đź’ĄEscape From Tarkov Grenade Guide + 13 grenade tips & tricks from Sherpas
Welcome to the first of many guides on EFT-Ammo! Expect many more guides written about a variety of (advanced) topics about Escape From Tarkov written for newer, returning and even veteran players. Written by Seikosha - BSG Sherpa, competitive player & content creator.
Grenades can be extremely useful and powerful in Tarkov - if used in the right way. Grenades aren't actually meant to kill people with (although throwing an impact nades at someone works just fine) in most cases - but can be used in a wide range of opportunities to put a fight in your advantage.
Are you stuck getting grenade kills for Prapor's grenadier? Need advice & tips from an actual BSG sherpa about when and how to use nades? This guides will explain you what grenades there are in Tarkov, how to obtain them & how to use grenades as a weapon but also as a tactical tool!
Explanation of different grenades
There is various Grenades in Escape From Tarkov with different usages & utilization & fuze times. We will list them here from long to short fuse: M67, RGD-5, F1, VOG-17, VOG-25, RGO, RGD. We'll cover how and when to pick what grenade in a bit.
Fragmentation grenades
The VOG-17 and VOG-25 are feared by most PMC's as they have a really short fuze thime, making it almost impossible to run away from one of these being thrown at your feet.
Stun grenades
Stun grenades will concuss and blind your opponent, the blinding time depends on the distance to the flash, type of flash and if the opponent is wearing any blindness protection gear like the Condor Glasses, and if the opponent is looking into the flash.
The quest "The Huntsman Path - Controller" requires you to kill 2 blinded opponents. For this quest you can use both the M7290 grenade and the Zarya to cause the stun effect on your opponent. I would recommend going Factory while you are doing other quest(s) there at the same, since distance is always close and enemies very often low-geared, so it will be easiest to stun an opponent without dying beforehand. Alternatively, you can use a KS-23 with flashbang rounds, but these are locked behind a BEAR-faction quest nowadays.
We will talk about how to use stun grenades to fight A.I. & utilization later!
Smokes Grenades
Smoke nades function exactly as you think, you can smoke an area, you can use it to block off sight from opponents or throw it on an airdrop to prevent people shooting you in the head when looking. Currently, you cannot use thermal sights like the FLIR or REAP-IR to look through smoke from smoke grenades.
Currently smoke grenades are not commonly used, hopefully we can see smoke nades more being used in the arena.
How to obtain grenades in Tarkov?
There's a few way to obtain grenades in tarkov:
- Buy from Traders
- Buy from the Fleamarket
- Barter trades
- Craft in hideout
- Loot grenade container
- Find on dead A.I. (boss guards, raiders, rogues) in pocket slot
Buy from Traders
Different trades sell different grenades. The most important grenades that are being sold in quantity by traders are:
- Prapor LL2 | F-1 Grenade - 4 per reset
- Prapor LL3 | RGD-5 grenade - 3 per reset
- Peacekeeper LL | M67 Grenades - 10 per reset | after completing his task Spa Tour Part 2
Buy from Fleamarket
All grenades can be FIR and sold on the flea market - but watch out, very often they are quite expensive. I recommend to stock up on 4 RGD-5 and F1 grenades from Prapor to make sure you always have plenty of grenades.
Barter Trade
There's a few really good barters for grenades, and some grenades cannot be bought but only bartered.
Craft in hideout
There's 2 crafts that you can do in the hideout, one for 8x VOG-25 at workbench level 1 and one for 6x RGD-5 at workbench level 3. They are not cheap, and therefor it is not recommend (better crafts to do at your workbench) but if you really want to stack up some VOG-25's, you can.
Loot grenade container in-raid
You can find the grenade container on pretty much every map in Escape From Tarkov, and they hold potentially every type of grenade and related barter materials (TP-200, UZRGM grenade Fuze, 40mm VOG 25).
Find on dead A.I.
A.I. In Tarkov will hold grenades in their pocket slots. Random scavs might hold one grenade, smoke grenades or flashbangs in their pockets. Mainly rogues, raiders, boss & boss guards will hold 1 to 2 grenades in their pocket slot. It is worth checking!
Damage from grenades
Grenades work quite interesting in Tarkov - Every grenade has a explosion radius with a minimum and maximum radius, we can call that the impact area. In this area you will most certainly, definitely die.
When a grenade explodes it fragments and the amount of damage dealt by each fragment and the amount of fragments differentiate per nade.
Shrapnel of nades then act like bullets shooting all around and can even deflect. Each fragment also has it’s own ballistics stats, just like any other bullet, such as fragment chance, projectile speed, damage, pen power, armor damage, and light and heavy bleed chances.
Utilization of Grenades
As a weapon
Use case that most people think of when using nades is to kill someone with it. When you know where someone (in cover) is, for example in a room or behind a rock, you throw a nade on them to kill them with it.
That's definitely not the only use, there are many ways you can utilize nades to your advantage.
