Disclaimer: I based a lot of this information from 3kliksphilip's video, which you can check out here.

Winning a round is a top priority for everyone while playing CS:GO. However, your second priority should be surviving the round, as economy is everything in CS:GO. This is why everyone should know how to survive the bomb's devastating blast. Luckily, that's exactly what you will learn in this guide.

General Knowledge

Many people seem to believe that the bomb's blast varies from map to map, and that the C4 is more lethal on some maps than the others. This is false. The bomb's maximum blast radius is always 1750 meters. This means that if you are 1750 meters or more away from the bomb at the moment of explosion, you are completely safe.

The bomb's maximum damage is 500. However, the damage you receive depends on two factors: your position from the bomb and whether or not you have armor. The bomb inflicts less damage the further away you are. Walls between you and the bomb do not count: the engine only takes in consideration pure distance: it doesn't matter whether you're behind 20 feet of concrete or out in the open.

Armor also reduces damage you receive from the bomb, and it can sometimes save your life if you just can't make those final meters to safety.

From this information, we can deduce two extreme examples:

1. A CT without armor who failed to defuse the bomb at the last second (let's face it: it happens to all of us) will receive 500 damage from the explosion.
2. A player (with or without armor) who is at or more than 1750 meters away from the bomb will not receive any damage from the explosion.

In the following rubric, I will try to help you to always be in the second example.

Being in the right place

The bomb's radius functions as a sphere. Once the bomb is planted, there is an invisible spherical area which deals proportional damage to your position in the sphere. Once you're outside the sphere, you're spared from any damage. If you wear armor, the sphere's size is slightly reduced.

If you want to test and see the spheres in-game, you can do so by typing the following in the developer console:
sv_cheats 1
map_showbombradius

If you don't want to check it out yourselves, here's a written guide on where to be when the bomb goes off:

Dust II

Image courtesy of Steam user Froosh

In case you don't know the call-outs, I will post an image with all call-outs for the map we are discussing, such as the one above.

If the bomb is planted on A site, then there are quite a few safe places that are easy to get to in case the situation goes south faster than you expected. The most affected areas are A short, A long and the CT ramp. In this situation, you should be safe in the Pit, the side of Pit and the Pit platform, and if you are on the other side of the bomb, you should run to mid and cat.

If the bomb is planted on the B site, it is also very easy to get to safety. For this guide, we'll consider that the bomb is planted in the default position, directly as you enter through the door. In this situation, most of the B site is deadly without armor. With armor, however, you should be able to survive in the tunnel, the CT spawn and even near the car (if you have armor and quite the hp available).

Mirage

Image courtesy of Steam user Froosh

This map is easy to survive the bomb blast due to its bomb areas being perfect squares: the square gives you an average of the bomb radius. Therefore, this map is simple to explain: you're golden as long as you stay outside the bomb sites, with a few exceptions. Depending on where the bomb is planted exactly, people in Palace, Apartments or even Window could get hurt. So, I would avoid those positions, and I would run towards either Mid or the T spawn.

Nuke

Image courtesy of Steam user Froosh

The final map I will explain in this guide is the most complicated one to explain, because of the bomb sites being one on top of the other. The engine takes into account height as distance, so even if the bomb is planted on the other site, the safe areas remain the same, as you will get blasted through the floor/ceiling too.

The main safe spots on this map are: Ramps (the space behind the big box, but I would recommend hiding behind headshot box so you don't get shot down by an enemy), Big Garage, Secret and a fairly huge portion of the Yard. If the bomb is planted on B site, you can also survive the blast by climbing to Heaven, as the height will count as distance from the bomb.

Best tip I can give for this map is if the bomb is planted B and you cannot reach a safe spot horizontally, you should climb whatever is in your sight and hope for the best.

Myths debunked:

Looking at the bomb does not reduce the damage you receive. This was the case in previous iterations of Counter-Strike, as the community quickly came to realize, but this is not the case in CS:GO. You will receive the same amount of damage whether you are facing the bomb, or away from it.

Jumping might reduce damage. This strongly depends on the map you are playing and the position you are in. On vertical maps, on which you can exit the bomb radius by height, jumping might help you conserve a few hit points which could save your life. Examples of maps in which you should jump at bomb detonation: Nuke, Vertigo, Overpass.

The bomb has a different blast radius on tighter maps (like Inferno). False. As I have previously stated, the bomb blast and radius is always the same on every single map. Open maps like Dust have the same bomb radius as tighter maps like Inferno.

Conclusion

The bomb radius is always 1750 meters, and the maximum damage is 500 hp. The further you get from the bomb, the less damage you will receive. The bomb radius is a sphere, with its center being the bomb. Wearing armor reduces the damage you receive, and therefore makes the bomb radius smaller for you.

I hope that this guide will help you out in the future and that you will apply the knowledge you've learned here while playing the game.

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