Critical Hit

Overview

Each time the internal structure of a Mech takes damage, there is a chance that the hit will cause at least 1 critical hit. There is a 25% chance of causing 1 critical hit, a 14% chance of causing 2 critical hits, and a 3% chance of causing 3 critical hits (for a total of a 42% chance of any sort of critical hit). Each critical hit will randomly hit a weapon or piece of equipment in that location; the chance of a particular piece of equipment being hit is proportional to how many critical slots it occupies. Each critical hit damages the weapon/equipment an amount equal to the damage that caused the critical hit. Floating critical space items like Endo-Steel and Ferro Fibrous Armor do not calculate into the number of occupied critical slots. Empty critical slots also do not calculate into the number of occupied slots. To decrease the odds of a specific item being struck by a Critical Hit, you can add less important items to take up space such as Heat Sinks and Gauss Rifle ammunition since it doesn't explode.

This is what you will see, when you hear Betty saying which of your BattleMech's parts or equipment are destroyed.

Example

For example, an Atlas AS7-D is hit with an AC/5, for 5 damage to its left torso’s internal structure. The attacker gets lucky and this results in 3 critical hits. Two of the crits hit the LRM 20 and 1 hits the heat sink. The heat sink will take 5 damage and the LRM 20 will take 10 (5 x 2 = 10).

Critical Seeking Weapons

Contrary to common belief, Weapons that deal high Alpha damage (like PPC's, Gauss Rifles or AC-20's) are poor choices for achieving critical hit rolls; but are great choice of weapons for removing the armor on a location. The amount of damage done does NOT matter, but rather the total number of incoming shots that deal damage into a armor-less location on a 'Mech. Machine Guns, Flamers, and AC-2's are superb choices for finding criticals in a armor-less location, due to the high rate of fire that they can sustain in a short period of time. The LBX-10's, LRMs and SRMs are also great choices because each "pellet" or missile in the cluster shot/missile volley has its own individual critical roll when determining whether of not a critical is scored on the mechs location. These weapons also spread out over an area which make them capable of seeking out areas that are missing armor protection thus further increasing the chance to have at least one "pellet" or missile make a critical roll, this can act as a sort of "aim correction" for LBX-10's and SRMs; because of this There are a few weapons that are better for rolling critical hits than LBX-10's, LRMs and SRMs.

Flamers, Machine Guns, and LB 10-X Autocannons receive a bonus to deal critical damage. Where most weapon have a 42% chance to deal critical damage, these three weapons have a 67% chance to do so. Flamers will deal an extra 10% damage to internal components while also having the benefit of increasing the heat levels of their targets. LB 10-X Autocannons will do 200% damage to internal components with each "pellet" for a total of 2 damage each. Machine Guns will do 1,250% their normal damage to internal components, but with the low initial starting damage of 0.04 this isn't much of an improvement (0.04 damage * 12.50 = .5 damage). this is however somewhat compensated b the fact it fires very rapidly.

The 10 "pellet" cluster shot of the LB 10-X Autocannons acting as a sort of "aim correction" with each "pellet" having a a 67% chance to land at least one critical and the bonus damage that each "pellet" receives when they do critical damage arguably makes it currently the best overall weapons for rolling and dealing critical damage. SRMs make for a very close second (if not a first) in most pilots minds. The other strong choice being LRMs due to their ability to rolling critical hits at range were as [LB 10-X Autocannon|LBX-10]] and SRMs will have to close in on a target.

Equipment Damage

Currently, all engines have 15 points of health while all other items have 10, excepting the Gauss Rifle which has 3.

Critical damage to the side torso hit boxes of XL engines deals damage to the engine as a whole. However, it should be noted that, currently, critical damage to your engine will not disable it, but simply add to your repair bill.

Critical hit's refer to the destruction of internal components, weapons or ammo (floating slots are ignored) before the location is actually destroyed on a 'Mech. Critical hits are possible when the Armor of a location is destroyed and the damage is going to the internal structure of a 'Mech. Each weapon shot is given a possible critical roll when this happens. Currently it's unknown, if it is possible to achieve a Critical on a 'Mech with armor still on a location after the shot. Critical hit's can also bring down a 'Mech, with an XL Engine much sooner than would be possible to destroy the exposed torso in question.

Guide

Read Crits And You - A Brief Guide for addition information and suggestions on critical damage.

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