Critical hit

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This article is about the random event. For the video podcast, see It's Super Effective (podcast) → Related podcasts.

Rinto's Gallade taking a critical hit from Fury Cutter

A critical hit (Japanese: 急所 pressure point) is a (generally) random event that multiplies the damage of a damage-dealing move. When one occurs, the game will display the message "A critical hit!" (Japanese: 急所に　当たった！ Hit a pressure point!) after the damage is dealt.

Generation I

Damage

When a move lands a critical hit, the attacker's level will be doubled during damage calculation, which approximately (but not quite) doubles the damage dealt. A rough approximation for the damage multiplier is ${\textstyle {\frac {2L+5}{L+5}}}$ where L is the attacker's level; as a result, lower-leveled Pokémon have a smaller critical hit boost than higher-leveled Pokémon. For example, a level 5 Pokémon will inflict about 1.5× damage on a critical hit, while a level 20 Pokémon will inflict 1.8× and a level 95 Pokémon will inflict 1.95×.

Critical hits use the attacker and defender's original stats with no modifications. This means it is possible for a critical hit to deal less damage than a non-critical hit if the attacker's stat modifications were high enough and the defender's were low enough. If the player's Pokémon has transformed, its untransformed stats will be used (but enemies use the stats of their transformation).^[1]

Probability

Whether a move scores a critical hit is determined by comparing a 1-byte random number (0 to 255) against a 1-byte threshold value (also 0 to 255). If the random number is strictly less than the threshold, the Pokémon scores a critical hit. For a given threshold value $T$ , the probability of scoring a critical hit is ${\textstyle {\frac {T}{256}}}$ .

If the threshold would exceed 255, it instead becomes 255. Consequently, the maximum possible chance of landing a critical hit is 255/256. (If the generated random number is 255, that number can never be less than the threshold, regardless of the value of the threshold.)

Core series

In the Generation I core series games, the threshold is normally equal to half the user's base Speed. If the move used has a high critical-hit ratio (Crabhammer, Karate Chop, Razor Leaf, or Slash), the move is 8 times more likely to be a critical hit (up to a maximum of 255/256). If the Pokémon has used Focus Energy or a Dire Hit, due to a bug, the user is 1/4 as likely to land a critical hit.

The threshold has the following values, depending on the move used and whether the user is under the effect of Focus Energy or a Dire Hit. The probability of landing a critical hit is simply these values divided by 256.

Threshold
	Normal move	High critical-hit ratio move
Normal status	$\left\lfloor {\frac {BaseSpeed}{2}}\right\rfloor$	$\mathrm {min} (8\times \left\lfloor {\frac {BaseSpeed}{2}}\right\rfloor ,255)$
Focus Energy	$\left\lfloor {BaseSpeed \over 8}\right\rfloor$	$4\times \left\lfloor {\frac {BaseSpeed}{4}}\right\rfloor$

Pokémon Stadium

In Pokémon Stadium, the threshold is normally equal to 19 plus one quarter of the user's base Speed. If the move used has a high critical-hit ratio (Crabhammer, Karate Chop, Razor Leaf, or Slash), the move is 8 times more likely to be a critical hit (up to a maximum of 255/256). If the Pokémon has used Focus Energy or a Dire Hit, the user is more likely to land a critical hit (the exact increase is slightly complicated).

The threshold has the following values, depending on the move used and whether the user is under the effect of Focus Energy or a Dire Hit. The probability of landing a critical hit is simply these values divided by 256.

In Pokémon Stadium, the threshold value T is determined by a different formula. If T would exceed 255, its value instead becomes exactly 255.

Threshold
	Normal move	High critical-hit ratio move
Normal status	$\left\lfloor {{BaseSpeed+76} \over 4}\right\rfloor$	$\mathrm {min} \left(\left\lfloor {{BaseSpeed+76} \over 4}\right\rfloor \times 8,255\right)$
Focus Energy	$\left\lfloor {{BaseSpeed+236} \over 4}\right\rfloor \times 2$	$255$

Generation II onwards

Damage

From Generation II to V, a critical hit deals 2 times the normal damage. From Generation VI onward, a critical hit deals 1.5 times the normal damage.

