Molotov Bounce Fixed and Knife Sounds Updated in CS2

The Counter-Strike 2 developers released an update on the night of January 27. The patch was relatively small in size, but it affected important gameplay mechanics, audio, performance, and several maps. The main change was a fix to how incendiary grenades behave when they collide with a player model.

Previously, a Molotov could explode mid-air after bouncing off a player. Now, a player is treated as a solid obstacle, and the grenade receives additional fuse time if it has not yet touched a surface. This change was demonstrated by dataminer Avi “Thour” Thour: in his clip, a Molotov thrown from “Heaven” on Overpass no longer detonates in the air after ricocheting off a player.

In addition, Valve introduced several other adjustments.

Patch Changes (January 27):

Gameplay:

• Fixed Molotov bounce behavior when hitting a player model.

• Added a one-time mechanism to extend the fuse burn time if the grenade does not collide with a surface.

Audio:

• Added separate settings for knife hit sounds.

• Fixed a performance drop that occurred when launching CS2 without an audio device connected.

Stability and Technical Fixes:

• Fixed incorrect rendering of object bounding boxes when using the cl_ent_bbox command.

• Implemented various game stability improvements.

Maps:

• Nuke: Adjusted the render bounds of the hanging helmet model so its shadow no longer appears outside the player’s field of view.

• Warden: Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop.

• Sanctum: Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop.

Teams will already be competing on the updated version of CS2 at IEM Krakow 2026. The Play-In stage begins on January 28 and will feature BC.Game with Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, as well as PARIVISION, Aurora, B8, and other participants.

IEM Krakow 2026: Tournament Format, Teams, and Prize Pool

These changes may affect tactical Molotov lineups and positional play, especially on the professional scene.