Grenade Launcher

"Grenades deal heavy damage and explode upon impact!" In-game description

The Grenade Launcher is the default slot 1 weapon for Demoman which shoots grenades in an arc, and can either explode after 3.1 seconds or upon impacting an enemy. It has high damage output, and grenades often bounce/roll around surfaces, making them unpredictable and a hazard to unaware enemies.

Its design mostly takes inspiration from the family of M32 grenade launchers in real life. Although in-game, it does not have a stock and has an inconvenient looking grip at the bottom front of the weapon. It is mostly painted black and dark gray.

Tactics

 * Its best to fight enemies from mid range to lessen the chances of your own grenades damaging you.


 * When an enemy is up close, you could shoot the floor while moving backwards so that the grenades bounce and stay nearby the location you shot it at, and also have a chance to hit said enemy if they are chasing you.


 * Grenades can be bounced over Trowel Guy's walls by aiming at the floor infront of it. You could also just aim higher to shoot the grenades over the wall if you are close to it.


 * Shoot the grenades at key locations such as an objective area or a corner to have a form of area denial against the enemies.


 * When moving towards an area, you could perform a creeping barrage of grenades by initially aiming at the sky and then lowering your aim as you get closer towards said location. This allows your grenades to impact the same area while you are moving.


 * If possible, try to land direct hits on enemies, as this allows the grenade to immediately explode upon impact, which in most cases, knocks them out. This makes the rest of your fight easy as you just have to follow up with more shots to kill the knocked out enemy.


 * Although this shoots grenades, it is much harder to destroy objects in the map with it due to how frequent the grenades bounce and its long fuse time. The star streak is recommended to be paired with any of Demoman's slot 1 weapon so that you are able to blow up most objects.

Trivia
Unlike the rocket launcher, the Grenade Launcher's grenades are incapable of dealing full damage towards humanoid enemies on a direct hit, and usually they only deal around 90-140 damage. This is due to the explosion hitbox being smaller and not have a range where it deals full damage. Although it deals full damage to non-humanoid targets, such as sentries.