Criticals
Criticals in Ashes of Phoenix are a very math-heavy mechanic.
Criticals can occur, when shooting a target with a single shot. Whether aimed or unaimed. Thus, Bursts, as well as things like Molotovs can not critically hit.
A critical can have a range of devastating effects. The simplest of its effect is the increased damage you will do. This allows Snipers to dish out damage, even though they are shooting only one bullet at a time, unlike Bursters, who do their damage by shooting a range of bullets towards the target.
Criticals can also cripple limbs. Apply Debuffing Status Effects. As well as apply a higher amount of Bleed Damage, together with its increase in direct damage.
Critical Chance
In order to land a critical hit on an enemy, a proper amount of Critical Chance is needed. In your Character Tab, you have 2 different kinds of Critical Chances. Your Base Critical Chance (short: BCC), as well as your Aimed Critical Chance (short: ACC). Your aimed critical chance will always be higher as your base critical chance, as the aimed critical chance value starts out with the base critical chance.
Values above 100% are not wasted, as an enemies Critical Resistance will lower your Critical Chance. It is thus nice to have a value over 100% to ensure that your critical chance is as high as possible after being modified by your target's critical resistance.
Base Critical Chance
Base Critical Chance is used to calculate your crit chance when performing unaimed shots. Unaimed Shots are always shots in the Torso.
| Stat | BCC Change |
|---|---|
| Finesse | +10% |
| Living Anatomy | +3% |
| Steady (Drug) | -10% |
| Blood Moon (Drug) | +20% |
| More Crits (Weapon Perk) | +10% per More Crits perk on your Weapon. |
Aimed Critical Chance
Aimed Critical Chance is used to calculate your crit chance when performing aimed shots, apart from the Torso. This means, shots in the legs, arms, groin, head and eyes use your aimed critical chance.
Critical Resistance
Just like a shooter might have a critical strike chance, a target can and will have Critical Resistance. This causes them to have a chance to avoid a critical strike of a bullet, treating it like it didn't critical in the first place.
Critical Resistance has a non-linear progression. Thus there is no direct formula for it. The higher your luck, the more critical resistance you will have - however, Luck has diminishing returns. Higher Luck will give you less and less Critical Resistance.
For a full table you can look here: Critical Resistance Table
When an shooter fires a shot at the target, its Critical Chance is modified by the target critical resistance.
Example
Zmeja fires a shot at Gem, aiming for his left arm. Zmeja has an Aimed Critical Chance of 125%, while Gem has a Critical Resistance of 30%. What's the chance of Zmeja hitting a critical strike?
Zmeja has a 87.5% chance to hit a critical strike onto Gem.
Critical Special Resistances
4 out of 7 Specials have their own Resistances. A Critical Special will work as a modified to a roll. For example you roll against a knockout. If you have 80% Critical Strength, you have an 80% chance to avoid the effect of a knockout. This means having 100% resistance in a special would give you complete immunity in the status effects it gives resistances against. Values above 100% are not wasted, as enemies might have weapons that have weapon perks that reduce your critical special. So for example, if you have 110% critical strength and an enemy uses a weapon that has the Knockout Strike perk, which reduces your strength by 2 for the purposes of resisting knockouts, you would still have 100% critical strength, ensuring that you are still immune to knockouts. Of course, legendary weapons allow to stack such perks, so being completely is rarely a possibility against a very specialized enemy.
Critical Strength
Your critical strength determines your resistance to Knockouts as well as Weapon Drops.
| Stat | Special Strength change |
|---|---|
| Base Critical Strength | |
| Critical Strength (Perk) | +15% |
| Voodoo (Drug) | -10% |
| Knockout Strike (Weapon Perk) | -10% per level of weapon perk against Knockouts |
| Paper Wall (Armor Trait) | -10% per level of armor trait against Knockouts |
| Stone Wall (Armor Trait) | +10% per level of armor trait against Knockouts |
| Plated Gloves (Armor Trait) | +10% per level of armor trait against Weapon Drops |
Critical Perception
Your critical perception determines your resistance to Blinds as well as Disorients.
| Stat | Special Perception change |
|---|---|
| Base Critical Perception | |
| Critical Perception (Perk) | +15% |
| Blinding Strike (Weapon Perk) | -10% per level of weapon perk against Blinds and Disorients |
Critical Endurance
Your critical endurance determines your resistance to arm and leg cripples, being Winded, as well as having your AP Drained.
| Stat | Special Endurance change |
|---|---|
| Base Critical Endurance | |
| Critical Endurance (Perk) | +15% |
| Crippling Strike (Weapon Perk) | -10% per level of weapon perk against Cripples |
| Plated Gloves (Armor Trait) | +10% per level of armor trait against Arm-Cripples |
Critical Agility
Your critical agility determines your resistance to knockdowns and armor bypasses.
| Stat | Special Agility change |
|---|---|
| Base Critical Agility | |
| Critical Agility (Perk) | +15% |
| Piercing Strike (Weapon Perk) | -10% per level of weapon perk against Bypasses |
Aiming
When using a weapon with the ability to shoot single bullets, you usually have the option to aim for different body-parts. Depending on where you shoot, different effects might occur.
