Critical hit



'Critical hits' are attacks that deal extra damage compared to regular attacks. Critical melee strikes, regardless of the weapon used, cause small star particles to fly out of the target who was critically hit. "Critical arrows", which occur when the bow is fired fully charged, leave a trail of the same small star particles as they fly through the air.

Critical hits affect all damageable entities including players, mobs, paintings, boats and minecarts.

Critical hits in melee
In melee, a critical hit occurs when a player attacks a mob while falling. The attack deals a random amount of additional damage, up to 50% more (rounded down) plus one heart. This can be done by jumping. It can also be combined with sprinting to knock back the mob, although there is no extra knockback for a critical hit.

In an abandoned mine shaft, a player may choose to jump into a cobweb. At the cost of mobility, the player will be granted a major damage increase, as cobwebs greatly extend the time the player falls. This same tactic can also be used when descending in water.

More specifically, the requirements for a melee critical hit are:
 * The player must be falling
 * The player must not be on the ground
 * The player must not be on a ladder/ vine etc.
 * The player must not be in water
 * The player must not be affected by the Blindness Potion
 * The player must not be riding an entity

Critical damage
This is a chart cross-referencing weapons with materials to find the maximum amount of damage dealt from critical hits in version 1.3.2:

As fists and arrows do not have a "material", their damage is constant. Although Hoes are tools, they are not counted as weapons and have the same effect as fists (no durability loss and same damage)

History
The critical hit feature was implemented in the Adventure Update along with sprinting and blocking as an improvement to the combat system.

Trivia

 * Critical hits can be done while reflecting a Ghast's fireball, but won't change the damage or speed of it.
 * In Creative mode, attacking a mob while flying after having flown downward will get a critical hit.
 * Critical hits were first introduced to the game in Beta 1.5, but wasn't mentioned until Beta 1.8 when they gained a visible particle effect.

Fighting tutorial
Basic Fighting Mechanics