Unfortunately, there is a Steam bug that regularly deletes all pictures in my guide. Even worse, they can't be reuploaded without changing them (slightly). According to the Steam Community Forum it is a known bug that affects other guides as well. Steam support was not able to help. That's why for the time being there are no pictures in this guide.

• Although being a nuclear power plant, ironically the damage dealt by the bomb is low on Nuke in comparison to other maps: The bomb damage is 400 and the blast radius is 1400 units (almost all other maps use damage 500 radius 1750). Valve reduced the damage in Nuke after two NAVI players unexpectedly died while trying to save their weapons in a match against Astralis at IEM Katowice 2017.
  
  Due to these stats there is a brilliant way to survey the lethal bomb radius: Using cl_weapon_debug_show_accuracy 1 on a private server you can check out the deadly radius of specific bomb plants by shooting with a Five-Seven from where you would plant the bomb. The appearing white circle indicates the border after which you are from the bomb explosion with full health and armor (discovered by brikir).
  
  This shows that you only have to run a very short distance from the bomb to be safe! As you can see in the screen-shots on the right, surprisingly, already fake vent is always safe (A plant). The same applies for the corner of observation/window which is a very convenient spot (B plant). Also, often it's enough to go in the corner behind single door on B; and it's not neccessary to run all the way to secret to be okay when saving via B tunnels.
  
  
• In the following you see all available spawn points for Ts and CTs in competitive matches: There are 8 possible spawn points for each team, i.e., 3136 unique round starts. Having a good look at these pictures one-time will help you figure out how good your spawn is.
  
  
  
  
• Although extremely often tried and very tempting, it is actually not possible to wallbang through the roller shutters between ramp and A site, and ramp and B site!
  
  
• You can jump on the window board in lobby for an off angle. Take the ladder to the ledge and crouch in front of the window, then spam "jumping" while still crouching, after a few tries you will sit on the window board and then can walk towards the middle. It's useful as CT to defend a bomb dropped in lobby like I did in this in-game video example against two Ts. [Fixed by Valve in May 2021]
  
  
  
• With some good movement you can get down from heaven silently! GODSENT player kRYSTAL shows how it is done in this clip[clips.twitch.tv]. I was able to replicate it by using his mouse movement and pressing simultaneously Left, Forward and Walking.
  A lot easier is it to get down from top of hut without making a jump sound by crouching down the boxes and each time releasing crouch just before touching the next lower level. The same applies for walking from outside heaven to main via the yellow barrels (demonstration in a video).

• When you noclip through the bottom of the map you can get to the miniature map (skybox) that is used as the surrounding of Nuke:
  
  
  
• Nuke has the reputation of having very one sided results. Whereas it is definitely CT sided, it's not that bad that every game ends with one team winning by a landslide. I evaluated around 600 Nuke matchmaking matches and it turns out that close results happen a lot:
  

• If you want to look at and train the nades in this guide yourself, open the console and start a "Practice with bots" on Nuke! After the map loaded, go T and copy the following commands into the console:
  
  sv_cheats 1

  sv_infinite_ammo 1

  ammo_grenade_limit_total 5

  sv_grenade_trajectory 1

  mp_roundtime_defuse 60

  mp_t_default_grenades "weapon_flashbang weapon_hegrenade weapon_smokegrenade weapon_decoy weapon_molotov"

  bot_kick

  mp_warmup_end

  mp_restartgame 1
  That way you have an unlimited supply of all grenades and you can see the grenade trajectory.
  
  
• For most nades I included the command to teleport you to the correct position including the correct angle. For that you just have to paste the specified "setpos a b c;setang d e f" command in the console and you will be in the exact place (including the correct crosshair placement) for the nade. The lineups are for official matchmaking servers, i.e., 64 tick, but except some jumpthrows all lineups should also work in 128 tick.
  
  
• If not otherwise specified, all nades are to be thrown while standing with left click. In case of jump throws you will need a jump throw bind in order to be able to throw them consistently. For this, put
  alias “+jumpthrow” “+jump;-attack”; alias “-jumpthrow” “-jump”; bind “v” “+jumpthrow”
  into the console. Then you jump throw a nade by selecting it, then holding the left mouse button and then pressing v. If putting it in the console does not work for you, you have to write it in the autoexec.cfg located in \Steam\userdata\<YOURID>\730\local\cfg (create one if there is none).
  
  
• All nades in this guide have easy lineups, so take a moment to look at the crosshair placement, there will almost always be an obvious marker where to place it. Also, almost no grenade in this guide requires annoying fix points on the ground, instead the throw locations are either obvious (a specific corner) or can be reached by placing yourself correctly in relation to a specific wall (marked in the screen-shots).
  
