The Finals: A Complete Guide To Toxic Gas
Ah, that familiar sound of your character choking on toxic gas in the finals. Gas often plays a key role in defending cash outs, so it's important to know how best to use it and how best to combat it. Get a rock and come here. The green clouds of toxic gas that often end the would-be cash-out steals of the finest teams in the finals come from one of three sources: Gas grenades carried by all builds, gas mines carried by the medium build, and the green gas canisters that can be found lying around the maps Let's cover a few quick facts about these three gas sources before we look at using gas and defending against it.
Each gas The source covers the same area and lasts for 12 seconds, so it grenades mines and canisters. They operate exactly the same way once they're emitting gas, but they are triggered in different ways. Importantly, the damage effect from gas is not increased by having multiple sources in the same location; in other words, if you have a single gas grenade at your feet, it will eliminate you just as quickly as having a gas grenade, an active gas mine, and an exploded gas canister at your feet.
Gas always does 50 damage per second if you're in the gas cloud, no matter what the source of the gas is, so don't waste these resources by putting them all in the same location, scattering them around, or reserving them for later. One gas grenade can be carried by each of the three builds when throwing; they emit gas for 12 seconds and have a cool-down period of 30 seconds.
So it's a good idea to have either more than one teammate with gas grenades or have an alternative source of gas available for your team to avoid having an 18-second gap: where you have no gas available, add another grenade, a gas mine, or a gas canister into the mix, and you've reduced that gap down to only 6 seconds before the first teammate can throw another gas grenade.
The medium builds two gas mines that have a 1.6-second delay before being armed when they're deployed, and there's a 40-second cooldown before the supplies are restocked. They can be triggered either by an opponent stepping on them or if they get shot by anyone. The gas canisters that you find scattered around the map are perhaps the most interesting because they can be exploded in a number of different ways.
If you just throw them, they will leak gas for 15 seconds before exploding. They'll also do the same thing if you shoot them once, and if you shoot them multiple times, they'll explode. Immediately, if you throw a pyrogrenade on one of these canisters, they'll explode a whopping 25 seconds after first being hit, which is great if you want to leave a little present behind for another team long after you've left the location next. Also important to know is that gas is flammable and can be ignited by pyrogrenades from all builds of pyro mines or the flamethrower from the heavy build and the flammable canisters found around the map when they explode; however, this vulnerability for gas can be nullified if a smoke grenade or powder canister is added to the gas, as this will instantly quench out any fire and stop the gas from igniting.
Fighting against toxic gas
okay, let's move on to dealing with toxic gas when opponents are using it against you. Probably the most common situation you'll have to deal with is where your opponents have thrown gas over the cash out to protect it, and you need to ignite the gas to get rid of it quickly. Flames will ignite any gas, including gas mines and canisters, so long as it doesn't have smoke or powder mixed into it.
However, if you see a leaking gas canister, don't throw your pyro on it if it's only just been shot because the flames will become ineffective before the canister explodes as it has a 15-second delay from when it was first shot, and then you'll have no way to deal with the gas. If you use a flamethrower on a gas canister, it will explode the canister, but you'll take a small amount of damage from the gas first, then the gas will ignite and disappear, so just beware of that if you're in poor health.
Once the flames, in whatever form they take, have burned the gas, there is no way for the gas to reappear. For instance, if an opponent throws smoke right after you pyro the gas from the gas mine, the actual mine has already gone the moment the flames ignite the gas, and there's no way for an enemy to save their mind and have it restart.
Generally, the most effective way of igniting gas is with a pyro grenade because it allows you to do it from a distance, and any build can carry them. That way, you are not reliant on having a heavy with a flamethrower nearby or getting a pyro mine dropped in the right location, and you also have to shoot it to set it off.
As an alternative, you can always grab one of these orange flammable canisters. But they do take a few shots to get them to immediately ignite, so in a well-defended cash-out situation, you're quite likely to be taken out by an opponent while you're busy throwing and then shooting these, so I would recommend the Pyro grenade as your go-to for igniting gas.
I also recommend throwing the grenade a little to one side of the cash out because, as you can see here, it will still ignite toxin and gas as long as the flames from the Pyro are within the fringes of the gas cloud, but this will also mean that you're not stopping your own team from making steel by having the fire land right on the cash out.
If the defending team is smart, they'll add the light-build smoke grenade or a powder canister to the gas because this will kill the flames from any of the solutions I've just mentioned, making the Pyro option temporarily redundant. If they do that, then you have two possible solutions: first, you can focus on eliminating the defending team, and then you can just wait for the gas to disperse before making your steel.
This takes time that you might not have had otherwise. In this example, I've placed the heavy-build C4. Under each of the two levels below the roof in the practice range, when the gas is set off, you can see that the C4 easily blows a large enough hole to bring the cash out. You're going to want to aim to destroy two levels, though, because gas does penetrate.
Downwards, one level, and will affect you on that level regardless of whether the floor is in place or not. It won't reach two floors down, though.
Using toxic gas to defend
Now, what if you're on the defending team? What's the best way to make it most difficult for teams trying to steal your cash? Well, other defenses aside, I'd recommend doing the following: When you arrive at the cash out, right-click and drop a gas canister next to the cash out. Don't throw it, because you'll set it off the moment any opponents arrive on the scene.
