Are you tired of your C4s getting immediately called out and defused? Are you tired of people walking in on you with your pants down when you're just getting ready to build up to an explosion? Are you tired of people calling you out on your walk of shame as you exit a bedroom, whereupon you realize you left incriminating evidence inside? Many players are discouraged from using C4 because of how easily their C4s get defused or because their C4 was entirely unsuccessful in killing, wasting a credit. In this guide, I will extensively explain how to properly and effectively use C4.

C4 should be used in the following circumstances:

• Small to medium maps (with exceptions) - the smaller and more condensed, the better. Some obvious examples include ttt_minecraft_b5 and ttt_traitormodel_reloaded_b1,
  
• High player counts (particular with high innocent to traitor ratios, such as 6:1 or 11:2).
  
• When your game sense/knowledge is greater than your skill and ability to aim. C4 can effectively halve a living player count.
  
• When playing with new players. They will be entirely confused with locating and defusing the C4 and will not have the map knowledge to escape it.

Conversely, C4 should not be used when:

• The map is large, uncondensed, and spread out. For example, ttt_diamondshoals_a2.
  
• Low player counts. Players will almost always immediately know who placed the C4, based on knowledge of individual playstyles. Additionally, it is easy to keep track of where each player is and has been.

It is worth noting that it is still okay to C4 on some large maps. For example, ttt_amsterville is an extremely large map, but due to its design, many players corral in the same spots. Contrastingly, ttt_diamondshoals_a2 is of similar to size of ttt_amsterville, but has a design that is open, resulting in players spreading out and travelling alone.

• C4 can be planted in two ways. M1 tosses the C4 a short distance away from the player. M2 sticks the C4 to a surface.
  
• C4 has a minimum timer of 45 seconds. Additional time decreases the audibility of the beep and the overall frequency is spread out. Radius is not increased.
  
• At 45 seconds, 1 in 6 wires will detonate the C4 upon attempted defusing. At 1 minute, this number increase to 2 wires. Each additional minute adds a detonating wire, up to 5 wires.
  
• C4 has a radius of 1000. Within this radius, C4 has a penetrating (ignoring walls) radius of 750. The radius does not penetrate walls between 750 and 1000.
  
• C4 has a killing radius of up to 750 and a damaging radius of up to 1000. Walls decrease this number by 250. (Note: This is based on testing in singeplayer but the exact number has not been confirmed.)
  
• C4 has a screen-shaking radius of 1000. This ignores walls.
  
• Once C4 has exploded, it briefly continues with smaller, damaging explosions that light nearby props on fire.
  
• The traitor who placed the C4 can defuse it immediately by clipping any wire.

Based on the above, several things can be determined

Firstly, when should one purchase C4? It is optimal to purchase a C4 from your initial pool of credits. Because it takes time to detonate C4, and innocent populations declines over the course of the game, C4 should almost always be planted towards the beginning of the game. Unlike knives and other T weapons, which are used to gain single free kills, C4 is used to decimate the innocent population and decrease the ratio of innocents to traitors. This is not without exception, however. See Additional Strategies.

Next is timer length. Obviously, the longer the timer, the less likely a C4 is going to be detected. While a 5 minute timer on a C4 has a high chance of not being defused, or even spotted, it is likely to be ineffective as your traitor buddies will have already used their knives and other methods to cut off the innocent population substantially. For this reason, I do not recommend using more than 2 minutes on a timer, and I recommend keeping your timer between the base 45 seconds to a minute. As your game sense increases and you become more skilled at using C4, it is less likely that your C4's location will be discovered. Additionally, you want your C4 to detonate as early as possible. The final reason is that it takes several extra seconds to move your mouse and drag the timer. Because you want to place your C4 as quickly as possible, unless you have quick hands, those extra seconds have the potential to hamper your C4's effectiveness as well as your own survival.

Note: There are many smaller strategies and nuances to C4. These will be covered in Advanced Techniques and Additional Strategies.

The main reason many new players fail at killing anyone with their C4 is because they lack map knowledge. It is best to learn a map's layout and gain game sense for that map before you place C4. This way you have a feel for the high player occupancy areas as well as which locations are most likely to cover the greatest amount of player accessible space. For example, here is a overhead picture of ttt_minecraft_b5, with colors representing the areas that players are most likely to occupy in a game.


Red represents areas that players almost always occupy in large quantities. Orange represents areas the players almost always occupy, but not always in large quantities. Yellow represents areas that players may occupy, but do not spend a lot of time at. Green represents areas that players will rarely occupy or spend more than a few seconds in.

