Here are some basics on how to use grenades before going onto the types of grenades.

When you hold down the grenade key (G by default), half of a circle made up of boxes with points coming out of the bottom of the boxes appears on the screen. Each of these boxes, or ticks, represents a second. When a tick turns white, that means a second has passed.



The tick on the rightmost is red; this is to indicate that the grenade is about to explode. If you keep holding the grenade when the timer reaches the last tick, it will explode in your hand and likely kill you.

Proximity mines cannot be cooked.

The key to unlocking a grenade's power is to cook your grenades for the right time so that they explode soon after they hit the ground, giving an enemy no time to move away before the grenade explodes.

The next section will cover how long to cook grenades.

The amount you cook grenades depends on the distance you engage foes at. Toss it too early, and the enemy will have enough time to run away from it, not doing any damage to them. Toss it too late, and the grenade will explode before it reaches enemies. Here is how long you should cook your grenades for certain distances.

Long Range: Two ticks.

Medium range: Three ticks

Short range: Four ticks.

If a grenade explodes while flying in the air, it's called airbursting. This can be done by timing it so that the grenade cooks long enough that it will explode in the air after it has been tossed.

Generally, airbursting is ineffective because the explosion won't do enough damage in the air to really hurt foes, and it not hitting the ground doesn't trigger foes to run away from the grenade. Incendiary grenades are the exception to this; any foe hit by it's explosion radius will be set on fire.

Slo-Mo can be very useful when figuring out where to toss a grenade.

With slowed down time, it's easy to figure out what direction a foe is running in so you can toss a cooked grenade at their direction. This is particularly useful for proximity mines, as it makes it easy to figure out where a foe is moving so you can intercept him with a proximity mine.

Slo-mo also highlights foes with a glow, making it easy to find any pesky foes that are hiding behind cover.

Unlike other games, grenades are extremly easy to find. If you have less than the max amount of a grenade type, a defeated foe will likely drop a grenade type you need. The less of a grenade type you have, the higher the odds that a foe will drop it. Certain foe types tend to drop certain grenade types more often than others, but if you really need a certain grenade type, a common foe will drop it.

Grenades are also commonly found in weapon caches scattered throughout the game.

Now that you know how to use grenades, it's time to learn about each grenade type.

Frag grenades are the most common grenade type in the game. They come in a yellow color and explode when the timer reaches zero. Five frag grenades can be held at once.

Despite their simplity, frag grenades are one of the most useful grenade types in the game. A single frag grenade can kill most soldier type enemies (Replica soldiers, ATC black ops) in one hit if it explodes near the target, and can stumble foes if they are not killed by the blast, givng the player plenty of time to kill them.

Frag grenades are great to use when enemies are hiding behind cover. With a well-cooked grenade, you can defeat a foe hidign behind cover with one hit, saving you ammo and getting rid of a potential problem with ease.

They also work well when you want to get rid of weak enemy types, such as common Replica soliers. Their HP is low enough that a single grenade can easily gib them and any other weak enemies near the blast, letting you save ammo for stronger foes.

Frag greandes can be obtained from most enemies in the game after they die and are often found in ammo caches.

Bascially, if you don't know what grenade type to use, always go with the frag grenade.

The shock grenade is a fairly common grenade type. It has blue markings and releases an electromagnetic pulse that stuns anyone near the grenade when it explodes. Five shock grenades can be held.

In practice, the shock grenade is FEAR 2's flashbang grenade. The closer the target is to the explosion, the longer they will be stunned. Stun duration might also depend on the enemy type as well; stronger foes seem to stay stunned less than weaker enemies.

What makes shock grenades different from your standard flashbang grenade is how it stuns foes. When a foe is hit by a shock grenade, the target will stand straight up and stay in place while playing an electrocuted animation while either standing on on his knees. This gives you plenty of time to land headshots of foes, making it very easy to kill them. If you activiate slo-mo while this is happening, you can pick off stunned foes at your leisure.

Standing animation:



On knees animation:


A shock grenade is very useful against stronger enemy types, such as the Replica shotgunners and the Elite Replica soliders you start to face at Wade Elementary School. A shock grenade stun will stop a shotgunner's rush towards you dead in his tracks, while the shock grenade's stun makes it very easy to deal with the otherwise-dangerous Elite Replicas because it lets you easily kill them with no chance of them firing back.