Movement
Nades can perfectly be used as utilization to move the fight into your advantage. Let’s say you are stuck in cover or a room yourself, you can throw a nade out towards or even in the area you want to be “clear”, since most likely the opponent will have to move or reposition, and you can use that time to move and reposition yourself into a better angle.
On the opposite, let’s say the opponent is stuck and you want the opponent to move, you can throw a nade to flush them out and have them reposition, which gives you the opportunity to shoot them when they are moving.
Push with a nade
Throwing a nade not on the opponent, but in an area you want to push in to is a great way to move closer and in a better position, let’s say someone is holding an angle down the hallway, you can throw a nade there to make them unpeek or move just enough and then push straight after the nade to gain the upper hand. The M67 even allows for really smart plays since its long fuze time, so you can throw a nade and push over it since the opponent will not know its a m67 and can give you the drop on them when you unexpectedly push through.
As Noise / Distraction
A lot of people will react to a nade being thrown anyway, even if they are in cover or the nade is not close. This is a perfect distraction to peek and hold an angle (as they will have to repeek after) or even move during the nade utilizing the sound of the nade so that the opponent cannot hear what you are doing. It’s great to pull a flank too without them knowing instantly what you are going to do.
Against A.I. / Killa / Boss / Raiders / Rogues
You can use nades or even flashbangs to flush out or gain information against A.I., so if you hear movement or are not sure if there is a.i., you can throw a nade and how a.i. reacts to that as normally they will reposition and this can give you information or even make them run into your angle. A.I. can also shoot randomly.
Ex-sherpa Perrence shows a perfect example here.
Flashbangs are great for information, cheap and quiet, and can be used to check if a boss is in a certain area, popular for people hunting killa as an example.
If you are going for stylish one - killa hunters use a flashbang to gather information on wheter scav(s) are in a certain position. Normally, they flashbang idea cafe / kitchen, oli between the shelves and near goshan elevator / medical tents.
How much grenades to bring?
This is a preference and depends on your playstyle, if you PvP alot you will see that you use more grenades compared to if you're questing and/or PvE more.
I normally bring 2 to 4 grenades a raid. But you should be using nades, in order for that many to be useful. Try to bring atleast one grenade for fights. If you picked up a thing or two from this guide and start using nades more, soon you won't be bringing less then 4 grenades anymore!
12 Tips & Tricks about grenades from 3 Tarkov BSG Sherpa's
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You can bounce nades of walls to throw them while in cover or reach areas you can’t otherwise get to. Being in a nade animation makes you vulnerable as you can't shoot back, make sure you always nade from cover.
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The best way to dodge nades - depending on cover you will want to get either out of the nade radius, or get cover between you and where the grenade will land. Normally your head dies first (least amount of HP) so get your head as far away as possible from the nade.
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Do not go prone in open areas, as this will make you a very likely target for a grenade. Check this clip from Reflix66 as a great example how not to.
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When you are using nades as a solo, you can get pushed easily when you are too close to your opponent. make sure there is enough distance or cover to throw the nade and not get pushed when the enemy hears the telltale click of the pin being pulled. When you are in a team, one PMC can throw the nade and the other can hold the angle to counter a potential push.
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Try a fake nade to bait your opponent in pushing you - A lot of players will react or even push you when you take out a nade since it makes a distinctive sound: You can pull the nade back and draw out your gun to counter this Turbo
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On the other hand, when you are close to an opponent and you hear the grenade pull, depending on the distance you can use that time to push since it takes time to either put back the nade and pull out your gun and they will have to throw the nade differently or random.
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Strength impacts the throw distance but it also depends on type of grenade, so weight on the nade impacts the distance you can throw them along with the nade. This is another cool use of the M67 since you can throw it really far. Throwing a grenade also levels your strength, so throwing a couple flashbangs at the beginning of raid does level your strength a bit.
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You can also underhand grenade throw for a shorter distance, the most common example is if you want to throw a nade just over a wall and the opponent is on the other side, so you underhand throw it to just get over the wall.
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You can also throw nades up in the air high so that the blast will be in the air and give then a nice little airbust and they will not be able to respond on where the nade will land since of the air travel time, also DO watch out and try not to toss a nade directly overhead and they WILL fall back onto your head since nades are lethal, also to yourself ;-)
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Grenades WILL roll quite a distance so be aware of that when you see a nade, sometimes it rolls much farther than you expect. That's why in some situations, throwing a nade high as suggestion in our previous tip could be better
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Watch out with nading out in the open, if you don’t have your gun op you can be a very easy target for an opponent to shoot you, try to nade as much as possible out of cover.
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You can dodge a flash by turning away from it if you can't run in cover.
And that's it for our guide on how to use grenades in Escape From Tarkov!
If you prefer to watch and listen you can check out our youtube podcast below. If you have any questions, feel free to come by my twitch stream and ask any questions you have!
About the writer
Escape From Tarkov Grenade Guide + 13 tips and tricks from Sherpas
Author(s): Seikosha_TV, TurboBear & Ledge
Resources: Tarkov Wiki, SherpaHub & Veritas