In Counter-Strike 2, smokes are fluid and ultra-realistic. They fill spaces, move and react to shots and grenade explosions. This fact was shown by Valve itself. CS.MONEY Blog explains how smokes work and behave in CS 2 and how they react to different things. Also, we talk about what makes smoke disperse and move and how it can be affected in any way. Molotovs, shots, explosions and even a football! We tested everything and added GIFs. Let’s dive in!
How smoke reacts to shots in CS 2
First, we decided to test what we had already seen in the video released by Valve. Because why not? It looks amazing. So, we simply deployed a smoke grenade and started shooting through the smoke. After finishing all the tests, we drew three important conclusions from this experiment.
- Shots actually make holes in the smoke.
- These holes close very quickly, in less than a second.
- Smokes react to most shots differently.
This basically means that you won’t be able to shoot and strafe-check what’s inside or on the other side of the smoke screen. You can see while you are shooting, and while you do it, you can be seen, too. This is a great risk-reward system.
How smoke in CS 2 reacts to AK shots:
How smoke in CS 2 reacts to AWP shots:
Even though it was quite a fun test to conduct, it didn’t have that much useful information. So, let’s move on to something more interesting.
How smoke reacts to nade throws
Grenade explosions interact with smoke, blowing it away, but a grenade as an object that flies through smoke does not. Here, we throw a Molotov cocktail and see that smoke clouds do not react at all. They just swallowed this bottle of flammable liquid. The same thing happened with a regular grenade, decoy and flashbang. Thus, throwing a grenade doesn’t make holes in smokes.
How smoke react to decoys
When throwing a decoy, we thought: if a simple HE grenade explosion blows the clouds away in CS:GO Source 2, maybe when a decoy explodes, it will have the same effect? As our experiment showed, it will not. There was no reaction from smoke to the decoy’s explosion.
Throwing weapons through smoke
After that, we decided to test how new smoke grenades interact with different objects. Simple weapons were our first choice. What happens if you throw a gun into the smoke in CS 2? Will it leave a trail or a hole? Should the smoke disperse where the weapon drops? No. Nothing will happen. Smoke does not react at all to weapons. We even dropped a gun on the ground and shot it into the smoke. Again, no reaction.
By the way, did you know that all your skins from CS:GO will be transferred to CS 2? They will look even better with the new engine! So now is the best time to upgrade your inventory. Head straight to CS.MONEY to buy new skins (including skins from Revolution Case) right now!
Ragdoll do not affect CS 2 smokes either
For this particular test, we needed a volunteer. We covered the bot with smoke before shooting right at his chest with an AK-47. Which, obviously, killed him. Here, we can see that the smoke never reacted to any ragdoll physics that the bot’s dead body activated. However, it would be strange to expect empathy or sympathy from smoke particles.
Penalty! CS 2 Smoke vs A Football
In our last experiment, we decided to kick a football on Dust 2 into a smoke screen. Previously, this ball has already shown miracles: for example, it could move an indestructible object, which was a dropped C4. So, having set the ball on the 11-meter mark, we fired a penalty shot using an AK-47 through a cloud of smoke. As a result, the ball flew into the smoke screen… without a trace or a hole. No reactions in any way.
Bonus: the liquid inside Molotov is animated!
Valve did a great job. Just look at how cool the liquid moves inside a Molly! Gorgeous detail from the developers.
Summary: only gunshots and nade explosions affect smokes
Here’s a quick recap: we shot, blown, pierced, flamed, and played with smokes in CS 2. Today’s test results: smoke screens in Counter-Strike 2 react only to shots and frag grenade explosions. Moreover, smokes disappear for a very short period of time if hit by shots and up to three seconds when blown. Smoke clouds don’t react to any other objects.
You can learn more about Counter-Strike 2 from our huge article, where we collected everything about the new game from Valve. Release date, how skins changed, what happened to the engine, and more. Just click here and read!
