Narcos: Cartel Wars & Strategy: How to Use Smokescreen

To use Smokescreen effectively in Narcos: Cartel Wars & Strategy, drop the smoke cloud slightly ahead of your moving squad and guide them into the cover with a flare. Smokescreen breaks the line of sight for enemy defense towers, allowing your troops to traverse open ground and bypass fortified perimeters without drawing fire.

How Smokescreen Mechanics Work

Smokescreen creates a temporary cloud that conceals any squad members inside its radius from automated defensive installations, including Turrets, Machine Guns, Mortars, and Sniper Towers. Concealed units cannot be targeted as long as they stay entirely within the boundary of the smoke.

However, Smokescreen functions strictly as a targeting disrupter, not an invulnerability shield:

In-flight projectiles: Mortar shells or defensive rounds fired before the smoke deploys will still land and deal damage to troops within the impact zone.
Passive hazards: Landmines and other static ground defenses still detonate if troops step on them beneath the smoke.
Deployment target: Smokescreen must be placed over your own advancing troops. Dropping smoke on enemy defensive buildings does not blind them or stop them from firing at exposed units outside the cloud.

Step-by-Step Leapfrog Movement

Crossing fortified base layouts requires chaining overlapping Smokescreen drops so passing units never lose concealment. If a gap appears between smoke radii, peripheral towers will instantly acquire locks on your units.

Follow this sequence to leapfrog through heavy defensive sectors:

Deploy the initial smoke cloud: Cast Smokescreen slightly ahead of your squad's march vector so leading units enter cover immediately as the cloud appears.
Cluster troops with a flare: Cast a flare directly into the center of the active smoke cloud. Without a flare waypoint, units will disperse toward the nearest perimeter building and step into enemy lines of fire.
Chain an overlapping drop: Before your units reach the outer edge of the first cloud, drop a secondary Smokescreen along the planned route, ensuring its perimeter overlaps the first.
Direct the squad forward: Flare the center of the secondary cloud to pull units safely through the overlap and toward your target objective, such as blind spots near the Finca.

Managing Energy and Tactical Abilities

Tactical Energy escalates in cost with each consecutive ability cast during a raid. Depleting your Energy pool on redundant smoke clouds leaves you unable to support units once they reach the base interior.

Tactical Option	Battlefield Role	Synergy with Smokescreen	Energy Priority
Smokescreen	Concealment and movement protection	Core tool for bypassing outer defense lines	High during transit; low once inside base blind spots
Freeze	Disables clusters of defense towers	Cast as the final smoke fades to disable high-threat cores	High upon reaching deep defensive structures
Tactical Missile	Direct structural demolition	Clears blocking buildings or mines along the smoke path	Moderate; reserve for bottlenecks
Medkit	Area-of-effect healing	Recovers squad health if troops trigger mines in smoke	Low to moderate; emergency recovery only

To conserve Energy, avoid maintaining smoke cover while attacking targets. Once your squad reaches the desired interior position and exits the final smoke cloud, cast Freeze on adjacent defensive clusters instead of dropping another Smokescreen. This secures immediate time for units to destroy high-damage defenses before incoming fire resumes.

Squad Pairings and Unit Deployment

Fragile, high-damage attackers benefit most from Smokescreen. RPG troopers and high-burst Sicarios deal substantial structural damage but collapse quickly under focused Cannon or Machine Gun fire. Smokescreen lets these units bypass outer perimeter defenses entirely and deploy directly within their firing range against central installations.

Durable vanguard units with large health pools do not need constant smoke cover. Using repeated smoke drops on heavy frontliners wastes tactical Energy. Instead, run a split assault: let your durable units draw peripheral fire on one side of the base, then use Smokescreen on the opposite flank to guide fragile Sicarios directly into the core infrastructure.