Polski 
English 
Português 
Español 
Français 
Deutsch 
Türkçe 
Magyar 
So, we’re a bit late on this, but perhaps you’re only now coming back to Counter-Strike and you see a lot of changes, also in the CS2 economy. The fact that we’re playing 6 rounds less has brought some big changes to the meta game, as did the ability to drop grenades to teammates. How to play in a way that will guarantee the best chance of victory? We’ll tell you all about it in this article.
Contents
Earning Money
First thing’s first: to understand the CS2 economy, you have to understand how much money you’ll start each round with. We’re going to have some math here, but it’s simple enough.
Win/Loss Bonus
Let’s start with the win bonus. Each team gets $3250 per player as a base amount for winning a round. Furthermore, the teams will get an additional $250 per player if they win by completing their objective, rather than elimination (so a bomb defusal or explosion nets you more than simply killing all the players). Additionally, the player planting or defusing the bomb will get a personal $300 bonus.
The losing team will also get a loss bonus depending on the number of rounds they lose in a row. The base amount is $1400, and increases by $500 with every consecutive lost round up to 5 rounds. To spare you the quick maffs, here’s a breakdown:
| Round loss count | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1400 |
| 2 | $1900 |
| 3 | $2400 |
| 4 | $2900 |
| 5 | $3400 |
What does the round loss counter do, you might ask. Well… it’s not quite as simple as losing rounds in a row. Essentially, the counter helps avoid the situation previously occurring in CS:GO, where teams would be “reset” when reaching a certain number of losses, by their opponents allowing them to win a round to wreck their CS2 economy further down the line. In this case, we have a counter. Every lost round puts a point on it, every won round takes away that point. This means that if you lose 5 out of 6 rounds, you will be on the 4 loss bonus, instead of the 1 loss bonus.
If time runs out before the bomb is planted, the surviving Terrorists will not get a loss bonus. That’s why you’ll sometimes see a desperate terrorist run into the crosshairs of a CT.
Kill Rewards
Winning rounds isn’t the only way to earn money in CS2. You’ll also get a kill reward based on the weapon you do the deed with. Here’s a breakdown of kill rewards, based on weapon type (unless a specific weapon from a given category has its own reward—after the April 2024 patch, that’s currently the case with the AWP sniper rifle, P90 SMG, and XM1014 shotgun).
| Weapon | Kill bonus |
|---|---|
| Zeus x27 | $100 |
| AWP | $100 |
| Rifles | $300 |
| Pistols | $300 |
| Machine Guns | $300 |
| P90 | $300 |
| SMGs | $600 |
| XM1014 | $600 |
| Shotguns | $900 |
| Grenades | $900 |
| Knives | $1500 |
As you can see, different guns bring different bonuses, meaning that if you’re on a killing spree (particularly one with a knife), you can quickly boost your balance.
Note: The maximum money you can have is $16,000, so just ensure you’re not Smauging too hard in a stomping.
Spending Money
Alright, so you know how to earn money. That’s pretty simple, the issue comes when it comes to the spending. In Counter-Strike, we recognize different types of “buys”, which you should discuss with your team to ensure good communication. The basic buys are:
Full Buy
A buy consisting basically of all you need in a round, that means a rifle (either an AK-47, M4A1-S/M4A4 or AWP), kevlar (CTs don’t need need kevlar if they’re certain they’ll be facing off against a full buy), and the grenades you need for your CS2 role, as well as a defuse kit. This comes up to around $5000 for a rifler, and $6000+ for an AWPer.
Full Eco
An economic decision to withhold any spending. Basically, when you eco, you don’t spend any money to ensure you have a better buy next round. Note, that if one player has a bit more cash, they may be inclined to spend it on something like a P250. As long as your loss bonus will still ensure a full buy, that’s an ok decision.
Force Buy
Sometimes, your earning lines up in such a way that you’re stuck with bad money for more than one round. In that case, it might be worth it to force buy, which means buying the best equipment you can for your money and trying to win a round against stronger weaponry. With a good strategy, this can work out pretty nicely.
Based on these three staples, we have some additional buying strategies you can build around:
Anti-Eco
If you’re certain your opponent will be on an eco, you can make your buy set up to battle the eco and boost your economy. SMGs will be a great choice (or shotguns if you’re certain you’ll be able to use them). CTs should also be sure they purchase a helmet, as with the terrorists not having AKs, it will protect them from some nasty surprises.
Partial Eco
If you need to have a certain amount in your bank account, and you’re certain you don’t need to drop anyone in the next round, you can “buy down” to that account to ensure that you can still purchase next round.
And that’s that, you can use this knowledge to set up buys. Your goal is to make as many full buys in a game as you can along with your team. And remember, communicate with your team, drop players when they need it, and you should be good!
Have any questions about the CS2 economy? Feel free to ask on our socials and we’ll help you out. Have fun on Key-Drop and see you on the battlefield, working towards those full buys!
