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

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

Start with the default Paper server reproduction using two players in a short melee duel, then review the linked Spark profile and video for the reported ghost-hit pattern. Compare swings that apply damage and knockback with those that only show the attack animation. Done means identifying the cause and verifying that valid melee hits consistently register without plugins or datapacks.