Complete CS2 Smoke Guide

Have you noticed that your T side often sucks, even when a map isn’t CT-sided? You rush into A or B and you see all of your teammates get destroyed by only one CT holding a site. This is because the average Counter-Strike player is much better nowadays, so relying purely on aim is not enough. Instead, you will need to learn the right smoke lineups.

Smokes are essential as both T and CTs, so having a couple of lineups in your arsenal is going to be a real game-changer. But, learning dozens of lineups for every single map in the pool can be a bit intimidating.

That’s why we made this guide to give you the essential and the best CS2 smoke grenades for the most popular maps you can throw.

Let’s get to it!

If you’re already familiar with how the utility works, grenade physics, and the type of throws, you can skip this section and head over to the next one. If not, make sure to thoroughly read this part to make sure you perfect your throws.

To throw a smoke or any kind of utility, you have a couple of options:

• • Left click throw – this is the throw you likely use. It’s the strongest throw, so if you want to throw a smoke as far away as possible, you use the left click. Moving, walking, or jumping will increase the distance of your throw.
  • Right click throw – throwing with just the right click drops the grenade/smoke right in front of your feet. This throw is useful when you want to smoke off something quickly and in your vicinity. You can also affect the distance of the throw through movement.

• Simultaneous left and right click throw – By simultaneously clicking the lift and right click (and simultaneously releasing the buttons), the smoke will fall exactly in the middle between the two previous throws we mentioned. Throw distance is affected by movement.

• Left and right click throw, releasing right click first – this one is a bit niche and you would only use it in specific smoke lineups. This puts the smoke/grenade between a regular left click throw and a simultaneous left+right click throw.

• Left and right click throw, releasing left click first – Another situational type of throw that lands the grenade between the regular right click throw and the simultaneous throw. 

Now that you know how to control the strength of your smoke throw, let’s have a look at how movement can affect the throw.

• Standing/regular throw – standing still while throwing a smoke or a grenade will be your baseline. Any kind of extra movement will increase or decrease the distance of the throw.
• Jump throw – this one is pretty simple to execute and it’s very useful for lineups as it can throw the smoke pretty far away. To do this perfectly every time, hold left click (or whichever type of throw), jump, and throw the bomb while the player character is moving upwards, not while falling. The character will make a grunt to signal that you made a proper jump throw.
• Running jump throw – certain smoke lineups will require you to move in a certain direction and jump throw as well. These can be a bit more complicated to do. You’ll need to hold a direction key, jump, and release the click/throw.

With this out of the way, you should have full control of your utility, so now let’s finally have a look at some essential lineups for the most popular maps to get you those wins.

Xbox Smoke

On T-side, taking over mid control should be your primary mission before you decide which site you want to overtake. To do that, and to block the AWP from taking down your teammates through Mid Doors, you want an Xbox smoke.

To do that, from T spawn, jump on top of the half wall/ledge, hug the wall to the left, aim at the top-right of the window in front of you, and jump throw.

Mid To B Smoke

There isn’t a whole lot you can do as Ts on Dust 2, so smoking off CT spawn can be a huge advantage because it limits information and opens up the possibility to push mid toward B.

To do that, go to Xbox and hug the right corner, look towards the top-left side of mid doors and you’ll see two distinctive holes in the wall. Aim at the upper hole and left-click throw.

Tunnels B Door Smoke

To safely get into B without getting destroyed by the CT in mid, you need this B door smoke.

Get into upper tunnels, stand in the middle of the wooden crate (next to the pillar), look up towards the small square opening in the roof, and aim in the middle of the bottom right corner and left-click throw.

A Cross Smoke

Once you have Long control, squeeze into the corner of the barrel right next to Long doors, aim at the tip of the shadow from the street light, run forward for about 2 seconds (until you reach the end of the shadow of the building), and jump throw. 

You should see the smoke hit the tooth graffiti on top of the building in front of you. That’s how you know you landed the smoke well.

Taking over any site on Mirage without proper smoke lineups is borderline impossible, so here are a couple of smokes that will change the game for you:

Window Smoke

One of the harder lineups, but it’s a necessity if you want your team to have a successful T-side. Here’s what you need to do.

From T spawn, stand in front of the trash can, look at the white outline of the red building, aim about a third of the way to the top above the railing, hold D for about half a second, and jump throw.

Test this movement a couple of times in practice mode and you’ll be able to master it in no time.

A Site Smoke Execute

A site is open from all sides, so you’ll need at least 3 smokes to safely get into A. Here’s the full execute for A:

First, from T spawn move towards A ramp and stand on the right edge of the door (on your right), aim up at the top of the bundle of cables, jump throw. From the same position, aim at the top of the same building, at the point closest to you, and jump throw. These two smokes will cover Jungle and stairs, respectively.

From the door, move back and stand in the middle of the corner of the wall, look up and towards A site, and spot the building with a window and a wooden pole sticking out. Aim at the middle of the pole and jump throw.

Now you can safely take over A site.

B Site Smoke Execute

Here’s how you can execute a full B site smoke:

Pass TV corridor and hug the first right corner, aim at the middle tip of the tallest building, and jump throw. From the same position, find the three windows on the right of the same building, aim at the bottom between windows 2 and 3 (left to right), and jump throw. Finally, from the same position, aim at the leftmost tip of the same building and left-click throw.

These smokes will smoke off market Window, Door, and Short, respectively.

Inferno is also one of the most popular maps in CS2, so knowing a couple of smoke lineups is essential. Considering just how many choke points CTs can create on Banana, Short, and Long, you’ll need to smoke them off.

Coffin Smoke

To take B, you absolutely need to block off vision from coffins. Here’s how:

Push Banana right up to the B-logo wall, stand in the cubby next to the red door, aim at the black spot left of the B letter, and jump throw.

CT Smoke

Covering CT to take B is just as important. So, follow these steps:

In the same coffin smoke lineup spot, aim at the top-right tip of the shingles roof right in front of you and jump throw.

A Site Short Smoke

To smoke off Short to take A Site, push down Mid or Second Mid, hug the wall separating the two Mids, and stand in the middle of the window (between the two gates), aim at the highest right point of the left building and left click throw.

That’s it! It’s that simple. Of course, there are so many different smoke lineups and executes for Mirage, Dust 2, and Inferno, but this guide will be a huge step in the right direction to help you become a better player.

Once you’ve mastered these lineups, you can start exploring smokes for other maps like Nuke, Anubis, Vertigo, etc.