Critical Chance

Critical Chance is a derived statistic in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics
An Aimed Shot has a critical chance bonus equal to the chance-to-hit penalty of the targeted body part. In Fallout Tactics, the Science skill also has an effect on critical chance against robotic enemies.
 * $$\text{Initial level}=\text{Luck}\times1\%$$

The Chance to Hit adds a slight bonus to critical chance if the attack hits the intended target. The formula used to determine whether an attack hits or misses is (Chance to Hit) - (RandomNumberBetween1and100). If the remainder is 0 or more, the attack is a hit. If it's negative, the attack is a miss.

If the attack hits its target, the same random number that was subtracted from the chance to hit is used to calculate the critical chance bonus of the successful hit. This bonus is equal to (ChanceToHit - RandomNumberBetween1and100) / 10 rounded down. Thus if a successful attack's chance to hit was 49%, this critical chance bonus could be anything between 0% (random number is between 40 and 49) and 4% (random number is between 1 and 9).

A successful hit whose chance to hit was 95% has a critical chance bonus ranging from 0% to 9%. The average critical chance bonus of a successful hit with a 95% hit chance is (5x9 + 10x8 + 10x7 + 10x6 + 10x5 + 10x4 + 10x3 + 10x2 + 10x1 + 10x0) / 95 = 4.26%


 * The Finesse trait increases the critical chance by 10%.
 * The More Criticals perk increases the critical chance by 5% per rank.
 * The Sniper perk increases the critical chance to 10*Luck for ranged weapons, but never above 95%.
 * The Slayer perk increases the critical chance to 100% for melee and unarmed attacks.

Base Chance
Luck is the main base factor that determines the chances of a critical strike on an opponent.
 * $$\text{Initial level}=\text{Luck}\times1\%$$

Example: A starting Luck of 5.
 * $$5~(\text{Luck}) \times 1\%=5\%~(\text{Base chance})$$

Notes:
 * Maximum initial base is capped at 10%.
 * Ninja perk can increase this limit by another +15% for Melee and Unarmed weapons.
 * Finesse perk can increase this limit by another +5%.
 * Survival Guru perk can increase this limit by another +3%.
 * Strikes dealt in V.A.T.S have additional +15% critical chance added.
 * Some weapons have 0% chance of a critical strike (see Critical Multiplier below for detail of effects).

You can also check your critical chance with the console command.

Critical Multiplier
All weapons have a critical multiplier that modifies the player character's base critical hit chance. This may improve or hinder the ability to score a critical hit depending on the weapon's Critical multiplier.
 * $$\text{Base chance}\times\text{Critical multiplier}$$

Example: A starting Luck of 5 and using a sniper rifle, which has a x5 Critical Multiplier.
 * $$5\%~(\text{Base chance})\times5~(\text{Critical multiplier})=25\%~(\text{Critical chance})$$

Notes
 * The critical multiplier for fully-automatic weapons is much lower than for single-shot weapons.
 * There are a few weapons that have a x0 multiplier, making it impossible to score a critical hit.
 * For a detailed list of weapon critical multipliers, see here.

Weapon Condition
The final critical chance is also modified by weapon condition.
 * $$\mbox{Critical chance} \times \mbox{Condition}$$

For example, a character with 5 Luck and using a sniper rifle in 50% condition would have,
 * $$25\%~(\text{Critical chance})\times\frac{50}{100}~(\text{Condition})=12.5\%~\text{Critical chance}$$

Fallout: New Vegas
The formulas for critical chance seem unchanged from Fallout 3. You receive 1% of critical chance for each point placed into Luck. During character creation, you can add an additional 3% for all weapons by choosing the Built to Destroy trait.


 * Attributes, perks and traits that increase critical chance include:
 * Luck (permanent +1-10%)
 * Built to Destroy (permanent +3%)
 * Light Touch¹ (temporary +5% while wearing any light armor)(Dead Money)
 * Finesse (permanent +5%)
 * Ninja² (permanent 15% increase for melee and unarmed weapons)
 * Laser Commander¹ (permanent +10% with lasers).
 * Fight the Power!¹ (permanent +5% versus NCR, Legion, and Brotherhood of Steel)
 * Just Lucky I'm Alive (temporary +4 Luck for 3 minutes when ending combat with 25% health or less, effective +4%.)
 * Set Lasers for Fun¹ (permanent +2/4% with energy weapons)
 * Meat of Champions (+1 Luck for 60 seconds after eating a fresh corpse)
 * Intense Training (permanent +1 Luck if selected)
 * Luck Implant (permanent +1 Luck if purchased)
 * ¹ The critical chance added by these perks is a flat bonus and is not affected by your weapon's critical multiplier.
 * ² Ninja multiplies your total critical chance after all modifiers by 1.15 due to an error; thus it adds 15% of your normal critical chance, not a flat 15% boost.


 * Items that increase critical chance:
 * 1st Recon beret (+5%)
 * Naughty nightwear (+1 Luck, effective +1%)
 * True Police Stories (temporary +5% (+10% with Comprehension))
 * Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System¹ (temporary +5% critical hit chance when using V.A.T.S.)
 * Lucky shades (+1 Luck, effective +1%)
 * Armor of the 87th Tribe (+3%)(Lonesome Road)
 * Elite riot gear (+5%)(Lonesome Road)
 * Ulysses' duster (+5%)(Lonesome Road)
 * Joshua Graham's armor (+3%) (Honest Hearts)
 * Salt-Upon-Wounds' helmet (+2%) (Honest Hearts)
 * Marked beast face helmet (+2%) (Lonesome Road)
 * ¹ The critical chance added by V.A.T.S. is a flat bonus and is not affected by your weapon's critical multiplier.

Currently, the highest possible critical chance that will be affected by your multiplier is 38% (10 Luck, Finesse, Built to Destroy, 1st Recon Beret, Elite riot gear/Ulysses' Duster, True Police Stories with Comprehension). As mentioned above, Light Touch, Laser Commander, Set Lasers for Fun, Ninja, and V.A.T.S. can further increase your chance.

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
In Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, a critical hit can exceed the maximum damage limit for a weapon.

Some weapons are very powerful with a high critical chance, such as the double-barrel shotgun or The Slugger, and also the weapons with burst fire.

An energy weapon with the skill Energy Charge or a Melee weapon with the skill Special Attack can be extremely powerful if the charged attack is a critical hit.

The chance to cause a Critical Hit in combat is increased by:

Initial Level: Each character starts with a 1% critical chance.
 * The Butcher skill (Cain only) increases critical chance by 5% for blades for each rank, for a total of 25% at max.
 * The Desert Soldier skill (only female character) increases critical chance by 5% for conventional weapons for each rank, for a max of 25%.
 * The Future Woman skill (only female character) increases critical chance by 5% for energy weapons for each rank, for a max of 25%.
 * The Heavy Hitter skill (only human male character) increases critical chance by 5% for Blunt weapon (Gloves, Clubs and Hammers) for each rank, for a max of 25%.
 * The Pyromaniac skill (only Cain) increases critical chance by 5% when using fire-based weapons (like the frag grenade, flamer, etc.) for each rank, for a max of of 25%.
 * The Slayer skill increases the critical chance by 5% for each ranks until a total of 25%.
 * The Wastelander skill (only human male character) increases critical chance by 10% for home-made weapons for each rank, for a max of 50%.

The Wastelander skill stacks with the others; a homemade weapon, with the appropriate skills, can therefore achieve a maximum bonus of 75%.