Stun Grenade

Lore & Background

In the GoldenEye 007 universe, the Stun Grenade is a standard-issue non-lethal ordnance carried by operatives who need to subdue hostiles while preserving their ability to extract intelligence. Unlike the rocket launcher or the sniper rifle, it leaves no corpse and triggers no automated kill-confirmation in the mission's objective tracker, making it ideal for infiltrating guarded compounds where a single gunshot would cascade into a full lockdown. The device is compact, roughly the size of a hand grenade, and is deployed with the same throw-arc mechanic as the lethal grenade, giving it a satisfying parabolic trajectory over cover.

In Their Own Story

The corridor beyond the vault door was lined with six guards, two at each flank and two covering the rear. Bond checked his belt: one Stun Grenade, two rounds in the Beretta. He drew the grenade, felt the smooth ceramic casing, and arced it over the central pillar. It clattered once, twice, then bloomed in a ring of white-blue light that swallowed the hallway. Six heads dropped in unison, eyes rolling, fingers still white-knuckled on their triggers. Bond stepped over the first body, drew the pistol, and walked on. No alarms. No blood on the marble. Just the faint ozone tang of a discharged capacitor fading into the recycled air of the facility.

Reader's Guide

The Stun Grenade is a limited, non-lethal throwable that emits a concussive pulse on impact, stunning all enemies within a short radius for a few seconds. It does not deal lethal damage; affected opponents drop their weapons and are temporarily incapacitated before recovering. In single-player, it is most effective in tight corridors, stairwells, or rooms where multiple guards are clustered. A single well-placed throw can clear a checkpoint without triggering the full alert state that a gunshot would, saving you from a wave of reinforcements. Time your throw so the detonation lands in the center of the group rather than at the edge. In multiplayer deathmatch, the Stun Grenade is a setup tool. Lob it into a group of opponents, then follow up with your primary weapon while they are staggered. It is also useful for denying an area: a grenade stuck in a doorway or on a platform can punish enemies who push through. Because your allotment is small (typically two per life), avoid wasting it on a single target when a pistol shot would suffice. Key tip: the grenade detonates on the first solid surface it contacts, not after a timer. Aim for the floor or a low ledge in the target area rather than the ceiling, which will cause it to bounce unpredictably.

Did You Know?

• The Stun Grenade is one of the very few weapons in GoldenEye 007 that is explicitly non-lethal, fitting the 'subdue' objective type in certain single-player missions.
• In the N64 original, the Stun Grenade shares its throw-arc physics with the standard grenade, meaning the same parabolic aiming input applies to both.
• In multiplayer, stunning an opponent does not register as a 'kill' on the scoreboard; the credit goes to whoever lands the follow-up lethal hit.
• The PS2 version's Stun Grenade features a visible expanding shockwave ring on detonation, a visual cue absent in the N64's lower-resolution presentation.