Hand grenade

"GRENADE!"

- Grenadier squad throwing these things

A hand grenade is a small hand-held explosive device designed to be thrown, which then explodes after a short while. The word "grenade" is derived from the Old French (pome) grenate ("pomegranate"), in reference to the general size of early grenades, and because its shrapnel pellets reminded soldiers of the seeds of this fruit. Grenadiers were originally soldiers who specialized in throwing grenades.

While grenades are issued to troops by default (e.g. the minigunners in the First Tiberium War), special grenadier infantry units were trained by forces in military conflicts ever since the first introduction of the weapon, and served under both USSR and later GDI.

The grenade design evolved, from simple "egg"-shaped explosive devices, through disks to rocket powered homing grenades (which can effectively clear buildings in urban combat) and hallucination grenades deployed by Nod. Hallucination grenades create hallucinations, causing a GDI infantry squad to fire on their allies for a while. Grenades were ineffective against vehicles and it does not discriminate between friend and foe.