Counter-Strike 2: Game Guides
How-to walkthroughs, mechanics, modes, maps, settings, and systems.
October 2026
4 posts
CS2 Casual Explained: Money, Free Armor, Maps and Rules
A lost round of Casual pays $2,400 and a won one $2,700, and on Office and Italy a loss pays more than three of the four ways to win. Counter-Strike 2's Casual mode, read from its config, its map groups and Valve's release notes: the money, the free armor and kits, the four map groups, the rules that differ from Competitive and what it does to your rank.
CS2 Retakes Explained: Loadout Cards, Maps and Rules
On 19 of the 20 bombsites Retakes plays, the game file that places the bomb puts 75% of its weight on the default plant. Nuke A is the exception. Counter-Strike 2's 4v3 after-plant mode, read from its config, its card definitions and its per-map files: how a round runs, every loadout card on both sides, the two map groups and what it does to your rank.
CS2 Wingman Explained: Maps, Money and Rank
Lose the first four rounds of a Wingman half and the fourth loss pays you $2,900, while an elimination win pays $2,750. Counter-Strike 2's 2v2 mode runs on its own config: smaller round awards, a higher and flatter loss bonus, an $8,000 cap, a 90-second clock and a seven-map pool that ignores Active Duty. Here is the whole mode from the game files and Valve's release notes, including every community map Valve has rotated through it.
CS2 SCAR-20 vs G3SG1: The $5,000 Two-Shot Autosnipers
The SCAR-20 and G3SG1 are the same rifle in Counter-Strike 2's weapon file except for three values: reload time, recoil, and the flinch numbers behind tagging. Both cost $5,000, pay $300 a kill, kill with any two hits and one-tap a helmet at any range. Here is the pair from the game files, what March 2026 did to their ammo, and how the money compares with the AWP.
September 2026
8 posts
CS2 Zeus x27: Range, Recharge and the $100 Kill
The Zeus x27 does 500 damage, ignores armor completely and reaches about 120 units, roughly 2.3 metres. Since February 2024 it recharges instead of disappearing, and since April 2024 a kill pays $100. Here is the whole weapon, from Valve's release notes and the game's own files: reach, recharge, money, purchase limits by mode, and every Zeus line in CS2's release notes.
CS2 Rush Mode Explained: Towers, Arenas and Money
Wiping the enemy team does not, by itself, win a round of Rush. Controlling the tower does. Counter-Strike 2's new 3v3 mode, read straight from its config, its map script and its arena list: how rounds end, how the front line moves, all 19 arenas, and an economy where a first loss pays only $400 less than a win.
CS2 AK-47 vs Galil AR: The $900 One-Tap Tax
The Galil AR now carries 175 rounds to the AK-47's 120 — a gap a March 2026 patch opened and nobody in this vertical has written down. It still cannot kill a helmeted head in one shot at any range, while the AK-47 can from point-blank out to roughly 49 meters. Here is the full stat sheet, the range math, and the ammo change that quietly rewrote the cheap rifle's job.
CS2 Trade-Up Contracts: The 5-Skin Knife Route
Ten skins in, one skin out — that ratio has governed the Trade-Up Contract since 2013, and for twelve years it could never produce a knife no matter how many you burned. Valve changed that on October 22, 2025, and changed the contract again seven months later. Here is the actual ladder, the float math that decides your outcome's wear, and both updates most guides still have not caught up to.
CS2 Knife Damage: Why the Backstab Isn't Automatic
Every knife tip you have ever heard treats the backstab like a cheat code: get behind someone, hit them, they die. The Counter-Strike 2 damage table tells a more specific story — a light hit to the back will not drop a full-health target, aiming for the head buys you nothing at all, and the fastest confirmed kill with a knife never requires you to get behind anyone. Here is the actual table, hitbox by hitbox.
CS2 Bomb Timer and Defuse Time: The New Blast Rules
Four numbers decide every post-plant in Counter-Strike 2, and a fifth thing changed in July 2026: Valve threw out the old C4 blast model and replaced it with a shockwave that travels through the map instead of a sphere that ignored walls. Here are the timings, the defuse windows, and what the rework actually changed.
CS2 Anubis Callouts: Every Name on de_anubis
Anubis came back to Active Duty on January 21, 2026, and Valve rewired part of the map on the same day it did — a bridge drop moved, the mid doors flipped, and a hole opened between something called E-box and the back of bombsite B. E-box is not on the community callout map at all. Here is the wiki's full 47-marker set for Anubis, checked line by line against what Valve has actually written down.
CS2 Ancient Callouts: Every Name on de_ancient
Ancient signposts its own bombsites: the site walls read PLAZA A in amber and PLAZA B in pale blue. Everything else you have to learn from other players. The Counter-Strike Wiki callout map places 30 markers on de_ancient, two of them carrying an A-site label at B-site coordinates, and its update list is at least 13 Valve patches behind. Here is the whole vocabulary, area by area, with the patch-note paper trail.
