The presented article focuses on the issue of cracking in forgings obtained through metal plastic forming processes. In metallic materials, ductile and brittle cracking can be distinguished. Due to the nature of the article, attention was focused on the criteria for ductile fracture. Experimental tests and numerical analyses were conducted to determine the damage function values for cylindrical samples made of S355 steel in a rotational compression test in a channel under cold forming conditions in accordance with nine currently used plastic fracture criteria. The paper also attempts to determine the values of the damage function according to the hybrid Pater criterion. Numerical analyses were conducted in the Simufact.Forming v.15 software. During the tests, the distribution of stresses and strains was analyzed, which allowed for the determination of stress triaxiality and critical values of the damage function for all examined ductile fracture criteria. The tests showed that the hybrid Pater fracture criterion and the other criteria analysed accurately predict the location of the fracture in the tested samples in the rotational compression test carried out under cold working conditions.