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Overview


For the Counter-Terrorist equivalent grenade, see Incendiary Grenade.

The Molotov is a powerful and unpredictable area denial weapon that bursts into flames when thrown on the ground, injuring any player in its radius.
―Official description

The Molotov Cocktail, known simply as Molotov in Global Offensive, is a grenade featured in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, exclusive to the Terrorists. The counterpart for Counter-Terrorists is the Incendiary Grenade.

Overview

Molotov Cocktails are a type of homemade incendiary weapon invented by Finns in World War II; its name being an insulting reference to former Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Molotov cocktails are typically composed of a glass alcohol bottle, alcohol, or gasoline inside the bottle itself, and a lit rag for the ignition source of flammable liquid. It functions when it is shattered on a surface, releasing the contents within, and the lit rag would create flames upon contact with the liquid.

In-game, the Molotov is a terrorist exclusive grenade, and their most expensive T grenade at $400. It is useful both as a defensive and offensive tool. Defensively, the flames are excellent at temporarily preventing enemies from advancing to an important area (such as a bombsite, important pathways, or the hostages), or preventing enemies from rushing the player with close-ranged weaponry. The molotov is also fantastic at denying the defusal of the C4 Explosive once it is planted. Offensively, the flames can be thrown into a defensive position that an enemy is hiding in, trapping the enemy in flames, forcing them to come out or take damage.

When thrown, the bottle would shatter upon hitting a walkable surface that is 30 degrees or smaller from horizontal, spreading the flammable liquid around and creating an area of flames capable of burning anybody that is in it. The bottle will not shatter and will bounce off all other surfaces. Flying for more than 2 seconds will cause the Molotov to explode mid-air, releasing nothing and damaging nobody.[1] The only exception is if the molotov explodes less than 128 units above a surface, in which case the flames will drop to the ground and begin to burn.

The flame starts dealing 1 damage and increasing each hit up to 8 where it is capped. From this point it will deal 40 damage per second with 100% armor penetration to those in contact, including the user, their teammates, and hostages. The fire disappears after roughly 7 seconds (7.03125 seconds to be exact). Multiple flames overlapping each other will stack the damage.[2][3][4]

The flames can be extinguished by a Smoke Grenade, and the flames will not deploy inside smoke. However, one third of the flames must be covered by the smoke for it to extinguish.

Update History

December 13, 2022
  • Fixed Molotov and Incendiary grenades detonating in midair when flying over skybox areas.[5]
September 16, 2016
  • Molotovs are no longer extinguished by smokes that are significantly below them, so now it is possible to smoke inside hut on Nuke and throw a molotov on top of hut, or smoke under palace balcony on Mirage and throw a molotov on balcony floor.
  • Molotovs are no longer extinguished by smokes that are above the fire height.
  • Molotovs no longer spread under closed doors.
August 22, 2013
  • Price reduced from$500 to $400
January 23, 2013
  • Price reduced from $600 to $500.
December 3, 2012
  • Molly/Inc Grenade fire now goes out slightly faster when extinguished and updated the overall effects a bit.
November 16, 2012
  • Improved some cases of particle sorting between smoke and molotovs and other particle systems.

Tactics

See also: Incendiary Grenade Tactics
  • The Molotov is useful for locking down a pathway, especially on the Hostage Scenario where the Terrorists are defending. Throw the Molotov at a common chokepoint and the fire will either significantly weaken enemies who rush through it, force enemies to wait out the fire and waste precious time, force them to use a Smoke Grenade, or force them down a different path.
    • Positioning of the fire is important, as some pathways are too wide for a single fire to cover, and some will only be covered if the fire starts at very specific points.
    • Timing is quite crucial for the Molotov because the fire will only last for 7 seconds. Make sure to use it only when enemy players are approaching the target area.
  • Use the fire and its spread to flush an enemy out of a common camping position.
    • It is sometimes more effective than HE grenades because the enemy will take a considerable amount of damage if it is used to trap the enemy.
  • Be careful when covering a hostage rescue zone with flames. If a CT carrying a hostage is killed and a Molotov is thrown too close to the dropped hostage, the hostage will take serious damage and induce severe economic penalties, possibly even a server penalty for due to being treated as an offense.
  • In Bomb Defusal, after the C4 is planted, a Molotov can thrown on it to prevent CTs from defusing the bomb, as the even the minimum time needed to defuse the C4 (5 seconds) is enough for the fire to kill a full health player.
  • Of note is that the Molotov is the only grenade in the game that is audible when primed. Though the noise is quiet, it can still risk giving away your position, making it slightly harder to use against flankers that are nearby.

