How to play CS2 for newbies

This is a how to play CS2 guide for new players. As a disclaimer this guide is for newbies or returning players, if you are a veteran or better player then this is not for you but you are welcome to stay and read. Fyi, I am not a 20k rating player (stuck at 19k but constantly play against 20-25k), I do not have the reflex anymore or irl time to play that much. Please do not hesitate to add more information or correct me on some details.

I. Introduction

First of all, I apologize for any grammatical mistake because English is not my first language albeit my favorite and this will take some time to read however it is still designed to help you learn the game as fast as possible and trust me that it will be worth it at the end.

Also this is a work in progress guide that I will keep updating so some sentences might not make sense because I have forgotten editing them. This guide is basically what I have learned over 20 years of CS, it will mostly be compromised of my opinion from what I have experienced. This is intended for new players only, so please take heed if you are an experienced player.

There will be 3 key areas that I will be discussing in this guide. They are hardware, basics and advance. These 3 will be your fundamental information in getting better in this game. I won't be talking about maps and utility because that will take a very long time and I don't want to write a book about it also valve keeps updating them. This guide is made in a general sense of things.

II. Hardware and Settings

I know the game has a lot of issues currently, like hit registry, hit box, lag, subtick, bugs, etc but these things that are out of your control, and what you can control on your side is your Hardware. What can I say about Hardware but that it is very important when it comes to online gaming especially a competitive game like CS2 because it dictates your performance input and output.

The ideal situation would be having a higher hz monitor with a bigger screen, good peripherals and a huge mousepad for starters. You don't need to buy the most expensive brands, if you look up my profile you can see all I have are entry builds. Although it is very important to have a good headset/earphones and a usb condenser microphone if possible for better communication which is a key factor in playing this game well.

My graphical settings (which is tested and based on a lot of streamers and pro players):


Resolution - Native (whatever max reso your monitor is used to) but I have mine set to 1440x1080, everything is wider as its 4:3 and everything is faster but my reaction flick and fast 800 cpi allows me to play this resolution very nice with awp and rifles.
Boost Player Contrast - Disabled
VSYNC - Disabled
Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode - Disabled
Global Shadows Quality - High/Very High
Model/Texture Detail - Low
Texture Filtering - Bilinear/Trilinear
Shader Detail - Low
Particle Detail - Low
Ambient Occlusion - Disabled
High Dynamic Range - Performance
FidelityFX Super Resolution - Disabled
Nvidia Reflex Low Latency - Enabled+Boost

My audio settings (CSGO like):

Left Right Isolation (Audio) - 50%
Perspective Correction (Audio) - Off

My preferred mouse settings:

Sens Mouse 800 CPI
Sens Ingame 1.25
Sens Zoom .75
If higher CPI then lower ingame, if lower CPI higher ingame

My crosshair settings (enable developer console ~ and just copy paste the entire code below):

*use at your own risk lmao*

cl_crosshairalpha "255";
cl_crosshaircolor "2";
cl_crosshaircolor_b "0";
cl_crosshaircolor_r "255";
cl_crosshaircolor_g "255";
cl_crosshairdot "1";
cl_crosshairgap "-5";
cl_crosshairsize "1";
cl_crosshairstyle "4";
cl_crosshairusealpha "1";
cl_crosshairthickness "1";
cl_fixedcrosshairgap "-5";
cl_crosshair_outlinethickness "0";
cl_crosshair_drawoutline "0";
r_show_build_info 0;
viewmodel_presetpos 0;
viewmodel_offset_x -2;
viewmodel_offset_y -2;
viewmodel_offset_z -2;

III. Basics

Welcome to boot camp, the bread and butter of the game. These are the valuable information you need to get you started in this brutal, toxic and stressful game of shooting another.

