The Armory Update in CS2: Detailed Overview

The third of October 2024 has now and forever become a special day for all of us, as it marks the release of The Armory CS2 update. Valve came up with more than a hundred new cosmetics, including all-new skins and stickers, and even introduced a new Pass with never-before-seen cosmetics: charms. And NO, the Armory isn’t a new Operation, although the update is still pretty massive.

Valve, as is sadly typical of them, decided to once again focus on skins instead of addressing more pressing issues, like a lackluster Anti-Cheat. Still, there are plenty of items and features that deserve a review, so let’s look at what’s new in The Armory CS2 update.

The Armory Pass

First things first: those who expected the first Operation for the game’s most recent version will still enjoy some of the content here, as The Armory update in CS2 includes plenty of opportunities to receive unique rewards. At the same time, no new modes or other crucial in-game changes were introduced, making The Armory essentially a massive battlepass.

The principle remains pretty similar to a Pass for Major or an Operation in CS:GO. You can pay $15 for the Pass, which will make you eligible to receive credits/coins, getting one for every victory within the maximum limit of 40. Those who are ready to farm new items can add several Passes to their account and receive experience (credits) for up to 5 of those simultaneously.

Credits can then be redeemed for the update’s new collectible items, with each having its own price depending on rarity. For instance, any sticker from the two new collections can be acquired for only a single credit, while a new Gallery Case costs two coins (but still requires a key to open it, so no improvement here). A Counter-Strike innovation, charms, costs three credits, while trying your luck with getting a weapon from new collections costs four coins.

All of the rewards, including more than 100 new items, will be discussed below in more detail. For now, let’s see what the update’s limited edition has to offer.

Limited Edition Item in The Armory Pass

If you wish, you can spend an absolutely crazy amount of credits (25) to get a unique weapon finish — Heat Treated | Desert Eagle. It looks like an improved variation of the well-known Case Hardened skin family. Being available only as part of the CS2 The Armory update, Valve offers unique cosmetics to everyone who has no issue with spending more than half of their Pass on a single skin. An extremely limited time window (until 14th January) may justify the purchase for you, but for now, it looks like a dangerous deal.

New Case & Three New Weapon Collections

With as many as 65 CS2 The Armory weapon skins, the update has some interesting-looking pieces. Three new collections include 16 new skins each, and the remaining 17 are available in the Gallery box.

New Gallery Case & 17 New Skins

Although ​​The Armory update in Counter-Strike 2 looks massive, the designs available in the Gallery Case bear a strong resemblance to those found in the Kilowatt Case. As usual, new weapon designs are bright and striking, with the Covert rifle M4A1-S | Vaporwave seemingly destined to become a headliner once the first prices are released.

The Gallery Case also continued popularizing the Kukri knives. We've got a bunch of interesting skins in this category, with Fade, Crimson Web, and Case Hardened being the most anticipated.

A Gallery Case will cost you only two Pass coins (but still require $2.5 to open!), making it one of the better ways to spend credits.

New Overpass Collection & 16 New Skins

The Overpass Collection contains lots of bright skins, with AK-47 | B the Monster and AWP | Crakow! looking especially promising.

The theme of The Armory update in Counter-Strike 2 seems to be monsters and weird creatures, and if you enjoy it, four credits are far from the worst price for getting a flashy new skin.

New Graphic Collection & 16 New Skins

The graphic weapon collection is inspired by the classic media and has 16 new skins. The weapon looked fresh and had already received a fair share of player attention, with AWP | CMYK and Desert Eagle | Starcade standing out from the rest.

New Sport and Field Collection & 16 New Skins

The Sport & Field Collection is probably the least interesting, compared to its peers from the Counter-Strike 2 The Armory update. The only design to have any hype surrounding it is the Fade | M4A1-S of the Coveted rarity. However, players who like reasonably-priced items will probably cheer for the Industrial Grade AK-47 | Olive Polycam, which would likely be both cheap and not as dark as most AKs in this price range.

Introducing Charms

If asked what’s new in the CS2 The Armory update, 95% of players will surely start talking about Charms. The idea is simple yet effective — funny and colorful charms (just like those you have for your keys) can now be attached to your favorite CS2 weapon. Just like the stickers, you can pin them almost anywhere on the gun, with the animations we’ve seen so far looking quite natural. Moreover, unlike stickers, you can unpin the charm and apply it to another weapon for an additional $1.