August 2026
9 posts
CS2 Map Pool: Every Active Duty Swap Since Launch
Counter-Strike 2 has run on seven Active Duty maps every day of its life, and Valve has changed that seven exactly five times. Every change was a straight one-in, one-out, four of the five landed on the first day of a Premier season, and you can rebuild the launch pool from the release notes alone. Here is the whole timeline, dated.
CS2 AUG vs SG 553: The 100-Damage Headshot Problem
The AUG deals exactly 100 damage to a helmeted head, and exactly 100 damage across four shots to an armored chest. Both thresholds are lethal by a margin of zero, which is a very different gun to own than the SG 553 — the one assault rifle in Counter-Strike 2 whose damage armor does not reduce at all. Here is the full rifle table, with the arithmetic done.
CS2 Shotguns and Machine Guns: Worth a Loadout Slot?
The most expensive weapon in Counter-Strike 2 is not the AWP. It is the M249, at $5,200, and it pays a $300 kill reward. That gun and four others share five loadout slots with six submachine guns — so putting a shotgun in your buy menu means taking an SMG out of it. Here is the verified math on whether any of them earns the seat.
CS2 Cache Callouts: Every Name on the Map That Came Back
Valve ended its announcement of Cache's return with a callout: "Don't forget to clear Forklift." Here is every named position on de_cache, which names Valve itself has used in 2026 patch notes, and the one marker the wiki flags as gone.
CS2 Nuke Callouts: Four Names That Exist on Two Different Floors
On Dust 2, "I am at Ramp" means one place. On Nuke it means two, and one of them is a full floor below the other. Here is every named position on de_nuke across both levels, and the four names that exist twice.
CS2 SMG Guide: The $600 Kill Reward and the One Gun That Skips It
Two kills with a $1,050 MAC-10 pay you $1,200. That is the entire submachine gun class in one sentence: a weapon category that funds itself. Here are the verified numbers for all seven, including the two 2026 patches that repriced three of them and quietly cut the ammo on five.
CS2 Practice Server Setup: The Commands That Work
sv_grenade_trajectory does not exist in Counter-Strike 2. Neither does cl_grenadepreview or r_cleardecals. Half the practice configs online are CS:GO leftovers that fail silently. Here is what CS2 actually ships.
CS2 Pistols Ranked: Only Four of Them One-Tap a Helmet
The P250 deals 96 damage to a helmeted head. The CZ75-Auto deals 95. Neither one kills, and that four-point gap is the most expensive rounding error in Counter-Strike. Here is every CS2 pistol with verified numbers, and the handful worth $500 of eco money.
CS2 M4A4 vs M4A1-S: The $2,900 Debate, Settled With Math
The M4 debate used to end with "the A1-S saves you $200." That excuse died in January 2025 when Valve cut the M4A4 to the same $2,900. What is left is pure mechanics: a chest-spray race the slower rifle wins, an ammo pool one gun nearly doubles, and a 2026 reload rule that punishes them very differently.
July 2026
7 posts
CS2 Dust 2 Callouts: Every Name on de_dust2 and the Ones That Win Rounds
Dust 2 holds a Guinness World Record for cumulative gameplay hours and half your lobby still calls Xbox "the box in mid." That box has a name, and it got patched twice in two days this April. Here is every named position on de_dust2 and which five actually decide rounds.
CS2 Inferno Callouts: Every Name on de_inferno and When to Use It
You do not lose Inferno rounds because you forgot what Coffin means. You lose them because someone said "he's banana" when the enemy was already at Car. Here is every named position on de_inferno, where it sits on the radar, and the calls worth losing a teammate over.
CS2 Mirage Callouts: Every Name on de_mirage and When to Use It
Nobody loses a Mirage round because they forgot what Jungle means. They lose it because they called "mid" when the enemy was already at Catwalk. Here is every named position on de_mirage, where it actually sits on the radar, and the four callouts that decide rounds.
CS2 AWP Guide: How to Justify a $4,750 Rifle
The AWP one-shots anywhere but the legs, moves at half speed while scoped, pays a $100 kill reward instead of $300, and now throws away live rounds every time you reload. Here is the whole cost sheet, and the case for buying a Scout instead.
CS2 Movement Guide: Counter-Strafing, Peeking, and Why You Keep Losing First Shot
You lose most of your duels before you ever pull the trigger, because you shoot while you are still sliding. Here is how CS2 ties accuracy to velocity, why counter-strafing wins the first shot, and how to peek without feeding.
CS2 Rank System Explained: CS Rating, Skill Groups, and How to Climb
CS2 runs two completely different ranking systems at once, and most players never learn which one their friends are talking about. Here is the CS Rating number, the seven color tiers, all 18 Skill Groups, and what actually moves the needle.
CS2 Utility Guide: Smokes, Flashes, and Molotovs
CS2 replaced the flat CS:GO smoke with a voxel cloud you can shoot holes in and blow apart with an HE. That one change rewrote how every piece of utility in the game interacts. Here is the whole toolkit, priced and explained.