1. Proper crosshair placement aka aim at head level always as much as possible, so you should go practice with bots or deathmatch and don't feel down if you miss a lot, it takes time and practice to get better. I'm more of a chest level player myself a.k.a high chance of hitting a target bec head shots are high risk high reward kills, and I play 2 feet away from the screen, I'd rather not sacrifice my eyesight for ingame headshots. Yes I suck at headshots, my hs rate is around 30-40% - I'm not a 10k rating player albeit I play against 9-11k players all the time and this guide is for newbies not veterans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7rJj00lGKg

2. Learn to counter strafe. It goes along with the importance of correct crosshair placement (minimal crosshair movement, you aim with WASD) you do this by aiming at a wall before an angle pref head level, you then peek and counter-strafe then you just left click to shoot. No need to waste movement and time moving your crosshair, that is also how you prefire common spots. Here's a video about it by fl0m,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5yfs3qwl_A

3. Always be far from an angle you are guarding or clearing, so you can see the enemy first and have much better pov. If you are far, you can see his shadow, rifle poking out or his foot but if you are near, a large chunk of your screen is staring at a wall.

4. Communicate with your team mates well, cut unnecessary chatter and banter if possible, just say important details in short order like "2 enemies last seen banana, no bomb". Unless you can see through walls, you need information that's why communication is important. Also don't be a backseat driver, if you are dead and see or heard something that your remaining team mate missed then just call it out. Don't be toxic or a troll.

5. Master the recoil of atleast 2 rifles (the M4 and AK), 1 SMG and like 2 pistols. I recommend so few because you are a newbie. Besides you will only be playing with these few weapons most of your time anyways. But as much as possible, try to learn how to kill via head shots with tap firing or burst firing.

6. Study the map call outs, including how to use utilities and the common enemy camping spots. I'm not going to go in-depth on this because as everyone knows, valve keeps updating the maps.

7. Learn how to clear a corner a.k.a slicing a pie. Sounds yummy? it is. Here's a video guide about it. This is real life tactics working well in game. You can either do this fast by running for peeker's advantage but the trade off is your sound position (far enemy will hear you and know where you are) or you can do it slow by walking (to avoid giving location information) but giving the enemy the advantage of seeing your elbow/shadow/muzzle/etc. first

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kYtbzapxD0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEhYKl2sB8U

https://youtu.be/aV_A3S18q7I?t=737

8. Learn about peeker's advantage and abuse it whenever safe and possible. Here's a video about it, and it's currently broken due to how CS2 handles subtick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPZAZ45io4s

9. Learn how to defend properly - This is mostly during your time as CT but sometimes you also defend a site as T after you have planted the bomb. It is very important that you also learn what weapon and utility to bring to defend the site you are going to which mostly depends on the map you are playing. The video below will teach you how to hold an angle,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9ae_nz-054

10. Stop reloading often a.k.a jacking off the magazine, this is not call of duty. Only reload when needed, when you are safe (enemy not near) and always behind cover. There might be another enemy popping up after that first kill ready to kill you while you are jacking off the magazine with your pants down and unable to shoot.

IV. Advanced

Welcome to the next section section of this guide, advanced. First of all, this game involves honing your game sense to become a better player to either overpower, outgun or outwit your opponent which I will fundamentally explain into 5 key factors below,

1. Winning gun fights - The most basic and primitive aspect of the game, gun fights. This mostly involves your mastery of the basics and how much time and effort you have put into the game. The more gun fights you win, the higher probability of you winning the round and eventually the game. So don't dismiss the time and effort the game requires out of a player. If you have low hp and armor, give your rifle to someone who has better hp (chances of surviving). So keep practicing and playing to get better at gun fights!

2. Isolation/Threat tracking - This is where you learn how to fight 5 men as a solo. Use your environment to your advantage, be small feel small to be harder to hit - so don't expose your entire body haphazardly. Turn a 5v1 into a 1v1v1v1v1v1 fight, reverse slicing the pie and isolate your duels. You may be rushed by players on different sides but don't panic, absorb information and process them fast, find the highest potential danger (nearest/fastest coming at you) and kill them.

