GuidesOct 9, 20264 min readCS2Sell

CS2 volumetric smokes: how they react to bullets, grenades and light

How Counter-Strike 2's volumetric smoke grenades fill space, open up under gunfire and HE blasts, put out fire and take on light, and every change Valve has made to them since launch.

In CS:GO a smoke grenade made a cloud of fixed size and shape. In Counter-Strike 2 it is a volume that spreads through the space around it, takes on the map's lighting and can be pushed open by bullets and explosions. That changed how smokes are thrown, held and fought through, and Valve has kept adjusting them ever since.

What Valve promised at launch

Valve's Counter-Strike 2 page describes smoke grenades as "dynamic volumetric objects that interact with the environment, and react to lighting, gunfire, and explosions". It lists three behaviours:

They fill the space. Smoke seeps out of open doorways and broken windows, travels up and down stairs, stretches along corridors and merges with other smokes.
They react to gameplay. Bullets and HE grenades push the smoke aside to clear a sightline for a moment, or to change how much it hides.
They take on light. Smoke particles use the same unified lighting system as the map, which Valve says gives them more realistic light and colour.

The rules around the smoke stayed the same. It costs $300, you can buy one per round, and both sides can use it. The Counter-Strike Wiki adds that a smoke still stops enemies behind it from being spotted on the radar.

Bullets

Shooting into a smoke cuts a hole through it, and the hole closes again after a moment. That gives you a new way to see through, or be seen through, a smoke you are holding. The Counter-Strike Wiki describes the holes as temporary. During the Limited Test in 2023, Valve made two changes: on March 24 bullet holes became fixed relative to the first-person camera, and on June 6 shotguns started making larger holes than other guns.

So spraying into a smoke now changes the smoke itself: a burst can open a gap for you or a teammate, and the same gap works for whoever is on the other side. Sound matters too: in the launch-day notes, Valve made an attacker's hit feedback play at the same distance through smokes as it does for onlookers.

HE grenades and the bomb

An HE grenade blast pushes a smoke open for a short time. Valve has tuned this repeatedly:

Date	Change
March 30, 2023	HE grenades no longer affect smokes through walls
June 6, 2023	The time an HE affects a smoke was reduced
October 28, 2024	An HE that explodes inside a smoke clears the smoke screen effect for players inside it and within range of the blast
July 20, 2026	The C4 explosion now interacts with smoke clouds and with Molotov or incendiary fire

The October 2024 change is about players standing inside a smoke. An HE that goes off near them clears what Valve calls the "accumulated smoke screen effect" on their screen; Valve did not give the range or how long the view stays clear. The July 2026 change came 12 days after the redesigned bomb blast of Premier Season Five.

Fire

Smokes still put out fire. As in CS:GO, a smoke that lands in a Molotov or incendiary pops at once and extinguishes the flames, and a fire grenade thrown into a smoke fails to burn. Valve has fixed several edge cases in CS2:

October 2, 2023: better performance when fire is put out.
May 8, 2025: fire could sometimes be seen through smoke.
August 26, 2025: overlapping smoke clouds were putting fire out too early.
October 22, 2025: the logic was wrong when several smokes were active on the map.

Incendiaries themselves changed too: cheaper and smaller in May 2024, then faster-spreading in July 2025. Our articles on the Fire Sale update and Premier Season Three cover both.

Light, shadows and visibility

Smokes started casting shadows on February 6, 2024, in the same update that improved their rendering and animation. Two days later Valve adjusted how visible player silhouettes are inside smoke and fixed a bug that showed enemies on the radar through smoke and glass. In April 2024 it fixed smokes that sometimes looked lit as if a flashbang had gone off inside them, and on April 29, 2026 it "improved smoke lighting consistency".

Other fixes closed gaps players could exploit. At launch Valve fixed smokes that stopped short of a player's height above the ground, and made player reflections in water hidden by smoke. In November 2023 it gave smoke grenades a minimum fuse so they would not pop early when stuck in a crevice, and decoys started to interact with smoke clouds for show.

Finishes named after smoke for the SSG 08, Galil AR and UMP-45

Learning smokes now

Valve has added tools to help with line-ups. Since April 2024 a line-up reticle appears shortly after you pull the pin, which our April 2024 article covers. Since March 2026 limited map guides can be loaded in Competitive and Retakes, as our map guides article explains. And on September 30, 2026 Valve enabled grenade crosshairs during freeze time "for insta-smokes": hold a grenade attack button before the round starts to line up your throw.

Smokes also shaped other changes. In the same March 2026 update, which made reloads discard the old magazine, Valve said some weapons got extra reserve ammunition "to encourage spamming through walls and smokes". For how much each grenade costs, see our weapon stats guide.