before a critical can be applied. A roll of 0 is always a critical hit.
===Final Fantasy II===
Critical hits can occur for every action that deals or heals points of damage, including magic, enemy abilities, and items.
Every one of these actions always deals a number of hits. Every hit that connects (i.e., is not avoided via Evasion or magic defense) has a 5% chance of being a critical hit.
When a critical hit occurs, a bonus value is added to the final result.
In the case of physical attacks, the bonus value is equal to the attack score of the attacker. The bonus damage is not mitigated by the target's Defense.
For most magic spells and enemy abilities, the critical hit bonus value is equal to the base spell power plus the Intelligence or Spirit bonus value, depending on the spell. If the spell is multi-targeted, the critical hit bonus is divided by 4, rounded down.
Ultima, due to not following the standard hit system, is a special case where the entire base damage value is doubled on a critical hit.
Any number of hits from the action can be critical or non-critical (e.g., hitting an enemy 8 times, 2 hits can be critical while the remaining 6 are not).
If any of the hits from a physical attack are critical, the player is notified. In the original NES/Famicom release, a message indicates the critical, with a different sound effect from a standard attack. From the WonderSwan Color release and onward, the screen will flash white. Magic, skill and item critical hits have no indicators displayed to the player, and can only be recognized by higher than usual values.
===Final Fantasy III===
In the 3D version, critical hits are signaled by a screen flash and a different sound effect.
===Final Fantasy IV===
Critical hits occur randomly from physical attacks through the Fight command at a rate of 1/32, dealing slightly more damage than normal attacks. They cannot occur if the character is in Mini status. While an attack can display as Critical in Toad status, it will still only hit for 1 damage. Critical hits will cause the screen to flash, with the 3D versions also displaying an altered attack animation and louder sound effect. Other physical commands such as Jump and Kick can cause critical hits in the 3D versions as well.
A higher Speed stat yields more critical hits. In the SNES version, a bug exists in which some weapons prevent critical hits from ever happening, and the state will never fix itself, even after unequipping the weapon. The following weapons have the No Critical "status" applied to them, and as such are the cause of the No Critical Bug in the SNES versions.
*Rune Staff
*All of Rydia's whips
*Dwarven Axe
*Ogrekiller
*Ragnarok
*Fuma Shuriken
====Final Fantasy IV: The After Years====
===Final Fantasy V===
Critical hits are caused by a physical attack from certain weapons (katana, bare fists, and Yoichi's Bow). The chance to get a critical hit is a fixed percentage that depends on the weapon is being used. Most have a 12% critical rate, but some have higher, most notably the Murakumo, Murasame, and the Mutsunokami.
There are also three other weapons that can score critical hits: Rune Blade, Rune Chime, and Rune Axe each consume MP with each physical attack they do to get a critical hit every time. The Rune Blade consumes 8 MP per attack, while the Axe and Chime consume 5 MP. Critical hits ignore defense.
An attack is a critical hit when the following formula is true:
:Rnd(0..99) < \text{Weapon critical hit}\%
A critical hit multiplies the attack's Attack stat by 2 and treats the enemy's Defense stat as 0.
In the GBA and subsequent ports, the Gladiator job class has an attack called Finisher. One of the three possible outcomes is to score a "critical hit", which is essentially a stronger version of a physical attack. The chances of getting a critical hit change as the character increases their job level.
===Final Fantasy VI===
Standard attacks have a 1 in 32 chance of being a critical hit. If the attack is a critical hit, damage is doubled. Some weapons, such as the Rune Blade, Ragnarok, Lightbringer, Final Trump, consume [12..19] MP from the user upon attacking for an automatic critical hit. If these weapons have an added spell, it will deal a critical hit as well, despite spells normally being unable to do so.
===Final Fantasy VII===
Nearly all physical attacks have a chance of being a critical hit, which means they deal double the normal damage. The chance of a critical hit is determined by the user's Luck and level, as well as the enemy's level. The math to work out the chance of scoring a critical can be worked out in three steps: the first step involves the user's Luck added onto the user's level, with the target's level being subtracted from the total, and having the new total divided by four.
