🔫 PIPE BOMB

Damage & Stats

The Pipe Bomb is a craftable improvised explosive that deals 180 blast damage at the epicenter with a 6-meter lethal radius and an additional 4-meter wounding radius where damage falls off to approximately 40. Unlike manufactured grenades, the Pipe Bomb uses a visible fuse mechanic — after throwing, a 3.5-second burning fuse plays out before detonation, during which the bomb is visible and audible to NPCs who will attempt to flee the area. This fuse delay makes the Pipe Bomb less reliable than impact-detonated explosives but allows for strategic "cooking" by holding the throw button.

Blast damage ignores body armor entirely, dealing full damage to any target within the kill radius regardless of protection level. Vehicle damage is substantial: a single Pipe Bomb destroys unarmored civilian vehicles outright and reduces armored vehicles to smoking critical condition. The weapon carries a maximum of 5 in inventory, and each Pipe Bomb weighs enough to restrict carry capacity for other throwables. Throwing range is approximately 25 meters with a standard throw, or 35 meters with a running throw, though accuracy decreases significantly with the longer toss.

Tactical Analysis

The Pipe Bomb's fuse delay creates a unique tactical dynamic absent from instant-detonation explosives. Players can "cook" the bomb by holding the throw button — the fuse begins burning immediately upon priming, so releasing after 2 seconds results in a bomb that detonates just 1.5 seconds after landing, giving enemies almost no time to react. Fully cooking a Pipe Bomb for 3 seconds before throwing creates an airburst effect that detonates at roughly head height, maximizing the kill radius against standing targets and negating the cover advantage of low walls.

The visual fuse also serves as a psychological area-denial tool. Throwing a Pipe Bomb near a group of NPCs causes immediate panic and scattering, disrupting organized enemy formations before the explosion even occurs. In convoy ambush scenarios, tossing a Pipe Bomb into the road ahead of an approaching vehicle forces the driver to swerve or stop, creating the disruption window needed for a follow-up vehicle attack. The trade-off is noise — both the sizzling fuse and the explosion itself attract maximum attention, instantly generating a two-star wanted level if used in civilian-populated areas.

Attachments & Modifications

Pipe Bombs are crafted rather than purchased, and modifications come through the crafting recipe itself rather than post-production attachment. The standard recipe requires a steel pipe, gunpowder, a fuse cord, and duct tape — all purchasable from hardware stores for a combined cost of approximately $35 per bomb. Advanced recipes unlock through the crafting skill progression: a shrapnel variant adds nails and ball bearings to the casing, increasing the wounding radius by 3 meters and adding a bleed effect to targets at the edge of the blast.

The "Sticky Pipe" variant replaces the smooth casing with an adhesive-wrapped version that sticks to surfaces and vehicles on contact, transforming the Pipe Bomb into a poor man's Sticky Bomb at roughly one-tenth the cost. This variant requires industrial adhesive (purchased from hardware stores, $12 per unit) added to the standard recipe. A delayed-fuse variant extends the fuse timer to 8 seconds, intended for trap placement rather than direct throwing — place it behind a door, retreat, and wait for pursuers to trigger the kill zone. Fuse length is visually distinct, so experienced players can identify the variant at a glance.

Best Situations

Pipe Bombs excel as opening salvos in planned ambushes where the player controls engagement timing. The Everglades drug lab raids benefit enormously from a cooked Pipe Bomb thrown through an open window — the enclosed space amplifies blast damage and eliminates multiple targets before the firefight begins. Vehicle convoy disruption on Leonida's highways is another ideal scenario: a well-placed Pipe Bomb in the lead vehicle's path stops the entire convoy, allowing follow-up attacks on stationary targets.

The crafted nature of Pipe Bombs makes them the explosive of choice during early-game missions when manufactured grenades and Sticky Bombs are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive. At $35 per unit versus $300+ for a Sticky Bomb, players can afford to use Pipe Bombs liberally during the first act's missions. They also serve as effective tools for destroying reinforced doors and barriers in exploration contexts — certain hidden stash houses and sealed rooms throughout Vice City and the Everglades can only be accessed by blowing the entrance with an explosive, and Pipe Bombs are the cheapest option for this purpose.

