Grenades in CS2 are an integral part of the game, rivalling the importance of firearms. Understanding CS2 utility for beginners is crucial to stop being a liability to the team. Without grenades, a full-buy round can be easily lost, simply by dying from a well-thrown flash. Understanding Counter-Strike 2 utilities and their strategic application will elevate your gameplay, turning you into a valuable asset in any match.

Our CS2 utility guide from bo3.gg will help you start effectively using them and learn the basic mechanics, costs, and methods of application of smoke, flashbang, incendiary, HE, and decoy grenades.

Smoke Grenades

In CS2, smoke grenades cost $300, and players can carry up to four different types of grenades, with only one being a smoke. This type of grenade activates only after landing, creating a smoke screen around it, lasting for 18 seconds.

CS2 smoke grenade spots are crucial for effectively using smokes for various purposes:

• Creating a smoke wall to cross certain locations with much less risk of being killed. It’s especially useful for crossing various positions on Nuke.
• Covering positions force enemies to wait out the 18 seconds, push through risking death, or use their grenades to gain visibility for a short period.
• A smoke grenade thrown into a Molotov can extinguish it, preventing enemies from forcing you out of a position, this is especially useful in pre and post-plant situations.
• In plant/post-plant situations, smokes are useful to hide for a bomb defuse, or cover a position from which enemies will push.
• Smokes are also key in CS2 map control with utilities, preventing rushes to specific sites or blocking key areas like the window on Mirage.

Flashbang

Flashbangs in CS2 deafen sounds and fill the screen with white light, blinding the entire field of vision and obscuring HUD elements. Flashes cost $200, the only type of grenade that can be carried in more than two.

Scenarios where flashbangs are useful:

• Flashes shine best when breaking through a specific point on the map. The enemy team either has to turn away in time to avoid being blinded, change position, or shoot blindly, trying to catch the right timing. Pop flashes, thrown in such a way that they activate immediately upon entering the observer's field of vision, are particularly effective and one of the most essential CS2 flashbang techniques.
• Stacking – with it, flashes will explode one after another, extending the blinding time, useful, for example, for entering point B on Inferno, A on Mirage, etc.
• Defensive flashes can be used to escape from enemies or disrupt their attack.

High-Explosive (HE) Grenades

HE grenades have a timed fuse, creating a loud explosion in a small area, dealing damage and breaking windows, doors, vent grates, etc. A maximum of one such grenade can deal 98 damage to an unarmored player and 57 to one with armour. The cost of this type of grenade is $300. Also, in CS2 coordinated utility plays can do as good as scoring a kill and HE grenades are perfect for such tasks.

Practical applications of HE grenades include:

• Inflicting damage, whether it's a single enemy in a roughly known location or a crowd - shaving off 30-40HP is always nice, plus it provides an advantage in shootouts. CS2 grenade strategies often involve coordinating HE grenade throws for maximum impact, potentially securing one or more frags with accuracy and timing.
• Considering the new mechanics of smoke grenades compared to CS:GO, in CS2, HE grenades can temporarily extinguish the smoke screen, gaining necessary visibility. Sometimes this is enough to make one frag or more. We will be seeing such CS2 pro utility tricks in the following events more and more often.

Molotovs/Incendiary Grenades

Among all the CS2 grenade types, this one has a different name and cost for the T and CT sides. For terrorists, it's called a Molotov and costs $400. For CTs, it's called Incendiary Grenades – they look different and are more expensive – $600. Both varieties of this grenade explode after two seconds of flight, don’t bounce off surfaces, and last 7.03125 seconds.

The damage from the fire is uneven – in the first few seconds, HP is taken off comparatively little, but closer to the burnout, the flames can easily kill you, dealing up to 40 damage per second. Multiple Molotovs/Incendiaries are stackable in terms of simultaneous damage.

CS2 Molotov strategies include the following:

• The Molotov is your best friend when you need to prevent the enemy from taking a certain area of the map, especially if you suspect the enemy is preparing for aggression.
• Molotovs are largely good for defending a planted bomb. They are especially good in cases where you know the enemy doesn't have a defuse kit. But even in such a case, it's important not to delay, otherwise, the CT will be able to defuse moments before death, like the legendary olofmeister.
• Sometimes you need to check a corner as safely as possible, without risking getting into a shootout. A pre-thrown incendiary grenade can force a player from the other team to move, especially if it's a popular position. If the enemy doesn't have a smoke, they'll have to either leave the spot or be roasted alive, so make sure to learn which Counter-Strike 2 utility spots are the most popular to avoid such a fate.

Decoy Grenade

Decoy grenade is the cheapest one in the game and will cost you just $50. It often gets overlooked in almost every CS2 utility strategy guide. After landing, it imitates the sounds of the player's most powerful weapon for 15 seconds. In the end, the decoy detonates, dealing up to 5 damage in a narrow radius.

Counter-Strike 2 grenade tips regarding decoys:

• With it, you can fool opponents by imitating the presence of only pistols, instead making a force-round, catching an unsuspecting enemy off guard. Similarly, you can make a fake sound of defuse.
• Decoy grenades visually resemble flashes and can imitate their explosion sound, which can be used when entering a point or for distraction.
• Thrown to another part of the map, decoys can simulate the presence of an enemy with the sounds of gunfire, creating false info for opponents.

We recommend practising CS2 grenade lineups alone as part of your practice in a lobby with bots. YouTube and other websites have many videos with current grenades for all competitive maps.

Your training can be facilitated by special console commands or configs, which you can read about here:

• Config for training grenades on your own offline server in CS2
• Commands for practicing smokes in CS2

A useful solution for proper Counter-Strike 2 utility training will also be to set up convenient binds for grenades. With them, you can quickly pull out the desired type by pressing the assigned button instead of using the mouse scroll. This can be done both in the settings and through the console.

In the settings menu of CS2, one can change binds in a dedicated subsection. Simply click on the gear in the top left corner of the screen in the main menu. Find the section named "Keyboard/Mouse", scroll down to "Weapon Keys", and then assign a key you’re comfortable with for each grenade type.

To facilitate training, use CS2 utility practice commands and configure binds for quick grenade access. In the CS2 settings menu, under "Keyboard/Mouse", you can assign keys for each grenade type. You can also use console commands for binds:

• Bind for flash grenades: bind z "use weapon_flashbang"
• Bind for smoke grenades: bind x "use weapon_smokegrenade"
• Bind for HE grenades: bind c "use weapon_hegrenade"
• Bind for Molotov/Incendiary grenades: bind v "use weapon_molotov;use weapon_incgrenade"

Keep in mind that each grenade should be used carefully, preferably along learned trajectories, so that your money is not wasted, or so that your utility does not make things worse for teammates from a bad flash or smoke. Moreover, grenades can not only be bought for oneself but also dropped to team members. The proper knowledge of CS2 utility tactics can often compensate for the lack of firepower if executed correctly.