Smoke Grenade

Overview

“The smoke grenade creates a medium-area smoke screen. It can effectively hide your team from snipers, or even just create a useful distraction.”
―Official description

The Smoke Grenade is a type of grenade available in the Counter-Strike series.

Overview[]

Smoke grenades are grenades containing smoke composition (such as potassium chlorate and lactose) that releases clouds of smoke. In the Counter-Strike series, they are tactical tools that can be used to provide smoke screen cover, confuse the enemy, or hinder enemy visibility and discouraging them from attacking.

It was added to Counter-Strike in BETA 6.5.

Players may only purchase one smoke grenade per round in Global Offensive to prevent smoke spamming.

When landing after being thrown, the smoke grenade will instantly release a cloud of smoke after a very short fuse time (the fuse time only starts after the grenade lands, so it will not explode midair). The dispersion deals no damage.

In Global Offensive, the smoke grenade instantly creates a thick, medium-sized (288 units diameter, or 144 units radius) smoke screen that lasts for 18 seconds after the fuse expires. The smoke screen is largely opaque except at the corners, blocking players' vision. If a player enters the smoke, the player's weapon model will fade slightly and all vision will be obscured, even at zero range.

In Global Offensive, the smoke grenade prevents vision-related gameplay elements from taking effect, such as being detected on the radar or having the player name shown when being aimed at. It prevents an enemy player appearing on the radar for 15 seconds.

In Source, a smoke cloud prevents an enemy appearing on the radar for 13 seconds. The smoke cloud duration is 18 seconds.

In Counter-Strike the smoke cloud lasts for 25 seconds.

Bots cannot attack in a cloud of smoke and will not detect enemies within the smoke, giving an advantage to human players. However, should a bot bump into an enemy player within the smoke, that bot will quickly react and shoot down the opposing team member. Furthermore, as the smoke thins out, they can become able to fire back at enemies.

In Global Offensive, the smoke grenade will release the smoke instantly when it makes contact with flames from the Molotov and Incendiary Grenade, and will extinguish the fire. Firebombs will fail to emit fire if they were thrown into a smoke.

Deleted Scenes[]

In Deleted Scenes, the smoke grenades are used for weakening purposes, or create concealment against enemy vehicles. When the smoke spreads near an enemy, they will cough and cannot attack. This tactic can be done to any enemies, especially snipers and M72 LAW users. Furthermore, M2 gunners can be temporary distracted for a short period using a smoke grenade. The distraction effect also applies to friendly NPCs. Only the player is not affected by this.

Tactics[]

The main purpose of the smoke grenade is to throw it at an area where enemies cannot see you and/ or your allies, but you can.
- Toss a smoke grenade at pathways where players (on the opposing team) will commonly traverse through. If possible, position it at a specific location where you can still see assailants but still be concealed.
Use It after you plant a bomb on a site and throw it at the C4 or entrance and hide to the hidden spot and kill the enemy while it defuses.
Use it to distract snipers. They may try to find out if the enemy is inside or outside of the cloud. Snipers can also retreat and avoid the smoke. However, beware of users that armed with semi-automatic sniper rifle such as the Krieg 550 Commando/SCAR-20 and G3SG1, since they prefer to spray blindly through smoke.
- Similar tactics may also be used by snipers, as they may throw a smoke grenade to cover choke points and kill any enemy that comes out.
Throw it at tight corridors; this will force a few enemies to blindly spray in it.
Often times, the smoke grenade is useful in allowing players to throw grenades through the smoke without being involved in a great risk of being easily spotted.
- The cloud formed by the smoke can allow players to throw other grenades without being easily detected
Most players will instinctively spray into or follow smoke clouds, so on winding maps these can be used to throw enemies off your track. Enemies with an LMG or a weapon with high magazine capacity will more likely to spray into smoke.
Use this grenade for cover when entering/exiting or guarding entryways to important areas, such as a bombsite. This will make it much harder for enemy snipers to eliminate you and other opposing team members may be cautious as they attempt to enter.
If friendly fire is enabled, players will be careful to avoid killing team members so they may be hesitant in firing their weapons in the smoke.
When a smoke grenade has been deployed, players will have difficulty in determining the amount of players within the smoke. Due to this, it is advised to stay away from smoke grenades or throw a grenade to prevent enemies from seeking cover or for ambushing.
It is possible to fool non-AI enemies to mistake a flying smoke grenade as a flashbang. If this happens, you can take advantage of this and eliminate targets.
Smoke grenades are often used to conceal movement. However, experienced players will often try to find elevated areas to fight back. Basically, enemies in lower areas that are faced with the dilemma of traversing through the smoke or avoiding it are at a serious disadvantage.
A smoke grenade can conceal a bomb defuser when not all enemies are dead.
Confuse enemies by using a smoke grenade in an area you don't want to personally traverse