Shock grenades are dropped by most enemy types, though stronger enemy types seem to drop it more often. Shock grenades can often be found in ammo caches, and shock grenades are very common in areas where mechanical foes are fought, such as the elevator to the surface and the sections where you fight mechanical foes while piloting an Elite Power Armor just in case you don't use the EPA. A good trick during sections where you use the Elite Power Armor to mow down foes is to defeat enemies with the EPA, then get out of the armor and stock up on shock grenades so that you'll be maxed out on shock grenades when you're forced to get stop using the EPA.

Shock grenades are fantastic for dealing with mechanical foes, such as the small power armor and Elite Power Armor enemies, when you aren't in Elite Power Armor. A single shock grenade going off near a mechanical foe will stun it for several seconds, allong the player to unload their best weapons into it without fear of retalliation.

Note that a shock grenade going off in water will not electrocute any enemies in the water.

The incendiary grenade is a somewhat-uncommon grenade that looks a red-colored version of the regular frag grenade. Unlike most grenade types, you can hold only four incendiary grenades.

When the grenade explodes, it will set any foes near the explosion on fire. While a foe is on fire, they will take damage, will drop their weapon (if he has one), and be unable to attack the player. Eventually, they will either die from the fire or the fire will be put out. In practice, this makes the incendiary grenade an alternate version of the shock grenade; it stuns foes and does damage over time, but the enemy flailing around makes it harder to land headshots (if that's your thing).

If an soldier survives being set on fire, he pull out his pistol and continue to fight with it instead of trying to pick up the gun he dropped. This makes him easier to deal with and is quite useful for those that want to use pistols throughout the game because he will drop his pistol when he dies.

It seems that the fire does more damage the closer the victim is to the grenade when it explodes, so try to time and cook the grenade so that it explodes near the victims.

Stronger foes tend to be more resistant to the incendiary grenade's fire, though you'll see even Elite Replica soliders die by an incendiary grenade once in a while. For stonger foes, unload your gun on them while they're on fire.

Airbrusting incendiary grenades can be quite effective, as anyone hit by it's blast, no matter the angle, will be set on fire.

Incendiary grenades can be used either like a frag grenade or a shock grenade. It's ability to stun and deal damage over time makes it an effective weapon to stop foes from shooting you temporarily, while the fire effect can defeat weaker foes (like common Replica soldiers) while stunning stronger ones mixed in with the weaker ones.

Incendiary grenades tend to be dropped by stronger foes, such as Replica Heavy Armor and ATC Black Ops Pyros. A few weaker enemies will drop them once in a while and they are an uncommon find in ammo caches.

The proximity mines isn uncommon grenade that looks like a round explosive device with yellow spots in its middle. The player can hold only four prox mines. Unlike other grenades, prox mines cannot be cooked.

When a prox mine hits a floor or wall, it will stick to whatever it hit. It will take a second to arm, then start glowing blue. Any foes that gets close to it will cause the prox to explode, likely killing whoever triggered it and anyone else near the mine. Unexploded mines can be picked up with the use key.

Prox mines can also be placed on foes. A mine will blow up soon after it sticks on a foe, killing the target instantly and anyone else near the target.

The most obvious use of prox mines is to stop enemies that are rushing you, such as shotgun-wielding foes. Place a mine at the direction where a rushing foe is attacking

Prox mines can also be used to defeat enemies hiding behind cover when they try to move position. Toss a prox mine to the left or right of cover an enemy is using, then move away from the foe. The foe will attempt to reposition himself so he can get a better shot at you. If there's a mine in the way, it'll go off and blow him up. This works best when the foe is using cover that has only way to get away from it (ie a box that has a wall to it's right, forcing the foe to move left if he wants to change cover). If the foe can go either left or right, this won't always work because the foe might take the direction away from the mine to find cover, but it might go off on any other enemies moving forward or trying to rush you.

Here's a hypothetical to show how a prox mine can be used to defeat a foe behind cover:



The green circle shows the prox mine, while the red circle shows an enemy hiding behind cover. When the foe moves right to get closer while heading to another piece of cover, the prox mine will go off, killing him.

Prox mines can only be found in weapon caches scattered throughout maps.