Grenades and explosives | Soldier equipment XCOM 2 Guide

Grenades are the most numerous and without a doubt the most important of utility items.

Each of your soldiers starts with a default grenade (Frag Grenade), and the player has access to two additional types (Flashbang and Smoke Grenade), but with time the amount of possible choices will increase significantly, giving you more flexibility in choosing your soldiers' equipment. You should keep in mind that you can't bring equip two grenades of the same kind on a single soldier, and in order to get a second slot for a utility item you will have to equip your soldiers with medium armor (Predator or Warden). Grenadier-class soldiers, upon selecting a specific ability, receive a bonus grenade for free.

A full list of all the researches and projects required to unlock a given grenade can be found in the "New technology" chapter, as well as in the following table.

Available grenades and explosives

You should remember about few things:

• Flashbang Grenades deal no damage, but they prevent the enemies affected by them from using any abilities for 2 rounds - shooting is all they can do. In other words, they won't be able to use mind controlling abilities, as well as throw grenades, to name a few. Additionally, they will interrupt Sectoid abilities - mind control will be broken and any Psi Zombies in the area of effect will be eliminated. What is more, there's no chance of hurting your own soldiers, as it's unable to affect them. You should always carry 1 or 2 of those grenades around.
• If you want to destroy covers, the regular grenades, Frag Grenades, are best for the task. Additionally, you should complete the "Muton Autopsy" research as soon as you are able to, as it replaces your regular grenades with Plasma Grenades, increasing all their stats. A huge flaw of those grenades is the inability of a soldier to carry any other grenade type when this one is present in their inventory. If you don't need flashbangs and gas grenades, all your soldiers should be equipped with them.
• The Smoke Grenade, and later on the Smoke Bomb is a perfect tool to increase the defensive capabilities of your soldiers. Contrary to the first thought, they do not decrease the AIM of the units standing in the smoke, rather increasing their defense against attacks from the outside. It's an effective way of decreasing the chances of your soldiers getting hit, especially if there are no full covers in the area. However, refrain from grouping up all your units, so that they will get the benefits of a single smoke grenade - otherwise the enemy will surely use the opportunity to throw a few grenades at them.
• EMP Grenades and EMP Bombs are, on paper, quite effective, but given the fact that they can only hurt mechanized enemies they are in reality one of the least effective grenades in the game and you can just skip them. They won't destroy cover, they won't shred armor, and at the point in the game you gain access to the EMP BOMB, 10 points of damage is nothing special, as most of your soldiers will be able to deal that much with a single shot.
• Incendiary Grenade / Bomb and Acid Grenade / Bomb are similar to the above described - their effectiveness is many times lower than that of some of the grenades in the game. Poisoning / igniting the target can be quite tempting, but enemies tend to resist the effect, not to mention that a large number of them is immune to one of them. The inability to destroy cover is the nail in the coffin.
• Gas Grenade / Bomb is probably the most powerful grenade in the game. They deal quite a nice amount of damage, they shred armor, but what is most important is the poisoning effect. Affected enemies receive a huge penalty to AIM and mobility, making them less likely to hit, and the decreased mobility won't allow them to move and attack during the same round. You should have at least 1 grenade of such type at your disposal.
• Proximity Mine is almost completely useless. It deals huge amount of damage, but it's only usable when you are preparing an ambush for your enemies - otherwise you can't really depend on them, as you have to wait for the enemy to step on the mine for it to deal any damage.
• Grenadier-class soldiers have access to a number of abilities that influence the grenades they use - the values from the table above have to be adapted to those abilities, like the one that increases the damage of the grenades, allowing a Flashbang Grenade to deal 1-2 points of damage.
• Enemies killed by an explosion of a grenade / mine (as well as rockets and heavy weapons) won't drop any loot - instead you will be informed that the possible item was destroyed. If you want to use explosives against enemies, try to weaken them with them, and then finish off your foes with conventional weapons.