  
• I am using the following call-outs in this guide (plus obvious variations like "top of hut"):

Even in chaotic lobbies the call "Rush A" emerges at times. The following popflash can be thrown with no delay for the rush. It flashes both sides of heaven, top of the silos, backside and even a bit of main. It works extremely well in both pistol and gun rounds. Run straight until you almost hit the door and then jump throw; break second from the left window before. If you learn only one nade today, this is the one!
(Video of two instances of it working in-game)


When you rush in through hut you can extinguish most hut mollies from inside the lobby by throwing a smoke right next to the ladder like mousesports player chrisJ does in this clip[clips.twitch.tv]. This way you are neither burning nor blind from the smoke!


A simple A execute that three T can start from T roof is to smoke heaven and main, molly top of hut and throw flashes front- and backside. You can explain to the two randoms in the team to just hold lobby and rush A with your flashes. You can see the whole execute plus all lineups and enemy pov in this video. The two smokes go out at the same time. The molly and flash is thrown a bit delayed, such that both flashes pop at the same time. But as you can see in the video it works great even if the timing is slightly off.


Although widely known, a vent dive works surprisingly often, at least for a bomb plant in an eco round. It's important to give the bomb to the player with the top spawn, so he or she is the first to drop down. 100 Thieves player jks shows a HE, smoke, flash-combo in this clip[clips.twitch.tv] that raises your chances makig it down to vent, but with top spawn it often works dry without any utility.

It's also interesting to do this alone without the bomb. If the CTs see you, they have to rotate one down to take care of you (weakening their upper hold), and if they don't see you, you can catch them off guard by going to secret or ramp like in this great play by Lavender player benji.

Later in the round the following smoke helps a lot for getting into vent (jump throw, break right most window before, stand in the corner).
This strategy worked several times for me in midrounds in which more CTs are living than Ts. In this in-game video example I succesfully used it to sneak to B with a CT on rafters and another one outside. (Another use of this smoke is to sneak through the door and hide next to vent.)

This works even better in combination with this smoke (jump, stand in the corner, break second to right window before) for the right side of top of hut, makes going out of squeaky much safer.



I mostly abstained from nades requiring to be on T roof in this guide because from experience it is very difficult to get random teammates to wait a few seconds for you to throw nades from the roof, but this one is just too funny: Smoke that takes the sight of a CT standing on rafters right above the hut (Used by NIP in ECS Finals 2019 [clips.twitch.tv]).



With a simple right click flash you can throw a perfect flash from top of main that flashes players in main. In this in-game video example you can see the "lineup" and also the POV of the enemy.

The mollies and smokes typically thrown to heaven after a bomb plant often fail and bounce back on the ground, so here are two easy lineups that work for both smokes and mollies which are also very fast as they don't require crosshair ground fix points for the standing position.

Heaven smoke and molly from backside (stand inside between the two silos as much as possible)


Heaven smoke and molly from fake vent (stand on the back and left side as much as possible)



Main smoke and molly from backside (stand flush with the wall next to border of the roller shutter)



As opposed to B plants (see below), planting on A is pretty obvious. Usually it's better to plant "for main" as this plant can be defended from hut, squeaky and main. Plant right in front of the reactor core such that CTs can't look to main while defusing. If you are forced to plant backside, don't make the mistake to go squeaky or main as the CTs can then just "stick it" before you can interfere. A satisfying but risky clutch move is to plant "for heaven" and then try to get to heaven via main before the CTs arrive. Also always plant "for heaven" if you have a teammate on heaven, but don't plan in between the reactor cores because that makes you vulnerable to wallbangs through the board.

The bomb planted this way is hard to see when coming from hut.

Molly from main to clear out fake vent (stand flush to the wall next to the white box)
(Video of it working in-game)


-----------------------------

Molly for often used bomb spot (stand in the corner), either as CT for preventing a bomb plant, or as T preventing the CTs from defusing (Source)


-----------------------------

Run along the yellow line and bounce a flash against the slope for an unorthodox backside flash.


-----------------------------

Popflash from heaven (stand in the corner)


-----------------------------


If you expect enemies to drop in vent (for example if you the last T who dropped down in a vent dive), it is very safe to kill them by waiting on the ladder with your knife out. When one comes, turn to the right and right click. In this clip[www.twitch.tv] you can see it in action.