How to Acquire

Pipe Bombs are exclusively obtained through the crafting system — they cannot be purchased at Ammu-Nation or any retail location. The crafting recipe unlocks automatically after completing the "First Score" story mission, which introduces the crafting workbench mechanic at Jason's safehouse. Required components (steel pipe, gunpowder, fuse cord, duct tape) are individually available at hardware stores across Leonida, with the downtown Vice City hardware store offering the best prices.

Crafting requires access to a workbench, found at every owned safehouse and at certain mission-specific locations. Each crafting session produces one Pipe Bomb and takes approximately 4 seconds of real time. The shrapnel variant recipe unlocks at Crafting Level 3, and the Sticky Pipe variant at Crafting Level 5. Pre-made Pipe Bombs occasionally spawn in criminal stash locations throughout the map — the abandoned sugar mill in Bayou Country and the fishing camp weapons cache in Grassrivers each have a chance to contain 2-3 Pipe Bombs that respawn every 48 in-game hours.

Comparison to Similar Weapons

Against the Hand Grenade ($150 at Ammu-Nation), the Pipe Bomb deals comparable blast damage (180 vs 200) with a similar radius, but at one-quarter the cost if crafted from raw materials. The Hand Grenade's advantage is its spring-loaded spoon mechanism that detonates on a consistent 4-second timer with no visible fuse, making it harder for enemies to evade. The Pipe Bomb's visible fuse gives enemies more warning but enables the cooking mechanic that the Hand Grenade lacks.

Compared to the Sticky Bomb ($350), the Pipe Bomb is dramatically cheaper but lacks the adhesive detonation control that makes Sticky Bombs the premier vehicle-destruction tool. Sticky Bombs detonate on command via phone detonator, while Pipe Bombs rely on their fuse timer — though the Sticky Pipe crafting variant partially bridges this gap. The Molotov Cocktail ($25 crafted) is the only cheaper explosive option, but its fire-based damage is less immediately lethal and doesn't affect vehicles as effectively as the Pipe Bomb's concussive blast.

Combat Strategies

The "Breach and Clear" technique uses a fully cooked Pipe Bomb (hold for 3 seconds) thrown into a room just before entering, timing the detonation to coincide with the player's entry through the door. This eliminates or staggers all occupants while the player enters with a ready weapon, combining explosive disruption with immediate follow-up capability. Practice the timing in low-stakes encounters before attempting this during critical mission sequences — a mistimed cook results in the bomb detonating in the player's hand.

For vehicle destruction during pursuits, the underhand toss (aim low while stationary) rolls a Pipe Bomb along the ground beneath vehicles, positioning the blast directly under the fuel tank for maximum damage. This technique is more effective than a standard overhand throw, which often bounces off vehicle roofs and rolls away from the target. During wanted-level escapes, dropping a Pipe Bomb while sprinting through an alley creates a lethal surprise for pursuing officers who round the corner seconds later — time the drop so the fuse expires just as pursuers reach the bomb's position.

History in the GTA Series

Improvised explosives have a long history in GTA, though the Pipe Bomb as a distinct weapon type is new to GTA 6. GTA Vice City featured the original Molotov Cocktail and Remote Grenades, establishing the template for throwable explosives with different detonation mechanics. GTA San Andreas expanded the explosive roster with Satchel Charges, and GTA V introduced the Pipe Bomb's closest ancestor — the Jerry Can, which created ignitable fuel trails rather than functioning as a throwable explosive.

GTA 6's Pipe Bomb represents the franchise's first craftable explosive, reflecting the expanded crafting system that permeates the game's survival and preparation mechanics. The cooking mechanic draws from competitive FPS design rather than previous GTA implementations, adding a skill-expressive element to explosive use that previous entries handled through simpler throw-and-wait interactions. Community crafting guides have already documented optimal component sourcing routes through Vice City that minimize travel time between hardware stores, turning Pipe Bomb mass-production into its own meta-game.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated April 26, 2026.