Critical hit

“

Critical, biatch — Roland, after scoring a critical hit

”

File:Borderlands-mad-moxxi-screens-20091215053000532.jpg

Nice shot.

Critical hits are shots that deal extra damage to an enemy after hitting that enemy in a vulnerable location on their anatomy. In addition to the increased amount of damage inflicted, the word "CRITICAL" is displayed in floating red text to the player scoring the critical hit. Damage caused by critical hits can be increased by using a weapon with +X% critical damage modifier, as seen on sniper rifles and certain other weapons. All revolvers have an unlisted 100% bonus to critical hit damage, which will be in addition to anything listed on the weapon's card. Lilith and Mordecai also come with class skills that increase critical hit damage, and they both have class mods that also increase sniper rifle critical hit damage, and team critical damage.

Melee attacks can also cause critical hits. Mordecai's critical hits yield the highest damage of any class in the game, due to his many critical hit skills and modifiers. With his Lethal Strike melee skill and a bladed weapon, a strike to a critical area can easily deal over fourteen thousand damage to a same-level enemy.

With many enemies, taking a critical hit can stun them, causing them to perform a flinch animation. By targeting a critical zone with rapid-fire automatic weapons (SMG, Machine Gun, etc.) or rapid Berserk punches, players can effectively "crit-lock" enemies, rendering them virtually unable to attack until they stop getting hit in their critical area. This strategy is more easily used on enemies who don't have too drastic a flinching animation when their critical area is shot, which may move the critical area out of a player's crosshair. However on these enemies slower weapons like sniper rifles (or carefully burst firing an auto weapon) can crit-lock by simply waiting until the enemy's flinching motion is finished, and shooting the same place again.

Critical hit areas on enemies

• The Destroyer: Eyes, mouth, and the glowing purple spots on each of its spine-launching tentacles. Each tentacle will be destroyed after it has sustained enough damage and this will prevent that tentacle from launching spines, but tentacles will regrow after a while. A Bloodwing will always attack these critical targets.
• Guardian: Head.
• Human: Head.
• Larva Crab Worm: Purple glowing eye in the middle of the head. Larva Crab Worms take extremely high damage from critical hits. Note that if a weapon with splash damage is used on these, any frontal hit (even on claws) may yield a critical hit.
• Mulciber Mk2: Head of the human gunner.
• Rakk: No critical hit areas. Rakk are generally fragile and cannot take much damage.
• Rakk Hive: Mouth and eyes. Each eye will be destroyed after it has sustained enough damage, but further shots on a destroyed eye socket will still yield critical hits.
• Scythid: No critical hit areas.
• Skag: Inside of mouth. A critical hit is more likely with its mouth open, but closed-mouth critical shots are possible, too, especially on Skagzilla due to the size of its mouth. Skag are vulnerable to attacks against the closed mouth, too, though those will not yield criticals.
• Spiderant: Abdomen (the rear part of the body behind the armored head). This critical hit spot can be easily accessed by shooting the head enough to daze the spiderant causing it to confusedly turn aside; explosive attacks to the head are quicker to cause dazing. Stray shots from the front (presumably passing over the top of the head and hitting the abdomen) can cause critical damage as well.
• Turret: Fuel tank at the rear. The fuel tank can be hit from the front using an accurate weapon, as the wide tank slightly protrudes to the left and right when viewed from the front.

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

• Undead Dr. Ned: Head.
• Wereskag: Mouth and head. Since the wereskag is a combination of the skag and a human, the mouth covers the head.
• Zombie: Head. Zombies take extremely high damage from critical hits.

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx

• Craw Worm: Purple glowing eye in the middle of the head.
• Crawmerax the Invincible: Giant purple glowing spots on his claws, his back, and his eye. Each critical area will be destroyed after being dealt sufficient damage, and will not regenerate. He will die after all critical areas are destroyed. The only way to defeat Crawmerax is to use critical hits. Hits to any other parts will inflict no damage, regardless of the weapon used.
• Devastators and General Knoxx: Head of the human pilot.
• Drifter: Glowing spots on the ventral surface of the body, resembling eyes. These will rupture violently and gush a stream of ichor when burst, and cause the drifter to stumble. There is also a larger glowing area on its back.

Claptrap's New Robot Revolution

• Claptrap (enemy)s: The eye mounted in the middle of their forehead.

Mechanics

The damage given upon striking a critical location is determined by the weapon's critical damage multiplier. The default base multiplier is +100% damage, which means critical hits hit for a total of 200% damage. Any weapons with an extra +X% is added to the already present +100%. For example a Sniper rifle with +180% critical damage modifier will actually critical strike for +280% damage, for a total of 380% damage. All revolvers have a hidden +100% Critical Damage modifier.

The overall weapon critical damage breakdown is:

• Repeater Pistols, Shotgun, SMGs, Support Machine Gun: 200% Damage
  • Combat Rifle With the Intense accessory: 250% Damage
  • Tediore Avenger With Intense accessory: 300% Damage
• Revolvers: 300% Damage
  • Jakobs Unforgiven : 400% Damage
• Sniper Rifles: 380% – 400% Damage
  • Gamble Sniper Rifles: 450% Damage
  • Jakobs Bessie: 700% Damage

Melee critical hits inflict a base of 250% damage. Melee critical hits inflicted with a bladed revolver inflict 350% of damage, and those with a bladed Unforgiven, 450%. All melee critical hits inflicted with any bladed weapon, pistol or shotgun, will further multiply the damage by the bonus of the blade accessory.

Enemy part multiplier

Contrary to popular belief, there are no "extra critical" or "not very critical" spots. There are however, part damage multipliers that stack with critical damage. For example, crimson lance armor reduces bullet damage to a fourth, which means any critical hit on a helmeted crimson lance will be still reduced to a fourth. Just the same, Larva Crab Worm eyes are considered weak to everything, and have a large damage multiplier applied, before the extra critical effect.

Skills and Mods

Critical hit damage bonuses are summed with all other damage bonuses before calculating final damage.

For example, consider a L54 Hunter with a L40 660 Sniper classmod, a cylinder-fed non-elemental sniper rifle rated at 550 damage, and 42 levels of proficiency in the weapon. The hunter scores a critical hit on an unarmored enemy of equal level, so base damage is 550. Proficiency contributes +42% additional damage, 9/5 Caliber (amplified by the classmod) contributes +36% damage, sniper rifle gives +300% damage due to critical hit, Sniper COM contributes +95% damage due to critical hit, and 5/5 Deadly contributes +30% due to critical hit. The final damage is 550 x (1 + 0.42 + 0.36 + 3 + 0.95 + 0.3), or 3317, rounded up. Had the hunter not scored a critical hit, the final damage would be 550 x (1 + 0.42 + 0.36), or only 979.