Rightclick throw a decoy on the ground and close the door in order to gain a small gap to peek. (Source)


-----------------------------

Observation smoke from ramp (stand flush with the wall)

With this bomb plant location you can defend from both sides of the ramp and also dark corner whereas the CT is not able to defuse while looking in your direction.
(Video of it working in-game)


-----------------------------

If you plant here, you can hide between observation and double doors. As long as the window is not broken you can only be attacked from one side. When a CT is defusing you can peek from double doors or observation. You can also safely throw a molly from observation on top of the bomb. In this in-game video example this plant awards me an ace.


-----------------------------

A flash that lands directly on top of the door (stand flush with the door, right click), hard to turn away from.

If you play ramp alone throw a molly and pull the pin of a HE. If the Ts extinguish the molly throw the HE immediately, if not, then wait for the end of the molly and run throw the HE against the slant. Alternatively, peek from the top of the boxes while the molly is burning, most don't expect this vertical angle.

In general, if you are faced with lots of pressure you should not go for more than one kill, but fall back down to B and communicate this to your team. Then a teammate has to passively cover hell to prevent the Ts from going heaven while all others can help you on B. In this in-game video example I got a nice 4k by dropping down ramp, otherwise I might have died instantly.

Don't be on the same spot every round. If you block off radio with a smoke, you can sneak close up such that you are "on the left side" from the Ts pov.

If you play ramp in pairs do the same HE/molly combo, but in case of a rush the second player can throw another molly in front of the smoke which the Ts used to extinguish the first molly. That way the rushing Ts are hit by your HE and run into a molly. Alternatively, boost your mate on top of the boxes while the first molly is burning. (Be aware that you can only boost on the thick boxes where only two are stacked!) Then you can wait out a rush and if there is none you can help somewhere else with your mate staying boosted.

The ramp player needs lots of patience and should not leave ramp unless the locations of all enemies became apparent or too many CTs died. Single Ts often try a mid- or late round ramp wrap around and can be very effective doing this if not stopped.

If you are on ramp and a vent dive from the Ts is called, you can get perfect timing for an HE by instantly dropping down and throwing one to single door as you can see in this in-game video example. Alternatively, try to get closer to the back of B via the balcony and kill the bomb planter.

If you want to be aggressive, then it works surprisingly well to run-throw a flash against the slant followed by an instant peek with prefire. That gives the timing to catch an instantly peeking T off guard. You can see both POVs in this in-game video example. As you can see you have to throw the flash quite late, only that way it will go deep enough!

With this fast lineup you first throw a smoke to be safe from snipers behind the orange box and players on top of the boxes, and then a flash to obstruct players close right and in hell. While the flash is in the air you can start running facing the wall to ramp.

Don't feel forced to rush on B once you got ramp control. Depending on your enemies they might rotate instantly to B as soon as they realize that ramp is lost. Then it is better for you to take hell and heaven, and plant on A with someone staying on heaven which is a very strong after plant position. It might even be feasible to go back on A via lobby, but most of the times one CT already pushed lobby at this point.

If you want to use more utility, check out this molly[clips.twitch.tv] that Astralis throws to prevent the ramp player from dopping down to B. Also useful may be to run-throw a smoke against the slant such that the view from hell is obscured as well.

Some call silo Marshmellow or Twinkie, and an absurd amount of calls exist for outside:
- Garden
- Long
- Middle
- Street
- Yard
- Ulitsa (Russian for Street?)

Playing outside as CTs is one of the hardest positions on the map, but also gives space for lots of creative positioning. Obviously, you can play an peeking AWP in garage or sandwich, but what I have often seen in pro matches is that they use a smoke next to the red container in order to hide at the box close to red container or even cross to secret. That way they recieve lots of information about the Ts that linger outside. You can see this approach in this video that shows off several positionings at round start of Astralis player gla1ve.

Don't forget to consider to throw incendiaries between red container and secret such that the smokes for the wall of smokes from the Ts cannot land perfectly, but create a small gap for you to peek.
Whatever strategy you employ it is of utmost importance to communicate (1) to the main player if Ts can come to main and (2) to the whole team if Ts can cross to secret.

-----------------------------

One way smoke (stand in the corner) for holding secret as CT


-----------------------------

Although widely known, this spot on top of garage is rarely expected. You can get there by yourself via the blue box and the gray container. It is useful when Ts dropped the bomb outside. Alternatively a teammate can runboost you on top of the container to get there extremely quickly at the start of the round (used by Chaos EC in this clip[clips.twitch.tv]). Alternatively, use the brilliant smoke in this in-game video example to give yourself a bit more playroom there!

