Overview
This page is about player hit detection in normal combat. Horses, ships, artillery, buildables, and world objects use their own collision rules.
Known Shape
The player hitbox is best understood as a simple body collider rather than a detailed outline of the uniform, arms, weapon, backpack, or headgear. In practice, this means:
- A tall hat, plume, weapon, or flapping coat should not be treated as a guaranteed hit area.
- The safest target is the center mass of the body, especially with muskets and pistols.
- Close misses around limbs, weapons, and decorative clothing can look strange because the visual model is more detailed than the collider.
- A shot that appears close on your screen may still miss because of weapon spread, projectile travel, movement, and server timing.
There is no official in-game hitbox overlay, so this page describes the useful player-facing behavior rather than a pixel-perfect diagram.
Stances & Animations
Animations and stances are easy to confuse. The important distinction is that a combat animation is not the same thing as a new hitbox shape.
| Situation | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Running, reloading, aiming, or swinging | The animation changes how the soldier looks, but it does not create a custom hit shape for every moving limb. |
| Crouching | Crouching changes the player's stance and lowers the space the player occupies. |
| Sitting | Sitting should be treated similarly to crouching: the visible stance changes, so the practical target changes too. |
| Gestures and roleplay animations | Do not rely on decorative animation movement as cover. Aim for the main body position. |
If a player leans visually through motion, turns during a swing, or performs an emote, aim at the body mass rather than chasing the weapon, arms, or cloth.
Combat Impact
Hitbox behavior matters most when the target is moving, crouched, partly behind cover, or fighting at close range. For combat mechanics that affect hit results, see Shooting, Melee, and Horseback Riding.
For firearms: center-mass shots are the most reliable. Muskets and pistols have enough spread that aiming at the edge of a model is rarely worth it. Rifles and carbines reward more precise aim, but the same basic target priority still applies.
For melee: block direction, release timing, reach, and player position are more important than the exact visual path of the blade or bayonet. If a strike looks like it barely clipped someone, the server is resolving the attack from the combat state, not from every animated point on the weapon.
Practical Advice
Use these habits when a shot or swing feels confusing:
- Aim for the torso unless you have a clear, close, controlled shot.
- Do not aim at hats, weapons, loose clothing, or the outer edge of an animation.
- Against crouched players, lower your aim to match the body, not the standing head height.
- When fighting through fences, windows, palisades, ship rails, or rocks, assume the world collision may matter as much as the target.
- If you are missing a moving player, lead less by the visible limb position and more by the player's center path.
- In melee, keep your crosshair and movement focused on the opponent's body rather than the weapon trail.
Recent Changes
Relevant combat and collision changes:
- 0.40: Crouched strikes remained in hold position longer, making crouched melee timing more readable.
- 1.x: Horse collision and horse hitbox adjustments improved mounted interaction reliability.
- 4.00: Age of Sail-era player animation and networking improvements made the visible character line up more closely with the live hit area than older builds.
- 5.x: Weapon balance, projectile readability, melee timing fixes, and controller indicators improved how combat feedback feels, even though the basic player hitbox remains a simple body collider.