Critical Chance

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

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics
The chance to cause a critical hit in combat is increased by this amount. An Aimed Shot has a higher chance to score a critical hit than an unaimed shot. In Fallout Tactics, the Science skill also apparently has an effect on critical chance against robotic enemies.

Initial Level: Starting critical chance is equal to your Luck. Average characters will have a 5% critical chance.


 * 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.
 * The Slayer perk increases the critical chance to 100% for melee weapons.

Fallout 3
Permanently increasing Critical Chance
 * Each point of Luck gives +1% Critical Chance.
 * The Ninja perk gives +15% Critical Chance, but only with Melee or Unarmed weapons.
 * The Finesse perk gives +5% Critical Chance.
 * The Survival Expert perk gives up to +3% Critical Chance.

The maximum amount of base Critical Chance you can gain from perks and Luck in Fallout 3 is +18% for Ranged Weapons and +33% for Melee and Unarmed weapons.

It should also be noted that strikes dealt in VATS have a +15% critical chance bonus. Keep in mind that weapons like the Ripper or Kneecapper have a critical multiplier of 0% and therefore cannot score critical strikes, including sneak criticals.

Critical Multiplier
All weapons have a critical multiplier that multiplies the player's base critical chance by the number given to obtain a final chance to score a critical hit. This may improve or hinder the player's ability to score a critical hit. For example, the Scoped .44 Magnum has a multiplier of x2, so if the player has a critical chance of 7%, he/she has a 14% chance to score a non-V.A.T.S. critical hit with the Magnum (29% with V.A.T.S.). There are a few weapons that have a x0 multiplier, which makes it impossible to score a critical hit, whether a normal or a sneak attack critical. The critical multiplier for fully automatic weapons is much lower than for single-shot weapons in order to balance the gameplay. For example, the Chinese Assault Rifle has a rate of fire of 8 shots per second, but has a critical multiplier of x0.125 per shot.

Here is a list of weapons with good critical multipliers:
 * A3-21's Plasma Rifle: 2.5x
 * Dart Gun: 2.5x
 * Victory Rifle: 3x
 * Railway Rifle: 3x
 * Vampire's Edge: 3x
 * Occam's Razor: 3x
 * Combat Knife: 3x
 * Trench Knife: 3x
 * Stabhappy: 4x
 * Ritual knife: 3x
 * Fertilizer shovel: 3x
 * Precision Gatling Laser: 4x
 * Backwater Rifle: 5x
 * Deathclaw Gauntlet: 5x
 * Lever-Action Rifle: 5x
 * Reservist's Rifle: 5x
 * Sniper Rifle: 5x
 * Scoped Gauss Rifle: 5x
 * Firelance: 100x
 * Alien Blaster: 100x

Weapon Condition
The final critical chance is also modified by weapon condition.


 * $$\mbox{Base Chance} \times \mbox{Critical Multiplier} \times \mbox{Condition\%}$$

For example, a character with 5 Luck and using a Sniper Rifle in 50% condition would have,


 * $$0.05 \times 5 \times 0.50 = 0.125$$

or 12.5% chance to score a critical hit.

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
In Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, a critical hit allows to exceed the maximum limit of damage 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 in bursts.

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 (only Cain) increases the critical chance by 5% only for blades for each ranks until a total of 25%.
 * The Desert Soldier skill (only female character) increases the critical chance by 5% only for conventional weapons (weapon that uses 9mm) for each ranks until a total of 25%.
 * The Future Woman skill (only female character) increases the critical chance by 5% only for energy weapons for each ranks until a total of 25%.
 * The Heavy Hitter skill (only human male character) increases the critical chance by 5% only for Blunt weapon (Gloves, Clubs and Hammers) for each ranks until a total of 25%.
 * The Pyromaniac skill (only Cain) increases the critical chance by 5% when using a fire-based weapon (like the frag grenade, flamer, etc.) for each ranks until a total 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 the critical chance by 10% only when using home-made weapons for each ranks until a total of 50%.

The type of weapon with a maximum critical chance with the skill required is the home-made weapons with a total of 75%.