I get insanely high amounts of ghost hits even when my ping and specs are good and stable.

[Smileyfacearctic]

Expected behavior

When a player swings and lands a hit on another entity within valid reach, the hit should register — dealing damage and applying knockback.

Observed/Actual behavior

In a 20-second sword duel on any server, I get between 1-6 "ghost hits" — the swing animation plays but no damage or knockback is applied to the target, even at point-blank range on a stationary target with full reach. This is extremely significant in PvP/kit-based combat. I have video footage and a spark profiler report showing this happening on a clean, low-load, plugin-free Paper server.

Steps/models to reproduce

1. Start a default Paper server with no plugins/anti-cheat installed.
2. Join with two players (or a player + stationary target) and duel/spar in melee combat within normal reach.
3. Over a short duel (~20 seconds), a percentage of swings show the attack animation but do not apply damage/knockback, despite the target being clearly within range.

Note: reproduction rate appears to vary significantly between players — I get this very consistently (1-6 ghost hits per ~20s duel), while some other players I've directly tested against on the same server rarely or never experience it. I have not been able to determine what specifically makes it more or less likely to occur, but it does not appear to be ping, hardware, or client-related on my end (network/client-side causes have been ruled out via packet capture and system diagnostics). It may be related to click/movement precision or timing, but this is unconfirmed.

Plugin and Datapack List

None (default install, no plugins added)

Paper version

26.2-112-main@c9e894d (2026-08-11T05:18:39Z), API 26.2.build.112-stable

Other

Spark profile: https://spark.lucko.me/XfQbmPLcRw
Video footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv8q8ijhtB4

[Cubicake]

Are you both using vanilla clients?

[Smileyfacearctic]

Are you both using vanilla clients?

We’ve tested both vanilla and modded clients. The issue persists across Lunar, Dawn, and vanilla, so it doesn’t appear to be client-specific. It also happens across multiple Paper servers, while I barely experience it on a vanilla/Essential server even with ~130ms ping.

[personalized-advertising]

Are you both using vanilla clients?

We’ve tested both vanilla and modded clients. The issue persists across Lunar, Dawn, and vanilla, so it doesn’t appear to be client-specific. It also happens across multiple Paper servers, while I barely experience it on a vanilla/Essential server even with ~130ms ping.

You likely need to increase "client-interaction-leniency-distance" which was 3 blocks for the longest time but mojang in 1.19 made it 1 block meaning anyone above 150ms would have frequent ghost hits.

[Smileyfacearctic]

Are you both using vanilla clients?

We’ve tested both vanilla and modded clients. The issue persists across Lunar, Dawn, and vanilla, so it doesn’t appear to be client-specific. It also happens across multiple Paper servers, while I barely experience it on a vanilla/Essential server even with ~130ms ping.

You likely need to increase "client-interaction-leniency-distance" which was 3 blocks for the longest time but mojang in 1.19 made it 1 block meaning anyone above 150ms would have frequent ghost hits.

Yes but we were both below 30ms so this doesnt make sense. If you watch the YT link I put at the bottom of my post, u can see the gameplay.

[Smileyfacearctic]

I just edited my post, I thought the issue was only happening on paper servers but I tried again on a completely vanilla server and the issue still persists.

[itarqos5]

Honestly just a skill issue (/j)