In Generation II, when a move scores a critical hit, all stat stage modifiers, the halved Attack from burn, and the defensive boosts from screens (Light Screen and Reflect) are ignored if the target's defending stat stage (Defense or Special Defense) is greater than or equal to the attacker's attacking stat stage (Attack or Special Attack).

From Generation III onward, when a move scores a critical hit, the attacker's negative stat stages, the defender's positive stat stages, and the defensive boosts from screens are always ignored. However, the halved damage from physical moves due to a burn is no longer ignored.

Examples

If the attacker is using a physical move and is at +2 Attack stages while the target is at +1 Defense stage...
- Gen II: a critical hit will not ignore either stat. (Damage with a critical hit will have an 8/3× modifier.)
- Gen III-V: a critical hit will ignore the Defense boost. (Damage with a critical hit will have a 4× modifier.)
- Gen VI+: a critical hit will ignore the Defense boost. (Damage with a critical hit will have a 3× modifier.)
If the attacker is using a physical move and is at -1 Attack stages while the target is at -2 Defense stage...
- Gen II: a critical hit will not ignore either stat. (Damage with a critical hit will have a 2.64× modifier.)
- Gen III-V: a critical hit will ignore the Attack drop. (Damage with a critical hit will have a 4× modifier.)
- Gen VI+: a critical hit will ignore the Attack drop. (Damage with a critical hit will have a 3× modifier.)

Other effects

If a Pokémon with the Sniper Ability gets a critical hit, the damage dealt will be multiplied by an additional factor of 1.5.

If Galarian Farfetch'd lands at least three critical hits in a single battle, it evolves into Sirfetch'd at the end of the battle.

Probability

The probability of landing a critical hit is no longer based on the attacker's base Speed, but rather is based on a fixed formula for all Pokémon. Similar to stats, there are temporary in-battle stages used to determine the probability that a particular move will be a critical hit.

Stage	Chance of critical hit
Stage	Gen II	Gen III-V	Gen VI	Gen VII onwards
+0	17/256 (≈6.64%)	1/16 (6.25%)	1/16 (6.25%)	1/24 (≈4.17%)
+1	1/8 (12.5%)	1/8 (12.5%)	1/8 (12.5%)	1/8 (12.5%)
+2	1/4 (25%)	1/4 (25%)	1/2 (50%)	1/2 (50%)
+3	85/256 (≈33.2%)	1/3 (≈33.3%)	Always (100%)	Always (100%)
+4 and above	1/2 (50%)	1/2 (50%)	Always (100%)	Always (100%)

If a Pokémon has maximum affection, the probability from above is multiplied by 2.^[2]

An attacking move will start out at stage 0, but there are several ways to increase a move's stage as detailed in the table below.

Change	Attack property	Held item	Ability	Triggered
+1 stage	Moves with a high critical-hit ratio (Gen II: +2 stages)	Razor Claw Scope Lens	Super Luck	G-Max Chi Strike
+2 stages	10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt Spacial Rend (when used by Origin Forme Palkia)	Stick/Leek (for Farfetch'd or Sirfetch'd only) Lucky Punch (for Chansey only)	—	Focus Energy / Dire Hit (Gen II: +1 stage) Triple Arrows (for three turns) Lansat Berry Z-Foresight, Z-Sleep Talk, Z-Tailwind, Z-Acupressure, Z-Heart Swap Dire Hit 2 (Wonder Launcher only)
+3 or more stages	—	—	—	Dire Hit 3 (Wonder Launcher only)

An effect cannot stack with an effect in the same column (including itself), with the exception of G-Max Chi Strike, whose effect can stack with anything (including more uses of itself)^[3]. A Pokémon may acquire the effect of a Lansat Berry even if it is already holding another item, through the use of Baton Pass, Pluck, Bug Bite, or Fling; or by obtaining another item after consuming the Berry, such as via Thief or Symbiosis.

Moves that cannot score a critical hit

Generations II and III introduced a handful of moves that cannot score a critical hit. They are denoted by the ✔ symbol in the table below.

