The easiest way to practice grenade lineups in CS2 is on your own local server: launch a map in practice mode, enable sv_cheats 1, infinite grenades with sv_infinite_ammo 1, the trajectory preview with sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_pipreview 1, and repeat throws with sv_rethrow_last_grenade. That way you can drill the same smoke or flash dozens of times in a few minutes. Below are the grenade types, practice maps, a starter command set, binds and a dedicated practice config.
The topic is less simple than it looks: the game's physics accounts for throw strength, the surface the grenade bounces off and the fuse time. There are many commands, and it takes hours of practice with or without bots, but along the way you learn lead, bounces, ricochets and blast radius. Most commands here come from CS:GO and still work in CS2; where a command has changed, we point it out.
What you have to work with
Before turning on practice commands, get to know the grenades and what each one is for. There are 6 of them in the game:
Flashbang (flash) — drops the enemy's vision to almost nothing for a few seconds and disrupts their play. Turning away in time reduces the effect;
Smoke grenade (smoke) — fills the area with thick smoke you cannot see through. It is especially strong in enclosed spaces with few entrances. In CS2 smoke is volumetric: an HE grenade or gunfire briefly clears a gap in it, which is worth practicing around too;
HE grenade (frag) — the main area-damage grenade: it finishes off weakened enemies and damages a group behind cover;
Decoy — in skilled hands it imitates gunfire and confuses the enemy;
Molotov cocktail — Terrorists only. It creates a burning patch on the floor that damages anyone standing in it for a while;
Incendiary grenade — the Counter-Terrorist equivalent with a similar effect.
All grenades are bought in the buy menu (B key). Key sequences like B-6-1 through B-6-5 from older guides refer to the CS:GO buy menu. You need to practice each grenade separately, since their weight, flight behavior and roles differ.
The best maps for practice
Among the standard competitive maps, the top choices are:
Overpass;
Dust 2;
Inferno;
Mirage.
For CS:GO, modders built several practice maps based on the standard ones and published them in the Steam Workshop:
Mirage Training by Dolnma
Inferno Training by Dolnma
Cache Training by Dolnma
Cobblestone Training by Dolnma
Overpass Training by Dolnma
Dust2 Guide Yrpac
Yrpac Nuke Guide
Yrpac Train Guide
These are CS:GO-era maps, so check the Workshop for a CS2 version before you plan a session around one. The most reliable approach is to learn lineups on the maps you actually play: see our top maps for grenade practice in CS2 for ready-made throws. YouTube also has detailed lineup guides for every map.
Preliminary work with the console
Practice works best in the practice mode with bots or on your own local server: only there are sv_cheats 1 commands allowed, and they do not work in matchmaking, Premier or on FACEIT.
To start, you need this set of commands to prepare the server for throws:
mp_freezetime 0 — removes the freeze time at round start
mp_roundtime 60 — maximum round time, 60 minutes (on bomb maps, mp_roundtime_defuse 60 applies)
mp_maxmoney 60000 — maximum money limit
mp_startmoney 60000 — starting money
mp_buytime 9999 — unlimited buy time
mp_buy_anywhere 1 — buy anywhere on the map
mp_ignore_round_win_conditions 1 — the round never ends
mp_restartgame 1 — restarts the round
The last command is needed for all previous changes to take effect.
Now let's move on to the main part.
Working with grenades and tracers
Remember that every command below works only after the main one, sv_cheats 1.
Grenades are given with the give command plus the grenade name, for example give weapon_hegrenade:
weapon_hegrenade — HE grenade;
weapon_smokegrenade — smoke;
weapon_flashbang — flashbang;
weapon_molotov — Molotov cocktail;
weapon_incgrenade — incendiary;
weapon_decoy — decoy.
To avoid giving yourself a new grenade after every throw, enable sv_infinite_ammo 1 so grenades are not used up. More on that in our guide on how to get infinite grenades in CS2.
Experienced players suggest binding grenades to keys 1 through 6. A bind looks like this (see how to make a bind in CS2 for the basics):
bind 1 "give weapon_hegrenade; use weapon_hegrenade", where:
bind 1 — the assigned key;
give weapon_hegrenade — gives an HE grenade;
use weapon_hegrenade — puts the grenade straight into your hand.
If you want to carry more grenades at once, the limit commands help:
ammo_grenade_limit_default 30 — limit for grenades of one type;
ammo_grenade_limit_hegrenade 30 — limit for HE grenades (swap in another grenade name as needed);
ammo_grenade_limit_total 30 — total grenade limit.
Next come perhaps the most important commands, the ones that show grenade trajectories. In CS2 these use the prac prefix:
sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_pipreview 1 — a preview window of the trajectory before you throw;
sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_trailtime 10 — how many seconds the trail of a thrown grenade stays visible;
sv_rethrow_last_grenade — repeats the last throw.
The commands sv_grenade_trajectory 1, sv_grenade_trajectory_time 10, cl_grenadepreview and cl_sim_grenade_trajectory appear in many guides, but they belong to CS:GO; in the current version of CS2, use the commands above.
Once again: it is easiest to collect all these commands in your own CFG file, otherwise typing them into the console every time gets old fast.
Useful tricks from pro players
Experienced players keep a separate config for practice. In CS2, user CFG files go in the game folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\csgo\cfg
Your drive and Steam folder may differ, but the rest of the path is the same. The quickest way to open it is through Steam: right-click Counter-Strike 2, Manage, Browse local files. Paths are covered in detail in where the CS2 config is located.
Create a file there named, for example, practice.cfg (a plain text file with the extension changed) and paste in every command you need from the lists above.
You can run the config with exec practice in the console or through the game's launch options:
+exec practice.cfg
In the second case, the game loads the config on every launch. Step-by-step setup is in our guide on how to install a config in CS2.
Helper commands
While practicing with bots, you may end up with too many or too few of them. Fix it like this:
bot_add_t — add a Terrorist bot;
bot_add_ct — add a Counter-Terrorist bot;
bot_kick — remove all bots;
bot_stop 1 — freeze all bots.
Finally, a reminder about noclip. It lets you move through walls and shows clearly how a grenade travels, what it bounces off, how it behaves in flight and what affects the bounce. It only works with sv_cheats 1 enabled.
