CS2 molotov and incendiary: what the fire costs, how long it burns, and what it can and cannot do

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CS2 molotov and incendiary: what the fire costs, how long it burns, and what it can and cannot do

Quick summary

The molotov is the Terrorist fire grenade and the incendiary is the Counter-Terrorist version. They differ in price and in how long the flame lasts. The flame deals damage per hit rather than one big burst, it ignores armor, and it burns the thrower too. Smoke puts it out, but only if enough of the flame is covered. In CS2 the fire spreads out from the landing point instead of staying in a fixed shape.

Which grenade is which

• The Molotov is the Terrorist incendiary grenade. The Counter-Strike Wiki lists its in-game price as $400, which it calls the most expensive T grenade.
• The Incendiary Grenade is the Counter-Terrorist equivalent. It carries the same fire behaviour and a different model and price.
• Both are listed under the equipment category Grenades, alongside the smoke, flashbang, HE and decoy.

How the fire is thrown and placed

The Counter-Strike Wiki describes the throw in physical terms: the bottle shatters when it hits a walkable surface that is 30 degrees or smaller from horizontal, and the flammable liquid spreads out into a burning area. Any surface steeper than that does not break the bottle, it bounces off.

Two edge cases are worth knowing:

• A grenade that is in the air for more than 2 seconds explodes mid-air and does no damage. The exception the wiki gives: if it explodes less than 128 units above a surface, the flames drop to the ground and start burning anyway.
• The Counter-Strike Wiki also gives a direct hit table for the bottle itself. On Counter-Strike 2, a direct bottle hit deals 2 damage to an unarmored player and 1 to an armored one, across the head, chest and arms, abdomen and pelvis, and legs.

Damage and duration

The wiki's numbers for the Counter-Strike 2 molotov:

• The flame starts at 1 damage per hit and climbs on each hit up to a cap of 8.
• Once capped it deals 40 damage per second with 100% armor penetration to anyone in contact, including the thrower, their teammates, and hostages.
• The fire disappears after roughly 7 seconds; the wiki gives the exact figure as 7.03125 seconds.
• Overlapping flames stack their damage.

So standing in a molotov for its full life is close to lethal, and armor does not help. The wiki notes the practical consequence: the 5 second minimum defuse time is enough for the fire to kill a full health player.

How CS2 changed the fire

A third-party guide (skin.club's "How Molotov Works In CS2", dated January 2026) describes the difference between the two games:

• In CS:GO the molotov had a static spread over a predefined area.
• In CS2 the fire expands outward from the impact point, which the guide credits to liquid and fire shaders borrowed from Half-Life: Alyx.
• The guide says the fire is dealt five times per second with the damage per tick rising up to eight.
• It gives the T-side molotov a price of $400 and the CT-side incendiary $600, and says both have similar damage and area effect.

I would treat the two sources as complementary rather than identical. The Counter-Strike Wiki gives the per-hit ramp and the 7 second lifetime; the skin.club article gives the five ticks per second framing and the $600 CT price. The wiki's own page states the molotov is the most expensive T grenade at $400 but does not print a CT-side price, so the $600 figure rests on the third-party guide alone.

Extinguishing and resisting the fire

• The Counter-Strike Wiki: flames can be extinguished by a smoke grenade, and flames will not deploy inside smoke. One third of the flames must be covered by the smoke for it to extinguish.
• The skin.club guide adds that throwing the smoke directly into the fire costs you that smoke grenade for other tactical uses, and that a molotov is a legitimate way to flush a player out of a defensible spot.

Timing it around the defuse

The wiki's tactic notes give the window: the fire lasts 7 seconds, so a molotov thrown on a planted bomb only matters when there are between 7 and 12 seconds left before detonation, accounting for the 5 second defuse with a defuse kit. There is music for the last 10 seconds, which the wiki suggests using as the audible guide.

Common questions

Does armor reduce molotov damage? No. The wiki states the flame deals 40 damage per second with 100% armor penetration, so a helmet and kevlar do not cut it.

Can I throw a molotov through my own smoke? The wiki says flames will not deploy inside smoke, and the skin.club guide treats the smoke as the counter. Throwing fire into your own smoke is not a way to make the fire bigger.

Does the molotov kill instantly? No, it ramps. The first hit is 1 damage and it climbs to 8 per hit. The total is what kills, which is why the wiki frames the 5 second defuse as the thing that makes a planted-bomb molotov lethal rather than the grenade's opening instant.

Do the two sides pay the same? No. The Counter-Strike Wiki gives $400 for the T-side molotov. The skin.club guide gives $600 for the CT-side incendiary.

Is the fire the same shape as in CS:GO? No. The skin.club guide describes static spread in CS:GO and dynamic outward spread in CS2. The Counter-Strike Wiki does not make that comparison, so it rests on that one source.

Can I stand in my own fire? You can, and it hurts you. The wiki lists the user among the players the flame damages.

Sources

Counter-Strike Wiki: Molotov (damage ramp, 7.03125 second duration, armor penetration, throw angle, direct hit table, smoke extinguishing)

Counter-Strike Wiki: Incendiary Grenade (CT-side counterpart)

skin.club: How Molotov Works In CS2 (January 2026) (CS2 versus CS:GO spread, five ticks per second, $400 and $600 prices)