Appearances

Main article: Revolution

Flames Of The Phoenix  (603)

Mission Unlock(s) Reward
Deal 200 burn damage to enemies in Casual: Active Duty matches.

200 XP
Bonus: +1 XP per 2 damage-when the map is Train.

Brief Audio
“Fire is the weapon of the revolution. Like us, fire breathes. Like us, fire spreads. Yes it takes lives, but without fire we would sit in darkness and die in the cold. Do not be afraid of fire… master it.”
Valeria Jenner

Main article: Wildfire

Fanning The Flames  (701)

Mission Unlock(s) Reward
Deal 10 burn damage in Casual: Op. Wildfire Group matches.

200 XP

Brief Audio
Operation Bloodhound was a success. Turner is dead, and the Phoenix are still recovering from their loss. Now is the time to put on the pressure… to hit multiple Phoenix operations at once… to spread like wildfire. My name is Major Felix Riley, and together we're going to stop Valeria.”
Felix Riley


Who Likes Fire?  (721)

Mission Unlock(s) Reward
Deal 50 burn damage in Casual: Op. Wildfire Group matches.



400 XP


Main article: Hydra

BURN IT ALL!  (916)

Mission Unlock(s) Reward
Guardian Co-op Challenge: Play as a Counter-Terrorist with a partner and protect the bombsite from enemies on Shipped.

Score a win by getting 5 enemy kills with fire.

Note: Players spawn with the P250.

-

525 XP

Brief Audio
“So it says here that we want the cargo intact… looks like frags are out, but since shipping containers don't really catch fire I'd say incendiary grenades are fair game.”
Rona Sabri

Achievements

Weapon Specialist
Flame Expert csgo Flame Expert
Kill 100 enemies with the Molotov or Incendiary grenade.

Behind The Scenes

  • The Molotov cocktail was cut from Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and Half-Life 2.
  • Before the introduction of the incendiary grenade, the Molotov cocktail was also purchasable by the Counter-Terrorists in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta.
  • Like most grenades, unused impact kill icons in the style of Team Fortress 2 kill icons and Portal stick men figures are found in the game files.
    • Before the the Panorama update, the regular impact kill icon (identical to the HUD icon) does not appear in-game. Any kills made with the Molotov through an impact will only have both the killer and the victim's names in the feed. After the Panorama update, the icon will properly show up between the killer and victim's name.

Bugs

  • The Molotov originally had a larger collision bounds compared to other grenades, making it harder to fly through smaller gaps. This was fixed in the February 27, 2014 update.[4][6]

Trivia

  • The Molotov and Incendiary Grenade are both very similar to the CS Grenade (a gas grenade cut from the original Counter-Strike) as area denial gadgets.
  • This weapon re-uses the sounds from the Left 4 Dead 2 Molotov.
  • When directly standing on the fire of the incendiary grenade/Molotov cocktail, the player's screen becomes slightly darkened by the smoke.
  • Originally, the view model of the Molotov cocktail featured the lighter being lit at all times. In an update, this has been removed.
  • The cloth inside the bottle is a jigglebone that moves with the player.
  • The Molotov can be seen in the official CS:GO trailer, where a Molotov was thrown by the last surviving Phoenix Connexion Terrorist at the GSG-9 CTs on the Nuke ramp to stop them, killing one CT in the process.
  • In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you can still be burned from the Molotov cocktail when standing on water, so fire cannot be extinguished by water. This applies the same to the Incendiary grenade.

References

External links

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