The fourth iteration of Valve's team-based modern-military first-person shooter, rebuilt and constantly expanded for competitive play with new maps, new weapons, and new gameplay mechanics. It was later made free-to-play and most versions were later replaced with the sequel.
I, being a scrub, at first felt wayy out of my depth when playing CS for the first time ever, so hopefully everyone will help each other in this thread!
So some things I have picked up, basic stuff
- Always be flanking, Most of the time I get owned if I go in straight up.
- Take the time to learn the maps (useful for flanking)
- Aim for the head! (unlike most shooters now, headshots do way more damage)
- Listen - sound is the most important thing in this game and will give you wall hack-like abilities to detect approaching enemies
- Walk - following on from the first point, walking is silent (as is crouching). Unless you are rushing at the start of a map or flanking someone, always be walking by holding shift
- Don't crouch if you are camping, as enemies will often have their guns aimed in the centre of the screen when they move around, which is usually about your crouched head height.
- Use smoke grenades, flashbangs, or the new decoy grenades to misdirect enemies - on dust, for example, when heading to A you can throw smoke and/or a decoy right and then rush left.
- if defending on a hostage map, use the hostages as human shields; either they won't shoot at you, or there's a chance they'll kill the hostages and lose money for the following round
- Always buy a defuse kit
- Always kill the enemy team before defusing UNLESS you have backup and a sheltered place to defuse (certain exceptions to this rule)
- don't walk around scoped in with sniper rifles; learn to quick scope or stick with assault rifles.
- don't spray and pray, even point blank; exceptions are some of the SMGs, which can be fairly accurate spraying weapons.
- Desert Eagle isnt the only pistol in the game; the starter pistols on both teams are legitimately good weapons.
- don't be afraid to jump around corners occasionally; you'll be inaccurate, but the surprise can be worth it; it works even better if you're using a shotgun
- Flashbangs are the most useful grenades in the game, but be careful with them. In saying that, don't be afraid to flash yourself if it will allow you to escape, give your team an advantage, or allow you to flank.
- dropping a HE grenade after a clash where youve both taken hits will often be enough to kill your opponent.
- play competitive 5 v 5 first - it'll make you better at the game, faster, and give you a much better idea of the meta strategy involved. Plus it's fun.
Manage your money. If you have a good amount then try out a pricier weapon but other than that, the cheaper weapons are still very effective so long as you shoot in bursts and pay attention to your surroundings. Even a good pistol is all you need from time to time if you are really good at anticipating your enemies.
P250 and He grenade and Flashbang are a great way to start the first round on a new map - grenades give you versatility over deagle wielders and an escape option - and the p250 IMHO is the best bang for buck pistol in the game.
Back when I was obsessed with CS, I always kept my crosshair at head height when moving around or turning corners. Get used to aiming for headshots exclusively, don't ever get out of the habit.
There are basically only two ways you want to be shooting in CS, either one/two round bursts or straight up dumping the whole mag. If you're shooting more than 4 or so rounds in a controlled burst you're getting diminishing returns and you should just straight up dump that shit. The exception to that would be the AK, which was a 5 body shot kill even through kevlar, so with that a 5 shot burst is acceptable.
Keep in mind that I played CS 1.6 and CS:S extensively, but I don't really care about CS:GO so I dunno if they rebalanced the guns.
I think @Tim_the_Corsair: really covered the most important stuff.
One tip I have is that if you want to learn the levels at your own pace you can select offline bots and after selecting the map you want to learn you can select no bots. Now you can wander alone as much as you want. Also if you want to improve your aim you might want to play 1 vs 5 against the bots (competitive classic). To do this enable console from the settings menu go into the map you want to play as instructed above and then type into the console (tilde) these commands:
mp_autoteambalance 0 - this disables team balancing so you can be alone.
mp_limitteams 0 - this lets you add all five bots to the opposing team.
bot_add_ct / bot_add_t - this command adds a single bot to the specified team.
These bots will be easy difficulty and they basically stare at you for 2 seconds before shooting. This doesn't really help you be better at the game itself but you can practice keeping your crosshair at head level, flick shots, fast scopes and also try different weapons in general. If you want to make it even easier you can use these command as well:
sv_cheats 1 - this is required for the other commands to work
bot_dont_shoot 1 - this makesit so the bots don't shoot you so you can practice your aim in peace.
Few other fun options:
bot_snipers_only - for some good sniper battles.
bot_knives_only - this makes all the bots just rush you with knives (bring a shotgun = fun).
bot_pistols_only - this is good if you want to practice your pistol round skills.
In competitive classic mode you can only have a 1 vs 5 but if you want to go crazy you can add dozens of bots in the casual classic mode. This might hinder your performance thought. These can be useful learning tools and also a lot of fun.
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Another thing that can be useful are buy binds. This makes you much faster at the start and you can focus on different things. It's also just convenient. Here is a great how-to article. I will also just post my binds if you are too lazy to do it yourself (you can find a lot of ready made ones from the internet).
1. Navigate to C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg
bind "MOUSE4" "slot2" - thumb button selects pistol
bind "MOUSE5" "slot3" - second thumb buttons selects knife.
The last two are dependent of the mouse you use. You can check which button is which number by going into the settings keybind menu and binding it there first. The customization options are pretty infinite here, so experiment! If something would go really wrong you can always just delete the config.cfg and steam will make you a clean one.
I think it's awesome how this is introducing a whole new group of people to CS. Not to say I'm some sort of uber-pro, I hadn't played for six years before buying the 360 version, and I'm getting smoked regularly on that.
Maybe if you enjoy a mouthful of bullets. Unless you're getting flanked from behind (which means the rest of your team is dead and you're fucked anyway), just keep you main gun out and keep your pinky glued to the L-Shift and/or L-Control to keep the reticle small. '
Also, get a feel for the grenades/flashbangs. Flashbangs are probably the most useful tool in your arsenal - I speak as the offended party.
C'mon guys, lets be honest. If you haven't been playing this game for the last decade, you either need to dedicate years of playing +6-8 hours a day to get decent or you will always be on the lower end of the score list. CS isn't a complicated shooter. It's probably one of the most basic FPS series one can play today. It's just that the CS audience has been honing their skills since 1.6 to the point where new players/players who have stopped playing ten years ago shouldn't except to be much more that fodder unless they really put their nose to the grinder and dedicate some serious playtime for 5 or so years.
@Andorski: Actually, the new modes and the matchmaking in CS:GO help alleviate that a little bit. I hadn't played CS in around 10 years and I'm already improving to the point of being able to finish around the middle of the table much of the time. If you're just looking to have a good time and not crazy competitive about the game, play Demolition mode or Classic Casual with the matchmaking and you'll be able to hold your own soon enough.
@Andorski: Actually, the new modes and the matchmaking in CS:GO help alleviate that a little bit. I hadn't played CS in around 10 years and I'm already improving to the point of being able to finish around the middle of the table much of the time. If you're just looking to have a good time and not crazy competitive about the game, play Demolition mode or Classic Casual with the matchmaking and you'll be able to hold your own soon enough.
Matchmaking is terrible because: bots.
And so I only play on community servers and get destroyed
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