In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, moves used during the first battle with Poochyena^R^S/Zigzagoon^E cannot score critical hits. Likewise, in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, moves used during the first battle with Starly at Lake Verity cannot score critical hits. Additionally, in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, moves used during the first battle with Nemona cannot score critical hits.

Starting in Generation V, all damaging moves, except moves that deal direct damage and confusion damage, can score a critical hit.

Move	Type	Category	Generations
Move	Type	Category	II	III	IV
Flail	Normal	Physical	{{{3}}}	{{{4}}}	{{{5}}}	{{{6}}}	✔	✘	✘
Future Sight	Psychic	Special	{{{3}}}	{{{4}}}	{{{5}}}	{{{6}}}	✔	✔	✔
Reversal	Fighting	Physical	{{{3}}}	{{{4}}}	{{{5}}}	{{{6}}}	✔	✘	✘
Doom Desire	Steel	Special	{{{3}}}	{{{4}}}	{{{5}}}	{{{6}}}		✔	✔
Spit Up	Normal	Special	{{{3}}}	{{{4}}}	{{{5}}}	{{{6}}}		✔	✘

Other factors

The Abilities Battle Armor and Shell Armor prevent Pokémon from landing critical hits on the Pokémon with that Ability. Lucky Chant prevents Pokémon from landing critical hits on the Pokémon it is protecting for a span of five turns.

Pokémon with the Ability Merciless will always score critical hits on poisoned Pokémon (unless prevented by one of the above effects).

The moves Storm Throw, Frost Breath, Zippy Zap, Surging Strikes, Wicked Blow, and Flower Trick, along with any move used by a Pokémon that is under the effect of Laser Focus, will always result in a critical hit (unless prevented by one of the above effects).

Moves with increased critical-hit ratio are granted a further increase by 1 stage when performed in the strong style. Conversely, when performed in the agile style, their critical hit ratio is reduced by 1 stage.

In side-games

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

Rescue Team and Explorers

There are some differences from how critical works in main series:

Critical hits do only 50% more damage, unless the Pokémon has Sniper, in which case it will do double damage.
Male or gender unknown Pokémon will have the move's base critical hit rate multiplied by 1.5x.
Scope Lens, Patsy Band, Sharpshooter IQ skill and Super Luck add a flat modifier to the move's critical hit rate (30% in Red/Blue Rescue Team, 15% in Explorers).
Type Advantage Master will set the critical hit rate to 40%, ignoring all other effects.
Focus Energy will guarantee critical hits, provided the critical hits are not prevented by exclusive items, Abilities, Critical Dodger IQ skill or Lucky Chant.

Moves	Chance of critical hit
Pin Missile, Fury Attack, Fury Swipes, Comet Punch and Rock Blast	1%
Ice Ball, DoubleSlap, Bullet Seed, Twineedle, Barrage, Arm Thrust, Icicle Spear, ThunderShock, Spike Cannon, Triple Kick and Bone Rush	2%
Double Kick	3%
Other moves	12%^RB/8%^TDS
Moves with a high critical-hit ratio*	50%^RB/30%^TDS

Pokémon Masters EX

Here are some notable qualities of critical hits in this game:

