Mk 2 Grenade

The Mk 2 Grenade is a weapon featured in Half-Life and its expansions. A fragmentation hand grenade, it is a timed explosive that detonates five seconds after the grenade's 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.

Overview
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.

In Half-Life, the player can first obtain grenades in a semi-secret cache during the chapter Unforeseen Consequences. If not obtained there, it can be found scattered throughout the chapter Office Complex and subsequent ones. However, after the chapter Apprehension, it becomes much rarer and is partially replaced by the Satchel Charge.

Tactics

 * 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 Standard 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 SMG 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 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. 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.

"Cooking"

 * 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 his 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

 * As seen in the Half-Life SDK files, its original skin shows a brighter green.
 * The grenade appears to be a Mk 2 grenade, used during World War II and later replaced by the M61 and M67 grenades. Therefore this is an inconsistency, Half-Life and its expansions taking place in the 2000s.


 * The Team Fortress Classic's Frag Grenade uses the grenade's ground model.


 * In Half-Life: 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.


 * In Opposing Force's CTF mode, the Snark is replaced by a penguin with an Mk 2 Grenade attached to its back.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Day One
 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Uplink
 * Half-Life: Opposing Force
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay