Flashbang

"A small handheld weapon that is designed to be thrown. It emits a high-pitched sound and a bright flash of light designed to disrupt enemy senses."
- in-game description

Flashbang is one of the three basic throwing weapons in CrossFire.

Overview[]

Flashbang is used to blind players and muffle all sounds for a short time. This allows players to attack any enemies while they are blinded with low visibility; however, it can also blind teammates and the players themselves, so it's helpful but dangerous at the same time. It is recommended to check teammates' location in order to avoid griefing them.

The duration of the flash effects can be reduced by the Flash Guard which can also stack with characters that have the Reduce Flashbang effect. Moreover, players can minimize the effects by quickly looking away from Flashbang when it detonated.

In Zombie Modes and AI Bot Modes, Flashbang doesn't work on zombies or NPC players, thus it's not recommended to equip Flashbang in said modes as it's useless against them (Bot TDM-Mix is an exception since normal players are on both side).

Variants[]

Trivia[]

The Flashbang's model used in CrossFire has a close resemblance to the M7290 Flash Grenade made by the United States.
In reality, although unintentionally, flashbangs has the potential to cause lethal damage that could fatally injure anyone who are very close to its blast radius. Its explosion can cause skin burns, flames if within flammable area or materials, ear-bleeding that leads to permanent loss of hearing or even damaging the corona of the victim's eyes leading to permanent blindness.
In most servers, Flashbang has a high-frequency sound effect to the blinded players' POV, but this sound effect was deleted in the CF China, and only its exploding sound remains.
In some versions (like CF Indonesia), its HUD model is zoomed in, similar to Smoke Grenade's case.
Originally, no matter where the player is facing, when in the Flashbang's exploding radius, the blinding time is almost the same. However. for tactical and balance reasons, this was later changed, and players can minimize the flash effect by quickly looking away when it explodes. CF Vietnam was the last version to adapt this change in 2024.