Here's a clip from a youtube video showing how S1mple, used reverse slicing a pie to isolate duels, turn a 5v1 into a 1v1v1v1v1.

https://youtu.be/JtPEPE3RsgI?t=13

3. Risk management - This is fight or flight incarnate. Do you risk peeking mid or long with an awp to initiate a gunfight and possibly kill 1, die and let your team mate trade 1? or do you hold the angle with the probability of missing the first shot and dying to a bizon? Can you survive a rush or should you spam utility and retreat to a safer angle? or do you smoke and either crouch hide in it to or flash push it? This involves choosing a set of actions that will lead to an outcome.

4. Time management - This game is designed to be played on average of 35 minutes per premiere match, with the aim of being the first to win 13 rounds and each round is played under 2 minutes. With that being said, that is not a lot of time to study the enemy strat and finding a suitable counter strat and the same can be said vice versa. How well you manage your time, dictates the amount of plays and possibilities afforded to you.



An example is, as a terrorist player do I have enough time to defensively hold for a long time to get a kill or do I need to be aggressive and peek? simply put time dictates actions. If you are playing terrorist with 10 sec left, an unplanted bomb on your inventory and 1 unseen remaining enemy you have the limited options of A) planting the bomb, B) finding and killing the enemy or C) saving your weapon and armor. But changing the circumstances with a minute of gameplay, you are able to afford more options to increase your chances of winning the game (more time to clear the site, can change site, plant and hide, etc).

5. Information management - You can't see through walls and I'm pretty sure you can't read minds that well either however playing this game requires you to pay attention to the details no matter how small.

This is basically fog of war, the more information you have, the more strategies you can use. This is where you keep track of your team's economy and that of your opponent's economy. So you can plan out, if you are holding or rushing depending on the weapons and utilities that your team or your opponents have.

Also pay close attention to your mini map, if possible try to change it into a full mini map, keep spatial awareness where enemies are last seen or heard via communicating. This is why you also need to keep your presence minimal by not being in the open or not running all the time. An example scenario is a CT holding arch in Inferno, listening to a 3-4 man T rush on banana and calling it out ahead of time.

6. Be a mindhunter - Everytime you play a round, start creating a profile for the enemy team. Where a player likes to hang around, what he likes to do, what his behavior is, if he has a good aim or bad aim, etc - basically you are player profiling him or the entire team just like the netflix series "mindhunter" then you formulate counter tactics to increase your chances of winning against him.

7. Be a Ghost - Relevant to the earlier tip, be random, don't leave a player profile, let the enemy keep guessing where you are, constantly change spots, keep using different weapons, etc. Make them work for every inch of the zone you want to control. Use deception and utilities to your advantage. Be unpredictable.

8. Stress Management - Don't let your fear control you. Don't panic, don't get anxious. Relax and breath, if your heart is beating too fast or if your adrenaline is overwhelming you, breath deep and breathe slow. Release the tension in your body, don't seize up. Remember your training and the advices/tips in this guide. So many times I've killed 3 or 4 out of 5 people rushing me with rifles while I'm using an awp, I stay calm so that I can think fast and act fast. Breathe.

9. The Art of War - basically apply Sun Tzu's tactics in the game (there are many, go read them). If you are weak, appear strong, If you are on eco, go rush somewhere they won't expect and mow them down. A third of the time this usually works. Or when you are strong, look weak, bait them into a kill box/trap. Many tips from earlier is taken from the Art of War.

V. Ending

Thank you for reading my guide, hopefully it helped you learn the game. I hope you have fun but don't forget that it's just a game, don't stress too much over it. Remember that you have a life!

Also it helps if you rate and share this with a lot of people! so I can be inspired to make new guides. I will also try my best to update and add more information overtime because I started and finished it while I am sleepy in the early morning hours.

Artworks - From Pixiv, Artstation, Pinterest (still trying to track down original authors). If you are an original author please contact me and I would love to credit and thank you for your work :)