Critical hit

The Katana dealing regular hits of around 18 damage, and a noticeable critical hit of 36 damage.

A critical hit occurs randomly when striking enemies. By default, each hit on an enemy has a 4% chance of being a critical hit, dealing approximately double the usual damage of the weapon in use with 40% more knockback. A small number of weapons have a base critical strike chance that is higher than the default 4%. In addition, certain modifiers, armor bonuses, accessories, and buffs can boost the player's effective critical strike chance.

Visually, critical hits are displayed as slightly exaggerated bold damage numbers that have a deeper color, travel slightly higher, and linger on-screen for a longer period than damage numbers from ordinary hits.

Weapons with non-standard base critical strike chance

Weapon	Base crit chance
Musket	11%
Sunfury	11%
Poisoned Knife	8%
Ice Boomerang	6% (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) / 4% (Old-gen console and 3DS versions)
Keybrand	20%
Marrow	9%
Ice Blade	6%
Sniper Rifle	29%
Staff of Earth	24%
S.D.M.G.	14%
Candy Corn Rifle	10%
Jack 'O Lantern Launcher	10%
Stake Launcher	14%
Pulse Bow	11%
Revolver	9%
Katana	19%
Obsidian Swordfish	24%
Shadowflame Bow	7%
Shadowflame Hex Doll	7%
Shadowflame Knife	7%
Wand of Sparking	14%
Slap Hand	19%
Kraken	14%
Paintball Gun	11%
Terrarian	14%
Sky Fracture	24%
Aerial Bane	7%
Stellar Tune	24%
First Fractal	14%
Starlight	14%
Zenith	14%
Lucy the Axe	14%
Wand of Frosting	14%

Boost gear

Melee

Item	Crit chance
Moon Charm	+2% (during night)
Ale	+2%
Molten Helmet	+7%
Mythril Helmet	+8%
Mythril armor (Set Bonus)	+10%
Adamantite Helmet	+7%
Titanium Mask	+9%
Frost Breastplate	+11%
Hallowed Mask	+10%
Squire's Greaves	+15%
Monk's Pants	+15%
Chlorophyte Mask	+6%
Turtle Scale Mail	+8%
Turtle Leggings	+4%
Beetle Scale Mail	+8%
Beetle Shell	+5%
Valhalla Knight's Greaves	+20%
Shinobi Infiltrator's Torso	+5%
Shinobi Infiltrator's Pants	+20%
Solar Flare Helmet	+26%

Ranged

Item	Crit chance
Fossil Helmet	+4%
Fossil Greaves	+4%
Necro armor (Set Bonus)	+10%
Cobalt Mask	+10%
Palladium Helmet	+9%
Mythril Hat	+7%
Orichalcum Helmet	+15%
Adamantite Mask	+10%
Titanium Helmet	+7%
Frost Breastplate	+11%
Hallowed Helmet	+8%
Huntress's Wig	+10%
Shroomite Headpiece (All helmets)	+5%
Shroomite Breastplate	+13%
Shroomite Leggings	+7%
Stealth from Shroomite armor	Up to +10%
Red Riding Hood	+10%
Red Riding Leggings	+10%
Vortex Helmet	+7%
Vortex Breastplate	+12%
Vortex Leggings	+8%
Stealth from Vortex armor	Up to +20%
Sniper Scope	+10%
Recon Scope	+10%

Magic

Item	Crit chance
Crystal Ball	+2%
Mystic Robe	+6%
Magic Hat	+6%
Wizard Hat with a Robe	+10%
Jungle Hat	+6%
Jungle Pants	+6%
Cobalt Hat	+9%
Palladium Headgear	+9%
Orichalcum Headgear	+18%
Adamantite Headgear	+12%
Titanium Headgear	+7%
Hallowed Headgear	+12%
Apprentice's Trousers	+20%
Spectre Mask	+10%
Spectre Robe	+7%
Dark Artist's Leggings	+25%
Nebula Breastplate	+9%

All

Item	Crit chance
Well Fed	+2%
Plenty Satisfied	+3%
Exquisitely Stuffed	+4%
Brain of Confusion(Cerebral Mindtrick)	+10%
Rage Potion	+10%
Gi	+5%
Ninja Hood	+3%
Ninja Shirt	+3%
Ninja Pants	+3%
Shadow Helmet	+5%
Shadow Scalemail	+5%
Shadow Greaves	+5%
Cobalt Breastplate	+5%
Palladium Breastplate	+2%
Palladium Leggings	+1%
Mythril Greaves	+10%
Orichalcum Breastplate	+6%
Adamantite Leggings	+7%
Titanium Breastplate	+3%
Titanium Leggings	+3%
Crystal Assassin Hood	+5%
Crystal Assassin armor (Set Bonus)	+10%
Hallowed Plate Mail	+7%
Chlorophyte Plate Mail	+7%
Chlorophyte Greaves	+8%
Precise or Lucky modifier on accessories	+2% or +4%
Destroyer Emblem	+8%
Eye of the Golem	+10%
Putrid Scent	+5%
Celestial Stone	+2%
Celestial Shell	+2%
Sun Stone	+2%
Moon Stone	+2%
Reforged weapons	Max +5%