It seems that Valve is feeling pretty confident about how popular Charms will be, and so has revealed two collections at once: Missing Link and Small Arms. We expect Charms to receive lots of attention during the first few weeks after the release, as historical data shows that people are more than ready to spend three credits on an all-new visual item.

New Weapon Stickers & Scrape Preview

Although strikers aren’t as important as skins for most players out there (if the sticker in question is not from the e-sports Katowice Major 2014 Holo collection), Valve doesn’t stop experimenting with this item type. So, one of the CS2 The Armory features is the ability to preview sticker scrape level, which opens numerous cool options. Another related improvement is the ability to delete stickers from the items in one click without having to scrape them several times.

There are also two new sticker collections — Elemental and Character Crafts — that have some rare ones that change their look when viewed from different angles. Unsurprisingly, a sticker capsule is the cheapest option to spend your rewards on, with both capsules available for just one credit.

Maps: Italy Now Competitive, Pixel Peeks Fixed

The CS2 map updates of The Armory patch aren’t huge and game-changing, but they are still there. The biggest thing is bringing Italy to the Competitive map pool, so now you can earn your rank on this map, too. Funnily enough, Valve chose to add some intractable birds to the map.

The other maps also received slight fixes for things like pixel peeks, disappearing geometry, C4 stuck spots on bombsites, collisions, clipping, shadows, etc. There are several maps that received this kind of treatment:

1. Ancient;
2. Anubis;
3. Nuke;
4. Dust 2;
5. Mirage;
6. Overpass.

Inventory Preview & Item Trade Limitations

Despite the excitement and hype around the 100+ new items of the CS2 The Armory patch, Valve has seen fit to implement some trading restrictions. Thus, all newly acquired items will stay frozen for seven days before becoming tradable, which honestly looks like a rather cheap attempt at selling the Armory Pass. Those ready to pay $15 have already started farming credits in official matches and exchanging them for new skins, stickers, and charms, with an expected market blow-up on October 10 when new cosmetics become available for sale.

Additionally, Valve added the opportunity to preview how stickers and charms will look on your weapons. This feature works with all available items normally available for preview, including Armory Pass, your friends’ inventories, or any open collections.

Some slight changes were also made to the nametags — its module now has a clear preview option, while bugs with loadout weapons that have nametags were also fixed.

Animation & Movement

Some of you will surely be pleased with the changes made to the movement. In The Armory update, the animation of the strafes was changed, and it now looks more realistic. The same is true for the forward movement (run, walk, crouch) as Valve remade the infamous unnaturally wide legs animation.

Diving deeper into The Armory detailed breakdown, you can also discover that Valve changed how legs are pinned to the surface, impacting the body positioning on the large slopes and the ladder. The latter is also quite crucial, as the real view and head positioning were adjusted to be more realistic.

Audio and Gameplay Fixes

Here you’ll find the most impactful changes the update has to offer, as some audio fixes are honestly pretty huge. For instance, the sound of water splashes (especially on Ancient) was balanced so it could not be heard at long distances. Also, the issue with step sound synchronization between players was eliminated. Persistent problems that plagued voice chats on community servers have also reportedly been resolved.

Another tiny thing to mention in The Armory update overview is related to grenades. As you probably know, sometimes HE grenades and flashbangs could explode prematurely, which now hopefully won’t happen again.

Networking, Graphics, Workshop

We’re not sure you are too interested in reading through all the CS2 The Armory patch notes, so here’s a quick summary. Valve has remade the server processing of misdelivery and jitter via a network and how they are counted, and added a telemetry option to track those parameters.

In the Video settings, you now have the option to choose a non-window fullscreen from the display selection dropdown. An Advanced Video tab now shouldn’t have broken animation of the fire and related effects.

Community developers who love creating maps for the Workshop received the following new tools:

1. Environment Blend Shader now has a third layer for mixing;
2. A biplanar mapping option for Environment Shaders;
3. Expanded painting and color correction for environmental elements.

Summary

Despite the Counter-Strike 2 community being somewhat disappointed by the absence of meaningful Anti-Cheat changes or new Operations, The Armory patch highlights reveal that the update is still pretty massive. Of course, cosmetics take the lion’s share of content, especially the new charms and more than 100 new skins and stickers. Still, lots of players would be pleased with the adjustment of leg animations and audio fixes, which make the game more realistic and mitigate some obnoxious play patterns.