Okay, I'm sure there's something easy I'm not seeing, but I've been playing for a week, and I can't figure out how to use critical attack in VATS on my pc. The CRIT bar always looks charged, I select my shot,I have full AP, I hit the spacebar and... nothing.


I'm sure I'm missing something embarrassingly obvious, but I can't figure it out. Help!

Hit E to attack first, then hit Spacebar just before the attack occurs.

personally i think the new crit mechanic is something seriously worthy of a WTF

i think the game is awesome and think most of the flame threads are highly subjective, but if there's one mechanic in this 'new' fallout that deserves the WTF award, it's the new crit mechanic

it came out of nowhere and literally defies all logic...so WTF......

I never use it, literally out of hundreds of hours (altho i dont use VATS at all now) i've never used the crit mechanic, and if you're wondering, the only way you get a crit if you dont use VATS is from sneak attack, so my crit stats and sneak attk stats are always equal... this is the only thing about FO4 that i truly hate

Yea not a fan of the new crit mechanic and if you do not play using vats it also means that half the perks are useless since they are completely VATS specific.

The new crit mechanic is a thumbs down.

I would rather have my character build and weapons to be the only things affecting critical hits.

I don't think that sneak attack count as a critical anymore. That means, what ever perk or weapon bonuses you have for critical, they don't apply for sneak attack.

Sneak attack and critical hit are NOT the same thing. Critical enhancing effects have zero effect on sneak attack. The only way o get a critical his is via vats and one of the drug that gives 25% critical hit chance for some time and thats it.

It's a mystery to me. I don't use VATS at all and the stats screen lists crits done and they are always exactly the same as my sneak attacks. What is wrong? If sneak attacks are not crits, then seemingly the data screen.

It's possible that for the purpose of the statistic, these two are merged. But as far as I am concerned, I did not see any "critical" effect being applied on sneak shots. Of course I don't know code so I am not 100% sure.

There is one thing thou ...using laser enemies sometimes turn to ashes (not using VATS). In Fallout 3/NV that happened when enemy got killed by critical. However I don't know if that's still the case in F4.

Was checking wikia and it states that: "Outside of V.A.T.S. critical hits can still randomly happen." Without any detail what "random" means and without citation.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Critical_Hit

Also note that there is no entry for Fallout 4 under "critical chance".

I never use VATS (it was fun in previous games but is useless now that it doesn't pause the game), yet my enemies often end as goo and ashes. How do these appear, not from critical hits?

Queue up your attack sequence, then hit E to carry it out. Just before the attack you want to be a crit, hit Spacebar to perform the crit. This will use up your bar, ensure you hit no matter what the range, and deal critical damage.

Never use it, also one of those WTF were they thinking. Crits should be random, not saved up to use against some boss NPC.

How do one does that?

You also do criticles randomly in addition to the bar, it just doesn't tell you that they are criticles.

since they arent the same thing you can stack a crit on a sneak attack, yeah? have tried that yet for some reason...

lol.. I agree. I've used it maybe 4 or 5 times. I think It was a complete waste of effort and wish they would bring back chance of crit. My problem is it requres VATS and I just don't use VATS very often at all.

yes you can, works well on weapons that either charge the critical meter faster or that do more damage with criticals and that you can put a suppressor on

While I'm not saying you are absolutely wrong, can you provide absolute evidence that your statement is true? I'm pretty sure I have hit critical strikes from Iron Sight attacks that were NOT sneak attacks. Note that when I say evidence, I don't mean perk descriptions or UI messages, but something that emphatically proves you cannot generate a critical hit while outside of VATS.

Again, not saying the evidence does not exist, I just have not seen it to convince myself (and I continue to get out of VATS hits that do extra damage and give a distinctive hit sound that appear to be Crits triggering).

i've restarted the game like 5 or 6 times, i dont use VATS at all, and my sneak attk stats and crit attk stats are ALWAYS perfectly equal in the stats menu...as in like 118 sneak attk, 118 crit attk...do i really need to go make a screenshot for this?? :/

I have definitely noticed some shots hit harder than normal outside of VATS (non sneak, or against an alert enemy), but I have usually put it down to the enemy perhaps having spawned with less HP than others. I wish there was some kind of indication that the shot was a crit.

You can crit when out of VATS. You know you crit because the enemy will stagger (If you didn't also notice the larger damage dealt).

I think certain hit locations crit more frequently. Headshots crit ALOT, arms pretty common, not so much on torso and legs that I notice. (This info is anecdotal based on my observations only).

Hmm.. maybe. Would be nice to know for sure though.

do your observations extend to the stats screen in your pipboy?

there are guns that specifically increase chance of stagger, so not sure where the connection of stagger and crit come from?

Some perks also cause stagger, every automatic weapon with eperks causes stagger. YOU CANNOT CRIT OUTSIDE OF VATS.