Why are these locations so easy to discern? The cabin on the right contains a traitor tester and provides cover from snipers. The other red area has a nether portal and another cabin. Additionally, it can also be considered the center of the high-ground section of the map. Players prefer high ground and staying towards the center of a "section" of a map (think the different courtyards on ttt_amsterville). This is because breaking off from the crowd increases the likelihood of a traitor noticing and following. The lighthouse is also popular because it is the optimal sniping position on the map, but it also has limited area for large quantities of players. It is worth noting that placing your C4 on higher ground will allow its spherical radius to cover a larger portion of the map. When playing a map, you will want to immediately identify these sections of the map and determine which areas of those sections players naturally corral into and you will have a basis of which areas your C4 should cover.

Once you have determined which areas players frequent, you can now start placing C4s that have a high chance of killing players. However, if your C4 is too easy to see/hear, it will most likely be defused. Additionally, proper cover is needed to plant a C4 and evacuate the scene as soon as possible.

Which of the two C4s is more likely to be spotted (on sight alone) by a passing player?



The answer is the one in the cabin. The cabin is an obvious position for C4, players like to go in the cabin, and the C4 can be seen from the outside of the cabin. The C4 on the backside of the nether portal is less likely to be spotted as players rarely go behind the nether portal and are less likely to look there.

As you play maps, you can identify which areas within high occupancy regions players are least likely to check or see/hear your C4. Below are some examples of C4s that players will have difficulty finding and will not see/hear by just walking by.



The one on the left hits the tree area near the cabin as well as part of the low ground. The one on the right hits the entire T-tester area.

There are a few natural things you can take advantage of. Firstly, many players walk around aiming their guns down (more experienced players carry their gun with the crosshairs at chest/head level). For this reason, a C4 is less likely to be noticed if placed on a ceiling rather than on a wall. Additionally, corners are your friend. C4's actual in-game volume is smaller than the visible model, meaning that it is less visible when placed in corners. These natural advantages are further discussed below.

Here is where C4 placement starts requiring skill. Players will rarely search for a C4 that cannot be immediately found or that requires skill to locate. Start by placing C4 in odd spots, such as inside and underneath things or underwater.



Additionally, Learn some basic maneuvering techniques/parkour as well as the ability to quickly place C4 in odd spots. This includes taking advantage of your ability to lean over edges while crouching without actually falling off the edge.




Learn to coordinate jumping and placement. This will allow you to do things like this:



Finally, take advantage of areas that can be turned inaccessible by a traitor. You could even just place it in the traitor room itself. This is not always recommended, however, as it cuts off the traitor room for use by other traitors and good mapmakers typically design maps so that the traitor room is far away from highly occupied areas.

One of the most important tools traitors have at their disposal is private communication. Always alert your fellow traitors when you are placing C4. Additionally, have your fellow traitors coordinate C4s with you. If you get all of your fellow traitors involved, you can C4 nearly an entire map over the course of a few seconds.

Mass C4 is a highly effective strategy as it cuts off natural escape routes from C4 and allows you to cover a larger percentage of a map. Here is how to effectively mass C4:


This layout is effective because it targets major portions of the map and also covers areas that innocents are likely to flee to.

Here is how to ineffectively mass C4:



Another strategy is to take advantage of uncommonly used items like decoys and radios. Use a radio to either divert attention towards a target area (shotgun shots + scream) or to make people flee an area (by faking a C4 beep). Did the detective get DNA off of a body you failed to hide? Use a decoy to lure him to your C4. It will be too late for him once he gets within the blast radius.

A cheese that sometimes works with new people is to place a 5 minute C4 somewhere out in the open. A new player will try to defuse it and fail. This rarely works against experienced players, however.

Also consider defusing your own C4s then picking them up for later use. This will lower suspicion on you. Try to avoid automatically going towards your C4, however. Pretend to not have total knowledge of where it might be. Another way to decrease suspicion is to stay slightly inside the damaging (but non-killing) radius of the C4. Players are less likely to suspect a person who takes damage from his C4. Additionally, try to avoid evacuating until it is about to blow or until someone calls it out. Act completely clueless.

Finally, take advantage of killing right when the C4 goes off. Because C4 shakes players' screens, they will be disoriented for a couple of seconds, providing you with a window of opportunity.

Most importantly: Experiment! Experience is the best teacher and figuring out new locations, strategies, combos, or tricks that players have not yet discovered will increase the effectiveness of your C4.

It is my hope that this guide has taught you how to effectively C4 or has provided you with new insight into using C4. I will continue to update this guide as I discover new strategies or tricks. Please provide any suggestions or criticisms you might have below. Have fun and happy C4ing!