. . . i wonder…
do grenades have aim assist?
There was a thread a while back that was discussing how grenades have a homing assist. There were a few wild videos shared, but I’m still not convinced they weren’t just an illusion from the angle of perspective, or desync/broken theater.
In any case, it used to be “bounce - boom” now it could be anywhere from that to “bounce - bbbounce bobounce - bounce - roll - pause- boom”
The games major malfunction.
Desync is a huge factor.
The spike feels like it went against the whole redundancy narative from day one.
That wouldn’t surprise me. I’m sure to some degree, but I’m pretty sure that the blast radius changes based on environment too.
Yet in objective modes grenade spam is still far too effective…
Grenade-spam has always been an issue in Halo.
This one I can firmly say, no.
I’d like to say Desync could have a benefactor I would take that as a theory from my part
Its because Halo supports inconsistent gameplay over actually making sense. 
So, I went and did some testing.
Found some really cool results. Some really cool, reproducible results.
Academy, Training mode, Live fire, no friendly bots, 4 hostile bots, deathless on, infinite ammo on, frag grenades and spike grenades, all enemy actions off (eg shooting, moving, etc.)
First, go to that middle lane where the sniper and skewer spawn. Then, back up against the barrier next to the tower, so that you’re facing the sniper rifle with your back against the white concrete barrier.
Now, aim straight down the lane and throw about 20 frag grenades. You’ll notice they explode consistently at the same point. Now try aiming up and down a little. The explosion’s timing is going to be a little different, but not in an unintuitive way. Not yet.
Now stand in the middle of the lane, look up, and throw the grenade high against the wall. Try to make it bounce between the walls. you’ll notice that this grenade lives a LOT longer.
Now, standing in front of the white concrete barrier by the tower, facing the sniper rifle, turn right. There’s like a single stair that leads to the walkway. Throw the frag grenade against that stair. Notice how it bounces very differently- ramp physics in this game play havoc with grenade trajectory. The grenade bouncing on the stairs does not behave intuitively. It bounces off of them like they’re an uneven trampoline.
Finally, stand in the open area next to the tower, and throw a grenade straight up. It won’t explode until it hits the ground and bounces once. But once it does bounce, it explodes very quickly afterward.
I can’t figure out the relationship between the bounce and the explosion. The ones thrown down the lane earlier explode much more quickly than the one you throw in the air, and the one you throw high against the wall lasts longer, too. It might be that the first bounce has to have sufficient impact to make the timer for the grenade actually start.
Moving on, go back to the lane and repeat the ‘down the lane’ throwing with dynamo grenades. They don’t go straight. They roll unevenly, and even on a perfectly flat plane, go all kinds of directions. This might be why it sometimes feels like they’re chasing you as you move- they CAN turn.
Go find a bot, and throw some dynamo grenades askew to them. Some will turn toward the bot, some will turn away from the bot. The odds of the grenade actually rolling straight are pretty low, and the grenade appears to not favor going toward the enemy.
But things change when we move to the spike grenade. Move to an enemy bot in a hallway (you might have to move them manually- they’ll still be meleeing you but you can kinda just push them around). Then, back away from them so you’re out of melee range, and throw the spike grenade down between you and them. Odds are, their shields will break- yours won’t.
If you stand right up on top of your spike grenade, it’ll take down your shields and half your health. It’ll do this to the enemy, too- barring spikes bouncing back and hitting them, it won’t kill them with a single grenade unless you stick them with it. But the shrapnel seems to self-aim such that it tries to hit the enemy at least once. I consistently was able to put the grenade directly between me and the enemy, even closer to me in some cases, and their shields break when mine don’t.
There’s one more thing I noticed when doing my sticky run. Stand directly against a wall and face it, and throw a spike grenade at it. It lands up left of your reticle. IF a wall is up left of your reticle in the same location, your sticky grenade will hit that wall- you have to keep your left hand clear to throw grenades accurately.
BUT,
If an enemy is there, the grenade will not hit them. It’s like it phases through them. And it continues onto a trajectory toward below your reticle.
Additionally, the trajectory appears… mildly inconsistent. If you throw a sticky grenade while you’re near a wall, you’ll be able to watch it land to the left of your reticle, up to a point where it’s landing below but centered on your reticle. But it never moves to the right of your reticle. I THINK, and I could be wrong here, that it’s adjusting the trajectory of your grenade- I think within a certain range, it doesn’t change, but I think it adjusts the trajectory to be more in line with your reticle if there are no objects within a certain range that it could hit.
Anyway. Frag grenades, dynamo’s, and plasma nades appear to have no aim assist. The spike grenades themselves don’t appear to have any, but the shrapnel DOES appear to have some. Go compare the shrapnel damage to your shields based on surroundings; it can do more damage than a frag in many cases, and can easily be used to kill people hiding behind cover thanks to the shrapnel targeting enemies.
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Yeah but in objective modes it is an easy fix… Reduce the starting grenades from 2 to 1
I’m actually ok with grenades. There are times where I scratch my head as to how Spartans survive but that could be a desync or lag issue.
What I do find annoying is how my spartan can chuck them ridiculous distances (which is cool) but melee swings like a grandma. Makes zero sense.