Counter-Strike 2 is not just shooting, nade throws and movement. One of the keys to victory is correctly counting your money and economy. A skillful player knows how to distribute cash in order to buy best in each round. How much money do you get for frags from each weapon? How to calculate economy in a CS2 match? CS.MONEY Blog tells everything you need to know about the economy in CS2.
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What is Economy in CS2?
Counter-Strike 2 has economy and it’s about planning your resources, which is dollars, the in-game currency. Each match you get dollars to spend on weapons and utility. You can earn money by making frags or completing vital actions in each round. Weapons, armor, grenades and even a defuse kit—you have to pay for everything. In Competitive, each player has several ways to earn money:
- Win or Lose, you gain money
- Plant or Defuse, you gain money
- Kill an enemy, you gain money
The only exception is attack (T-side) players who remain alive after the round time expires. In this case, they receive nothing, but their weapons and equipment transfers to the next round.
You can spend in-game cash to purchase:
- Weapons
- Grenades
- Armour and Utility
Each player’s task is to make sure that at the beginning of each round they have enough money to buy everything they need. You know, if you’re an AWPer, you have to save a lot or use weapons that bring you more money for frags, and all that. Basically, you need to do the maths and count your CS2 economy correctly, focusing on sources of income.
Money in CS2 Explained: Frags, weapons, actions, streaks
Players can receive in-game currency from several sources. The easiest option to earn money in CS2 is by committing frags.
How much money you get from frags by weapons
Each CS2 weapon has its own reward for kills/frags. Here they are listed and explained.
- Pistol frags bring $300 per frag; except CZ75-A, which brings $100 per frag
- Shotgun frags net you $900
- SMG frags bring $600 each; except P90
- All Rifles and P90, as well as Sniper Rifles, brings $300; except AWP
- Each AWP frag earns you $100
- A knife frag reward is $1,500
- A grenade frag earns $300
- Zeus X27 taser does not bring money at all!
Due to different frag rewards, some weapons are preferable to others in certain situations. For example, if you win the pistol round, it’s better to buy a submachine gun instead of a rifle: its double reward for frags allows you to earn additional funds while still being more powered than enemies.
Actions that bring money in CS2 matches
In addition to kills/frags, CS2 also rewards you for finishing each round.
- For winning, both teams receive $3250
- For winning with a C4 explosion, the T-side receives $3500
- For winning with a C4 defuse, the CT-side receives $3500
- The first lost round brings you $1400, each subsequent round brings you $500 more, up to $3400. This is called Loss Streak Bonus.
Current Loss Streak rewards can be viewed in Match Stats by pressing Tab on the bottom right. To find out the details, just hover your pointer over it.
CS2 Money Management: eco-rounds, anti-ecos, fullbuys
To fully stock up, the Attack team needs to spend about $5000 each. The Defense has to spend more, about $6000. You won’t be able to have as much all the time, which means you’ll not have full buys frequently. Here’s how you can handle the CS2 match economy by rounds:
- Economic, aka Eco, means when a team has no money and each player has $2000 or less in their account. Usually in such a round players buy literally nothing or a P250 at most. Is eco-rounds, the main task of the Attack side is to place C4, while the Defense’s main task is to do as many frags as possible at all cost.
- Anti-Eco is basically the opposite of the previous one. In this round, players who died in the previous round purchase submachine guns or shotguns in order to earn as much as possible. Also called farm-rounds.
- Full Buy is a round in which a team buys the best equipment possible. Defense purchases M4s and AWPs, Attack goes AKs and AWPs, too. As well as grenades, armors and defuse kits.
- Semi-buys happen in rare cases, for example, when a team may not have enough money for a full buy, but at the same time, they have more funds on hand than just start with P250s. In this case, it is worth making an incomplete buy, or semi-buy: pistols, cheap rifles, some grenades. The main thing here is to count your CS2 economy well and have enough money for a full buy in next round.
- Force Buy means to purchase with all available money, regardless of how much have you saved. Usually this option is resorted to only in extreme situations.
A very important aspect of CS2 Money Management is teamwork. There is no point in holding an eco round if two players have already purchased to the max. Such actions ruin your team’s economy and only worsen the situation. In this case, you need to convince your teammates to make a refund or follow their lead and buy.
It is also important to consider each player’s funds when purchasing. If one of the players has $8000, and the other has $3000, it would be a good idea to drop weapons and thus distribute expenses evenly.
Advanced CS2 Economics Tips
Advanced Economics in CS2 comes in two parts: counting your own money and counting your opponent’s money. A good player can plan spending for the next couple of rounds and makes purchases according to these plans.
Sometimes you can save $300 and not buy a frag grenade if you’re not sure where to throw it. Another popular saving option is not to buy a helmet when playing against a full buy, because AKs and AWPs will in any case breach your helmet. Therefore, consider ingoring it to save $350 in some situations.
Calculating the enemy’s CS2 economy is more difficult. By tracking the dynamics by round, you can roughly sum up what kind of buys the enemy team will have in each round. Based on this information, you can plan your buy accordingly. If you know that your opponent will have an Eco or a Force Buy, you can get yourself a submachine gun, because it would be more than enought to fight them. At the same time, if the enemy team loses the sixth round in a row, they will probably have money for rifles, therefore, expect a Full Buy and buy a rifle in return.
Understanding CS2 economics is one of the keys to winning in Counter-Strike 2. A skilled player with an M4 is more dangerous than an equally skilled player with a MAC-10. Therefore, you need to have money for a suitable weapon in each round, as it significantly increases the chances of winning!
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