Exciting news: on Feb 6, 2024, Valve has released the first-ever major update to CS2! You probably can’t wait to find out what’s changed, so let’s jump right into it: here’s what’s new with the “A Call to Arms” Update. (It’s around 8.5 GB, so start downloading it now and read the post in the meantime!)

Contents

• The Kilowatt Case: 17 New Skins
• Ambush Sticker Capsule: 21 New Stickers
• Custom Sticker Placement & More Sticker Slots
• Game Mode: Arms Race is Back
• Nightmode Music Box: 6 New Music Kits
• Other Changes and Additions

The Kilowatt Case: 17 New Skins

You’re on Key-Drop, so it’s safe to assume that skins are your thing and there’s no better place to start. “A Call to Arms” came with a brand-new case containing 17 community-designed skins, including a couple of major surprises. Check them out: 

Currently, the AK-47 | Inheritance ($200–$1000) and AWP | Chrome Cannon ($120–$1450) are the most expensive of the bunch. And of course, the knife skins come in at around $800–$1800. Note that not all prices are available for the knife skins, though, so the high-end figure is likely to be much higher once prices for the Fade skin have joined the equation.

Read our review of the new Kilowatt Case skins

First-Ever Zeus x27 Skin

Also, Zeus x27 is now reusable in all game modes after a 30-second recharge and all Zeus sound effects have been replaced with new ones. 

All-New Kukri Knife

Yep, you saw that right: there’s an all-new knife in the Kilowatt Case, called the Kukri knife. It’s inspired by the real-life kukri (or khukuri) knife that’s the national weapon of Nepal. The Kilowatt Case contains 13 skins for the Kukri knife, including Slaughter, Boreal Forest, Case Hardened, Stained, Forest DDPAT, Urban Masked, Blue Steel, Night Stripe, Safari Mesh, Scorched, Crimson Web, Fade, and of course, Vanilla.

If you’re eager to try out the Kukri knife, you can do so in a Practice match or on a private server by using a console command. Check out our post about knife commands in CS2 to find out more!

Ambush Sticker Capsule: 21 New Stickers

For sticker enthusiasts, there’s lots of exciting news. First up, the new Ambush Sticker Capsule, containing 21 stickers, is already available for purchase in-game. Here they are: 

Currently, Dystopian Gaze (Lenticular) is the most expensive of the new stickers, at around $14. Old School (Lenticular) comes in second in terms of price ($7.82), and Econometer (Lenticular) is third ($4.80). The rest of the stickers cost under $3, with the majority sporting wallet-friendly price tags of under $0.10.

Custom Sticker Placement & More Sticker Slots

Valve finally did it! Thanks to “A Call to Arms”, flexible sticker placement is now part of the game. 

Instead of putting stickers in pre-assigned slots on each weapon, you can now decide exactly where you want to place the sticker, including the option to rotate it. There’s also a zoom-in feature during sticker application to give you a more detailed view. 

All weapons now have five sticker slots, too, giving you even more flexibility with customizing your skins. Until now, only the G3SG1 and R8 Revolver supported five stickers. 

Game Mode: Arms Race is Back

The Arms Race game mode has returned with the Baggage and Shoots maps already available. CS:GO players will be familiar with Arms Race, as it was a core part of the game before the shift to CS2. In short, Arms Race consists of one round with 6 CTs versus 6 Ts and continuous respawns. Everyone starts with a standard issue pistol and unlocks new weapons by getting kills. For the team to win, one of the players must score a kill with the Gold Knife, obtained by the player with the most kills in the match. For more info about Arms Race, check out this article. 

NIGHTMODE Music Box: 6 New Music Kits

If you’re into your music kits, you can now add six new ones to your collection thanks to the NIGHTMODE Music Box, already available for purchase in-game. Here’s a short preview: 

Other Changes and Additions

In addition to the major gameplay and mechanics changes outlined above, Valve added a few smaller features to the game, including: 

End-of-Match Animations

Losing a match hurts. From now on, your agent will display new animations to express what Valve so aptly calls “the agony of defeat” after losing a match. So, you’ll get to see your agent both celebrate their wins and mourn their defeats. 

XP Overload Icon

Once you’ve gained your weekly XP (11 166 points) and entered reduced XP gain, a new “XP Overload” icon will appear next to your name on the scoreboard, as well as on your profile and kill-feed. For every consecutive week of maxing out your XP, the XP Overload icon will upgrade—so other players will be able to tell that you’ve played CS2 consistently for, say, 6 weeks in a row. 

Minor Gameplay Changes

Alongside a bunch of gameplay fixes, Valve also added a “Refund All” button to the buy menu and a setting to disable first-person bullet tracers. The smoke animations have also been improved and smokes will now cast shadows. 

Valve also claims to have “reduced peeker’s advantage in many cases”—we’ll see whether the difference is noticeable in practice, but the patch notes surrounding this issue sound promising. (Peeker’s advantage happens when the player peeking from behind an obstacle can see their opponent, but due to network lag, the opponent doesn’t see the “peeker”—you can read more about it here.)

Valve fixed a whole lot of bugs and issues with this update, so if you’re interested in the finer details, check out their release notes for “A Call to Arms” here. 

There you go—with any luck, you’ve now finished downloading “A Call to Arms”, and you’re ready to experience the new features firsthand!