Lulu's guide to CS2 score calculation

I wrote this guide to explain in depth how score calculation works in Counter Strike 2 for casual/wingman modes, I hope it helps!

Useless intro where I talk about random stuff

Hello everyone, Lulu here! I started playing Counter-Strike 2 half a year ago around July 2024, and I've progressively become addicted to this game (lol). I'm still quite the noob, but I did my best to research everything I've written in this guide. I hope it helps other new players like me, and if even more experienced players learn something today, I would be delighted!

With the end of the year 2024 soon upon us, I was looking to save my XP at rank level 40, and reset my rank first thing when the new year starts in order to be almost 1 rank into the 2025 service medal early (by the way, I learned first-hand after I wrote this guide that XP is reset to 0 anyway, so I could only get the white service medal). But I asked myself: how do I know when to stop scoring, to not go overboard and reset my XP bar accidentally?

That's when I started looking up XP on the internet, and found this great guide by TW1X: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2978691198
As in Casual/Deathmatch/Arms race modes, XP is determined by your score during the game, multiplied by a number between 0.175 and 4 (depending on your weekly bonus), I then searched how scoring works in CS2.

Unfortunately, I noticed what internet said was very incomplete, and there were discrepancies between how wikis and various websites said it worked on the internet, and my own experience in-game.

Even the official guide is inaccurate! (below) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=274939157
Information was pretty scarce, and so I started to do my own tests, and when I was done with them, I thought: "I should share this to help people who are asking themselves the same question".

And so, there it is, my first guide on CS2! Also, please let me know if you think there are inaccuracies, and thank you in advance for reading my guide!!<3

Detailed explanation

How it works

The amount of score points that you gain during a game is determined by various variables that you can check and edit using the console. These variables all start with contributionscore_.
For example, if you want every kill to earn you 5 points instead of 2, open the console and type this:

contributionscore_kill 5

Here is a table that list my findings about the relevant variables, the default amount of points awarded, and the actions that trigger the gain:

Variable	Points awarded	Actions that trigger the gain
contributionscore_assist	1	An enemy to whom you dealt at least 40 damage gets killed by someone else.
contributionscore_bomb_defuse_major	3	Defuse the bomb while at least one enemy is still alive.
contributionscore_bomb_defuse_minor	1	Defuse the bomb while no enemies are left. At the end of the round, if your team won by defusing the bomb and you were still alive.
contributionscore_bomb_exploded	1	At the end of the round, if your team won by having the bomb explode and you were the planter (regardless of whether you survived until the explosion or not). At the end of the round, if your team won by having the bomb explode and you were still alive just before the explosion.
contributionscore_bomb_planted	2	Plant the bomb.
contributionscore_hostage_rescue_major	3	Be the first to extract a hostage.
contributionscore_hostage_rescue_minor	1	Pick up a hostage. Extract a hostage. At the end of the round, if your team won by extracting a hostage and you are still alive (but it wasn't you who extracted the winning hostage).
contributionscore_kill	2	Kill an enemy.
contributionscore_objective_kill	3	Kill one of the following: -a CT while being on the bomb site * after the bomb has been planted; -a CT while being within ~5 meters of the bomb after it has been planted (walls are ignored); -a CT who is on the bomb site * after the bomb has been planted; -an enemy who is within ~3 meters of a hostage (regardless of whether the hostage is carried or not, and it counts even if you kill someone who is not the carrier); -an enemy while being within ~3 meters of a hostage (regardless of whether the hostage is carried or not, and it counts even if you are not the carrier).
contributionscore_suicide	-2	Die by jumping off the map. Die by fall damage. Die by your own molotov/incendiary grenade.
contributionscore_team_kill	-2	Kill a teammate.

*Here, the bomb site refers to the limited zone where the bomb can be planted.

Consequences

There are some consequences to the above table regarding the points you can earn:

First, each bullet point listed counts as a separate trigger for the gain. This means for example that when you defuse the bomb while all enemies are dead, you trigger the gain handled by contributionscore_bomb_defuse_minor twice, so you effectively gain 2 points.

Next, aside from between contributionscore_kill and contributionscore_objective_kill, triggers are not mutually exclusive. This means for example that when you defuse a bomb while at least 1 enemy is still alive, you trigger both the gains from contributionscore_bomb_defuse_major and contributionscore_bomb_defuse_minor, so you effectively gain 4 points.

The special case of participation in Casual

In casual, the contributionscore_participation variable is set to 1 (0 in other modes), which means that at the end of each round, regardless of whether you survived or not, you gain 1 point for having done any amount of damage > 0 to at least 1 enemy during the round.

Other variables

There are other variables, but I've listed them below apart from the rest since they are either irrelevant to normal gameplay in CS2, or their effect is unclear to me.

Variable	Default value	Notes
contributionscore_assist_reqs	0 in Deathmatch/Arms race, 1 in other modes	In circumstances unknown to me, you won't gain the point you should gain by doing an assist.
contributionscore_cash_bundle	0	Probably previously used in CS:GO's Danger Zone mode.
contributionscore_crate_break	0	Probably previously used in CS:GO's Danger Zone mode.
contributionscore_hostage_kill	-2	For killing a hostage, but no longer possible in normal gameplay in CS2.
contributionscore_kill_factor	0	Described as "percentage of victim's contribution score to award to their killer as a bonus" but the effect is unclear to me.
contributionscore_kill_reqs	0 in Deathmatch/Arms race, 1 in other modes	In circumstances unknown to me, you won't gain the points you should gain by doing a kill.

If you have any info on these, please let me know!

Quick reference tables

The explanations and tables in the previous section may be tedious to read, so here are some quick reference tables for when you want to count score in-game.

Bomb-based maps

As a T

Action	Points
Normal kill	+2
Killing a CT who is near the planted bomb, or while being yourself near the planted bomb	+3
Assist	+1
Planting the bomb	+2
The bomb explodes and you were the one who planted it (even if you are dead)	+1
You were alive just before the bomb exploded	+1
Casual only: At the end of the round if you dealt at least 1 damage during the round	+1

As a CT

Action	Points
Kill	+2
Assist	+1
Defusing the bomb	+4 if there are still Ts alive, +2 otherwise
You are alive when your teammate wins the round by defusing the bomb	+1
Casual only: At the end of the round if you dealt at least 1 damage during the round	+1

Hostage maps

As a T

Action	Points
Normal kill	+2
Killing a CT who is near a hostage (carried or not), or while being yourself near a hostage	+3
Assist	+1
Casual only: At the end of the round if you dealt at least 1 damage during the round	+1

As a CT

Action	Points
Normal kill	+2
Killing a T who is near a hostage (carried or not), or while being yourself near a hostage	+3
Assist	+1
Pick up a hostage	+1
Extract a hostage	+4 if you are the first, +1 otherwise
You are alive when your teammate wins the round by extracting a hostage	+1
Casual only: At the end of the round if you dealt at least 1 damage during the round	+1

Penalties

Action	Points
Suicide	-2
Team kill	-2

[peace]

sooo basically sounds like casual T side is great for xp

[Lulu]

You're welcome!

[typeface]

Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

[Murasakibara.]

good job and thanks

[Lulu]

@Frosty Thank you!

[Frosty]

good work!