Updated 25 October 2026. Facts on this page come from minecraft.wiki, community sites named in the text and the live Artemis PvP server; sources are listed at the bottom.
Critical Hits in Minecraft PvP
A critical hit deals 50% extra damage and happens when you hit while falling. In Java Edition you also need the attack meter at 84.8% or more and you must not be sprinting. You can jump about 1.6 times a second, so crits are slower than sprint hits but hurt more.
What are the rules for a critical hit?
minecraft.wiki lists every condition. You must be:
- Falling, and not standing on anything with a collision box.
- At 84.8% attack cooldown or more (Java only).
- Not sprinting (Java), since a sprint-knockback hit happens instead.
- Not on a ladder, vine, cobweb or other climbable block, and not in water (lava is fine).
- Not riding anything.
- Free of Slow Falling, Blindness and Levitation.
A crit shows star-shaped particles and plays its own sound. Every weapon except spears can crit.
Can you crit while sprinting?
Normally not in Java. But minecraft.wiki describes a trick: keep holding sprint after landing a sprint-knockback hit and every hit after that can be a crit, with sprint hits disabled until the sprint ends. The PvP guide calls this the crit-chain or sprint-crit state. In vanilla Bedrock, crits and sprint-knockback hits can happen in the same attack, though the Bedrock PvP guide notes that on Bedrock servers you usually must release sprint to crit.
What is crit-spam?
Crit-spamming means jumping constantly to land crit after crit. Because crits push the target less than sprint hits, the guide says to stay as close as possible rather than at the edge of reach. Its weaknesses: jumping is easy to see coming, it limits your sideways movement, and you have to look down at the opponent, which shortens your reach. A sprint hit on the jumper while you are on the ground breaks it.
Are crits different in Bedrock?
Bedrock crits also deal 1.5 times damage, but Java applies the bonus before enchantment damage and Bedrock after. The Bedrock PvP guide notes some big servers, such as The Hive, disable crits entirely, and that crit-spamming is risky on Bedrock against fast clickers. See Bedrock PvP techniques.
How do pros use crits?
With timing tricks like punish-crits, crit deflections and double crits, covered on advanced crit techniques. Basic timing is on attack cooldown.
On 1.8 servers there is no 84.8% rule, because the cooldown meter only arrived in 1.9.
Do crits matter on ArtemisPvP?
Yes: practise crit timing in duels, where ranked duels run from Bronze at 800 rating up to Grandmaster at 2000.
Frequently asked questions
How much damage does a critical hit do?
50% extra, so 1.5 times the normal damage.
Can you crit while sprinting?
Not normally in Java, but holding sprint after a sprint hit lets later hits crit. In Bedrock crits and sprint hits can happen together.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.