In Cyberpunk 2077, the grenade aren’t used nearly enough, which is a shame because they can do a lot of damage.
Cyberpunk 2077 is the newest hit game from CD Projekt Red, and players love everything about the fighting. Close-range weapons like pistols and assault rifles are just as dangerous and fun as long-range weapons like shotguns and sniper rifles that shoot enemies in the head. When you combine these with hacking, you usually have a way to win.
That is “most” of the time, not “all” of the time, because grenades are terribly underused. Players are smart to kill a few enemies stealthily, but when enemies are close together, it’s hard to do so, and the game gives you a useful tool to deal with this. As long as you know which grenades to use and when to use them, you won’t have to work hard to clean up Night City.
Recon Grenade
- 15-meter radius.
- Highlights enemies in the radius for 7 seconds.
- Cuts through barriers.
- Non-lethal.
- No damage.
There’s not much reason to use the highest level spy grenade instead of even the lowest level starting grenade. Don’t get me wrong, marking targets is important for taking out big towers quietly, but there is a much better way to do it.
With just a couple of improvements, everyone can use the ping option, which only costs 1 RAM and affects all enemies, not just those caught in the radius of this grenade. It’s better than a bomb because it lasts much longer than 7 seconds and doesn’t weigh anything. The idea is to use the recon grenade without drawing attention to yourself, but most of the time, enemies will see and hear the bomb, making it useless.
X-22 Flashbang Grenade
- 6-meter radius.
- Blinds enemies for 3 seconds.
- Non-lethal.
- No damage.
Three seconds isn’t very long. The idea behind the flashbang is that you throw it in and then shoot while your enemies can’t see what you’re doing. But almost every other grenade on this list will either knock out your enemies or kill them, saving you valuable ammo in the process.
If this game had a multiplayer mode, it might help a group, but since it’s a single-player game, it’s not that useful. For whatever reason, the flash only works in a small area, so until a patch can fix this, it’s best to try other things.
EMP Grenade
- 4-meter radius.
- Disables electronics for 5 seconds.
- More effective against robotic units.
- Non-lethal.
- Low damage.
In books and movies about the end of the world, EMPs are scary, but in Cyberpunk 2077, they are at most a small inconvenience. The first problem is that biological life is much more common than robotic life. This means that a grenade designed to fight electronics will be automatically weaker because there aren’t enough times to use it.
Even compared to other low-damage choices in the game, the damage is very low because it does all of its damage at once. Other low-damage grenades do four or five times as much damage because they do it over a longer period of time. It will confuse the robots in the game and can break security cams, but quickhacks make this grenade useless.
Molodets Biohaz Grenade
- 4-meter radius.
- 5-second duration.
- Poisons enemies for 5 seconds.
- Only applies to organic targets.
- Non-lethal.
- Low damage.
This is like the EMP bomb, but it only affects living things. Because there are more of them, it is better. It also does damage over time, so if you can afford to throw this in and run away, you might come back to a room full of dead people. They will still be living because the poison won’t kill them, but they won’t be able to help much.
You have to be careful about how you use this, though. It doesn’t do much damage to bigger enemies with lots of health, so save it for smaller enemies that are easy to kill. And don’t use it against robots because it won’t even slow them down or make them pay attention to something else.
Char Incendiary Grenade
- 3-meter radius.
- 3-second duration.
- Burns enemies for 4 seconds.
- More effective against organic targets.
- Non-lethal.
- Low damage.
The burst is small, but it does have an effect, and luckily, it works on both robots and people. To the second, it’s more successful, and if anyone other than a boss catches fire, they’ll probably die.
It’s surprising that it doesn’t kill, so it’s good for missions where it’s better to keep the target living (even if they’re badly burned). It’s best to use it in hallways for big tasks when enemies have found you. If you throw this down, they will have to run through it to get to you. Find some cover, throw it down, and wait for melee units to try to run through it and get burned in the process.
F-GX Frag Grenade
- 4-meter radius.
- Lethal.
- High damage.
Surprisingly, there is only one bomb that does a lot of damage. Most people think of them as big events that happen only once. Try this out if you want a grenade to be, well, a grenade, and you won’t be unhappy.
Damage over time is nice, but even if you add up all the damage from the other low-damage choices, they usually only do about half of what the frag grenade does all at once. The biggest benefit is that enemies won’t be able to keep killing you while they slowly die. When the pin is pulled, it will all be over before it even starts.
Gash Antipersonnel Grenade
- 4-meter radius.
- 5-second duration.
- 21 lasers target enemies in the radius.
- Lethal.
- Moderate Damage.
When they added this to Slope Game, what were they thinking? It does about half as much damage as the F-GX Frag Grenade, but it does it quickly, melting enemies before they even know they’re being hit.
Don’t pay attention to the “Personnel” part of the name; it hurts both robots and people. There isn’t enough time for anything caught in the area to get out alive. Even when used on bosses, this grenade does damage faster than any other normal gun.