Counter-tactics[]

Throw an HE grenade or spray within the cloud. If an enemy is hiding in it, this will damage or kill them.
- Enemies will often shower grenades at the cloud so it may be more wise to move away from the smoke rather than waiting it out.
Retreat and camp on areas distant from the cloud.
If a smoke cloud is formed in a tight area, evacuate immediately while being careful.
If you have allies and the presence of enemy players have been confirmed, you can spray bullets or burst fire at the cloud.
- You may choose to go through the smoke if you have plenty of back up but this is risky and not recommended.
Using a smoke grenade and a decoy grenade can fool enemies so be alert.
Assailants will often take advantage of the smoke by throwing a flashbang, emerge from the smoke, eliminate blinded enemies, retreat back into the smoke, and repeat this process. This can confuse enemies to a great extent thus be sure to stick together with team members.
Be aware of areas with higher elevation if a smoke grenade has been deployed in lower areas. Players can easily ambush enemies who are in lower ground and cannot see through the smoke.

Update History

May 22, 2019

Smoke, HE Grenade explosions, and fire are now always displayed consistently between all players.

February 12, 2019

Fixed the ‘radar spotting enemies through smoke’ mechanic to behave the same regardless of the game server tickrate, and to not reveal enemies on the opposite side of the smoke until the smoke effect dissipates.

September 26, 2017

Fixed rare cases when smoke would not extinguish fire when it bounces between the flames.

March 31, 2015

Smoke grenades are now more reliably kept track of on the client to prevent mismatches between smoke particle visuals and screen overlay visuals.
Fixed players being able to double stack inside a smoke to peek out of the top (and be really hard to see from outside the smoke).
Updated expiration of the smoke screen overlay to match more closely to the visuals of when the third person particles expire and vice versa.
Updated the vertical position slightly of the smoke particles to reduce seeing though edges of the smoke (particularly at the bottom).
Fixed spectator sometimes not getting the smoke overlay for the player they are spectating when that alive player is inside smoke.

August 1, 2014

Flagged smoke grenade particles to face player camera position instead of camera direction.

November 16, 2012

Smoke grenade visibility on the edges of smokes has been adjusted to obscure vision less.
Improved some cases of particle sorting between smoke and molotovs and other particle systems.

Appearances[]

Smoke grenades are usable by the player in every level except for Secret War, Thin Ice, Turn of the Crank, Run!, and Miami Heat.

The smoke created by explosions in Recoil, Secret War, and Fastline are made by spawning smoke grenades (the sound of the grenade "explosion" can be heard), and can stun enemies like normal smoke grenades.

Gemini

Main article: Gemini

The Smoke Grenade is among the weapons the players can choose from at the beginning of the Phoenix Compound map in "The Extraction", "Once More Into The Breach", and "The Enemy Of My Enemy...".

Trivia[]

In the GoldSrc games, the model of the smoke grenade, alongside the Flashbang and HE Grenade, is a retextured version of the CS Grenade model, featuring different color stripes.
- The CS grenade (and by extension, the smoke grenade) is modeled after M7A3 CS gas grenade.
  - The text "M7A3 RIOT CS" can be seen on the smoke grenade in Counter-Strike.
In Counter-Strike, the pin remains on the smoke grenade even after the player performs the animation of pulling the pin.
The smoke grenade in Source is modeled after the M18 Smoke Grenade.
The smoke grenade in Global Offensive is modeled after the Model 5210 Smoke Grenade.
In Counter-Strike: Source, if a Terrorist is planting the bomb within a cloud of smoke, a bright flash emits from the bomb at the instant when the bomb was beginning to be planted. This can give away positions or alert a nearby lurking "ninja defusing" Counter-Terrorist to a plant even before the sound of the plant is heard.
The smoke grenade kill icon in Counter-Strike: Source is the same as the suicide icon.
Although the Smoke Grenade in Source covers the area completely with smokescreen. Any volumetric lights casted on the lamp on the map can be seen through and reveal any players beneath the lights. Such lights are present in Prodigy and Train.
In Source and Global Offensive only, if the smoke grenade is thrown into the water, it will create bubbles instead of smoke.
In Deleted Scenes, players and the AI would cough when entering the smoke. This feature was missing from Source, but made a return in Global Offensive.
- SAS CTs (who have gas masks) will not cough loudly when entering smoke. Furthermore, a faint breathing sound through a gas mask can be heard upon entering the smoke.
The text "44952 Washington Ave" on the smoke grenade in Global Offensive is misspelt as "44952 Washinton Ave".
In Counter-Strike, the player never actually pulls the pin.

References[]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXiDQZ-SJoc

External links[]

Smoke grenade at Wikipedia