The result is then truncated to reach a whole number.
:Critical = [(User's~Luck + User's~Level - Target's~Level) / 4]
When determining a playable character's chance of landing a critical hit, the weapon's own critical percentage is added to the result to reach the total. In most instances, the weapon's critical percentage is zero, and no weapons make a considerable difference (apart from Sephiroth's Masamune, which only deals critical hits).
The second step is to find a random outcome. The math for this is as follows:
:Random = [Rnd(0..65535) \times 99 / 65535] + 1
The third step decides whether it is a critical or not. If the result for Random is less than or equal to the result for Critical%, then the user will score a critical hit.
So as an example, if a user has a luck of 46, a level of 50, against an enemy with a level of 32, with a weapon critical% of 0. And a random number of 23432.
:Critical = [(46 + 50 - 32)/4)] = 16
:Random = [23432 \times 99 / 65535] + 1 = 36
:36 > 16
The result would not be a critical hit as 36 is more than 16.
There are 26 weapons that affect the Critical%. Tifa's Kaiser Knuckle is the only weapon to add just one. Tifa's first eight weapons; the Leather Glove, the Metal Knuckle, the Mythril Claw, the Grand Glove, the Tiger Fang, the Diamond Knuckle, the Dragon Claw, and the Crystal Glove; all add two. Her second best weapon, the God's Hand, does the same, as does Aeris's Striking Staff, Yuffie's Spiral Shuriken and Magic Shuriken, and Cait Sith's Battle Trumpet.
Barret's Drill Arm and Pile Banger are the only two to add three. Cloud's Nail Bat, Barret's Rocket Punch, Tifa's Work Glove, Yuffie's Superball, Cait Sith's Trumpet Shell, and Vincent's Silver Rifle add four. Aeris's Umbrella, Red XIII's Hairpin, and Cid's Mop all add five.
Sephiroth's Masamune always scores critical hits when he is a guest in the party.
There are other ways to score critical hits: through the D.blow command, a player can score a definite critical attack if it hits (one third the accuracy of a normal attack). Tifa's God's Hand and Vincent's Long Barrel R and Sniper CR all have the maximum possible accuracy of 255%, meaning the D.blow command used with these weapons will still have an 85% chance of connecting. Another method of definitely scoring a critical is through the Lucky Girl status inflicted by one of Cait Sith's Slots Limits. Three Limit Breaks deal critical hits all the time: Yuffie's Gauntlet, Barret's Satellite Beam, and Cloud's Omnislash.
Units in Berserk status never deal critical hits.
Attacks to the targets' backsides in Side Attack and Back Attack formations deal increased damage. The battles in Wutai's pagoda, and Cloud's final showdown with the cinematic final boss, are unique battles where the player's first physical attack always deals double damage even if the battles are not of any special battle formations.
====Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-====
The player will score a critical hit when striking an enemy from behind, and will also occasionally do so otherwise as well. Rolling a 6-6-6 on the DMW gives Zack a 100% critical accuracy for a limited time, as well as Cissnei's Modulating Phase, Lucky Stars. The Sniper Eye and Genji Glove accessories also grant the status.
:Critical Hit Rate = (Attacker's Luck - Defender's Luck) / 2.56 (%).
====Final Fantasy VII Remake====
Player characters have a chance to land critical hits with normal attacks, ATB abilities and spells. The chance is better with higher , mainly raised by . A critical hit does ~20% more damage by default, but can be boosted with weapon passives.
:See here for damage formula.
====Final Fantasy VII Rebirth====
Critical hits deal less damage than in Remake, now being around 10% more damage. The chance of a critical hit is affected by . The easiest way to make them more frequent is by equipping .
===Final Fantasy VIII===
Whenever a critical hit occurs, the damage is doubled, unless if done via Squall's or Seifer's gunblade trigger, which will do x1.5 damage.
