Paladins has a new meta in 2026 — the hat meta. Shiro built a private Tempest mod that visualises every hitbox, and it finally shows how Paladins hit registration works.
How hitboxes work
- Every champion is wrapped in one large pill (cylinder) used for all hitscan and projectile detection. A single simple shape probably keeps hit registration efficient. Unlike most games, Paladins does no precision follow-up — any hit on the cylinder is a body shot.
- The pill ignores animations except the champion moving around the map. It doubles as the geometry collision shape, and each champion's pill is a different size.
- Inside it are accurate, animated "bones" for the body. They don't affect gameplay — except the head bone. After the cylinder is hit, a second check decides whether the head was hit.
The two problems
- A head bone outside the cylinder means you can't headshot at all.
- Another bone blocking the head bone turns a headshot into a body shot.
Pay to win
Older teams added checks to stop skin bones from blocking headshots; newer devs didn't know they needed to. So many skins block headshots (pay to win), while others strip the bones around the head and make you easier to headshot (pay to lose). That's The Hat Meta.
Pay to lose
- Drake Azaan
- Dragonette Betty
- Buccaneer + Omega Dredge
- Weiss Schnee + Demons + Shrines Furia
- Yang Xiao Long + Steel Forged + Dragon Forged + Warder Imani
- Exarch Jenos
- Spirited + Lovestruck Kasumi
- Pumpkin patch Rei
Pay to win
- Dragonborn Moji
- Abysal Lord Drogoz
- Soul Eater Jenos
- Dragon Forged Barik
