C4 Explosive: A Comprehensive Overview

The C4 Explosive, commonly known as "The Bomb" or simply as "C4", is an essential part of the Counter-Strike experience. This guide will go through the basics that everybody should know, as well as some additional tips and tricks to master the bomb like a professional Terrorist or a smart Counter-Terrorist.

About the C4 Explosive

The C4 Explosive, commonly known as "The Bomb" or simply as "C4", is a terrorist-exclusive weapon that is an essential part of the game. The main goal with the bomb is to plant it at one of the two bombsites (A or B) and run down the 40 / 45 second clock (elaborated on later) without the Counter-Terrorists defusing.

"Stable and resistant to most physical shocks, this improvised plastic explosive has a detonation velocity of over 8,000 meters per second when ignited." - Official Description

Facts, trivia and noteworthy information

The radius or distance away from the bomb is one of the biggest factors to take note of, regardless of team. Contrary to some belief, hiding behind as many walls as possible wont save you from explosion as radius is the deciding factor. In simplistic terms, you should go as far away from the explosion site as possible rather than hiding behind many walls. This phenomenon is demonstrated perfectly in a map like Nuke but the reference below shows Inferno to present a similar effect.


The arming code for the C4 in Source and Global Offensive is 7355608.

On Casual and Demolition Modes, the C4 Explosive takes 45 seconds to detonate compared to just 40 seconds on Competitive and Premier gamemodes.

The C4 Explosive has equal running speed with that of a Knife, being 250 units per second, making it on par being the fastest weapon to run with.

Depending on the bombsite, the C4 will make a different beeping sound to denote whether the bomb was planted on Site A or Site B, which has been proven useful on maps like Nuke.

The C4 Explosive can be renamed by applying a Name Tag onto it, which can provide a source of uniqueness or comedy to players. An example of this would be my personal C4 which is named as "Samsung Galaxy Note7" shown in the screenshot at the top of the guide.

During some Christmas Updates, the C4 was temporarily wrapped as a "present" with a candy cane throughout the duration of the season. This is shown below.

Inspect Animation

The bomb has 3 unique inspect animations in-game, and can be demonstrated by pressing the inspect key (F by default) when you are holding the bomb.
These animations are attributed as the default animation, default with flip, and the spinning animation.

[T Side] Leadup towards planting process

At the beginning of the round, a random Terrorist will be given the C4. However, if a human player is playing with bots, and the settings are set to "bots defer goals to humans", only human players will be given the C4.

Dropping the bomb will leave it permanently in that spot and is resistant to any grenades or shooting to prevent it from being moved around with a minor exception to doors. It will perpetually flash at regular intervals and upon dropping, will make an audible sound. In addition to this, it will also be visible on any terrorist players' minimap at all times.

If the bomb carrier stays idle for too long (15 Seconds), the bomb will be automatically dropped.
If the bomb carrier is a bot, a human player can walk up to it and press (E by default) which will give it to that player instead.

[T Side] Planting the Bomb and Post-Planting

With the C4, you should walk towards either Bombsite, ideally whichever is closer or more viable to your circumstances, and plant it. This process is done by walking towards the areas which that the bomb is able to be planted on and either holding the Primary Click LMB or the Use Key (E by default).

It's noteworthy that depending on the map you are playing on, there are different areas that the bomb can be planted on which can grant unique advantages or better visibility from different positions that can make it easier to defend certain areas of the site.

Once planted, you should stay within or near the bombsite to monitor the area for the Counter-Terrorists, ideally not too far so that you can be ready in case of defusal. However, depending on the map and as mentioned, the positioning and visibility of the bomb from different areas can affect this parameter. In addition to this, the use of a Sniper Rifle like the AWP can make this effort much easier.

If you are still within the bombsite and begin to hear the 10 second warning, now's your cue to run away from the site as far as possible as it is much less likely for a defusal to take place now. However, it is not impossible with a kit so you should keep your ears awake for any defusal sound. By most accounts, it's already too late and so you should focus on saving yourself and your weapon (especially if it is high-valued like an AWP).

The main idea to keep in mind is the radius or distance away from the bomb. As elaborated previously in the 'Facts, trivia and noteworthy information' section of this guide, you should be as far away from the bomb as possible before explosion to attain as least damage as possible, especially at lower health levels.