The formula for a critical hit is as follows:
:Critical~Hit~Rate = [[Luck+1]/256] \times 100
Squall and Seifer do not perform critical hits naturally, instead doing so by timing the trigger of their gunblades when attacking. Whenever Squall performs his Renzokuken Limit Break, if the player times the trigger in accordance to the bar in the gauge that appears at the bottom of the screen, in the window the moment it flashes, the damage dealt will be critical. If the trigger is mistimed, the damage is normal. Some other characters' Limit Breaks can also critical, such as Zell's Duel. The Kamikaze command is also treated as a physical attack and can thus critical.
Darkness has no effect on a unit's ability to perform a critical hit, but does disable the gunblade's trigger function.
===Final Fantasy IX===
Critical hits are signaled by large yellow "Critical" with the damage, and only physical attacks may critical.
The formula for a Critical hit is as follows:
:If~Rnd~MOD~[Spirit / 4] > Rnd (0...99), Hit~is~critical
The player can improve the chance of criticals by aiming for a higher Spirit stat.
===Final Fantasy X===
Critical hit in Final Fantasy X.|thumb
Critical hits are signaled with a screen flash and a different sound effect. The chances of a critical hit increase the higher the unit's Luck is and the lower the target's Luck is. It is possible to raise a character's Luck stat high enough that every hit they deal is critical. In the original Japanese and NA versions, this is achieved by raising Luck to 127. 133 Luck is required to ensure Overdrive critical hits (not all Overdrives can critical, however). In the International, PAL, and HD Remaster versions, this is achieved by raising Luck to 230 (due to Dark Mindy's 130 Luck). 214 Luck is enough for all other enemies (Dark Yojimbo has 114 Luck), while 133 is enough for all except the Dark Aeons (Hornet has 33 Luck), and 115 is enough for most enemies.
Luck is generally the sole determinant of critical hits; the chance of inflicting one is simply the user's Luck minus the target's Luck. However, when using physical attacks (which excludes Overdrives), weapon and armor generally provide a small and hidden critical hit bonus. This is 3% for most equipment, but drops from Penance give 10%, and drops from Dark Aeons or certain Monster Arena creations give 6%. Some enemy attacks also carry a bonus critical hit chance.
Enemies that drop equipment with +6% Critical Bonus in the Monster Arena are:
*Area Conquest: Malboro Menace, Jormungand, Don Tonberry, and Catoblepas
*Species Conquest: Fenrir and Sleep Sprout
*Original Creations: Earth Eater, Greater Sphere, Catastrophe, Th'uban, Ultima Buster, Shinryu, and Nemesis
The Luck ability increases the chance of dealing a critical hit by 1% per use, up to a maximum of five, but has no impact on the chance of receiving one. Jinx does the opposite to the enemy.
====Final Fantasy X-2====
Critical attacks are determined by the unit's Luck and the target's Luck. The Key to Success accessory and the Peerless Garment Grid cause critical hits to happen every turn. Lady Luck's Critical skill makes all of her hits critical, 100% of the time. The Rabite's Foot accessory increases Luck by 100, which also makes an excellent accessory for landing critical hits.
The player can chain attacks to deal increased damage. After being hit, there is a two second window the target takes to recover from the attack, unless the attack was a critical hit. When being hit by a critical attack, the target takes a second longer to recover, making building chain slightly easier.
The units can move around the battlefield more freely than in previous installments, meaning players can at times move behind opponents. Whenever hit from the behind, the damage from the attack is doubled, but this is not the same as a critical hit. If the player is to deal a critical hit to a target from the behind, it deals quadruple the normal damage. If an enemy hits the player characters from behind, their attacks also deal double damage.
====Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission====
Normal attacks in Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission can land a critical hit. As with Final Fantasy X, critical hits are accompanied by a screen flash. Critical hits can deal nearly triple the damage of a normal attack. Certain dresspheres, such as Dark Knight have an increased chance of landing critical hits.
===Final Fantasy XI===
A critical hit is an attack that does more than the usual amount of damage to a monster. When an attack scores a critical hit, a different animation is used. The higher an attacker's Dexterity, the greater their critical hit Rate against an opponent is. The higher a defender's Agility, the less likely they are to have critical hits scored against them.
The minimum critical hit rate from DEX vs. AGI is 5%, the maximum is 20%. Equipment and merits that increase critical hit rate are added on top of this.
