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Lethal Hits works on the hit roll: when you roll a critical hit (normally an unmodified 6), you can choose to have that attack wound automatically. Devastating Wounds works on the wound roll: when you roll a critical wound (normally an unmodified 6), the attack skips the save and becomes mortal wounds equal to the weapon’s Damage. Lethal Hits is best into tough targets you struggle to wound; Devastating Wounds is best into heavily armoured targets with good saves.
The big 11th Edition change is that Lethal Hits is now optional, and Devastating Wounds once again inflicts mortal wounds (with a strict one-model-per-critical cap). This guide explains both, how they stack with other abilities, and when to use which, with the dice maths shown.
New to the edition? Our Warhammer 40k 11th Edition hub covers the big picture, and all the 11th Edition rules changes are rounded up separately. For every other weapon keyword, see 40k weapon abilities explained.
Quick refresher: critical hits and critical wounds
Both abilities hang off “criticals”, so it’s worth being precise:
| Term | What it is in 11th Edition | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Critical hit | An unmodified 6 on the hit roll | Still counts as a hit |
| Critical wound | An unmodified 6 on the wound roll | Still counts as a wound |
| Automatic hit/wound | Any hit or wound you didn’t roll for (e.g. Torrent) | Never counts as a critical |
| Anti-X Y+ | Against keyword X, an unmodified wound roll of Y+ is a critical wound | Makes Devastating Wounds trigger far more often |
“Unmodified” matters: a +1 to hit does not turn a 5 into a critical hit. If you need a refresher on the basic roll-off, see how combat works in 40k.
What Lethal Hits does in 11th Edition
Each time an attack with a [LETHAL HITS] weapon scores a critical hit, you can choose for that attack to automatically wound the target. If you take the auto-wound, there’s no wound roll at all, so you go straight to the save.
The catch, which the core rules spell out in a designer’s note: because no wound roll is made, that attack can’t score a critical wound, so it can’t trigger Devastating Wounds (or anything else that cares about critical wounds).
What changed from 10th
In 10th Edition, a critical hit from a Lethal Hits weapon simply wounded automatically; there was no choice. In 11th you get to decide each time. For most weapons you’ll still take the auto-wound every time. The choice only matters when the same weapon also has Devastating Wounds or another critical-wound effect (more on that below).
What Devastating Wounds does in 11th Edition
Each time an attack with a [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] weapon scores a critical wound, that attack’s sequence ends and the target unit suffers mortal wounds equal to the weapon’s Damage characteristic. Three key details:
- No save of any kind. The attack sequence ends before the save roll, so armour and invulnerable saves don’t apply.
- Applied after normal damage. Resolve the ordinary unsaved wounds from the unit’s attacks first, then the mortal wounds.
- One model per critical wound. The mortal wounds from a single critical wound can only damage one model; any left over are lost. A D3 weapon that crits against a 2-wound model kills it and wastes the third mortal wound.
Feel No Pain still works against these mortal wounds, because Feel No Pain triggers whenever a model would lose a wound.
What changed from 10th
Devastating Wounds launched in 10th as a mortal-wound ability that could spill over between models. A later 10th Edition balance dataslate changed it so a critical wound simply couldn’t be saved (normal damage, no mortal wounds). 11th Edition brings mortal wounds back, but keeps a hard limit: each critical wound can only ever damage one model, so there’s still no spill-over.
How they interact with other abilities
| Combination | What happens |
|---|---|
| Lethal Hits + Devastating Wounds | Never on the same attack. On a critical hit, choose: auto-wound (no Devastating Wounds possible) or roll to wound (6s become mortal wounds) |
| Lethal Hits + Sustained Hits | The critical hit itself can auto-wound; the extra hits from Sustained Hits are additional hits that roll to wound as normal |
| Devastating Wounds + Sustained Hits | More hits means more wound rolls, which means more chances of a critical wound. A strong pairing |
| Devastating Wounds + Anti-X | Anti-X lowers the critical wound number against the right keyword, so Devastating Wounds fires on 4+, 3+ or even 2+ |
| Devastating Wounds + Twin-linked | Re-rolling wound rolls gives more chances at a 6; a re-rolled die can still be a critical |
| Lethal Hits + Torrent | Torrent hits automatically, and automatic hits aren’t criticals, so Lethal Hits (and Sustained Hits) never trigger |
| Devastating Wounds + Precision | Mortal wounds from a Precision attack go to the chosen Character’s group first |
| Either + snap shooting (e.g. Fire Overwatch) | Snap-shooting hits only on an unmodified 6 and those hits are not critical, so Lethal and Sustained Hits don’t trigger |
Worked examples
All of these use average results and a made-up example weapon, so you can follow the maths. Want to run your own numbers? Try our 40k dice calculator.
Example 1: Lethal Hits into a tough target
Your unit makes 12 attacks, hitting on 3+, with a Strength 4, AP 0, Damage 1 weapon. The target is Toughness 5 with a 3+ save.
- Hits: 12 × 4/6 = 8 hits, of which 12 × 1/6 = 2 are critical hits.
- Without Lethal Hits: all 8 roll to wound on 5+ (S4 vs T5): 8 × 2/6 = 2.7 wounds. After a 3+ save (fails 1 in 3): about 0.9 damage.
- With Lethal Hits: 2 automatic wounds, plus the other 6 hits roll on 5+ for 2 more = 4 wounds. After saves: about 1.3 damage.
