New CS2 update adds Retakes and ability to trade up to knife and gloves

Valve has released a new CS2 update, re-adding the Retakes game mode that was previously seen only in CS:GO. However, perhaps more significantly, it has also improved trade-ups, adding the ability to trade up to a knife and gloves.

Retakes game mode finally arrives in CS2

Community Retake servers are a great way for players to get better at CS2, and now, they’re finally back in an official capacity, supporting Defusal Group Alpha and Defusal Group Delta maps. Whether the official game mode will usurp community servers remains to be seen, but it’s great to see them back.

The Retakes game mode was previously available in CS:GO, and it’s unclear why it wasn’t included in CS2’s launch over two years ago. Regardless, it’s back, and hopefully better than ever!

New CS2 update adds knife and glove trade-ups

You read that right. The new CS2 update has added “extended functionality of the ‘Trade Up Contract’ to allow exchanging 5 items of Covert quality.” Players can now trade up five StatTrak Covert items for one StatTrak knife, or five regular Covert items for one regular knife or gloves. Of course, standard rules around the received item being from the same collection apply.

This is by far the biggest change to the Trade Up system in Counter-Strike in a very long time, and it will be interesting to see its effect on the CS2 market cap.

You can find all the patch notes for the new CS2 update below.

New CS2 Update Patch Notes: October 23rd, 2025

[ GAMEPLAY ]

• Adding Retakes as official game mode supporting Defusal Group Alpha and Defusal Group Delta maps on official matchmaking servers.

• Fixed Molotov and Smoke interaction logic in cases when multiple smokes are active in the map.

[ MAPS ]

• Updated Golden to the latest version from Steam Community Workshop (Update Notes)

• Updated Palacio to the latest version from Steam Community Workshop (Update Notes)

• Updated Rooftop to the latest version from Steam Community Workshop (Update Notes)

Inferno

• Adjustments to top of Quad and under Balcony to improve visibility.

• Various optimizations.

[ CONTRACTS ]

• Extended functionality of the “Trade Up Contract” to allow exchanging 5 items of Covert quality as follows:

  • 5 StatTrak™ Covert items can be exchanged for one StatTrak™ Knife from a collection of one of the items provided

  • 5 regular Covert items can be exchanged for one regular Knife item or one regular Gloves item from a collection of one of the items provided

[ MISC ]

• Performance optimizations when the game is in the main menu and item inspect UI

• Fixed inventory item icons sometimes rendering in blurry state or not rendering

• Fixed several server-only sound events to not start multiple times

• Stability improvements