The Ultimate CS2 Economy Guide

This post has been updated on April 26th, 2024 to reflect changes that Valve has made to the economy. The Zeus now offers a kill reward, the CZ75’s kill reward has been raised, and the XM1014 kill reward has been reduced.

Knowing how the CS2 economy works is a skill that can make or break matches. While there are many factors that affect the outcome of a match between two teams, the economy and how it’s handled is one of the most important ones. How you manage your economy determines whether you are going to win or lose the game.

Given its importance, it’s crucial to learn how to manage your economy properly in CS2, so in this guide we’ll show you everything you need to know about CS2’s economy.

How Does the CS2 Economy Work

For those unfamiliar, ‘economy’ in CS2 refers to anything that has to do with money in an actual CS2 match. It has nothing to do with the skins market or anything like that.

In CS2, money is used every round to buy weapons and utility in the game. At the end of every round, players receive money that they can then spend at the start of the next round.

There are a set of rules that define how much money you earn per round. Understanding them is very important if you want to be better at managing CS2’s economy. To simplify, the amount of money you earn depends on these three factors:

• Kills
• Round Outcome (Win or Lose)
• Plant and Defuse

Earning money – Kills

Frags in CS2 reward you with money. However, the amount you get depends on the weapon used to kill. For example, a rifle kill with get you $300, while an AWP kill gives $100. Below is a list that explains the amount of money you get for making kills with a certain weapon:

• Zeus x27 – $100
• AWP – $100
• Pistols – $300
• P90 – $300
• Assault Rifles & Machine Guns – $300
• Grenades – $300
• Submachine Guns (except P90) – $600
• Shotguns (except XM1014) – $900
• XM1014 – $600
• Knife – $1500

Just from observing this list, it’s quite obvious that the more expensive the weapon, the less money you get for kills. The reason for this is that cheaper weapons like SMGs, pistols, and shotguns are considered to be more difficult to make kills with.

By giving more money for kills with weapons that are typically used in dire economic situations versus weapons that are bought by teams with tons of money, the game attempts to prevent snowball situations, where the winning team can just keep buying the best weapons while they keep building up their stacks of money.

Earning Money – Round End

The second factor that affects the economy is the round outcome. Winning a round gives you money, but losing also grants rewards.

• Winning a round gets your team $3250.
• Losing a round gets you $1400 for the first loss. For every consecutive round you lose after that, the number you receive goes up by $500. This is known as the loss streak bonus. This loss streak bonus caps out at $3400.
• On the T-side, winning with a successful explosion gets you $3500.
• On the other hand, a successful defuse from the CT side also gets them $3500.

Of course this is ‘team money’. Your personal kill money is also stacked on top of this.

Bomb Plants

Planting the bomb gives $300 to the person who planted the bomb, and if you lose the round after that your entire team gets an extra $800. As such, going for a plant on rounds where your team has bought low tier weaponry can be incredibly rewarding to your economy.

Finally, if you die as a terrorist after the official round timer ends and the bomb has not been planted, you get $0 in the next round. As such, it can often be more beneficial to die before the round timer ends as a terrorist. If you’re playing CT side and you know that an enemy terrorist is trying to save their weapons, it’s often a good idea to push for a kill after the round timer ends if it’s at all possible.

Common CS2 Economy Strategies

In CS, there are a number of set terms regarding the economy that everyone who plays the game competitively should know. They mostly speak for themselves, but we’ll explain the concept behind each of these terms below.

Important is to know that, for a full buy (with utility and everything) you need around $5000 as T and $6000 as CT. You don’t need to buy a full utility set every single time, but it’s good to know what the target is. Since April of 2024, players can see the minimum amount of money that they’re guaranteed to have in the next round, which makes managing economy easier.

Note: in CS2, ‘utility’ means ‘grenades’.

Full Eco / Save Round

Full eco (often just called ‘eco’) means ‘don’t buy anything’. This is for those times when your team is extremely poor and has to save money for the next round. In a full eco, you play with the default pistol or an upgrade to a cheap pistol such as a P250 if you can afford it. Full eco rounds are very hard to win. The main purpose of these rounds is to sacrifice one round for the possibility of a full buy next round. If you’re playing as T, focusing on the plant for extra money is always a good idea.

Half-Buy / Semi-buy

As the name suggests, this is the middle ground between an eco and a full buy. It’s for times when you have money, but it’s not enough for a rifle and full armor. In half-buy rounds, the go-to options are some grenades plus cheaper weapons such as SMGs, shotguns, or perhaps a Famas/Galil.

