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Overview


When thrown, the decoy grenade emulates the sound of the most powerful weapon you are carrying, creating the illusion of additional supporting forces.
―Official description

The Decoy Grenade is a grenade featured in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Overview[]

The Decoy Grenade is the cheapest grenade in Global Offensive, costing only $50. After being thrown, the grenade activates shortly after landing, and emits the sound of the user's most powerful weapon. As of the July 11, 2018 update, the Decoy Grenade shows up in the radars of the team that threw it as a grey dot.

After a certain period of time (roughly 15 seconds), the decoy grenade will self-detonate, but will not deal damage to teammates as of the July 23, 2020 update. For enemies, this remains at around 5 points of damager at point blank, or within a narrow radius.

If the player does not have any firearm equipped, the Decoy Grenade will mimic the user's starting pistol (the Glock-18 if a Terrorist, and the P2000 or USP-S for Counter-Terrorists.

After the December 3, 2012 update, the decoy grenade's model was changed to a clone of the flashbang, and can be used to trick enemies. The color of the stripe was changed to red for the decoy grenade.

Bots have more consistent reactions to the Decoy Grenade.

Gameplay[]

Tactics[]

  • Throw a decoy grenade at (or near) the location of a deployed smoke grenade as this will make it harder for enemies to differentiate real players from the decoy.
    • Alternatively, an enemy blinded by a flashbang may not notice a decoy grenade being deployed.
  • As a sniper, throwing a decoy grenade away from the player's position gives additional time for relocation or to move in for a kill.
  • Avoid using decoy grenades early in the round, as experienced players will ignore them, especially if they are in an area where a teammate could not possibly have vision.
  • Throw a decoy grenade at areas where enemies are unlikely to see them. For instance, corners, behind props, and (flat) rooftops should be sufficient.
  • This grenade is very often purchased at pistol rounds, due to its low cost.
  • If enemies catch the sight of a decoy grenade in mid-air, they might briefly back up and look away due to the visual similarities between the decoy grenade and the flashbang, giving the player a chance to rush in for the kill in the confusion.
    • Compared to a real flashbang, the player is not blinded when rushing with a decoy and does not have to wait for the flash point.
    • This tactic is not recommended if the player is facing multiple opponents, as enemies will quickly recover and have a quicker chance to target and kill the player. Also the tactic may not work against some (in)experienced players.
    • Bots cannot be tricked into thinking that a decoy is a flashbang.
  • It is recommended to use decoy grenades in combat situations as distracted enemies can have a hard time figuring out the difference between a decoy and a real enemy player mid fire-fight.
    • You can increase the effectiveness of this tactic by coordinating with your teammates to throw multiple decoys.
    • They can also help you guard corners, as rotating enemies may run towards the firefight, believing the remaining combatants are busy and won't be able to hear their footsteps.
  • Avoid hanging around deployed decoy grenades for excessive periods of time.
    • An occasionally effective double-bluff is to throw one into an ambush spot, and stand directly on top of it. Experienced players will often ignore an obvious decoy, and may even continue to do so if don't move while mowing down their teammates (assuming they are not communicating), since you'll appear to be a single point on the minimap. Avoid sticking around for the explosion, though.
    • It's possible to deploy a decoy grenade on the Bomb if you decide to leave the bombsite or is cornered by multiple enemies. If the defuser has sustained enough injuries with 5 health or below and decides to defuse the bomb. The decoy explosion may kill that defuser and delays the bomb defusing progress or even end the round as T win (if that defuser is the last CT player). Other players may stack up decoy grenades to increase the chance of killing the defuser, up to 25 damage can be dealt if entire team throws the decoy grenade on the C4.
    • Bear in mind that a decoy grenade can deal damage when it explodes.

Counter-tactics[]

  • The enemy icon created by decoy grenades appears on the radar regardless if any teammates have vision on it. This can be used to distinguish between real players and decoy grenades, as radar icons for real enemy players require vision from at least 1 teammate. For instance, immobile enemy icons located at areas where no teammates could have vision on are definitely decoy grenades.


Update History

July 23, 2020
  • Decoy grenade explosions no longer damage teammates by default. (controlled via convar ff_damage_decoy_explosion)
July 11, 2018
  • The functional change to the decoy that shipped with the last update will not be reverted: from here on decoys will be radar-visible by the team that threw it and not radar-visible to the enemy team.

[ PANORAMA ]

  • Fixed friendly decoys showing up on the radar with an odd color and a random number/letter.

Behind the scenes[]

  • Before sharing its model with the flashbang while using different textures, the decoy grenade had its own model during the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta.
    • Its textures show text that name it the "Mo. G-29 Grenade". A warning states that the decoy is "To be used by law enforcement, correctional or military personnel trained in non-lethal tactics."
  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive contains unused grenade physics kill icons which are of a similar style to Team Fortress 2's kill icon or Portal's stick figures. Among them exists one for the decoy grenade.
  • Prior to the July 11, 2018 update, the grenade creates and an "enemy" icon on all players' radar at its location (regardless of vision), giving the impression of an additional player being present.

Console Commands[]

The May 31, 2016 update added ConVar documentation in the game files.

The July 23, 2020 update disabled friendly fire damage from decoy grenades and added a new command to modify that value on a private server.

Server Variable
  • sv_decoy_is_noisemaker
    • Default value is unknown.
    • Unknown
  • ff_damage_decoy_explosion
    • Default value is set to 0, but can be changed.

Bugs[]

  • There was no HUD kill icon if a player was killed by the Decoy grenade's explosion; only the name will show up without a kill icon. Also, if a player was killed by it, the screen will show up "<player> killed you with " ". This has been fixed in an unknown update, now the screen will show "<player> killed you with decoy".
  • If a player was equipped with USP-S or the M4A1-S, with the silencer attached, and used a Decoy Grenade, the firing sounds from the unsuppressed counterparts were used instead. This was later fixed in the April 23, 2014 update.

References

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