Grenade Launcher

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KA-BOOM! Click to listen — The Demoman

”

The Grenade Launcher is a Primary weapon for the Demoman. It appears as a 6-round, break-action Grenade Launcher with adjustable weapon sights, a wooden stock and foregrip.

Grenades launched by the weapon are projectiles and will arc significantly after being fired. The distance a round will travel therefore depends on the angle at which it was fired. When shooting long distances, though, it is often better to jump and fire rather than change the angle of fire much past 45 degrees. Grenades travel approximately 1065 Hammer units per second, around 45 miles per hour. The grenades will bounce on any surface, albeit very inelastically, and will only detonate on contact with enemies before the first bounce. Grenades will launch slightly to the right of the cross-hair, requiring players leading to the left to compensate; this is important especially when in close range with faster classes such as Scouts.

Grenades are timed and will detonate after 2.3 seconds, assuming they do not detonate on impact with an enemy. Direct hits with grenades have very little splash range, and will only damage the Demoman if the enemy is face to face with him. On the other hand, grenades that detonate after the first bounce have more splash range, but do a lot less damage. Grenades have the advantage of never suffering from falloff damage; direct hits at long range will still do full damage. There is a blast radius falloff, however, as the greater the distance from the epicenter of the blast, the less damage will be done, even for Critical hits.

Grenades can be used for a makeshift explosive jump, yet this is a lot harder to accomplish than sticky jumping. The explosion will not launch the Demoman far, but will deliver little damage and is practical for smaller heights and distances. Employing grenade jumps can be a viable tactic for Demomen who wish to preserve their stickybombs, or have the Chargin' Targe equipped.

Damage

See also: Damage

• Base: 120
• Direct Hit:
  • Any range: 81-111
    • Critical hit: 280-300
  • Self damage: 42-73 damage (only from point blank range)
    • Critical hit: Deals same amount of self damage as a regular grenade (42-73)

• After Grenade Bounces:
  • Any range: 22-64
    • Critical hit: 190 (Splash at 3 ft/1m: 100 Crit)
  • Self damage: 25-64 (depending on how far you are from the explosion)
    • Critical hit: Deals same amount of self damage as a regular grenade (25-64)

Note: Explosive damage varies depending on how it hits a player. The larger the classes' hit box and the closer you are to the explosion, the more damage you will take. The further away from the explosion, the less damage you can take. Explosions do the most damage when they happen at the mid point of a player model. The explosion will cover more of the hit box, thus doing the most possible damage. Damages are approximate and determined by community testing.

Function times

• Attack Interval: 0.6
• Reload Base: 1.24
• Additional Reload: 0.6
• Explosion Wait: 2.28

Reload base is the time it takes to reload the first ammo. Additional reload is the time it takes to reload each ammo after the first. Explosion wait is how long it takes for a fired grenade to explode when it doesn't have a collision explosion. All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Related Achievements

Blind Fire Destroy an Engineer building that you can't see with a direct hit from your Grenade Launcher. Glasg0wned Kill 25 Scouts and Pyros with the Grenade Launcher.

Bloody Merry Provide an enemy player with a freeze cam of your smiling face. Laddy Macdeth Kill 50 enemies with direct hits from the Grenade Launcher.

Previous Changes

September 28, 2007 Patch

• Demoman grenades (not stickybombs) no longer explode on contact after the first bounce.

October 09, 2007 Patch

• Demomen grenades now collide with players and Engineer buildings after the first bounce, but still won't explode on contact.

February 28, 2008 Patch

• Reduced Demoman's maximum Grenade Launcher reserve ammo from 40 to 24

Bugs

• Even if the player is on the BLU team, reloading with the Grenade Launcher will still show red sleeves.

Trivia

• Despite being a primary weapon, the Grenade Launcher is second in the loadout menu, and is treated as a secondary weapon when crafting.
• Sharp-eyed players can tell when a grenade is about to explode: each second after a grenade is fired, a team colored ring appears around it. When there are 3 rings, it is about to explode (after around 4 seconds).
• The Demoman reloads the Grenade Launcher by placing multiple grenades into a single slot. This is most likely an animation oversight.
• The Grenade Launcher is based off of the real life M79 Grenade Launcher except that it's been modified to fire multiple grenades without having to reload between each shot, similar to a M32 Multiple Grenade Launcher.
• When the Demoman reloads the Grenade Launcher, he loads unactivated grey grenades.
• Intrestingly, though the grenade launcher can hold 6 grenades, the user can only use 4 at a time.

Gallery

• Grenade Launcher 1st person cropped.png

  1st person view.

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  RED projectile

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  BLU projectile

See also

• Grenade Launcher strategy