| Aim | Possible Damage | Possible Status Effects | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eyes | 20% - 50% Bonus Damage | Knockout Knockdown Blinded Armor bypass Disoriented |
+20 base AP Cost to fire -88% Hit Chance |
| Head | 20% - 50% Bonus Damage | Knockout Knockdown Armor bypass Disoriented |
+20 base AP Cost to fire -59% Hit Chance |
| Groin | 20% - 50% Bonus Damage +20% Bleed |
Knockout Knockdown Armor bypass Winded |
+15 base AP Cost to fire -44% Hit Chance |
| Arms | 20% - 50% Bonus Damage +10% Bleed |
Weapon Drop Crippled Arms Armor bypass |
+10 base AP Cost to fire -44% Hit Chance |
| Legs | 20% - 50% Bonus Damage +20% Bleed |
Knockdown Crippled Legs Winded |
+10 base AP Cost to fire -30% Hit Chance |
| Torso / None | 5% - 30% Bonus Damage | Knockdown Armor bypass Winded |
+0 base AP Cost to fire -0% Hit Chance |
Status Effects
Knockout
A knockout can be a possible critical effect. In this state, your character falls to the ground and will stay there, as long as your Knockout duration is.
The chance to be knockouted depends on your Critical Strength.
| Stat | BCC Change |
|---|---|
| Critical Strength | Your base chance to resist a knockout. |
| Stone Wall (Armor Trait) | +10% per level to your critical strength. |
| Knockout Strike (Weapon Perk) | -10% per level solely for knockout rolls. |
Duration in seconds:
| Stat | BCC Change |
|---|---|
| Quick Recovery | -0.8s |
| Quick Recovery (Armor Trait) | -0.4s per Quick Recovery trait on your armor. |
| Better Knockouts (Weapon Perk) | +0.6s per Better Knockout perk on your weapon. |
Knockdown
A Knockdown can be a possible critical effect. When receiving a Knockdown, your character is locked into a falling down and standing up animation for a short moment, causing you unable to do any actions during this time. It also causes you to lose the Deployed stance, should you have been in one.
The chance to be knockdowned depends on your Critical Agility.
Knockback
A Knockback can be a possible effect. It causes your character to be pushed away from the attacker.
The distance of the Knockback can be influenced with Stone Wall (Armor Trait), but can not be completely resisted.
Disoriented
The chance to be disoriented depends on your Critical Perception.
Winded
The chance to be winded depends on your Critical Endurance.
Weapon Drop
The chance to have your weapon dropped depends on your Critical Strength.
Crippled
Your limbs can be crippled - leading to stat debuffs, that will only go away once you heal the cripples with Doctor. Each limb has 3 stages it can be crippled to. A yellow limb is on its first level of being crippled. A red limb is on its second level of being crippled. A black limb is at its final, third level of being crippled. Each time you use Doctor, you only heal 1 limb and only 1 level of that limb.
Crippled Arms
Having your arms crippled severely reduces the performance of weapons you use. Each level of your arm cripple increases the chance of having your weapon dropped, when rolling against weapon drops by 10%. If the weapon is one-handed, you only use the lesser broken level of each of your arms - so having a fully broken arm, while the other is fine, will not increase the drop-chance. If the weapon you use is two-handed, both cripple levels are added together.
Each level of your arms cripple also decreases your Strength by 2 points for the purpose of weapon strength requirements. This means, that you might see a reduction in your hit-chance, if that makes you fall below the the requirement of your weapon. The same one-handed and two-handed rules apply here. If the weapon you use is one-handed, you only use the lesser broken level of each of your arms - so having a fully broken arm, while the other is fine, will not decrease the strength-level. If the weapon you use is two-handed, both cripple levels are added together.
If one arm is crippled at least to level 2. You will not be able to use two-handed weapons, until healed up. If both arms are crippled to at least level 2, you will not be able to use one-handed weapons, until healed up.
The chance to have your arms crippled depends on your Critical Endurance.
Crippled Legs
Having your legs crippled severely reduces the performance of your movement. Each level of leg cripple will lower your AP+ Regeneration by 0.75 Each level of leg cripple increases the chance of having being knockdowned, when rolling against knockdowns by 10%. Each level of leg cripple will increases your Runtime by 100 Runtime (Which effectively lowers your Runspeed of 5Hex/s to 3.3Hex/s) If one leg is crippled at least to level 2. You will not be able to run at all, only walk, until healed up. If both legs are crippled to at least level 2, your character will stop each time after walking 1 hex, requiring you to continuously issue the move command if you want to keep walking.
The chance to have your legs crippled depends on your Critical Endurance.
Blinded
A blind is effectively a cripple to your eyes. It severely reduces your Sight Range by removing 20% of it per level of eye-cripple. In addition to that, it cuts your Perception by 3 points for each Cripple level on your eyes. It also lowers your hit-chance by 15% for each Cripple level on your eyes.
The chance to be blinded depends on your Critical Perception.
Armor Bypass
The chance to have your armor bypassed depends on your Critical Agility.
AP Drain
The chance to be AP drained depends on your Critical Endurance.
