Ultimate Guide to Grenades - EVERYTHING there is to know

Grenades (a.k.a. throwables) are the most overlooked but essential equipment in CSGO. Effectively and properly using Grenades can be the difference between victory and defeat, or the difference between life and death. My aim in this guide is to provide valuable information on grenades and explain usage tactics.

While Grenades aren't used as much as they should be on lower ranks, they're crucial on higher ranks. In order to improve your skill, you will need to learn how to effectively use grenades.

Grenade Types

There are five different types of Grenades in CSGO:

• Flashbang
  
• Decoy Grenade
  
• Smoke Grenade
  
• High-explosive (HE) Grenade
  
• Flame Grenade (Molotov & Incendiary Grenade)

Each type of Grenade is rather unique and serves a special purpose in CSGO. In the following sections, I will explain more about each type and provide tactical information along with tips on how to use each one.

Basic Information: Stats

Name: Flashbang
Cost: 200$
Ammo: 2x (Competitive) | 1x (Casual)
Usage: Blinds and deafens enemies nearby upon detonation.
Impact Damage: 1-4 (Armored w/ Helm) | 2-6 (Unarmored)
Duration: 0.1-3.5 seconds
Buy Limit: Unlimited


Name: Decoy Grenade
Cost: 50$
Ammo: 1
Usage: Shows up as a fake spot on enemy radar while continuously making gunfire sound.
Impact Damage: 1-4 (Armored w/ Helm) | 2-6 (Unarmored)
Explosion Damage: 1-5 (Armored w/ Helm) | 1-7 (Unarmored)
Duration: 16 seconds
Buy Limit: 2 per round


Name: Smoke Grenade
Cost: 300$
Ammo: 1
Usage: Blocks field of vision by making a cloud of smoke.
Impact Damage: 1-4 (Armored w/ Helm) | 2-6 (Unarmored)
Duration: 16-18 seconds
Buy Limit: 1 per round


Name: High-explosive (HE) Grenade
Cost: 300$
Ammo: 1
Usage: Does explosion damage upon detonation.
Impact Damage: 1 (Armored w/ Helm) | 2 (Unarmored)
Explosion Damage: 1-58 (Armored w/ Helm) | 1-96 (Unarmored)
Buy Limit: 2 per round


Name: Incendiary Grenade (CT Side)
Cost: 600$
Ammo: 1
Usage: Sets the ground on fire and does flame damage.
Impact Damage: 1 (Armored w/ Helm) | 2 (Unarmored)
Flame Damage: 17 per second (Armored w/ Helm) | 25 per second (Unarmored)
Duration: 7 seconds
Buy Limit: 2 per round


Name: Molotov (T Side)
Cost: 400$
Ammo: 1
Usage: Sets the ground on fire and does flame damage.
Impact Damage: 1-2 (Armored w/ Helm) | 2 (Unarmored)
Flame Damage: 25 per second (Armored w/ Helm) | 25 per second (Unarmored)
Duration: 7 seconds
Buy Limit: 2 per round

Basic Information: Important Notes

Here's a list of quick but important notes about Grenades in General:

• Molotov seems to ignore armor while Incendiary Grenade doesn't.
  
• It's possible (although extremely hard) to get a kill with a Grenade.
  
• You can carry up to 4 Grenades in Competitive and up to 3 in Casual.
  
• If you directly hit an enemy with a Grenade, you will do impact damage.
  
• Each grenade has a distinct bouncing (hitting the ground/walls) sound.
  
• HE/Flame Grenades do less Impact Damage than the other three types.
  
• It's impossible to kill an enemy with full Health with a single HE explosion.
  
• Incendiary Grenade costs 200$ more than Molotov although it performs worse.
  
• HE Grenade does more damage if it explodes behind you rather than in front of you.
  
• It's possible to kill more than one enemy with full Health with a single Flame Grenade.
  
• Excluding flashbangs, it's technically possible for each player to throw 9 grenades in total.
  
• Decoys have the same bouncing sound as Flashbangs, they can be used as fake flashes.
  
• Flashing an already flashed enemy does not increase the duration more than 3.5 seconds.
  
• Flashbang duration depends on the distance and whether you're facing it when it detonates.
  
• Number of enemies in spread damage radius doesn't affect the damage applied to each one.

Basic Information: Throw Distance

There are three attack types for all Grenades by which you can control how far a Grenade will be thrown. As these attack types have been added in an update, not all players may know about them.

Short-throw (drop) - Right-click:
Weakly throws the Grenade. If you aim at the ground or move backwards while throwing, Grenade will be thrown right under your feet.

Useful for:

• Planting a Decoy at an exact location.
  
• Setting a passage on fire after going through.
  
• Dropping a Flashbang right behind you to blind pursuer(s).
  
• Throwing Flashbangs right at the corners before peaking and/or pushing.
  
• Dropping a Smoke right at your current location or a bit in front of you to block passages.

(!) Do NOT use while holding a HE/Flame Grenade, except in very special situations.

Medium-throw - Right-click AND Left-click:
Applies moderate strength to throw the Grenade which travels a medium distance.

