CS2 SCAR-20 vs G3SG1: The $5,000 Two-Shot Autosnipers

Hover over a weapon in Counter-Strike 2's loadout screen and the game gives you a short verdict on it. Three weapons get the same advice: "Consider only under special circumstances." One is the $5,200 M249. The other two are the autosnipers, the SCAR-20 for Counter-Terrorists and the G3SG1 for Terrorists.

The numbers back the game up. Each one costs $5,000, more than an AWP, and neither can kill with a single body shot. What they do instead is fire an 80-damage bullet every quarter of a second, five times the SSG 08's rate and nearly six times the AWP's. On this site they have only come up in passing, in the AWP guide, the rifle guides and the machine gun guide. Here is the whole pair as the game's files define them: the three values that make the SCAR-20 the better of the two, what Valve's March 2026 ammo change did to them, and the money compared with the AWP.

The autosnipers in 30 seconds

Everything except the side comes from Counter-Strike 2's weapon definitions file, read from SteamDB's public GameTracking-CS2 repository, which mirrors the game's files after every update. The copy used here dates from the September 22, 2026 update; the September 30 patch did not change it. The side comes from the game's item schema, and the Casual reward from the Casual config, which halves kill money. Armor penetration is half the file's armor ratio of 1.65, the same conversion that turns the AK-47's 1.55 into the 77.5% this site's rifle guides quote.

Three lines of difference

Lay the two definitions side by side and they match field for field except for three gameplay values. The rest of the differences are models, sounds, tracers and recoil seeds.

Reload. The file blocks firing for 3.07 seconds after a SCAR-20 starts a reload and for 4.67 seconds on the G3SG1. The Counter-Strike Wiki rounds them to 3.1 and 4.7. The SCAR-20's figure is identical to both M4s', which fits the wiki's note that it shares their reload animation. The G3SG1's is the longest reload of the eleven guns that go in Rifle slots; the AUG is next at 3.77. Of the magazine-fed guns in the file, only the M249 and Negev take longer, at 5.7.

Flinch values. Each gun carries a pair of "flinch velocity modifier" values. The names point at tagging, the slowdown a player suffers when hit. The SCAR-20's pair, 0.35 and 0.40, is exactly the AWP's and the SSG 08's. The G3SG1's pair, 0.50 and 0.65, is the Glock-18's. The Counter-Strike Wiki's pages for both rifles say the SCAR-20 tags better, and the G3SG1 page tells a Terrorist to swap their G3SG1 for a dead Counter-Terrorist's SCAR-20 because of the faster reload and better tagging.

Recoil. The SCAR-20's recoil magnitude is 31 and the G3SG1's is 30. The wiki describes the G3SG1's recoil as slightly lower than the SCAR-20's.

That is the whole difference. They share the price, damage, fire rate, speed, magazine and zoom. None of those values is new, either. Global Offensive's item schema, in the last copy SteamDB captured before CS2 replaced it (May 31, 2023), lists both at $5,000 and 80 damage with an armor ratio of 1.65 and a 0.25-second cycle. It gives the same 215 and 120 run speeds, zoom levels, flinch values and recoil magnitudes, plus 90 rounds of reserve ammunition. Only the reserve has moved since, covered below.

Any two hits, and the head at any range

The Counter-Strike Wiki's damage table is identical on both rifles' pages:

Every figure except the armored stomach sits one point under the raw arithmetic from the file's 80 damage, which gives 320 and 264 to the head, 80 and 66 to the chest, 100 and 82 to the stomach, and 60 to a leg. That uses the file's 4x headshot multiplier, 82.5% through armor, and the 1.25x stomach and 0.75x leg multipliers the wiki's AWP table also reflects. The conclusions below hold on either set of numbers.

There is no body one-shot. The best hit below the head is an unarmored stomach at 99, or exactly 100 on the raw arithmetic with nothing to spare. The wiki says it plainly: unlike the AWP, the SCAR-20 cannot kill with one shot to the body. The AWP's armored chest hit is 112.

Any two hits kill a full-health player, armored or not. Two armored chest hits make 130, and even two leg hits make 118. The G3SG1 page puts it the same way: two hits kill a player at full health.

A headshot through a helmet kills at any range the bullet reaches. The file gives both rifles a maximum range of 8,192 units and a 0.98 range modifier. Run the 263 through the damage dropoff formula the AK-47 vs Galil AR guide walks through, and it still lands about 189 at 8,192 units. That guide puts the AK-47's helmet one-tap limit at about 2,583 units.

