Headshots and crits: why crit rate does not apply to your shots

A gun’s crit rate does not matter for your own shots. When the player fires, the game replaces the crit roll: the shot is a critical hit if your aim cursor is on an enemy’s head and a normal hit otherwise. A critical hit multiplies damage by the gun’s crit factor (plus the headshot gain of some special rounds) and is then reduced by the target’s head armor instead of its body armor. Crit rate still decides how often enemies crit you.

These rules come from the game code of the October 2025 build. Update 2.3.30’s patch notes do not mention a change, but the code has not been re-read since.

What a headshot is worth

A headshot beats a body shot when crit factor × head-armor multiplier is larger than the body-armor multiplier. With equal armor on head and body, every gun gains its full crit factor. When the helmet is stronger, the gun needs at least this crit factor before aiming at the head pays:

Body armor	Head armor	AP 1 round	AP 3 round	AP 5 round
3	3.2	×1.05	×1.1	×1
4	4.3	×1.06	×1.1	×1
3.9	4.3	×1.08	×1.14	×1
5.4	5	×0.94	×0.91	×0.83
5.6	5.4	×0.97	×0.96	×0.92
4	6	×1.4	×1.67	×1.5
6	6	×1	×1	×1

Read it as: against 3.9 body and 4.3 head armor with an AP 3 round, a gun needs a crit factor above ×1.14 for a headshot to deal more. Factors below 1 mean the helmet is weaker and every headshot gains.

Guns by crit factor

Highest: Custom Mosin-Nagant ×5, Mosin-Nagant ×3.3, SV98 ×2.7, VPO (Lordon Mod) ×2.63, M700 ×2.55, TS-128 Smart Sniper Rifle ×2.55, VPO-101 ×2.4, SKS-45 ×1.8.

Below ×1.15, where a helmet only 0.4 points stronger than the body armor can make a headshot weaker than a body shot: Electrified MP7 ×1.1, MP7 ×1.1, AA-12 ×1.1, Candy Gun ×1.1, Homemade Shotgun ×1.1, MP-155 ×1.1, Psionic Gun ×1.1, Saiga-12K ×1.1, Saiga-12K (Tagilla Mod) ×1.1, Snowball Gun ×1.1, TOZ-106 ×1.1, TOZ-66 ×1.1, TOZ-66 Dragon’s Breath ×1.1, Water Balloon Gun ×1.1, Cube Gun ×1.1, Custom MP-155 ×1.

Most shotguns and the MP7 sit at ×1.1, so against Fleeze, Igny or Big Ice a headshot with those guns and AP 3 rounds deals less than a body shot. The sniper rifles at the top multiply a headshot by 2.4 to 5, more than any boss helmet in the table above takes away.

Bosses with a stronger helmet than body armor

Boss	Body armor	Head armor	Fastest body-shot kill	Fastest headshot kill
Big Ice	3.9	4.3	0.77 s	0.45 s
Fleeze	3.9	4.3	0.77 s	0.57 s
Igny	3.9	4.3	0.77 s	0.57 s
Misel	4	4.3	0.58 s	0.43 s
Tagilla	5.1	5.6	1.59 s	0.91 s
Tagilla	5.1	5.6	1.82 s	1.14 s

The headshot column is still faster on every one of these bosses, because the fastest headshot kill uses a high-factor gun: the ASh-12 at ×1.55, or the Custom M14 at ×1.65 on Misel. The trap is the shotgun or SMG you already carry: check its factor against the table above before aiming high.

Helmets break separately

Each hit strips its armor break from the armor piece it meets: headshots wear the helmet, body shots the vest. These pages assume armor keeps its full value, so they understate how much a long fight favours sticking to one location.

Try a boss with both hit locations in the shots-to-kill calculator. Every boss has its fastest body-shot and headshot kill in the boss kill records.