How to Read the Economy in CS2: Complete Guide

CS2 is one of the few shooter games where you need more than just shooting heads to be good at the game. It has a deeply ingrained concept of cash, which governs how players buy utility and weapons. Players earn in-game cash by completing objectives and can spend it on items that best suit their needs.

Players need a solid understanding of the economy in CS2 in order to gain a competitive edge. Beginners often struggle to understand the economy, especially when it comes to predicting what the opponents will be equipped with. In this guide, we will break down how to read the economy and how to make smarter decisions based on your team’s and the enemy’s money.

Understanding the basics of the CS2 economy

In CS2, players first need to understand how money flows through the game. When a match begins, each player is given $800 in starting cash. This money is used in the first round, the pistol round, to buy initial equipment. Usually, most players opt for light armour, which costs $650, primarily to avoid aim punch. Some players may also invest in utility, depending on team requirements.

The Kill Reward

From there, the outcome of each round dictates how much money is awarded. Winning a round grants a higher reward than losing one. You also get cash rewards for completing certain objectives like planting a bomb, getting a kill, or defusing a bomb. The kill reward depends on the type of weapon used to get the kill, and ranges from $100 to $1500. Here is a table to better understand the CS2 kill reward for each weapon class. It is worth noting that these kill rewards are for competitive mode, and you get worse kill rewards in Casual mode.

CS2 Kill Rewards

• Knife – $1500
• Pistol – $300 (Except CZ-75, which rewards $100 per kill)
• SMG – $600 (Except P90, which rewards $300)
• Shotgun – $900 (Except XM1014, which rewards $600)
• Rifles and Machine Gun – $300 (Except AWP, which rewards $100)
• Grenade – $300
• Zeus x27 – $100

Round win reward

If the bomb gets planted, each player on the winning team gets $3500. The player who plants the bomb and the player who defuses the bomb get a $300 bonus. If the Ts plant the bomb and still lose the round, each Terrorist gets a bonus of $800. If the bomb is not planted, each player on the team that won by elimination receives $3250.

What is the loss bonus in CS2?

If you want to understand the reward system for losing a round, you need to first understand the concept of loss bonus in CS2. If a team continues to lose rounds and repeatedly receives smaller payouts, it can push them into a difficult economic position. This makes CS2 a highly momentum-driven game and elevates the importance of pistol rounds more than it might initially seem.

To counteract this snowball effect, CS2 has implemented the concept of a loss bonus.

Loss bonus is a cash reward system that starts at $1400 for one loss and increases by $500 for every consecutive loss, while decreasing by $500 after a win. It can rise to a maximum of $3400.

To read the loss bonus you will receive in the next round, you can simply press Tab and look for the loss bonus indicator on the right-hand side of the scoreboard. It appears as a meter ranging from 0 to 4.

A value of 0 means your loss bonus is at its base, meaning you will receive $1400 after a loss. If the meter shows one, you multiply it by $500 and add it to $1400. If the meter is at its maximum value of 4, you add 500×4 to 1400, resulting in $3400. The meter starts at a default value of 1 when the game begins.

Types of buys in CS2

In CS2, there is no rigid rulebook dictating when you should buy. Even simple advice like buying as a team can sometimes be undermined by a won round carried by a hero AK-47. That said, if you are a beginner trying to understand the basic signals behind buying decisions, there are certain guidelines and buy types that can help. Let us take a look at them.

1. Full Buy

A full buy is when you have around $5000 or more, allowing you to justify purchasing rifles along with a respectable amount of utility.

On the T-side, an AK-47 costs $2700, while a full utility belt usually costs around $1000–$1200. This means you can reasonably afford a strong buy at roughly $4700 or more, with additional money reserved for armour with helmet.

On the CT-side, an M4A4 or M4A1-S costs $2900, while a full utility belt can range from $1000–$1400. When you factor in the cost of a defuse kit ($400) and armour with helmet ($1000), the total reaches a minimum of $5300.

An important detail here is that you can slightly reduce the cost by skipping a helmet if you know the enemy is equipped with AK-47s and AWPs, as the helmet provides no additional protection in those scenarios. However, if the enemy is on an eco, buying helmets becomes essential.

2. Half Buy

A half buy is when you cannot afford rifles, armour, and utility all at once, so you spend conservatively and preserve enough cash to enable a full buy in the following round. The goal of a half buy is to deal as much damage as possible without compromising the next round’s economy.

3. Force Buys

You force into a buy with whatever you can reasonably afford in one of three situations. Either it is the last round of the half and you are not left with a lot of money anyway. In that case, there is little incentive to save, so you take your chances and fight for the round.

The second case is when you know the opponent’s buy is not going to be great either, so you decide to meet them halfway and contest the round instead of conceding it.

The third case is when you don’t have enough loss bonus built up, and saving would still force you into another eco afterward. In that situation, you force a buy to maximise your chances of stealing a round and disrupting the opponent’s momentum, rather than passively bleeding rounds.

4. Eco

An eco is usually when you don’t have enough money to buy anything meaningful. The key question then becomes, how do you determine that you don’t have enough?

You do that by calculating how much money you will have in the next round. If buying now would leave you short of a proper buy later, you commit to a full save and don’t spend anything.

How to predict the opponent’s buy in CS2

Theoretically, reading the opponent’s buy requires paying close attention to several key factors we’ve already discussed. You need to look at what the enemy bought in the previous round, what they saved, how much money they gained from the round, how many players survived, how many kills they got, and with which weapons.

You can easily check surviving players and loss bonuses from the scoreboard itself. CTs also need to pay close attention to whether the Ts were able to plant the bomb, as that single objective can swing the next buy by a noticeable margin.

It is simply not possible to have the luxury of sitting with a calculator mid-game. But as you play more, you will naturally develop a feel for predicting enemy buys. Still, there are a few guiding principles that can help beginners.

For example, if the Terrorists get the bomb plant in the first round, you can reasonably expect them to force buy in the second. If they choose not to, then you should be prepared to face an AWP in the third round. If you sense the opponent hasn’t built up a strong bank, losing one or two rounds can push them into an eco. In those situations, any further loss may force them to save again. On the other hand, if the opponent wins an eco round and is also able to save weapons, they will often have enough money to buy for at least two rounds. When you combine these observations with the above-discussed parameters, reading the opponent’s economy becomes less guesswork.