After eight months of waiting, Valve has finally released a major update that introduces new skins. The CS2 Armory Update features three weapon collections, stickers, and a brand new weapons case. It also introduces weapon charms, which will be explained in a moment.
For those who are interested in the competitive side of CS2, the update comes with significant gameplay improvements. Most of them are related to animation and map geometry.
The Armory
The Armory can be found in the Store menu. It is located right next to Tools. It contains a lot of new cosmetic items that can be purchased using Armory credits.
These credits are earned by playing the game but to accumulate them you will need to buy an Armory Pass, which costs around 15 Euro. Only Prime Status accounts can make the purchase.
You get 1 credit when buying the Armory Pass and a total of 40 credits by playing the game. Different items inside the Armory have different prices, all of which are expressed in credits.
Right now, inside the Armory you can find two sticker sections (called Elemental Craft and Character Craft), two charms sections (Missing Link and Small Arms), the Gallery Case, a limited edition item (Desert Eagle | Heat Treated), and three collections (Overpass 2024, Graphic Collection, and Sport & Field Collection).
By far, the most exciting section here is the Gallery Case, which features lots of cool-looking CS2 skins. The case contains two Covert skins. One for the M4A1-S, called Vaporware, and one for the Glock-18, called Gold Toof.
The new items, called charms, are practically keychains that can be attached to weapons. Some of them look cute, others look a bit scary.
Gameplay Changes
The Armory Update introduced gameplay changes that will likely change the dynamics of peeking and holding angles. Agent models now pose differently in various situations. This will force the shooting player to adapt.
Much of the CS2 community will probably not notice a major difference because the changes are subtle and are designed to affect high-level matches. But these changes are certainly welcome.
A number of important CS2 maps, like Ancient, Anubis, Dust II, Mirage, Nuke, and Overpass have been modified to fix various pixel peeks, geometry bugs, and missing collision issues. The changes are suble but will impact the professional scene.