Reload

When you reload in CS2, the leftover ammo in your magazine is dumped back into an essentially endless reserve supply. And so the decision to reload has never offered significant trade-offs—in a safe position with enough time, you might reload after firing a single bullet, or half a mag, or after firing down to empty, and the rest of the round would be unaffected.

We think the decision to reload should have higher stakes, so in today's update reloading has been redesigned. Now, when you reload, you'll drop the used magazine and discard all of its remaining ammo. Instead of 'topping off' your weapon with a few bullets, a new full magazine will be taken from the reserves whenever you reload.

How many reserve mags will each weapon have? Most have gotten a three clips fill-up, but some weapons will have less to reward efficiency and precision, or more to encourage spamming through walls and smokes. Keep an eye on your reserve supply!

Map Guides in Competitive Matches

We get it. You could learn some smokes offline, but who has the time?

To help you pick up some new tricks, map guides can now be used during the first five rounds of the half in your competitive matches. Competitive map guides are more limited than the ones you use offline, but should be enough to give you a few reminders.

You can activate a guide in the pause menu, and to get you started there are official map guides available for Active Duty maps. But if you're looking for something more specific, you can subscribe to guides on the Steam Community Workshop.

Join Friends in Custom Games

Over the past several months, the CS community has been hard at work building custom game modes using special scripting tools. Now, you can join your friends in the fun!

Whenever you're playing a custom game, whether on a community server or hosted locally, your friends will be able to join you directly from the Friends list (as long as the server allows it).

Want to set up your own custom game? Head over to your Workshop Maps tab in the Play menu, and make sure to turn on "Open Party." Now, when you start playing your workshop map you'll host a game on your machine, and your friends will be able to join.

So head to the Steam Community Workshop, subscribe to some maps, and try something new!

Mutually Assured Distraction

Premier Season Four is here, and it brings a host of community content, in-game items, gameplay tweaks, and bug fixes along with it!

Anubis is back after a short vacation, and has several gameplay adjustments to show for it. The release notes have the full story, but let's just say it's good news for fans of holes. There have also been a couple of minor adjustments to SMGs, so if you've been waiting to add the MP7 or MP5-SD to your loadout, now is your time.

Speaking of which, it's time to start working toward your Season Four Medal. As before, the color of your medal will correspond to the highest CS Rating achieved during the season, and the bars will reflect your total wins, with one bar for every 25 (up to five bars). To be eligible for a medal, you'll need an account in good standing, 25 Premier match wins, and an active CSR at the end of the season.

Community Maps

With the new season comes a new set of community maps. From the winding paths of Stronghold to the active volcano of Sanctum, each map brings a ton of character and gameplay ideas to the table. Stronghold, Alpine, and Warren can be found in Competitive, Casual, and Deathmatch modes, while Poseidon and Sanctum are available in Wingman.

Weekly Care Package

Today we are introducing two new collections to your weekly care package. One has color and the other one does not. We'll let you figure out which is which.

LTD Edition

The armory also has a new entry--the AK-47 | Aphrodite. With mother-of-pearl accents and amber patina, this entry varies in both wear and pattern:

• Team Spirit vs. Falcons
  

• Vitality vs. The MongolZ
  

• MOUZ vs. FaZe Clan
  

• FURIA vs. Natus Vincere
  

All three stages of the StarLadder Budapest Major will be played in front of live crowds at MTK Sportpark, and for the first time at a Counter-Strike Major, the Grand Finals will be best of five. Now more than ever, the Major Champions will need to prove their quality by winning three maps in the Active Duty Map Pool.

Make Your Picks

You can begin supporting your favorite teams participating in the Major with the Budapest 2025 Viewer Pass.

Your activated Budapest 2025 Viewer Pass includes a coin that can be upgraded by playing the Pick'Em challenge. Pass holders gain access to unlimited team graffiti for the duration of the event and can earn and purchase Souvenir Tokens, which can be redeemed for a Souvenir from the match of your choice.

And back by popular demand, Playoff Souvenirs for the StarLadder Budapest Major come with Souvenir Charms, featuring highlights from the match!

Get Your Stickers

With the release of the Viewer Pass and Pick'Em Challenge, we are also releasing StarLadder Budapest Major tournament stickers, featuring logos of every team and signatures of every player participating in the Major.

Slab Your Stickers

Not ready to apply your favorite sticker? We got you! Today we are introducing Sticker Slabs—charms that let you show off a sticker with no commitment. Later, just break the slab to return the sticker to your inventory.

Previously, demo playback showed the server's view of the world, without accounting for network latency. This could be confusing because shots would hit that didn't look like they should have, and vice versa.

TrueView provides a more accurate representation of the observed player's experience by re-running their client-side prediction.

The video below shows the difference between the old demo playback and the same playback with TrueView.

A few caveats:

• By default, TrueView is deactivated when the version of the game you are using to view the demo does not match the version of the game used to record the demo.
  

• Even with TrueView active, there may still be some differences between what you see in the demo and what the player originally saw (especially with slow-motion playback). For example, damage effects will have different timing during demo playback due to the way CPU and GPU work are pipelined.
  

• In addition to performing clientside prediction of the observed player, TrueView will also perform Damage Prediction on enemies, if Damage Prediction was used by the observed player at the time.
  

Additionally, we're shipping movement changes that we made available last week in a beta branch. All that and more and today's update!

The bomb has been planted and you're running out of time. It's the return of retakes!

In this classic game mode, each round drops you in to a fast-paced 4v3 after-plant scenario. Select your loadout card each round, check the map to coordinate with your teammates, and use your resources wisely to defuse (or defend) the planted bomb.

The clock is ticking, what are you waiting for? Jump into a retakes server now!

Community Maps

From the mines of Golden to the moving train in Transit, we've got four new Community maps for you to check out. Golden and Palacio have been added to Competitive, Casual, and Deathmatch modes, and Rooftop and Transit have been added to Wingman.

New Armory Content

It's a lil' HE grenade... for your gun. It doesn't explode, but it sure is charming. Introducing the all new Dr. Boom Charms, now available in the Armory.

A few months ago we added charms to the workshop, and you responded. For some insight into the creative and occasionally twisted minds of the CS2 community, check out the Missing Link Community Charms in the Armory.

Speaking of community designs, the Armory now features two brand new sticker collections, including the return of Sugarface!

Spectator Loadout

Genesis Collection

New for Season 3

Trade Protected Items