Overview
Grenades are a misunderstood weapon in the Half-Life arsenal because of Half-Life’s somewhat clunky physics. This guide will help you unlock their potential.
Movement and grenades
First off, let’s take a look at how movement affects grenades.
The direction and how far a grenade will move greatly depends on what direction the player is moving at the time the grenade is thrown.
- Standing still will toss a grenade normally, but with a limited amount of distance.
- Moving forward while tossing the grenade will make it cover a much longer distance than tossing it while standing still.
- Moving backwards while tossing the grenade will make it cover a small distance, far shorter than one would expect.
- Strafing left or right will cause grenade to keep the player’s movement momentum, making it hard to hit a target. See the below example. The green circle shows where I want the grenade to be, while the red circle shows where the grenade landed.
Grenade tossed without strafing left:
Grenade tossed while strafing left:
What movement directions are best for tossing grenades?
When tossing a grenade, you will always want to toss it while standing still or moving forward. These ensure that the grenade will fly far enough to reach the target and will be accurate enough to reach enemies.
Avoid throwing grenades while moving backwards as much as possible because the grenade often won’t go far enough to reach the enemies you were targeting.
Angle and grenades
How far your grenade will go depends on the angle you are tossing it at. Generally, the higher you are looking up, the farther the grenade will go. On the other hand, the farther down you are looking, the shorter the grenade will go. Look at the following pictures to see how angle affects grenade distance. All of the below images were taken in the exact same location in the multiplayer map Lambda_Bunker. The grenade has a red circle drawn around it.
Grenade tossed while looking forward:
Grenade tossed while looking up:
Grenade tossed while looking down:
Jumping and grenades
Jumping will affect the distance your grenade goes. To make sure you grenade goes farther while still flying in a straight line, toss the grenade while at or near the apex of your jump. Tossing a grenade while you are still getting near the apex of your jump or going down after hitting the apex will make your grenade fly lower than expected.
Cooking grenades
Now that we’ve got basic movement down, it’s time to learn how to make grenades effective in combat.
If you toss a grenade as soon as you hit the fire key, you’ll find that it’s a poor weapon for killing most enemies because they’ll run far away from the grenade before it blows. To make your grenades actually kill enemies, you’ll need to cook grenades.
As soon as you hit the fire key, a hidden timer starts. This can be used to make a grenade explode soon after you toss the grenade. Holding down the grenade before tossing it is called cooking.
As soon as the pin-pull animation is complete, start counting from one to four.
Here are my general rules for what a grenade will do, depending on how long you cook the grenade before tossing it. This is assuming you’re tossing the grenade while standing still and not jumping.
- 0 seconds: The grenade will land near the target, but it will take some time to explode.
- 1 second: the grenade will land, but it’ll take a little bit of time for it to explode.
- 2 seconds: The grenade will explode almost right after it hits the ground.
- 3 seconds: The grenade will explode a little bit before it reaches the ground. Good for airbursting or close quarters combat.
- 4 seconds: It will blow you up as soon as you release it.
Learning how to cook is vital for making your grenades an effective killing machine against enemies that will run away from thrown grenades (Human Grunts, Alien Slaves, Alien Grunts). Practice a bit in grenade-filled mulitplayer maps by yourself, like Lambda_Bunker, in order to get a feel for cooking in a safe environment and the best times for the type of distance you want your grenade to go.
Basic grenade combos
Now that you understand all of the basics of grenades, here are some movement and cooking time combos that I’ve found to be effective. You can always adjust these or make your own based on your own experiences.
- Short range: Toss while standing still and looking straight ahead. Cook for two to three seconds.
- Medium range: Toss while running forward and looking straight ahead. Cook for two seconds.
- Long range: Toss while running forward and looking up. Jump if you need more distance. Cook for one second or zero seconds, depending on how far you are from an enemy. For very far, use zero seconds. For just plain far, use 1 second.
- Grenades over enemy cover: Toss while still and looking up. Cook for two seconds. Use medium-range or long-range combos if your grenades are missing.
- Getting enemy away from you while they’re very close to you and you still have your grenades out: Toss the grenade while moving backwards and looking down. Don’t worry about cooking; the point is to get the enemy away from you so you can take out another weapon in peace, not to kill him.
- Throwing a grenade down a hole: toss grenade while standing still and looking straight down. Cook for 1 or zero seconds.
Grenades in Counter-Strike 1.6 and Condition Zero
The tips about movement, tossing angle, and jumping also apply to the grenades in Counter-Strike 1.6 and Condition Zero.
Conclusion
Grenades can be tricky to use at first because of Half-Life’s odd physics system, but once you get a feel for it and understand how to use HL’s physics to your advantage, you’ll find that the grenade is one of the most effective weapons in HL’s arsenal. Whether it’s killing groups of enemies, killing an enemy hiding behind cover, or both, you’ll find that the grenade will get the job done.