[CT Side] Leadup towards planting process

Before beginning the round, assuming the players of the Counter-Terrorist team are playing in competitive or premier modes, no defuse kits are provided and come at a cost of $400. Depending on the economic circumstances, players may choose to buy this or leave it. This could have an impact on the outcome of the given round later on.

At the start of the round, members of the Counter-Terrorists faction may decide to begin the round as they please, mainly by either rushing the enemy or by defending the bombsites. Assuming the latter, it's typical that members of the faction will split up in an equal proportion, with any excess monitoring middle or misc sections of the given map.

If the bomb is found on the floor, either from error by the enemy faction or by a successful rush and execution, team members should make their way to regroup at the given location of the bomb and monitor it and prevent it from being retaken by the terrorists. In this scenario, the difficulty in maintaining this advantage can be directly proportional to how many team members are left on each faction.
If there is only one member left on the CT side where it is likely for them to be outnumbered, they should ideally stay in a safe, concealed location away from visibility.
A huge boost to the CT's chance of winning the round can be found if there is little to no time remaining for the round and the bomb is too far to be planted within time. In this, the only way of Terrorists securing a win is by eliminating all the CT's, if there is a chance for the CT's to be outnumbered, one member should try and hide or move away from the location so that in the even of such domination occuring, there wont be sufficient time for the enemy to locate the remaining CT alive in such case of a win for the CT's by running down the clock.

[CT Side] Planting the Bomb and Post-Planting

Planting the Bomb and Post-Planting[
Now that the bomb is planted, the first idea is to locate which site the bomb is present at, easily identifiable by the chime / beeping or any members present at either site.

Once the bombsite is located, all members should make their way to the site in a swift but cautious manner. With little time left in mind, you need to eliminate the enemy faction in a rapid fashion to retake the site and have enough time for defusing.

A key game-changer that could decide the fate of the round is if the CT's have a defuse kit available to them. In casual and demolition modes, this is provided by default at no cost or input. However, in competitive and premier modes, this is where the defuse kit from earlier may come into play. No defuse kit can still defuse the C4, but at a much longer 10 seconds to defuse it rather than 4 seconds with a kit, which can change the outcome.

As a Counter-Terrorist, there are some techniques that you may come across and use yourself.
One such technique is the "Ninja Defuse" which consists of throwing a smoke towards the general direction of the bomb and immediately defusing while the sound of the smoke drowns out other sounds. This technique can also be somewhat replicated by "masking" the sound of the defusing process through another grenade, like a flashbang.
Another popular technique is "fake defusing" which consists of triggering the defuse sound voluntarily to bait the enemy into believing that you are defusing, which they may reveal their position. This can fool anyone but comes with risks, like keeping an eye on the time so that your defuse wont be gatekeeped by time running out.
There are many other techniques that one may use when it comes to defusing but this guide wont cover all of them, but they can be found by searching online.

As a Counter-Terrorist without a defuse kit, if you begin to hear the 10 second warning, it's almost certain that you are outnumbered and wont have enough time to execute and/or defuse the bomb within that period, unless you miraculously find a defuse kit waiting for your presence (this is almost virtually impossible without some praying to GabeN type play). In this situation, your best bet is to just save your gun, especially if it is high value like an AWP, and take the round's defeat.

If you hear the 10 second warning with a kit, you may still have a chance at this, but is still dependent on the amount of enemies remaining. With no enemies, it's just up to time and how quick you can rush towards the bomb. If there are 1 or 2, chances are that you will probably be outnumbered unless you have a unique advantage against them (or they are just terrible). Any more than this and you are likely to have no chance with this without using a special technique like mentioned before.

If you've assessed the situation and decided to save, you should again keep in mind the main idea of the radius or distance away from the bomb. As elaborated previously in the 'Facts, trivia and noteworthy information' section of this guide, you should be as far away from the bomb as possible before explosion to attain as least damage as possible, especially at lower health levels.

Conclusion & Final Notes

After all of the information provided, you should now be well-equipped to execute both bomb planting and bomb defuse scenarios with all the key points at mind.

• Identifying the bombsites based on the audio
  
• Utilizing positioning and specific spots to your advantage
  
• How to handle both planting and defusing situations
  
• Using Radius and Distance when fleeing a site.

The amount of times where players from either team will attempt to save and fail miserably due to not understanding the concept of radius is quite significant so if anything's a takeaway from this guide, it'd be that simple yet crucial idea.

Thanks for checking out this guide, if you found it useful, why not give it a like, perhaps favorite it if you found anything here useful and have a good day.