A quick guide to smoke grenades

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Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike Source have an incredibly useful, but flawed grenade... the smoke grenade.

Smokes are used commonly, and quite obviously, to protect teammates from snipers, or to block enemy sight as you (or your team) advance. There are other applications these little guys can be used for however:

• As a decoy. For example, throwing a smoke in de_dust2 as T over the middle building to the stairs of short A, or over the doors of long a while your team boogies in an opposite direction.
• As cover while you pot shot at known peeking locations of enemies.
• As a fake flash. Throw it and run right behind it! A large portion of players will turn their backs or run away, giving you a great chance to get right up behind them before they even realize they've been duped.

There are however, some tactics that any player can employ to counter a smoke.

• Double tapping known peek locations that are covered in smoke.
• Tossing some frags into the smoke to tear apart any foe trying to sneak through it.
• Make an effort to note the color of a grenade to ensure it's actually a flash before taking evasive actions. If you see it's just a solid grey grenade, you have time to set your crosshairs up and just wait for the enemy to run into them.
• Or quite simply, using your radar to target enemies through smoke. This works even better as more of your teammates are in the area, as their enemy blips will also update your radar.

You can use the radar to aim your shots! With enough headshot practice, you should be able to judge where head level is, then use the radar to line 'em up and take 'em down.

I suggest loading up the pub and trying a few of these techniques out for yourself! If you discover any other neat tricks with these guys, be sure to drop a line in the forums!

Note: There is a difference between smoke grenades in Source versus 1.6. Smoke grenades in Source take time to bloom whereas smoke grenades in 1. 6 bloom instantly upon making contact with the ground.