That’s roughly a 50% boost, purely because Lethal Hits bypasses a bad wound roll.
Example 2: Devastating Wounds into heavy armour
Your unit makes 12 attacks, hitting on 3+, with a Strength 4, AP -1, Damage 2 weapon. The target is Toughness 4 with a 2+ save (3+ after AP), 3 wounds per model.
- Hits: 8. Wound on 4+.
- Without Devastating Wounds: 8 × 3/6 = 4 wounds; a third get through = 1.3 unsaved × 2 damage = 2.7 damage.
- With Devastating Wounds: 8 × 1/6 = 1.3 critical wounds become 2.7 mortal wounds. The other 8 × 2/6 = 2.7 normal wounds give 0.9 unsaved × 2 = 1.8 damage. Total: about 4.4 damage.
Against a 2+ save, the critical wounds do most of the work.
Example 3: A weapon with both
When a weapon has both, every critical hit asks a question: take the guaranteed wound, or roll for a chance at mortal wounds? There’s a neat rule of thumb. If you need N+ to wound, roll to wound only when the target fails its save less often than 1 time in N.
| You wound on | Roll to wound instead if the target fails its save less than… |
|---|---|
| 2+ | half the time |
| 3+ | a third of the time |
| 4+ | a quarter of the time |
| 5+ | a fifth of the time |
| 6+ | never; always take the auto-wound |
- Strength 8 into Toughness 4 (2+ to wound), target has a 2+ save and you have no AP. The auto-wound gets through only 1 time in 6 (about 17%). Rolling: 1/6 chance of a critical, plus 4/6 × 1/6 for a normal wound that fails its save = about 28%. Roll.
- Strength 4, AP -1 into Toughness 4 (4+ to wound), target saves on 4+ after AP. The auto-wound gets through 50% of the time. Rolling: 1/6 + 2/6 × 1/2 = about 33%. Take the auto-wound.
Anti-X tips this hard towards rolling: with Anti-Infantry 4+ against Infantry, half of all wound rolls become mortal wounds.
Which is better against what?
| Target | Better ability | Why |
|---|---|---|
| High Toughness, weak save (big monsters, some vehicles) | Lethal Hits | Skips the 5+ or 6+ wound roll |
| Elite infantry with 2+ saves or strong invulnerable saves | Devastating Wounds | Ignores the save entirely |
| Hordes of 1-wound models | Roughly even | Devastating Wounds can’t spill over, so a D3 weapon wastes damage |
| Multi-wound models where your Damage matches their Wounds | Devastating Wounds | Each critical wound removes a model with no save |
| Units with Feel No Pain | Slight edge to Lethal Hits | Feel No Pain still applies to mortal wounds |
| Targets with your Anti-X keyword | Devastating Wounds | Critical wounds on 4+ or better |
In short: Lethal Hits fixes a bad wound roll; Devastating Wounds fixes a bad save matchup.
Common mistakes
- Treating a modified 6 as a critical. Only an unmodified 6 (or the Anti-X number on the wound roll) counts.
- Auto-wounding by habit with a weapon that has both. Check the target’s save first.
- Letting Devastating Wounds spill over. One model per critical wound; extra mortal wounds are lost.
- Using Lethal Hits with Torrent or Overwatch. Automatic hits and snap-shooting hits aren’t criticals.
- Rolling Devastating Wounds mortal wounds first. Normal damage from the attacks is resolved before the mortal wounds.
FAQ
Is Lethal Hits optional in 11th Edition?
Yes. In 11th, each time a Lethal Hits weapon scores a critical hit, you choose whether it wounds automatically. In 10th it was compulsory.
Can Lethal Hits trigger Devastating Wounds?
No. If you take the automatic wound, no wound roll is made, so there’s no critical wound to trigger Devastating Wounds. You have to give up the auto-wound and roll to get a chance at it.
Do Devastating Wounds ignore invulnerable saves?
Yes. A critical wound ends the attack sequence before any save is rolled and converts into mortal wounds, so neither armour nor invulnerable saves apply. Feel No Pain still can.
Do Devastating Wounds spill over to other models?
No. In 11th the mortal wounds from each critical wound can only damage one model, and anything left over is lost.
Do Sustained Hits extra hits count as critical hits?
The critical hit that triggered Sustained Hits is still a critical hit, so it can use Lethal Hits. The bonus hits it generates roll to wound normally, and each of those can still roll a critical wound for Devastating Wounds.
For the rest of the cluster, read up on Overwatch in 11th Edition, Leader rules and attached units, or grab the 11th Edition cheat sheet.
Does Lethal Hits work against vehicles and monsters?
Yes. Lethal Hits works against any target, whatever its keywords. In fact it’s best against high-Toughness vehicles and monsters, because the automatic wound skips a wound roll you might only make on a 5+ or 6+. Your opponent still gets their armour or invulnerable save against the automatic wound.
Can abilities make Lethal Hits or Devastating Wounds trigger on a 5+?
Yes. Some abilities and Stratagems let a unit score critical hits or critical wounds on a 5+ instead of only a 6. When that happens, Lethal Hits or Devastating Wounds trigger on 5s too, which makes both much more reliable. Anti-X does the same job for Devastating Wounds against the right keyword.
Do Lethal Hits and Devastating Wounds work on melee weapons?
Yes. Both abilities can appear on ranged or melee weapons, and they work the same way in the Fight phase as in the Shooting phase. A critical hit or critical wound on a melee attack triggers them exactly as it would on a shooting attack.