Every time you play Counter-Strike through Valve matchmaking, your account accumulates experience points. When you level up, you receive a weekly drop. Free items are always nice, but you’ve probably wondered: how can you level up with the least effort? In this article, CS.MONEY Blog will tell you how to farm experience more effectively in Counter-Strike 2 and how long it will take to earn enough for a knife.
Spoiler Alert: it’s not a quick process. So if you want to get a cool skin without waiting, head over to CS.MONEY Trade where you can find the perfect upgrade!
How much experience do you get per game in CS2?
Experience points are awarded upon completing a match and depend on the game mode:
- Casual: All your points in the match are multiplied by 4.
- Competitive: The amount of won rounds is multiplied by 30.
- Wingman: The amount of won rounds is multiplied by 15
- Arms Race: Match points are converted into experience with a coefficient of 1.
- Deathmatch: The score in the match is divided by 5.
Since experience points are awarded after completing a game, don’t leave the server before the match ends.
Where is the most effective place to grind EXP in CS2?
There are several options. If you enjoy classic five-on-five matches, then competitive matchmaking is your choice. Wingman might not be as effective since the round duration is not as long as in classic competitive matches, and the two-fold reduction in experience isn’t worth it.
If you prefer more action-packed options, then the two best choices are Deathmatch and Arms Race. In Deathmatch, choosing Free-for-All as your mode is best: it allows to shoot more, kill more, and earn more points. Some servers also have bots that do nothing, making it easy and enjoyable to farm points on them.
As for the Arms Race, a lot will depend on your skills. If you’re a skilled player dominating the server, you’ll earn experience faster than in Deathmatch. But if you find yourself on a challenging server, consider switching to Deathmatch.
Casual matchmaking, like Wingman, isn’t an efficient way to farm experience because the likelihood of dominating the server is not high. If you’re a very skilled player, you’ll gain experience faster in Deathmatch or Arms Race.
How much EXP do you need to get a knife in CS2?
Theoretically, you can get a knife in CS2 just by playing and farming EXP. Let’s do some math. The cheapest knive, for example, Navaja Knife | Safari Mesh, can cost around 75 dollars. You receive one skin and a case per week upon levelling up. If you’re unlucky, this might bring you about 40-50 cents in total, but it could be a couple of dollars if you’re fortunate. With a certain amount of luck, you could farm a knife for free in about a year.
With that being said, let’s talk about how much you’ll need to play each week. CS2 developers provide players with bonus experience and it significantly saves time. For almost all the weekly grind, you’ll play with an x4 bonus, and only the last 500 points will be with an x2 bonus.
So, you need to earn about 1400 base XP per week (ideally 1350, but losses are inevitable). Based on our experience, playing on Deathmatch servers, you can earn around 9-10 experience points per minute. This means levelling up quickly in CS2 will take about two and a half or realistically three hours. In the case of Arms Race, this time can be reduced to two hours, but the difference is insignificant.
To gain the full experience in competitive mode, you need to win three matches or, more likely, win two and lose two. Four average competitive matches will take just over two and a half hours.
Summary
In conclusion, we have three most effective modes: Competitive, Arms Race and Deathmatch. You’ll earn experience at the same speed here. Combine them by warming up for half an hour or even more on DM, then play Arms Race a little, and switch to MM. Plan to play at least three hours each week, and you won’t miss any level-up drops.
- The most efficient modes for farming experience are Competitive, Premier, Deathmatch, or Arms Race.
- On average, it takes about 2.5-3 hours to level up.
- You can farm enough for a knife from weekly drops in about a year.
Surely, if you’re a true CS enjoyer, three hours per week may already seem like a basic routine. So if you don’t want to rely on the RNG and wait for skins to drop, head to CS.MONEY Trade. Get whatever skin you want at reduced prices!