On the wiki's figures, the same formula gives the body-shot limits. Two armored chest hits keep killing out to about 6,500 units, roughly 124 metres on the standard Source conversion of 1.905 cm per unit. Two leg hits hold out to about 4,100 units, roughly 78 metres. The raw arithmetic pushes both limits a few hundred units further.

Then there is speed. The second shot leaves 0.25 seconds after the first:

The times between shots are the file's cycle times. The AK-47 needs four armored chest hits at 27 each, per the AK-47 guide. The SSG 08 needs two because its armored chest hit is 74, per the AWP guide. On paper the autosniper's two-hit kill beats the AK's four-hit kill and is five times faster than the Scout's. That assumes the second shot lands.

A sniper rifle you can hold the trigger on

The file flags both autosnipers as full-auto and both bolt-action snipers as not. The SCAR-20's own item description calls it "a semi-automatic sniper rifle", but the wiki confirms you can hold the trigger down and it keeps firing. Two more file values separate them from the AWP and SSG 08:

• They stay scoped. The AWP and SSG 08 are set to drop out of the scope after each shot. Both autosnipers are not, so a follow-up shot needs no re-scope.
• The second shot is the hard one. Scoped and standing, the autosnipers' base inaccuracy is 0.002, the same as the AWP's. Each shot adds 0.0186 of firing inaccuracy, more than nine times that base. The file's standing recovery time is 0.54 seconds, over twice the 0.25 seconds between shots. Hold the trigger and the next round fires before that recovery window has run out.

Since October 1, 2025, Valve's notes say, the game has "Added inaccuracy representation in sniper scopes." The files type both autosnipers as sniper rifles. In practice, tap at the pace the scope settles and keep the held trigger for spamming a smoke or a wall.

Movement is where they beat the AWP. They run at 215 unscoped, the AK-47's speed, and 120 scoped, against the AWP's 200 and 100. The wiki gives 112 walking, 73 crouch-walking, and 62 and 41 while scoped. The two zoom levels match the SSG 08's (field of view 40, then 15), while the AWP's second level zooms further, to 10.

Their penetration value is 2.5, the same as the AWP and SSG 08 and the highest any weapon in the file carries. Assault rifles sit at 2.0. Spraying a wall with one is a real option, which is the next problem.

March 2026 cut them from 110 rounds to 60

Before March 18, 2026, each autosniper carried 20 in the magazine and 90 in reserve, 110 rounds in all. That update rebuilt reloading and "Tuned reserve magazine counts per-weapon." The weapons file's history shows the reserve going from 90 to two magazines that day, and the wiki's page for the update lists both rifles at −50. Each now carries 60 rounds: three magazines and 45% less ammunition than before. On that list only the SSG 08 (−70) and four guns at −60 lost more.

The same update made a reload discard whatever is left in the magazine, which the M4A4 vs M4A1-S guide works through. For the autosnipers the arithmetic is short:

• Sixty rounds at 0.25 seconds each is 15 seconds of trigger for the entire round, down from 27.5.
• Reloading with eight rounds left throws away 8 of your 60, more than an eighth of the round's ammunition.
• On the G3SG1, that same reload also locks you out of firing for 4.67 seconds.

So the SCAR-20 wiki page's advice to "spray several full magazines" now has a hard ceiling. One full magazine through a wall is a third of everything you have.

$5,000 for a $300 kill, against the AWP

The file prices both autosnipers at $5,000 and pays $300 a kill, against the AWP's $4,750 and $100. Here is what that does to the money over a round in Competitive:

The autosniper costs $250 more than the AWP and earns $200 more per kill, so from the second kill on it is the cheaper net purchase. It also does better than the M249, the one gun in the game that costs more, which the shotguns and machine guns guide covers. The M249 is $200 dearer for the same $300 reward. In Casual, where the config halves kill money, an autosniper kill pays $150 and an AWP kill $50.

None of that makes it cheap. With Kevlar and a helmet ($1,000 in the item schema), an autosniper buy is $6,000 before a single grenade. That is 37.5% of Competitive's $16,000 money cap. The economy guide covers what a buy that size does to the rounds after it.

Not in your buy menu until you put it there

Valve's June 6, 2023 notes set CS2's loadout at "1 Starting Pistol slot, 4 Pistol slots, 5 Mid-tier slots... and 5 Rifle slots, per team." You assign weapons to those slots yourself. Valve's announcement that day said to "drag and drop to adjust your buy menu however you see fit."

The item schema marks both autosnipers as outside the default loadout. On the Terrorist side the defaults are the Galil AR, AK-47, SSG 08, SG 553 and AWP, so the G3SG1 is the one Terrorist rifle left out. The SCAR-20 is not a Counter-Terrorist default either. If you have never changed your loadout, neither gun is in your buy menu. Swap one into a Rifle slot first, and the AUG vs SG 553 guide covers what you give up for it.

