How to Play CS2: Guide for New Players
Published: Sep 5, 2024 - Last Updated: Sep 11, 2024
If you’re new to the scene and wondering how to play CS2, we’ve got you covered. CS2 is easy to learn but extremely difficult to master so it’ll take some getting used to.
1. Download CS2 from Steam
To play CS2, you first need to download the game from Steam. Don’t worry – it’s completely free if you want to try it for the first time. Depending on your internet speeds, the game shouldn’t take too long to download, especially compared to other modern titles.
After launching the game for the first time, there are a couple of things to consider. First, you should look at the best CS2 launch options to set up your game for the future.
Next, you should decide if you want to buy Prime for CS2. This will put you into lobbies with other Prime players, which massively reduces the amount of cheaters you’ll encounter. If CS2 is the game for you, Prime is almost certainly worth the $14.99 price tag. You can get extra in game rewards like chests too.
2. Select Game Mode
Once you’re in-game, it’s time to choose which CS2 game mode you want to play. There’s a few to play, so here’s the rundown:
- Premier: The main ranked experience, and the most competitive game mode CS2 has to offer. You vote on which maps to play in a full veto process.
- Competitive: Despite its name, Competitive is much more casual than Premier. You can queue for any map here.
- Wingman: Ranked 2v2 matches. Not the full CS2 experience, but a fun break from the regular matches with reduced map size.
- Casual: Drop in and out of matches for a fully casual experience.
- Deathmatch: Constant respawns, the player with the most kills wins. Good for warming up.
- Arms Race: Progress through all of CS2’s weapons, get a kill to move on to the next. The first player to reach the final weapon wins.
If you’re completely new to the game, we’d recommend Casual and Deathmatch until you get your bearings, before jumping into the likes of Competitive and Premier. The CS2 community can be brutal at times, and you don’t want to get flamed by your teammates who are playing competitively.
3. Get Good
So you’ve learned how to play CS2. Now, it’s time to learn how to get better at CS2. At first, we’d say just play the game as much as possible.
You can do aim maps and watch the pro scene to help familiarize yourself with the gameplay, but in the early days, nothing will help you more than actually getting experience on the server. Plenty of players have thousands of hours and are still pretty bad at CS2, so you’re in it for the long haul if you want to be considered good at the game.
When you’ve played a fair amount of the game and learned all of the different CS2 maps, it’ll be time to train your aim with Workshop maps and take notice of how the pros play. We’d also recommend developing a warmup routine prior to matches. Do this for 10 minutes every time you play, and you’ll notice a huge difference in no time. There are also CS2 Duel servers, which can be a great way to improve at 1v1 gunfights.
