Critical hit

In many role-playing games and video games, a critical hit (or crit) is a chance that a successful attack will deal more damage than a normal blow.

The concept of critical hits originates from wargames and role-playing games, as a way to simulate luck, and crossed over into video games in the 1986 JRPG Dragon Quest, set at a fixed rate of 1/64 (~1.56%). However, many other video games that use critical hits may have ways of increasing the likelihood of them occurring, such as by increasing the player character's level or attack statistic.

Both role-playing games and video games may also opt to use a less traditional version of critical hits, either by using different names, offering different effects than dealing more damage, including specific targets or weakpoint(s), and rarely by the inclusion of critical miss effects.