In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone you have two strong, tactical equipment options: the Stun Grenade and the Flashbang. MeinMMO provides information and recommendations about both.
What can the two grenades do? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare does not just hand you deadly weapons. There is a decent selection of “Tactical Equipment” that can give you advantages in certain situations, but rarely take out the opponent.
These include the Flashbang and the Stun Grenade. With these two, you can hinder the enemies’ vision or slow down their movements. The YouTuber and CoD expert “TheXclusiveAce” has taken a closer look at the mechanics of both.
MeinMMO presents its findings here and provides tips on when to use which grenade and which one offers more advantages. We have embedded Ace’s English video here for you:
Effects and Duration of Flashbang and Stun Grenade
What do they have in common? The use of both grenades works quite similarly. To throw them, you need the same time for both. But there are other similarities:
- Time to throw with MP7: about 1.2 seconds
- The more mobile the weapon, the faster the throw
- If the target is further away at the time of explosion, the effect is weaker
- The radius of effect is about 6 meters
- The perk “Battle-Hardened” reduces the effect
- You can catch yourself with the effects
- If you hit enemies directly with the grenade, you deal some damage
- If only the grenade’s effect hits, you cause exactly one damage point
The conditions for using both grenades are similar in many respects, but the effects they produce are completely different.
How does the Stun Grenade work? If you hit an enemy with your Stun Grenade, their movement values drop significantly and their vision blurs slightly:
- The enemy sees everything blurred and doubled
- The sensitivity of their inputs diminishes, aiming and turning happens very slowly
- The movement speed decreases as well
- The effect lasts almost the entire duration
- Maximum duration of the stun effect: 5.16 seconds
How does the Flashbang work? The Flashbang hinders the enemy’s vision, but their movement remains the same.
- Completely white screen upon a hit
- Fades slowly until the enemy can see properly again
- The opponent sees everything doubled
- The HUD is disabled for the entire duration of the effect
- The effect does not last until the end, one can see well again before that
- Maximum duration of the flash effect: 4.7 seconds
Flash vs Stun – One is usually better
In most situations, a Stun Grenade helps you more than a Flashbang.
Why is Stun better? A blinded enemy is still fully mobile. So if you want to stop an opponent in Warzone, they can just keep running, and if they remember their path, they will continue.
With the Stun Grenade, opponents are more or less helplessly chained to their current spot for the entire duration of the effect. If you “flash” an enemy, they can see well again after about half of the effect duration, with the blinding hardly affecting them anymore.
The effect lasts longer and usually provides more benefits. Therefore, the Stun is preferable in most cases to the Flashbang, especially when you can move away from the enemy’s sights, which is often the case. Then the enemy cannot follow with their sights.
When is the Flashbang better? A flash is better when the enemy keeps a certain area in sight (“hard scope”) and there is little room for movement in their target area for you.
In practice, this is the case in situations where an enemy is sitting on the top floor and there is only one access to the occupied room or rooftop, via a ladder or stairs.
Then it can be really useful to take away the enemy’s sight for a few seconds and quickly storm the area.
The perk “Battle-Hardened” significantly reduces the effects
The yellow perk “Battle-Hardened” significantly reduces the effects of both grenades. The duration and the effect are mitigated:
- Stun: From 5.16 seconds to 2.15 seconds
- Flash: From 4.7 seconds to 3.2 seconds
Here, the usual effect was not simply compressed into a shorter time; instead, it feels as though the effects are already close to their end when they occur. By the way, the blue KRD perk helps against lethal grenades.
If the two tactical equipment items annoy you in regular multiplayer or Warzone, try using “Battle-Hardened”. However, you would then have to forgo the Anti-Mine perk “Recon”.
Flashbangs and Stun Grenades have strong competition
Call of Duty offers strong tactical equipment, so Flashbang or Stun may be at a disadvantage in some situations. However, in multiplayer, both are often a good choice. You can quickly achieve an effect and unsettle opponents. Generally, these items fit better with an aggressive play style.
In Warzone, the options look different again. The Heartbeat Sensor is considered the best tactical item here, as you can always see enemies on your radar without “Ghost”. There are also “Decoy Grenades” that distract enemies with acoustic signals, or the “Spotter Scope”, with which you can spot enemies over long distances.
Do not underestimate the potential impact of tactical equipment. Choose them based on your play style or current usefulness. Experiment and remember in which situations a particular piece of equipment is helpful. Here you can find out more about the best loadouts in Warzone.