Half-buys are called for when the team has more than enough money to buy better weapons than just a couple of pistols, but not enough for a complete/full buy. When going for a half-buy, it’s important to know that you’re not supposed to spend all of your money. Make sure that you have enough left to buy fully in the next round.

Full Buy

This is what all the saving rounds are for. A full buy means stacking up on everything: a rifle, utility, and full armor. On the CT side, this will also usually include a defuse kit.

Force Buy

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Forcing means to fully buy without considering your economic situation. It’s used when you have to win the next round no matter what. It’s a high-risk high-reward strategy and must be used with caution. 

Hero Buy

This is a less common buying strategy, but a ‘hero buy’ is when one player in the team buys superior weapons while the rest is saving. An example of a hero buy is when one player who has been getting lots of kills (and thus earning more money) buys an AWP to solo hold a site while the rest saves. In this scenario, the AWP buying player would be the ‘hero AWP’.

It’s very important to know that a hero buy is a rare strategy for a reason. It’s very risky, and getting it wrong can mess up your team’s economy for many rounds. Never go for a hero buy without talking to your team about it first.

Anti-Eco / Bonus / Farming

This is often called when the opposing team is expected to eco (after losing the pistol round, for example). An anti-eco buy means you buy weapons that give a high kill reward such as SMGs and shotguns so you can farm extra money by killing the opposing players who are using pistols.

Calling an anti-eco round can be risky; if you buy a bunch of SMGs and the opposing team decides to force buy, you’ve lost your weapons advantage and the round is anyone’s to win. These intricacies and ‘chess-like’ mindgames are part of what makes CS2 such an exciting game to play competitively.

CS2 Economy Tips

It’s about the team

By far the most important factor when it comes to CS2 economy is team coordination. Always communicate with your team when and what you are buying. Your team and you should have the same economy.

If you are buying an AK-47 when the rest of your team can’t even afford an SMG then you are severely damaging your team’s economy.

Unless you’re smurfing or cheating (shame on you) your odds of winning versus a fully bought team on your own are incredibly small, even if you have a rifle. By being the only one to buy a rifle and then losing the round, you might not be able to buy fully in the next round while your teammates can buy up completely. This can lead to a snowball effect, where your team almost never has a full, proper buy.

Look at what your team can afford, and then buy accordingly, even if you have extra money. Keeping your economy aligned with the rest of your team will massively increase your chances of winning the round. Don’t be afraid to sell your already bought weapons if you’ve made a mistake. The option is there in CS2, so use it when necessary.

Spend wisely

You can improve your team’s economy as an individual as well by making small smart decisions.

An AK kills in one headshot, helmet or not, so if you’re in economic trouble as a CT you can consider whether or not you need a helmet when buying.

Similarly, instead of buying a defuse kit, ask your teammate if he already has one. If you’re both playing on the same site, you can just pick up their defuse kit if/when they die.

Another example of smart spending: imagine you’ve agreed to rush a certain spot as CT on a half-buy round in order to catch the Ts off guard. Since you’ll be running headfirst into the enemy, you probably won’t be needing a full nade set. A flash and an HE maybe, but you can probably leave the smoke and the molotov in the shop.

Dropping

If you have extra money, always drop your teammates and help them save money. If you don’t have enough money for a certain buy and you see a teammate who does, always call for a drop. In the end, your team’s money is your money and vice versa.

Stop Forcing All The Time

This is something that you mostly see in the lower ranks, but there are players out there who are buying every single round. This could be out of frustration, or maybe simply due to a lack of knowledge. By buying up every round and never giving your economy the chance to stabilize, you are doing your team a huge disservice though.

If you want to get to a full buy round, you simply have to make some economic sacrifices. One eco round into a full buy round with full rifles and utility is often a lot more productive than buying SMGs and a nade or two every single round. Utility and weaponry is extremely important in CS2, so maximizing the amount of full buy rounds is the name of the game.

CS2 Economy Guide – Conclusion

The CS2 economy sounds very complicated, but for the vast majority of players it’s good enough to know the basics.

You don’t need to be counting to the dollar all the time and keeping meticulous track of how much money every player on the server has. Having a general idea of how the economic situation of the enemy is and following your own team’s economic decisions is more than enough as a regular player. Just focus on not being that one person who ruined the economy by making selfish decisions and everything will be okay.

If you’re getting into premade teams and participating in tournaments, the whole ‘chess match’ aspect of the CS2 economy comes into play, but by then you’ll have a far more complete grasp on this aspect of the game anyway.

Burair

Content Writer

Burair is a freelance writer for ProSettings.net