Introduction: Without grenades, CS:GO comes down to purely aim dueling. Grenades are what take a game that already requires a large amount of skill, map knowledge, game sense, and coordination, and adds a ton of complexity and strategic options. It is essential to learn to use grenades properly if you want to play at a higher level. The way pros use grenades is an art form. In this thread I will be compiling the best video tutorials and resources I've found about grenades, as well as adding my own thoughts. About Grenades - Grenade Types: You are only allowed to carry 4 grenades at a time. Choose wisely. Smoke Grenades: Cost $300, you can carry one. Smokes bounce until they settle, and then they emit a cloud of smoke. The primary purpose of the smoke grenade is area denial and creating confusion. They cut off areas of the map and block line of site (very effective at denying AWPers control) On CT side they are mostly used to stop T pushes, on T side they are mostly used to prevent CT rotations. They effectively create walls, and although you can push through smoke it is usually not a good idea. Smoke grenades are usually thrown in predetermined places on the map (simply called "smokes"), and there are countless spots that are used to get a consistent smoke (as opposed to just "winging it"). More on this later. Flashbang: Costs $200, you can carry two. Blinds players who look directly at the explosion, friendly and enemy alike. Depending on how directly a player looks at it, the flashbang blinds for anywhere from an instant to several seconds. It is very important to communicate flashbangs to avoid team flashing. If an enemy sees a flashbang they will duck to avoid its effects. It is most effective to throw the flashbang in a way that it explodes right around a corner where an enemy is, and then peeking the corner immediately afterwards (making sure to avoid the flash yourself). This is called pop flashing. Players can pop flash their teammates from a safe distance, or you can pop flash yourself by bouncing it off a wall. Proper flashing will allow you to render enemies defenseless, so it is mostly used by Ts rushing a site or CTs trying to retake a site. It can also be used defensively, as in throwing a flashbang around a corner to prevent enemies from pushing you. One thing about flashbangs I found counter intuitive is the fact that they still blind through smoke. HE Grenade: Costs $300, you can carry one. These do a pathetic amount of damage and have a really small radius, but are still highly effective at wounding enemies and killing low health enemies, especially when thrown into confined spaces. Throw them at spots where you expect enemies to be (well duh). Not much more to say about these. Decoy Grenade: Costs $50, you can carry one. Emits the sound of your primary weapon, or your pistol if you have no primary. Shows up on the enemy team's minimap and explodes after a period of time. These can either be used to create a fake (useful on T side) or can be useful when holding a position. For example, if you're holding a site, you can throw a decoy in one area and hide in somewhere else to confuse someone pushing you. Decoy grenades are fairly obvious to spot though, because of the distinctive pattern of the noises they make. Molotov: The Molotov is available to Ts and costs $400, you can carry one. Despite being a glass bottle, it does bounce, and breaks when it hits the ground, emitting fire to a fairly large area. It has a short fuse time so if you throw it way up into the air it will explode before hitting the ground, and be wasted. The flames spread over several seconds and the amount of time it lasts is pretty short. It can be used for area denial like smoke, but players can shoot through it, so smoke is a better option (why not buy both!) It slowly drains the health of anyone standing in the fire or running through it, but running through it will not kill you if you're at full health so it is an option (but very risky and puts you at a big disadvantage). It can also be used like an HE grenade and thrown directly at a player, such as a CT defusing the bomb (RIP Olofmeister). Incendiary Grenade: Available to CTs and costs $600, $200 more than the Molotov. You can carry one. Has a larger fire area than the molotov but it is less effective against players wearing armor. Both Molotovs and Incendiary grenades stack in damage dealt per second, and both can be extinguished by smoke. A molotov or incendiary grenade thrown into smoke will instantly be extinguished. Wait until the smoke has completely cleared. The Basic Throws: These are the four basic ways to throw a grenade from standing still. Right click = underhand toss Hold left click + right click = short throw Left click = regular throw Jump + left click = longer throw Grenades throw when you release the throw button(s), but the distance thrown is the same whether you hold and release or simply click. I personally find myself using the left click + right click throw a lot. It's really good for medium distance throws. Jumping and throwing a grenade is very inconsistent. Depending on when in the jump you release it, where it travels varies a lot. Some players create a jump+throw keybind, but this is only really necessary for really difficult smokes that have a slim margin for error, and is not something I would bother with. In addition it throws differently on 64 tick and 128 tick servers and is not allowed in some leagues. Movement And Grenades: Grenades inherit momentum from your movement. One of the biggest problems I had when I started playing was getting into the habit of only moving forward or backward while throwing a grenade (usually forward). If you hit your strafe keys, the grenade will travel to the left or the right after you throw it, ruining your throw. Running and throwing will increase the distance the grenade travels, and running and jumping will increase it further. Running backward will decrease the distance, but this is not necessary in CS:GO because of the underhand toss and short throw. I think the grenade mechanics are fairly intuitive and while it is important to memorize specific grenade throws, it is also important to understand their mechanics so you can improvise in the heat of the moment. Collision: There is a skybox (invisible ceiling) and invisible walls in places that limit where you can throw grenades across the map. On most maps the skybox is very tight and can be quite low in some places. Be aware of it. Grenades can be thrown through unbroken windows but lose a lot of their velocity. Most grenades will either be thrown over obstacles or bounced around corners. The whole point is to avoid line of sight when using a grenade. NEVER peek with a grenade in your hand! How To Practice Grenades: In order to practice grenade throws, discover your own, and better understand how they work, you should practice on an empty server. To do so, go to Play > Offline With Bots > Casual/Competitive (doesn't matter) > and select which map you want to practice on. Select Bot Difficulty: No Bots. Once in the server, type the following commands into the console sv_cheats 1 sv_grenade_trajectory 1 sv_showimpacts 1 sv_infinite_ammo 1 mp_restartgame 1 When the game restarts, type impulse 101 to get $16000 and buy your grenades as well as a primary and pistol if you want to practice your shooting too. It is extremely helpful to also bind noclip to a key so you can follow your grenades across the map. To do that type bind key noclip and replace the word key with the key you want to bind. I recommend a thumb button on your mouse (mouse4 or mouse5) Smokes, Flashes, And Other Nade Throws You Need To Know: It's important to memorize these, because they're the fundamentals of strats, and if you do them correctly they are reliable and land in the right place every time (some are more difficult than others). A lot of these are very easy and you'll see most people using them, some are more high level. You can just memorize the most common smokes, or you can go practice on an empty map and try to come up with some variations of your own. Maybe you will find an easier way for you. There are many, many variations of these out there. Operation L2P A really great resource, collecting a bunch of videos of smokes and other grenades and overlaying the position of their paths on different maps. There are just about a million videos on youtube about smokes (especially on Dust 2) but these are just a few of my favorites. (I can only put 5 videos in this post!) Some youtubers who put out great tutorials: (seriously, subscribe to all of these guys) TheWarOwl adreN_TV HattonGames BananaGaming KODIAK csgo It's not enough to just watch these videos and think you can understand it. I did that for a while, and I got some of the more simple smokes, but going into a server and practicing is really helping me learn these. I would try to do stuff in a match I saw on youtube but I hadn't practiced it so I just messed it up horribly and make things worse for myself and my team. Don't do that. Good luck, and smoke mid every day.
