Fragmentation Grenade (Half-Life)
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Fragmentation Grenade | |
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Production information | |
Faction | |
Type | |
Technical specifications | |
Damage |
100 |
Ammo |
1 |
Max ammo |
10 (25 in Day One) |
Weapon category |
5: Weapons that can be tossed or placed |
Rate of fire |
Slow |
Range |
Medium |
Usage | |
Used by | |
Game information | |
Entity |
weapon_handgrenade |
Designer(s) |
|
The Fragmentation Grenade is a weapon featured in Half-Life and its expansions.
Contents
Overview[edit]
The Fragmentation Grenade is a timed explosive that detonates five seconds after its pin is pulled. The explosion has a medium-sized radius, and the closer to the explosion an enemy is, the more damage they will suffer. Enemies killed by it might explode into pieces, depending on how much damage they suffer. Weak enemies (such as the Bullsquid and smaller) will always be gibbed if they are in the epicenter of the blast.
The grenade is used by the HECU and the Black Ops to flush out enemies. There are a few grenades scattered throughout the Black Mesa Research Facility, mostly in locations untouched by the HECU.
Appearances[edit]
- In Half-Life, the player can first obtain grenades in a semi-secret cache during the chapter Unforeseen Consequences. If not acquired there, they can be found scattered throughout the chapter Office Complex and subsequent ones. However, after the chapter Apprehension, they become much rarer and are partially replaced by the Satchel Charge. They can be acquired for the second time in the Topside Motorpool Armory.
- In Half-Life: Blue Shift, grenades can be obtained for the first time at the beginning of the chapter Captive Freight from a M44 cargo truck.
- In Half-Life: Opposing Force, grenades can first be found at the end of the chapter Welcome To Black Mesa, in the area featuring the Loader.
- In Half-Life: Decay, grenades are given to the players at the beginning of the chapter Resonance. They can be found for the first time in the next chapter, Domestic Violence.
Tactics[edit]
- Grenades can be used to flush out enemies from behind cover. When a grenade is thrown, the enemy will run into the player's sight. This works on any intelligent enemy.
- When the grenade is released, it does not move after hitting the ground, forcing the player to be as close as possible to the target, so that the grenade lands in the proper spot.
- A grenade exploding right next to a Classic Zombie, Vortigaunt or HECU soldier will kill it in one shot, so grenades should be saved for those enemies. If one of them survives a grenade blast, a few shots from the Pistol or Submachine Gun should be sufficient to finish them off.
- The grenade is not very efficient and therefore not advised against more powerful enemies such as the Alien Grunt, Shock Trooper, Voltigore, Pit Drone or the Bullsquid, the whole operation taking too long. Powerful weapons such as the shotgun are better suited.
- Theoretically, the grenade can be used to perform a "Grenade Jump":
- To do this, the player must jump right before the grenade explodes - for example, jumping right before releasing a cooked grenade. However, this can be very difficult to do, as again lack of audible and visual timer make it very hard to time a jump correctly. In addition, a point-blank explosion does a significant amount of damage to the player, and can kill them in one hit if they have little to no armor points.
- However, the height of this jump will be directly proportional to damage done to the player's health, ignoring the amount absorbed by the HEV Suit. This means that if one wants to perform a very high "grenade boosted" jump, they generally would want to have as little armor as possible, which makes this trick even more dangerous.[3]
"Cooking"[edit]
- While flushing out enemies with a grenade is easy, actually damaging them with it is harder. Enemies run as soon as a grenade is thrown, which usually put them out of the damage radius before it explodes. To damage enemies with the grenade, the player must "cook" it by holding down the fire key instead of immediately releasing it. While the fire key is held down but not released, the grenade's timer will be ticking.
- Cooking the grenade can be tricky, as it lacks an audible/visual timer, forcing the player to count down in their head as soon as the pin is pulled. The grenade should be released after three seconds have passed, so as to give it time to fly to the target.
- The grenade is one of the few weapons that can damage a Gargantua, so those that intend to kill one manually should practice cooking grenades.
Behind the scenes[edit]
The grenade's appearance is based on the Mk 2 “Pineapple” grenade. Its green color was originally brighter, as seen in the Half-Life SDK files.
In Day One, the player can hold up to 25 frag grenades, reduced to 10 in the final game. This explains why there are 15 grenades in certain areas, such as the weapons stash in the chapter Unforeseen Consequences. It is also possible to throw grenades further.
Gallery[edit]
Half-Life viewmodel.
Opposing Force viewmodel.
Blue Shift viewmodel.
Female Assassin with grenades attached to her belt.
Grenades on a crate near the G-Man.
List of appearances[edit]
Main games[edit]
Other[edit]
- Half-Life: Day One (First appearance)
- Half-Life: Uplink (Non-canonical appearance)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Steve Theodore's homepage on Theodox.com (archived)
- ↑ Stephen Bahl as quoted on Marc Laidlaw Vault on the ValveTime Forums
- ↑ Half-Life speedruns on the Speed Demos Archive.
External links[edit]
Hazardous Environment Combat Unit | |
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Characters | Minor members · Dwight T. Barnes · Sharp · Adrian Shephard |
Classes | HECU Engineer · HECU Medic · HECU Sniper |
Weapons | 9mm Pistol · Artillery Cannon · Combat Knife · Desert Eagle · Dynamite · Fragmentation Grenade · Gun Emplacement · Land Mine · Laser Trip Mine · M249 Squad Automatic Weapon · M-40A1 Sniper Rifle · Mortar · Submachine Gun · Rocket Cannon · RPG · Satchel Charge · Sentry Gun · Shotgun · Tripod-Mounted Heavy Machine Gun |
Transportation | AH-64 Apache · Jet · M1A1 Abrams · M2A3 Bradley · M44 cargo truck · Osprey Heliplane |
Technology | Chargers · Powered Combat Vest · Radio · Tactical Map · Transportation · Weapons |
Other | Hazardous Environment Combat Unit models · Military Police · Robot Grunt · Santego Military Base |
Classes (cut) | Human Sergeant |
Weapons (cut) | 20mm Cannon |
The Black Ops | |
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Weapons | 9mm Pistol · Fragmentation Grenade · Laser Trip Mine · M249 Squad Automatic Weapon · M-40A1 Sniper Rifle · Mortar · Submachine Gun · Sentry Gun · Tripod-Mounted Heavy Machine Gun |
Transportation | AH-64 Apache · M44 cargo truck |
Technology | Cloaking field · Transportation · Weapons |
Weapons (cut) | Crossbow · Flash Grenade |
Transportation (cut) | Osprey Heliplane |