Useful for:

• Throwing normally at medium distances.
  
• Close encounters where extra precision may come in handy.
  
• Attempting to predict enemy movement and throwing where the enemy would be.

Normal-throw (long) - Left-click:
The usual throw which applies maximum strength to throw the Grenade which travels a very long distance.

Useful for:

• Throwing at long distances and/or over the walls.
  
• Attempting to hit an enemy with a Grenade to do Impact Damage.
  
• Pre-throwing at a location where you think the enemy might be hiding.
  
• Performing bounce throws (hitting environment before reaching destination).

NOTE: All three attack types do the exact same amount of Impact Damage upon hitting an enemy, the reason you should use default throw for hitting enemies is because the Grenade travels faster.

Here's an image showing different throw distances:

Detailed Information: Flashbang

Flashbang:

• Flashbangs are used to temporarily blind and deafen enemies, bear in mind that flashbangs can also induce partial blindness. The further away you are from the explosion of a flashbang, the weaker the effects (both visual and auditory) will be.
  
• A single flashbang can completely blind a player for a maximum of 3.5 seconds, however stacking flashbangs on an already flashed player does NOT increase the duration more than that. You can only re-flash a player after his sight returns (even partially, you can't re-flash a fully blinded player) for an additional time.
  
• A direct sight of an explosion in long (LMB throw) distance causes blindness for about 1 second. Turning your back to an explosion will dramatically reduce the effects of a flashbang.
  
• A flashbang thrown right around the corner can blind you for a very brief duration even though it's behind the wall.
  
• You will only get completely blinded if you look at the flashbang model when it explodes (if flashbang model is in your field-of-view), even if it explodes at your side, you still won't get blinded for the full duration.
  
• You can team stack (throw at the same time) flashbangs to fully blind and defean enemies but it still won't increase the duration more than 3.5 seconds.
  
• You can still fire and move at full speed while under the effects of a flashbang. In other words, being blinded doesn't slow you down at all.
  
• Blinded players will protect their eyes with their hands (animation), you can tell if a player is blinded by looking at their model. However, this animation doesn't tell you whether they're fully blinded or partially.
  
• Your flashbangs can blind your teammates as well as your enemies even if server has FriendlyFire turned off. You can also blind yourself with your own flashbang so be careful.
  
• As long as your in the buyzone and buytime hasn't expired, you can buy and throw as many flashbangs as you want until you run out of money.

Detailed Information: Decoy Grenade

Decoy Grenade:

• Decoys are used to distract enemies by showing up as a fake spot on radar and making gunfire sound. While they're really easy to detect, they prove useful in special strategies.
  
• Decoys make the gunfire sound of the most powerful gun you're holding at the time of throwing them. If you don't want to reveal your primary gun by throwing a decoy, you can drop your primary gun, throw the decoy and pick it up again. This way, decoy will make the sound of your pistol.
  
• If you throw a decoy with no gun in inventory, it will make the sound of your team's default pistol (P2K/USP for CT, Glock for T). You can use this to your advantage on pistol rounds by buying a pistol and a decoy, dropping the pistol, throwing the decoy and picking the pistol up again.
  
• Decoys can be used as fake flashbangs to distract enemies (and make them turn away) so you will the upper hand after engaging them.
  
• Decoys explode after 16 seconds doing minimal explosive damage to players nearby.
  
• Bear in mind that decoys both show up on enemy radar and make gunfire noise, however shooting any weapon (silenced or otherwise) alone does NOT make you visible on enemy radar (this ain't CoD). This is a dead giveaway for decoys. You can counter this by throwing them while holding a silenced weapon so they make minimal noise.
  
• If you throw a decoy at a spot outside the reachable ground, it will still show up on radar, however it will show up outside the playable map. You can throw decoys at unreachable spots on the map.
  
• Each player can throw up to 2 decoys each round, making it possible for 10 decoys to be thrown in a Classic Competitive (5v5) match and 10 enemies to show up on enemy radar. This can be confusing for new players.

Detailed Information: Smoke Grenade

Smoke Grenade:

• Smokes are used to block enemy line of sight by creating a thick cloud of grey smoke which is impossible to see through.
  
• A famous quote says: "Flashes win duels, smokes win rounds". On higher rank, effective use of smoke grenades is crucial and can make the difference between win and loss.
  
• Smokes can be masterfully used to stealthy defuse (a.k.a. ninja defuse) a planted bomb as a CT.
  
• Avoid smoking (the smoke below, not the one above) where you're going, if you end up going through your own smoke, you're doing it wrong. You should throw smokes in a way that you will never have to pass through your own smoke ever. This is the most common mistake on lower ranks, you should learn to think before throwing a smoke, otherwise you'd be wasting 300$ money and making the situation worse for your team. If you have no idea what to do with a smoke, learn before ever buying one.
  
• Smoking is a common defense against Snipers, however it's also used by Snipers themselves to cover their tracks and escape from enemies. You can easily escape an sniper guarding a passage by smoking it.
  
• Smoke can be be used both for defense and offence, it's very useful for defending sites as well as retaking a bomb site.
  