===Final Fantasy XII===
Critical hits deal double damage. Guns, bows, and crossbows can deal critical hits; most other weapons instead have a chance of performing multiple attacks. Each time a character uses the Attack command, there is a small chance of getting a critical hit with the appropriate weapon type equipped. The chance is determined by the weapon currently in use.
====Original====
Weapon 	Critical Rate
Measures 	5%
Bows 	5%
Guns 	5%
Crossbows	7%
====Zodiac====
Weapon 	Critical Rate
BowsDhanushaSeitengrat	5%20%25%
GunsMithuna 	5%10%
Crossbows 	7%
Excalipur 	20%
Bonebreaker 	10%
===Final Fantasy XIV===
The chance to land critical hits is determined by the Critical Hit secondary stat. All physical attacks, attack magic, and even healing spells, have a chance of being a critical hit, in which case the numerical output will be displayed in bold and marked with a "!" at the end. Certain job abilities and traits may have additional effects when a critical hit lands (e.g. Scholar's Adloquium spell has the Galvanize effect doubled if it is a critical hit). A higher Critical Hit stat will also increase the potency of critical hits.
===Final Fantasy XV===
Physical attacks have a chance to deal critical hits, which deal double damage. They are represented by larger, yellow numbers, and are accompanied by a unique sound and a screen flash.
Critical hits are determined by each individual weapon's critical rate; the "Vortex weapons" from the "Adventurer from Another World" event always deal critical hits. Another way to get critical hits is via the Critical and Clairvoyant statuses.
===Final Fantasy XVI===
During Limit Break, all of Clive's attacks are critical hits.
===Final Fantasy Tactics===
When a character attacks another unit, they may trigger a critical hit. This is noticeable if the numbers have a larger number than the ones in the predicted attack damage, players may also hear a high-pitched version of the attack sound and the attack also has a slight chance to Knockback the enemy.
===Final Fantasy Tactics Advance===
Critical hits knockback an enemy and a yellow text stating 'Critical' appears.
===Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift===
Critical hit in Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.|thumb
Each time a character uses the regular Attack command and hits there is a small chance a critical hit will occur. When this happens the attack will inflict double damage, the screen will flash, the target will make a facial expression and pose indicating that hurt and the target will be knocked back.
Dual-wielding characters will have an equal chance of scoring a critical hit with each weapon, essentially giving them double chance of scoring a critical. If a critical hit is scored with a dual-wielding character's primary weapon but not the secondary, the target will be knocked back after the combo is finished.
=== Final Fantasy Type-0 ===
Physical attacks and abilities have a chance to be critical, dealing double damage. Certain abilities can be upgraded to have higher critical hit rates.
===Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light===
Physical attacks can randomly inflict double damage. The Ranger's Smashing Blow ability deals a guaranteed critical hit on an opponent and has a chance of inflicting instant death. The Fighter's Combat ability increases the chance to deal a critical hit for four turns, and their ability Jugular lets the Fighter deal a guaranteed critical hit. The Party Host's Pot Luck ability has a chance to bestowing the party with a status that makes all of their physical attacks critical hits. The chance of the ability being used is random.
===Final Fantasy Mystic Quest===
critical hits can occur through physical attacks from the party, and by enemy attacks.
===Final Fantasy Legend II===
Some weapons that target elemental weaknesses or a certain type of enemy deal extra damage and they have a 100% hit rate against those targets. These attacks randomly cause mighty blows which automatically kills the target regardless of stats or damage.
===Final Fantasy Legend III===
Mighty blow can occur through attacks from both the party and the enemy.
===Final Fantasy Dimensions===
===Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008)===
There is a 1/64 chance of a critical hit occurring under normal circumstances, and critical hits do 5x the base damage. The chances to land a critical hit can be increased by attacking a staggering opponent, while attacking while in EX Mode increases the occurrence rate to 50%. Attacking while recovering Bravery makes attacks critical and all attacks used in EX Bursts are also critical hits.
Activating certain Extra Support abilities will also increase the critical hit occurrence rate when certain conditions are met. Some Battle Pieces allow the player to earn Destiny Points by scoring a critical hit within a time limit.
====Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy====
Critical hits have a 1/64 chance of occurring under normal circumstances. The based damage multiplier to 2x normal damage. As a benefit the higher the opponent's Bravery is past a certain threshold, the higher the player's damage multiplier rises, allowing up to 8x base damage depending on the levels of the two characters and the opponent's Bravery.
The Prayer Beads accessory lowers the opponent's critical hit rate chance by 2%. With a high enough multiplier to make this chance penalty 100% (i.e. at least 50x multiplier), the opponent will be unable to land critical hits, even with the benefit of critical hit rate boosting abilities.
====Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia====
===Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin===
Critical hits occur when attacking an enemy from behind, launching an enemy in the air, destroying certain enemies' limbs, attacking an enemy in a knocked down state, or knocking an enemy into a wall (wall splat), dealing greater break damage than normal attacks. 
There are passives and abilities such as the Weak Spot job action, Mind's Eye affinity, the Sniper Eye accessory, or Edge of Devotion combo ability effect that can also score critical hits outside these methods. In addition, damage modifiers such as "Critical Damage Dealt +%" and the "Critical Break Damage Dealt +%" can further boost the damage of critical hits.
===Theatrhythm Final Fantasy===
If the player hits a note perfectly they score a critical hit.
====Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call====
If the player hits a note perfectly they score a critical hit. Some Triggers appear with a white glow. If these notes are hit perfectly, the player gains some sort of bonus effect depending on the music stage (extra damage for Battle Music Sequences, speed boost in Field Music Sequences, and treasure in Event Music Sequences). If the player manages to fill the Total Critical gauge they receive All Critical upon finishing the song, this adds a small crown next to the rank on the song selection menu. Note that this does not have to be done on one try.
===Pictlogica Final Fantasy===
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
The chance to inflict a critical hit is based upon a party member's equipped weapon or an enemy's Critical stat. Normal critical hits do 1.5x damage, but some Soul Breaks and Burst Mode commands inflict double damage with critical hits, and some Soul Breaks can increase all critical hit damage inflicted by 50% of the base damage for a limited time.
Some Soul Breaks can raise the critical hit chance to 25% or 50%. Some abilities and Burst Mode commands, such as the Exploding Fist and Sky Grinder abilities or Cloud's Whirl Slash and Quad Cut commands, have an innate raised critical rate. Multiple critical chance buffs do not stack, in which case the most recent to be applied takes precedence, but critical chance buffs do stack with increased critical chance innate to attacks.
===Final Fantasy Brave Exvius===
===World of Final Fantasy===
The chance to land a critical hit is determined by the Critical stat. While there are items and equipment that can raise this stat, the values cannot be seen in-game. A successful critical hit adds the word "Critical" to the damage numbers and slightly knocks back the target.
===Final Fantasy Trading Card Game===
One of Squall's cards can use critical hit as an ability. For one Ice CP and the discard of a Squall card, critical hit grants Squall the First Strike ability for the rest of the turn.
==Gallery==
FFII NES Critical Hit.png|Final Fantasy II (NES).
FFII Critical.png|Final Fantasy II (PS).
FFIII NES Critical Hit.png|Final Fantasy III (NES).
FFIIIDS Critical.png|Final Fantasy III (DS).
FFIV Critical.png|Final Fantasy IV.
Crisis core critical hit.jpg|Zack strikes a critical hit in Crisis Core.
Critical-Hit-FFXII.jpg|Final Fantasy XII.
FFTA Critical.png|Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
EoT Critical.png|Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time.
FFMQ Critical Hit.png|Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.
FFLIII Mighty Blow.png|Final Fantasy Legend III.
FFD Critical Hit.jpg|Final Fantasy Dimensions.
Gabranth_fights_vaan.jpg|Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.
DFFOO Critical.png|Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia.
SOP Critical Hit.jpg|Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin
Theatrhythm-Final-Fantasy-Battle.jpg|Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.
PFF Critical.png|Pictlogica Final Fantasy.
FFRK Critical Hit.png|Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
FFBE Critical Hit.png|Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.
WoFF Critical Hit.png|World of Final Fantasy.
==Citations==
Category:Battle elements