Hover over either one in the loadout and you get the verdict this post opened with. The G3SG1's reads "High risk/reward automatic sniper rifle" and the SCAR-20's "A potent (if risky) tool to hold a position." Both, like the M249, go on to say "Consider only under special circumstances", and no other item in the game's English text carries that line.

Every autosniper line in CS2 release notes

I searched all 306 Counter-Strike announcements Steam lists from March 2023 onward for "SCAR-20", "G3SG1" and "automatic sniper." Four updates touch the autosnipers by name or by their ammunition:

At least ten more updates change sniper scopes, effects or un-scoping in general without naming the autosnipers. Two matter in a match: the October 1, 2025 scope inaccuracy display above, and September 22, 2026, when "Un-scoping a sniper weapon no longer produces a sound."

None of those lines touches price, damage, fire rate or armor penetration. Apart from the reserve, the price, damage, armor ratio, fire rate, speeds, magazine, flinch and recoil values are identical in every copy of the weapons file SteamDB holds, back to May 2024.

Where the wiki is behind Valve

The Counter-Strike Wiki is still the handiest reference for the damage table and walking speeds, but three things on its autosniper pages lag the game:

• Both infoboxes still list 90 reserve rounds. The wiki's own page for the March 18, 2026 update records the −50, and the weapons file has read two magazines (40 rounds) since that day.
• The SCAR-20 page's tactics still recommend spraying "several full magazines" on the strength of "super deep reserves." That was written for a 110-round gun. It is now a 60-round one.
• The G3SG1 page's update log has no March 18, 2026 entry. The SCAR-20 page has one. The G3SG1's list stops at the November 4, 2025 bolt animation fix.

Which one, and when

You never pick between them in the buy menu, because only Counter-Terrorists can buy the SCAR-20 and only Terrorists the G3SG1. If you are going to buy your side's autosniper, the Counter-Terrorists get the better gun: a reload 1.6 seconds faster, the AWP's flinch values, and the wiki's word that it tags better. A Terrorist who gets the chance to pick up a dead Counter-Terrorist's SCAR-20 should take it.

When to buy one at all comes down to the numbers above.

• Against the AWP: the AWP wins the first shot outright, with 112 to an armored chest. The autosniper needs two hits but fires again in a quarter of a second without leaving the scope, moves 20 units per second faster while scoped, and pays $300 a kill. If one shot decides the angle, buy the AWP. If the angle is a lane people keep crossing, the autosniper's follow-up shot is the argument for it.
• Not on a thin buy: the SSG 08 costs $1,700 and pays the same $300 a kill. The autosniper is a $6,000 buy with armor, and the game's own text calls it a special-circumstances weapon.
• Mind the ammo: 60 rounds, three magazines, and on the G3SG1 a 4.67-second reload. Tap, do not hold.

More weapon math lives on the Counter-Strike 2 coverage hub, and the wider archive is on the Mythras blog.

What I could not verify

• What the flinch values do in a match. The file gives the numbers and the wiki says the SCAR-20 tags better. I have not measured how much each pair slows a target.
• Whether CS2 rounds or drops fractions of damage. The wiki's table sits one point under the file's arithmetic in every cell but the armored stomach. The kill conclusions here hold either way. What changes is whether an unarmored stomach hit is 99 or exactly 100, and the exact body-shot range limits, which run a few hundred units longer on the raw arithmetic.
• The accurate range. The wiki lists 66 metres for both rifles. I have not measured it.
• What the September 22, 2026 silent reload does to these two. Valve says holding the reload key reloads "silently (but slowly)." No value in the weapons file gives that timing.

Quick Action Checklist

• The SCAR-20 and G3SG1 are the same gun in the files except reload (3.07 s vs 4.67 s), recoil (31 vs 30) and the flinch values behind tagging.
• Both cost $5,000 and pay $300 a kill ($150 in Casual).
• No body shot kills in one. Any two hits do, armored or not, including two to the legs.
• A helmeted headshot is 263 and kills at any range the bullet reaches.
• Two armored chest hits still kill at about 6,500 units (about 124 m).
• They fire every 0.25 s and stay scoped, but the second shot comes before the first one's inaccuracy has recovered. Tap, do not hold.
• Since March 18, 2026 each carries 60 rounds, three magazines, and a reload throws away what is left in the magazine.
• From the second kill on, an autosniper is a cheaper net purchase than the AWP.
• Neither is in the default loadout. Put one in a Rifle slot before you need it.
• On the Terrorist side, pick up a dead Counter-Terrorist's SCAR-20 over your own G3SG1.