• Smokes can be used to extinguish flame. If you throw a smoke grenade on fire, the fire will immediately cease. Smokes can be used to counter flame grenades. However if you use it to extinguish a burning passage, you will still have the disadvantage of going through the smoke
  
• The cloud of smoke lasts for around 17 seconds, a bit more the duration of decoys. If you throw a decoy and a smoke at the same time, the smoke will start to dissipate about a second after the decoy explodes.

Detailed Information: HE Grenade

High-explosive (HE) Grenade:

• HEs are used to deal damage to enemies and therefore are the offensive grenades. Armor is extremely effective against HE blasts, so purchasing them against unarmored opponents (usually on pistol rounds) can prove to be an effective way of dealing damage. A single blast can do up to a maximum of 56 damage to armored enemies and 93 damage to unarmored enemies.
  
• HE blasts will do significantly less damage if you face the blast. As long as the HE grenade model is in your field-of-view, you're facing it. You can receive considerably less damage from a blast by quickly facing the exploding grenade (exact opposite of counter flashbangs).
  
• A single HE blast can damage multiple enemies in the nearby area, therefore a single HE blast can technically do more than 100 damage without scoring a kill in a single hit.
  
• It's normally impossible to kill an enemy at full health with a single HE grenade (again this ain't CoD), it is also impossible to kill yourself (or a teammate) with a single HE if you have full health. Even if you manage to do impact damage to an unarmored opponent before the HE explodes right behind his face, you still won't get a kill. However it might be technically possible. (Credits go to this guy for pointing it out)
  
• You can team stack HE grenades (a.k.a. nade stack) to get instant kills. A typical way to do this is having everyone on your team buy a HE and throw it at the same time at an approaching enemy (or a choke point for multiple kills). It's not as easy as it sounds though but it's not rare to witness on higher ranks.
  
• A HE grenade can last about 1.5 second on air before exploding. You can't cook a grenade (for the last time, this ain't CoD) or otherwise affect the time it takes to explode.

Detailed Information: Flame Grenade

Flame Grenade (Molotov & Incendiary Grenade):

• Flame grenades are used to block passages and prevent enemies from passing though, it's similar to smoke in a way since they both discourage passage. Flames will do massive damage in a short time to anyone who steps through. It's possible to kill more than one enemy with full health using only a single flame grenade (if they're all stupid enough to stay on it).
  
• Flames can be extinguished by smokes, a smoke grenade can effectively counter a flame grenade.
  
• The only different between Incendiary Grenades and Molotovs other than the price is the fact that flames made by Incendiary Grenades somehow magically fail to pierce through armor. Not sure whether it's a bug or intentional but armor can be effective to a degree against Incendiary Grenades.
  
• The fire started by flame grenades lasts for 7 second while it only takes a bit more than 4 seconds to kill an unarmored enemy at full health. Incendiary Grenades take about 6 seconds to toast an armored opponent with full health. Helmet seems to have zero effect (obviously).
  
• Same as smokes, if you flame your own way, you need to learn to use flame nades before buying them.
  
• Since the fire lasts for about 7 seconds and it could possibly be lethal, it's a good strategy to set the bomb on fire in order to prevent the CTs from successfully defusing it in time.
  
• Molotov does a very little bit more damage than Incendiary grenades, you can stack flames on top of each other for additional damage.
  
• Molotov can explode mid-air while Incendiary can only explode after hitting the ground. (Credits go to this guy for pointing it out)

Donations

If you liked my guide and want to donate any worthless and unwanted skins/cases, I'd happily take and lose it on bets (can't bet cases though, so I'd just sell those and buy something to lose instead). :-D

Trade Offer Link:
http://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffer/new/?partner=2993352&token=pyy-53V8

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my guide, I hope you've learned enough to justify the time spent reading it.
The only thing left to mention is useful smoke/flash spots of different maps which deserves its own in-depth guide and the subject is too extensive to be included in my guide. However, other people have already written such guides which you can find yourself. Here's a list of some of them:

Dust II Smoke & Flash Spots:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=308294080
Inferno Smoke Spots:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=267582517
Nuke Smoke Spots:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=272059748
Mirage Smoke Spots:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=269755839
Train Smoke Spots:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=266491281

You can find the rest yourself if you like...

[Fr3aky]

you forgot left click right click release left before right and vice versa theres 5 types of throws

[OMEGAMAN]

when you are inside a smoke cloud does flash affect? and should it, since your eyes would be covered like behind cover?

[King]

Decoy Grenades no long show up on enemy radar and instead show up as a decoy grenade on your team's radar. This came into effect with the release of the Panorama UI.

Just letting you know :)

[dan]

gg

[Zundara]

Jacob {ลิงก์ถูกลบแล้ว}skinhub.com Just now Delete
if the flash is behind a smoke, will it flash a guy looking through the smoke on the other side?

[Lovey™]

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[Nettar]

im having a discussion with my friend

[Nettar]

does the molotov/ Incendiary grenades show as 1 hit or multiple hits in console

[DeeEhmz]

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[SIVA-GAMI]

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