How to throw grenades at different distances in CS2
The three grenade throws in CS2: left click for long, right click for short, both buttons for medium. When to use each one, how running and jumping add range, and what happened to jumpthrow binds.
How far a grenade flies depends on which mouse button you hold. It works the same for every grenade: smoke, flash, HE, molotov, incendiary and decoy. You hold the button to pull the pin, and the grenade leaves your hand the moment you release it.
The three throws
| Throw | Buttons | Range | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long | LMB | maximum | smoke and flash lineups, cross-map nades |
| Medium | LMB + RMB | medium | spots 10–20 meters away, “both buttons” lineups |
| Short | RMB | a few meters | a close corner, at your own feet, a flash over a wall you’re hugging |
Long throw: left click
The strong overhand throw. The grenade flies the highest and farthest. Nearly every well-known smoke lineup uses it, because it’s the easiest to repeat: stand on the spot, line up, release.
The downside is that it’s useless up close. The grenade hits the wall and bounces anywhere, sometimes straight back at you.
Medium throw: left + right click
Hold both buttons and release. It goes noticeably shorter, on a flatter arc. You want it when the long throw overshoots and the short one falls short. A smoke on the exit of a corridor fifteen meters away, say, or a flash over a box onto the next position.
Some lineups are built for the medium throw on purpose. If a video guide says “both buttons” or “middle throw”, do exactly that, or the smoke lands in the wrong place.
Short throw: right click
The soft underhand toss. The grenade rolls a couple of meters in front of you. It’s the best way to pop a flash around a corner and peek right away: it goes off almost in front of your face, the enemy around the corner is blind, and you’ve already turned away. A molotov at your feet on defense or a smoke right in front of you to block a path and fall back are right-click throws too.
A strong throw in these spots is often a mistake. The grenade flies past where you wanted it and the flash blinds your own team.
How to throw even farther
Movement affects range. A running throw goes farther than a standing one, and a jump throw goes farther than both. The longest option is run, jump and left click.
Lineups need to be repeatable, so they’re usually thrown standing or with a standing jump. Hitting the same release point every time while running is much harder.
About jumpthrow binds. Since August 19, 2024, binds that perform several actions from one key don’t work on Valve’s official servers, so the old jump-plus-throw bind is useless there. You now jump and release by hand. Sub-tick helps: the game smooths over a small gap between the jump and the release, so after a couple dozen tries on an empty server the lineup starts landing consistently. The way you press a key matters for reloading in CS2 as well: here’s how to reload silently.