A great way to flash yourself into a peek from silo is to throw one over the building itself. That way CTs in the back of garage and on top of gray container that are watching silo have next to no chance at all to turn away in time. You can see the POV of the T and CT in this in-game video example. If you do this at round start check for aggressive CTs rushing to red container before throwing the flash. This flash is also convenient to throw in order to run down from silo to top of main without getting picked in the air.

Instead of flashing the CTs there, you can also smoke them off: Jump throw smoke for the back of garage (stand in the corner) such that you can get on top of main via silo (and beyond in direction of hell via jumping) without getting harrassed from garage. When you want to go straight into main, throw a flash in front of main while running down the silo.


In general, when you run down the silo to top of main you don't have to have your knife out, it also works with most sidearms if you run in the middle of the silo. If you realize that one CT runs to secret every round, silently crouch along the T spawn facing edge of silo until you can see secret; it's a great off-angle. From there you might also see the legs of an incautiously playing CT in garage.




The most important smokes on T side is the wall of smokes outside facilitating safe passage from T spawn to secret. It's nice to throw even if you do not actually go to secret, but the wall alone may force some rotations. For example, throw the wall of smokes and then rush ramp as a ramp player might rush to secret via tunnels to counter a secret rush. That's why it is better as Ts to always shift/walk to secret behind the wall of smokes (if they decide to go there); that way the CTs can't tell if it is a fake or not.

-----------------------------


If you only learn one, you should learn the third one because if neccessary the other two ones can be thrown by teammates with right click without them "needing fix points". This is a convenient way to jump throw the third smoke (stand in the corner):




-----------------------------

This lineup for the second one is not perfect, but it's very easy to explain to a teammate (it does not need a jump throw), maybe even during warmup. The left picture is for positioning you correctly, the right one is the actual lineup.

This lineup for the second one leaves less of a gap, but requires a jump throw. The left picture is for positioning you correctly (crouch only for the positioning, stand up for lining up the crosshair and throwing), the right one is the actual lineup.


-----------------------------


For the cross smoke run along the shadow and aim at the fence post, release when you are crossing the chain-link fence.









This is an alternative wall of smoke that give you more space to operate outside, but makes it harder to cross safely to secret because you can be seen from heaven. Use this wall for example to get a player into garage where he or she might find a free kill, or use the fact that the heaven player is probably watching for someone crossing to secret which makes an A push easier. In this video can you see how to get easy to the following lineups:
(Lineups adapted from this great analysis of an Astralis match.)

Even another wall of smoke that combines both walls above is described in this video.

• If you made it to secret, this clip shows a flash, molly and boost that are a helpful to clear out tunnels. Take window control and position one T to watch vent, but don't forget to cover the bomb planter!
  
• If the CT saw you crossing to secret or in tunnels, then it's fun to just go A again through the vent to exploit a possible overrotation of the CTs.

• This clip shows a mad smoke, nade, flash-combo to facilitate an A retake via heaven. The smokes lands on the pipe (!!!) below rafters allowing you to peek backside of A without being harrased from fake vent or squeaky door.
  
  
• Another interesting way is to smoke the left side of heaven and throw a flash into it - making it hard for defending Ts to turn away. Retired mousesports player nooky did this in this clip[clips.twitch.tv].

In this in-game video example you can see the lineup for two smokes from lobby that facilitate a bomb plant on A without having to clear A at all. One CT even rotates from A to B because he can't believe the bomb was actually planted in front of him. Note that we try to mask the bomb plant sound by throwing flashes.



When you are on A and hear a T planting the bomb on B it is possible to wallbang him on the common spot behind silo if you have a high penetration weapon like AWP or Deagle (learn about weapon stats in SlothSquadron's incredible weapon spreadsheet[docs.google.com]).

You can spawn a bot at the position of the T using the following commands:
Then you position yourself at the correct position and angle via
The perfect crosshair placement differs depending the direction the T is looking. In this in-game video example my friend Bauzaa manages to pull it off with a slightly different crosshair placement.

The other direction (from B to A) is also possible, but there is not really a default bomb spot on A. In this video you see a successful kill from B on to someone planting for main.

• BIG player syrsoN used a wallbang from T spawn to heaven at round start in this clip.
  
  
• Mad Lions player acoR shows off some neat movement possibilites on T roof in this clip[clips.twitch.tv] (pushing a player on roof, jumping down without losing health, getting faster from the roof beneath silo to the ladder leading to lobby by jumping instead of walking around).
  
  
• This video shows the lineups of Astralis triple nading squeaky side of top of hut from T roof (In-game video example). If you throw the smoke from above vent diving section beforehand, it's more likely a CT will stand in the deadly zone of the HEs.
  
  
• This clip shows two mollies you can throw from T roof on top of hut.

