Critical hit

Critical hit is a property that allows a weapon or ability to deal bonus damage under certain conditions. Most commonly critical hits are caused by headshots.

Headshot

Headshots are critical hits caused by most - but not all - weapons and some abilities upon hitting an opponent's head hitbox. Melee and beam weapons are usually incapable of dealing headshots.

Generally, a headshot gains a 2.0x damage modifier, meaning that they deal double the damage of a bodyshot (for example, Cassidy's Peacekeeper deals 70 damage to the body, but 140 damage to the head against a non-tank hero). Some weapons do, however, have a differing multiplier:

• Sojourn's Railgun Alt Fire, Roadhog's Scrap Gun and Illari's Solar Rifle have a 1.5x headshot modifier.
• Widowmaker's Widow's Kiss while scoped has a 2.5x headshot modifier.

Genji's Deflect and Echo's Duplicate inherit the property from the original hero's weapon or ability.

Some abilities, such as Ramattra's Block and Wrecking Ball's Roll, can partially hide or completely disable the hero's head hitbox, preventing them from taking the bonus critical damage. They are still vulnerable to other forms of critical damage, however.

List of weapons and abilities that can headshot

Hero	Weapon / Ability	Official description	Headshot multiplier	Details
Ashe	The Viper The Viper	Semi-automatic rifle.	2
	The Viper (ADS) The Viper (ADS)	Hold to zoom in, increasing damage and accuracy but slowing rate of fire.	2
Bastion	Configuration: Recon Configuration: Recon	Mobile, with a lightweight and highly accurate weapon.	2
Baptiste	Biotic Launcher Biotic Launcher	Three-round burst gun.	2
Cassidy	Peacekeeper Peacekeeper	Accurate, powerful revolver.	2
D.Va	Fusion Cannons Fusion Cannons	Automatic short-range spread weapons.	2
	Light Gun Light Gun	Automatic weapon.	2
Doomfist	Hand Cannon Hand Cannon	Short-range weapon with spread. Reloads automatically.	2
Echo	Tri-Shot Tri-Shot	Fires 3 shots at once, in a triangle pattern.	2
	Duplicate Duplicate	Become a copy of the targeted enemy hero. They cannot swap heroes for the duration.		Depends on the duplicated hero's weapon.
Genji	Shuriken Shuriken	Throw an accurate burst of 3 projectiles.	2
	Shuriken Alt Fire Shuriken Alt Fire	Throw a fan of 3 projectiles in an arc.	2
	Deflect Deflect	Deflect incoming projectiles towards the direction you are aiming and block melee attacks.		Depends on deflected projectile.
Hanzo	Storm Bow Storm Bow	Hold to charge then release to launch arrows further.	2
	Storm Arrows Storm Arrows	The next 5 arrows ricochet and fire instantly at reduced damage.	2
	Sonic Arrow Sonic Arrow	Reveals enemies for a short time upon impact.	2
	Dragonstrike Dragonstrike	Launch a deadly Dragon Spirit that devastates enemies it passes through.	2	Only initial arrow before turning into AoE.
Illari	Solar Rifle Solar Rifle	Long-range auto charging rifle.	1.5
Junker Queen	Scattergun Scattergun	Pump action shotgun.	2
Kiriko	Kunai Kunai	Thrown projectile that deals increased critical damage.	2
Lifeweaver	Thorn Volley Thorn Volley	Rapidly fire a spread of projectiles.	2
Lúcio	Sonic Amplifier Sonic Amplifier	Sonic projectile launcher.	2
Mauga	Incendiary Chaingun Incendiary Chaingun	Automatic weapon that ignites enemies on repeated impacts.	2
	Volatile Chaingun Volatile Chaingun	Automatic weapon that deals critical damage to burning enemies.	2
Mei	Endothermic Blaster Alt Fire Endothermic Blaster Alt Fire	Long-range icicle launcher.	2
Mercy	Caduceus Blaster Caduceus Blaster	Automatic weapon.	2
Orisa	Augmented Fusion Driver Augmented Fusion Driver	Automatic heat-based weapon.	2
Ramattra	Void Accelerator Void Accelerator	Fire a stream of projectiles.	2
Reaper	Hellfire Shotguns Hellfire Shotguns	Short-range spread weapons.	2
Roadhog	Scrap Gun Scrap Gun	Short-range spread weapon with a medium-range shrapnel volley.	1.5
	Whole Hog Whole Hog	Damage and knock back enemies in front of you.	2
Sojourn	Railgun Railgun	Rapid firing projectiles that generate energy on hit.	2
	Railgun Alt Fire Railgun Alt Fire	High impact shot that consumes stored energy and pierces enemies.	1.5	Can also headshot during Overclock.
Soldier: 76	Heavy Pulse Rifle Heavy Pulse Rifle	Automatic assault weapon.	2	Can headshot also during Tactical Visor, but auto-aimed shots are always bodyshots.
Sombra	Machine Pistol Machine Pistol	Short-range automatic weapon.	2
Torbjörn	Rivet Gun Rivet Gun	Slow firing, long-ranged weapon.	2
	Rivet Gun Alt Fire Rivet Gun Alt Fire	Inaccurate but powerful short-range weapon.	2
Tracer	Pulse Pistols Pulse Pistols	Short-range automatic weapons.	2
Widowmaker	Widow's Kiss Widow's Kiss	Automatic assault weapon.	2
	Widow's Kiss (ADS) Widow's Kiss (ADS)	Hold for long-ranged sniper weapon.	2.5
Wrecking Ball	Quad Cannons Quad Cannons	Automatic assault weapons.	2
Zenyatta	Orb of Destruction Orb of Destruction	Energy projectile weapon.	2
	Orb of Destruction Alt Fire Orb of Destruction Alt Fire	Charge to release more projectiles.	2

Other sources of critical damage

Some weapons and abilities can deal critical damage to enemies without needing the weapon to land on an opponent's head hitbox. However these weapons/abilities typically require some condition to deal critical damage instead. Like headshots, these instances generally deal double damage compared to a normal hit.

• Mauga's Volatile Chaingun can deal headshots as normal, but can also deal critical damage to any hero, object or barrier that is burning, even if they don't have a head hitbox.
• Mauga's Overrun deals critical damage and knocks down any enemies it lands directly on.
• Sombra's Virus deals critical damage on hacked enemies and objects, doubling the initial damage but not the damage over time.
• Reinhardt's Earthshatter deals critical damage when it hits an enemy in melee range, but it functions slightly differently than other critical hits, dealing an additional instance of 150 damage instead of multiplying the base damage.

Critical damage mitigation

In addition to general damage reduction effects, there are currently two effects in the game that can specifically mitigate damage dealt by critical hits. The first is Orisa's Fortify which completely prevents any critical damage, causing them to be treated as normal attacks. The second effect is the tank role passive, which grants a 25% reduction against critical hits. This reduction stacks additively with general damage reductions and counts toward the 50% damage reduction cap.

Fortify functions against all sources of critical damage, however the tank role passive appears to have no effect against headshots with a 1.5x multiplier, as well as Virus or Volatile Chaingun crits on burning targets.

Media

Example video visualizing hitboxes.

Trivia

• In game modes that restrict all damage to headshots only, some heroes and deployables may not deal any damage whatsoever (like Symmetra, Moira, turrets, and B.O.B.), while others may become immune to damage (like Hammond, Bastion, turrets and barriers).