Critical-hit rate is treated as a stat like Attack or evasion, except critical-hit rate can only be raised to a maximum of three stat ranks (or to +3) and can't be lowered below 0. A few moves, such as Snatch, can reset target's critical-hit rate to 0 unless that target has Steady Aim skill.
- Attack moves passively have their base critical-hit rates set to 0, which means that using one with its user's critical-hit rate raised to three stat ranks yields an 100% chance to land a critical hit (per target).
- Damage-dealing sync moves and max moves have their base critical-hit rates set to -1, which means that using one with its user's critical-hit rate raised to three stat ranks normally yields an 80% chance to land a critical hit (per target).
Some effects allow critical hits to land more easily [from attack moves like Slash or Spacial Rend, sync moves like Moonlight Leaf Blade, or skills like Zero In 1, Soften Up 1 (only for sync moves), Dire Rain 1, etc.].
- Attack/Sync moves with this effect passively have their base critical-hit rates set to +1. Sync moves with this effect no longer have -1 critical hit-rate penalty.
- Each skill with this effect is always accompanied by a one or a two, and if that skill's conditions are met, then it passively raises critical-hit rate by that number.
Applying the Critical Hit Next effect on a sync pair guarantees that their next attack/sync move will be a critical hit, except in certain circumstances.
Critical hits do ×1.5 damage, which can be further enhanced by having Critastrophe [X] (for sync moves) or Critical Strike [Y] (for any attacks) skills; in which case, it will do even more damage by a factor of +(X × 10)% or +(Y × 10)%, respectively. (X and Y are numbers between one and nine.)
- Multiple copies of such multipliers stack additively. For example, if a sync pair has Critical Strike 9 (+90% damage) and Critical Strike 2 (+20%), then the skills will stack to become a factor of +110% (or ×2.1).
Critical hits ignore effects of physical damage reduction (from Reflect etc.) and special damage reduction (from Light Screen etc.).
Critical-Hit Defense effects temporarily protect all pairs in its field of play from critical hits. The move Defog removes this effect from opposing fields of play.
Skills such as Vigilance protect their users from critical hits. A few moves, such as Sunsteel Strike, and a few skills, like Piercing Blows, bypass these effects.
Chances to land critical hits with attack moves, ignoring certain circumstances, are as follows:

Stage	Chance to land critical hits
-1*	Never (0%)
+0*	1/8 (12.5%)
+1	1/2 (50%)
+2	4/5 (80%)
+3	Always (100%)

In the anime

The enhancements that Bea's Machamp received from G-Max Chi Strike's effects

In Bad To The Bone, Otoshi's Marowak used Focus Energy to heighten its chances of landing a critical hit, which it did when it knocked Ash's Bulbasaur out with a single Bone Club attack. Jessie's Arbok also took a critical hit from Marowak in the same fashion.

In Shocks and Bonds, during Ash's match against Clark in the Ever Grande Conference, Ash's Glalie defeated Clark's Charizard with a critical hit from Headbutt, giving Ash the victory.

In Choose It or Lose It!, during Ash's Full Battle against Morrison in the Victory Tournament portion of the Ever Grande Conference, Ash's Corphish knocked Morrison's Growlithe out with a critical hit from Crabhammer.

In Pursuing a Lofty Goal!, during the second match in the Squallville PokéRinger, Paul's Honchkrow used Sky Attack in conjunction with its Super Luck Ability to land a critical hit on Provo's Dragonite and knock it out.

In A Rival Battle for Club Champ!, Trip's Tranquill used Aerial Ace in conjunction with its Super Luck Ability to knock Ash's Oshawott out in one critical hit. Later on in the match, Tranquill defeated Tepig in the same manner, this time having its damage also boosted by Work Up.

In Beyond Chivalry… Aiming to be a Leek Master!, during a World Coronation Series battle, Ash's Farfetch'd landed three critical hits on Rinto's Gallade with Fury Cutter, causing the Wild Duck Pokémon to evolve into a Sirfetch'd.

In A Battle of Mega Versus Max!, Bea's Gigantamax Machamp attacked Ash's Mega Lucario with G-Max Chi Strike. While Mega Lucario survived long enough for Machamp to turn back to normal, it retained the enhancements that it received from using its signature G-Max Move, allowing it to pinpoint Mega Lucario's weak points.

In JN129, Leon's Inteleon landed a critical hit on Ash's Gengar with Dark Pulse during their Masters Eight Tournament battle, resulting in Gengar's Gigantamax state ending prematurely.

In other languages

Language		Title
Chinese	Cantonese	要害 Yiuhoih
Chinese	Mandarin	要害 Yàohài
Finnish		Kriittinen osuma (BW010) Kriittinen isku (AG130)
French		Coup critique
German		Volltreffer
Italian		Brutto colpo
Korean		급소 Geupso
Brazilian Portuguese		Golpe crítico
Russian		Критический урон Kriticheskiy uron
Spanish	Latin America	Golpe Directo
Spanish	Spain	Golpe crítico (II - VII) Ataque crítico (I)
Swedish		Kritiskt slag
Vietnamese		Đòn chí mạng