At many places you can molly locations one floor above you! This can be used if you hear enemies there. For example you can molly main from B tunnels (Source):

Lots of other examples here and here.
In this clip[clips.twitch.tv] Na'Vi player s1mple uses the same bug to molly rafters above hut from lobby.



In this clip[clips.twitch.tv] mousesports player ropz demonstrates an insanely fast T rush into main by jumping off the ladder mid climb and surfing down main. It works especially well in pistol rounds. But you will need some time to be able to make all movements consistently.
Although it does not look like a big difference, the optimised way is actually full three seconds (Source) faster than the "naive" way to run. k97513 explains every step in this video.

• The most common CT eco strategy is throw nades outside, but there is more you can do. I prefer a simple lobby rush through squeaky, lobby and ramp with P250s. If you find the lobby empty, stamp up the ladder to T roof, more often than not you will find an unsuspecting T on silo.
  
  
• Nuke is great for ninja/smoke defuses! Here I do one against four on A and here Astralis player Xyp9x does it against five on B.
  
  
• A great place to be in a clutch is between squeaky door and vent on A. That way you most likely will realize if the plant is happening on A, and if not you have a very quick silent path to B.
  
  
• I have read lots of complaints that the vertical sound on Nuke is confusing as one can not tell on which site the bomb has been planted. I see this as as a feature, not a bug. It is great that both sites are only seconds away, it's one of the unique selling points of the map that there will hardly be any waiting time for rotations to arrive. Furthermore not knowing where the bomb is planted helps the T side and the map is already CT sided, so fixing this would make the map more one sided. Also, I have read that the bomb peeping sound is different depending on the site the bomb is planted, but maybe my ears are too bad to recognise.

• In matchmaking it is very common for impatient CTs to rush, especially the ramp player; so although boring it's actually not that bad to just wait in lobby holding all angles.
  
  
• The top spawn as T is incredible valuable and has a slight edge over CTs in some places: For example, simply looking through hut to heaven often gives a free kill over an CT that is still running to his position on hut or the T side of heaven. Same applies for an AWP peek to ramp.

The Yprac traing map is the standard for a great foundation, prefire training with bots nades: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1304331841

• Horizontally mirrored. Makes your brain hurt, but really fun.
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2019477248
  
• Reskinned "futuristically":
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2464651819
  
• At night / with Halloween decoration.
  
• You can also play Nuke like it was in CS 1.6: Old variant or variant from 3kliksphilip.
  
• Cache, Mirage and Office, but redesigned to look like Nuke.

Lots of insight can be found on YouTube (unfortunately more often than not they are for the old Nuke, so you have to filter the search results by date). Two interesting examples:

• Headshinsky's Videos on Nuke: T side, CT side [German]
  
• VinylYT published two guide videos about Nuke: One, Two
  
• FNScence: "Nuke as fast as possible"
  
• mahone_tv has excellent videos on Nuke

Some stuff that I want to save, but that does not have a place in above sections or will be implemented at a later date.

• 5 man runboost outside! ;)
  
• D13 player Annihilation's jump throw flash/nade into vent[clips.twitch.tv].
  
• Win rates by map[leetify.com]
  
• BIG player tabseN's silo molly from sandwich[clips.twitch.tv]
  
• You can jump from top of hut on to A silos
  
• Dignitas player friberg's interesting flash[clips.twitch.tv] for single door
  
• Off-angle on yellow plank on A
  
• Jump down from heaven without losing damage
  
• Boost behind double doors on B, next to the vent, and on top of heaven from hut
  
• Mate on vent ladder, you on top of him such that you can see the bomb when not crouched
  
• Spot on the end of heaven where you can float in the air (by mxve).
  
• HE from heaven on top of silo (Source)
  
• Wallbangs from lobby to ramp (In-game video example)
  
• Smoke next to hut from T spawn while running
  
• Runboosting in garage to trick the heaven player: One[clips.twitch.tv], Two
  
• Vitality fullstack outside[clips.twitch.tv] in eco round
  
• Weirdly disappearing smoke in observatory
  
• OG player Aleksib explains Nuke
  
• STYKO teaches launders how to play Nuke
  
• Sneaky fake molly behind hut door

• Nicer screen-shots for bomb radius
  
• Showing the easier lineup for the main molly through the ceiling from tunnels
  
• Better main smoke in alternative wall of smokes without gap from CT side
  
• Less bright video of the A execute

If you liked this guide, please consider adding it to your favourites and rating it (you can do both on the top of this page) in order to increase its visibility, so other people learn more about the best map of all, too. 💛

I hope you will have as much fun as I'm having on Nuke!