Insurgency: Sandstorm – How to Smoke (Effectively)

Other Insurgency: Sandstorm Guides:

• Tips and Tricks for New Players.
• Optimization (FPS Boost).
• Commander Tips & Info.
• How to Get All Taglines.
• Obscure Stuff.
• Co-op Tips.

Key Points about Smokes

All credit goes to A Soviet Loli!

Before we go in-depth on how to actually use smoke, we need to understand how they work:

• They block vision, mainly around the center point.
• They do not block bullets or projectiles.
• You cough in smoke, unless you are wearing a gas mask.
• Those who are exiting the smoke gets spotted earlier, compared to those watching the smoke at the end. (!)

So what does this means?

It simply means that you would want to smoke in a way that:

• It blocks the enemy’s vision.
• You force the enemy to move through the smoke. (If possible)
• You do not make yourself walk through the path of the smoke. (!)

It blocks the enemy’s vision.

Pretty obvious what the smoke should effectively do.

You force the enemy to move through the smoke.

Remember on the point of “Those who are exiting the smoke gets spotted earlier, compared to those watching the smoke at the end.”? If you force the enemy to move through a smoke that you have placed, then are you giving yourself a gun-fight advantage against an enemy who is pushing towards you.

You do not make yourself walk through the path of the smoke.

Similar to the point above this, just that you want to make sure that you are not the one who is forced to move through the smoke.

Using Smokes (Good Examples)

With those points covered, it should be a little bit more obvious on the way you should use the smoke. There are a few tactics to smoking against opponents, few of which are:

Smoking against campers directly

By doing so, you:

• Block the enemy’s vision
• Force the enemy to move out from the smoke. (If he wants to kill you)
• Prevent yourself from moving into the smoke.
• It just takes 1 smoke.

Then again, there is a few downsides:

• Not possible to always smoke the enemy directly. (Thanks to map design)
• If the enemy decides to rushes after waiting for a bit, who is watching the smoke after you reach the location? (!)
• You might be better off with a grenade if the enemy is closer; Kills matters.

This makes the smoking tactic mostly good against snipers/campers who are further away, since they have less capability in rushing you from the spot. (Tip: Use smoke launcher if they are further away. Also, smoking windows is also an option)

Smoking against campers indirectly

By doing this, you:

• Block the enemy’s vision
• Prevent yourself from moving into the smoke.
• Used the smoke in a very original way.

Downsides, again:

• It might take more than 1 smoke, depending on the map.
• You are only smoking that guy from a single angle.

Good and the safest smoking tactic you can stick with. Very good specially in open areas where you have a large area you should cover with smoke.

Smoking against pushing people

You are:

• Giving yourself a gunfight advantage if they decide to push through the smoke. (!)

Downsides to consider:

• Mostly effective on corridors; Becomes harder to watch the smoke if the ‘corridor’ gets wider.
• Prevents yourself from seeing anyone who is just simply passing by the corridor (!)
• Honestly, use the flame thing unless you don’t have a choice.

A way to smoke if you are defending a location from a tight corridor. But the downsides are the ones you really should consider before doing so.

Using Smoke (Bad Examples)

A few bad examples of smoking, which you should avoid doing.

Smoking your way to the point

Although you are effectively blocking the desired enemy’s vision to you, you need to consider that there might be enemies watching when you leave the smoke.

But my team smoked it in this fashion!

Then you have a few options:

• Hide in the smoke when you are nearing the point, waiting for it to disappear instead of exiting it. (Careful of grenade baits)
• Just move around it if its possible, lol.
• Wait out the smoke, or switch to another flank. :V

Smoking randomly

I often see people randomly throwing smoke over buildings/rocks/etc. No one knows where it is going, but I rather smoke in a way which I know it will be useful, rather than praying that it will end up being useful.

Smoking as defender

Unless you are smoking a tight corridor to give yourself a gun-fight advantage, you really have no reason to smoke as a defender. (Tip: Bring flame thing or grenade.)

Other Stuff

Smoke is an explosive bait

What the header suggests. Some experts normally suggests waiting for the first few explosives get thrown first before moving. Honestly, most people tend to throw their explosives at the smoke. So the closer you throw the smoke to the enemy, the less of a chance you would have to worry about this issue.

Smoking in coop (bots)

It does work. But the bots can detect if you are too close to them, or when the smoke is disappearing, so keep that in mind.

Smoke is just a way to delay problems, not to remove them.

Remember that smoke simply renders the enemy ineffective temporarily, it does not kill them or remove them from the game.

Final Notes

Finally, this guide is just here to teach you how to use a smoke effectively if you decide to bring one or so-happen to get one.

Remember that other form of grenades/weapons exists. Just because a camper is somewhere around the corner, doesn’t mean a smoke MUST be used.