Grenade Launcher

"Man, it's gonna be raining zombie pieces!"

- Coach

"Time to make some zombie soup!"

- Nick

The Grenade Launcher is a weapon in Left 4 Dead 2. It appears to be a M79 Grenade Launcher. It fires one shell at a time and takes around three or four seconds to reload. It takes the place of the primary weapon. It appears to have the same power as the pipe bomb. It also has the worst friendly fire damage, as in a video released by Kotaku, Rochelle shot Nick with it and took close to a half of his health in the process. This weapon appears to be just as effective against Special Infected, however its effectiveness on the Tank or Witch is arguable. The Grenade Launcher's ammo cannot be found in normal Ammo stacks. Damage done to survivors by a close range shot varies, but it appears to cap at 12% of 400, or 48, damage.

Achievements
This achievement can be hard to do in normal circumstances, but it can be easily done during a horde attack :
 * Firing at Infected climbing fences.
 * Firing at Infected attracted by a bile bomb or pipe bomb.

Demo
The Grenade Launcher was one of the weapons the player could not find in the Demo's levels. However, the player could obtain it by opening the console and typing in "sv_cheats 1", then "ent_create weapon_grenade_launcher".

In the demo, the Grenade Launcher lacked a skin and its grenades displayed an "error" logo, but otherwise it worked fine.

Videos

 * Swamp Fever Grenade Launcher Gameplay
 * PAX Dark Carnival Grenade Launcher Gameplay

Tactics

 * The Grenade Launcher is excellent for blowing up hordes of infected. But it replaces your primary weapon. One great way to travel without having to give up your Grenade Launcher is to rapidly switch between your primary weapon and the Grenade Launcher (default button for this on the PC is E) while walking. You'll be able to keep both weapons, and pick up either one at the time they're needed.
 * The Grenade Launcher does not go well when paired with Melee weapons, as you lose all long-range effectiveness. Instead, it's best used with the Magnum or, to a lesser extent, the Dual pistols.
 * Incendiary ammo with the Grenade launcher is a waste, unless you're fighting a Tank or possibly a Witch; however, explosive ammo is more useful as it increases the blast radius.

Trivia

 * Attaching a Laser Sight onto the Grenade Launcher gives it supreme accuracy. Combined with the damage done by the rounds, this combination can be very deadly.
 * It is modeled after the M79 grenade launcher.
 * It appears that the grenade launcher will still inflict friendly fire damage on survivors even if there is cover between that survivor(s) and the grenade blast, given that they are in the proximity. This can be used to knock off Special Infected if they're attacking a teammate when you're on the other side of a wall.
 * While it can kill most special infected in one hit (except the charger, tank and witch) when a jockey is riding someone it only knocks him off rather than killing him.
 * Although the Grenade Launcher is an explosive weapon, It does not stagger the Tank, even on a direct hit. This was probably implemented by Valve for balancing reasons.
 * It is the only weapon in the Special Tier section, also known as Tier 3.
 * The grenade launcher can be used to blast open walls that otherwise only a Tank can break open.
 * When being killed or hit by the grenade launcher, the Special Infected players' "ears" will ring, blocking out all other sound.