Notes

Minions and sentries cannot normally deal critical hits, with two exceptions:
- Lightning Aura sentry summons can deal critical hits at a fixed rate if the player is wearing a full set of Monk armor (16.7%) or Shinobi Infiltrator armor (25%).
- Enemies hit by the Morning Star or Kaleidoscope are "tagged" for 4 seconds. All minions and sentries can deal critical hits at a fixed rate (12% for Morning Star, 25% for Kaleidoscope) when attacking enemies tagged by these two whips.

Furthermore, unlike other critical strike chance sources, chances from these sources are not calculated additively. Instead, they are all treated as independent events.

The damage doubling of a critical hit is applied after the reduction from defense.
- For example, consider a Face Monster which has 10 defense, meaning it reduces incoming damage by 5. A non-critical hit of 50 damage against the Face Monster results in it taking 45 net damage. If this hit was a critical hit, the Face Monster would take 90 net damage, not 95.
When held, weapon modifiers affect all outgoing critical hits from that class's projectiles. Weapon modifiers will cease affecting critical strike chance when not selected.
Ammunition items are unaffected by critical strike chance bonuses. The critical strike chance of a ranged attack depends entirely on the weapon.
Players attacking other players in PvP will never deal critical hits.

Tips

It is generally best to attempt to equalize critical strike chance and damage bonuses from accessories, armor, buffs, and modifiers, as this will maximize the overall DPS.
- More specifically, critical strike chance bonuses are directly equivalent to damage bonuses in terms of average damage per second, so long as damage rounding is disregarded and the critical strike chance is below 100%. However, the critical hit damage being doubled after factoring in the enemy's defense has certain implications:
  - Against enemies with non-zero defense, damage bonuses are more effective than critical strike chance bonuses. The effectiveness increases linearly as the enemy's defense increases.
  - In scenarios where the enemy's defense is large enough to negate even the highest damage values (such as when fighting the Dungeon Guardian, who has 9999 defense), critical strike chance bonuses are always more effective than damage bonuses. All non-critical hits can only deal 1 damage and this damage cannot be increased. A higher critical strike chance means that the damage is doubled to 2 more frequently.
That being said, having a mix of both bonuses will always be more effective than just having one, due to the fact that the average DPS bonuses stack multiplicatively between damage and critical strike chance bonuses.

Maximizing critical hits

Melee

The maximum critical strike chance is 167%, attained by combining the following:

Solar Flare Helmet
Frost Breastplate
Valhalla Knight's Greaves
Obsidian Swordfish(Godly/Demonic/Zealous)
Eye of the Golem(Lucky)
Destroyer Emblem(Lucky)
Putrid Scent(Lucky)
Celestial Shell(Lucky)
Brain of Confusion(Lucky, with Cerebral Mindtrick active)
Rage Potion
Exquisitely Stuffed
Ale

Any accessory with the Lucky modifier can be equipped in the remaining 2 accessory slots.
Although the Psycho Knife will increase critical strike chance by 30% in its stealth mode, it will set critical strike chance to 100% if the actual critical strike chance is higher than 100%.

Ranged

The maximum critical strike chance is 178%, attained by combining the following:

Vortex armor(with activated set bonus)
Sniper Rifle(Unreal/Godly/Demonic/Zealous)
Eye of the Golem(Lucky)
Sniper Scope(Lucky)
Recon Scope(Lucky)
Destroyer Emblem(Lucky)
Putrid Scent(Lucky)
Celestial Stone(Lucky)
Brain of Confusion(Lucky, with Cerebral Mindtrick active)
Rage Potion
Exquisitely Stuffed

Magic

The maximum critical strike chance is 160%, attained by combining the following:

Orichalcum Headgear
Nebula Breastplate
Dark Artist's Leggings
Sky Fracture(Mythical/Godly/Demonic/Zealous)
Staff of Earth(Mythical/Godly/Demonic/Zealous)
Stellar Tune(Demonic/Zealous)
Eye of the Golem(Lucky)
Destroyer Emblem(Lucky)
Putrid Scent(Lucky)
Celestial Stone(Lucky)
Brain of Confusion(Lucky, with Cerebral Mindtrick active)
Rage Potion
Exquisitely Stuffed
Crystal Ball

Any accessory with the Lucky modifier can be equipped in the remaining 2 accessory slots.
Any of these weapons can be used: Sky Fracture, Staff of Earth, or Stellar Tune.