CS2 Patches After Rush: Faster AUG, Crosshairs, Silent Reload

In the two weeks after the big September 22 update, Valve shipped seven patches for Counter-Strike 2. None of them is large, but together they speed up the AUG, close the silent reload loopholes and noticeably expand the crosshair settings. Here is what affects every match and what you can skip.

The AUG reloads half a second faster

The only weapon balance change in the whole run landed on October 8: AUG reload time was cut by half a second. Valve gives only the difference in the notes, not the base time. For a rifle people often buy for its scope, half a second on the reload is a chance to get back into a fight before the other player closes the distance.

The same patch added a ping icon for dropped defuse kits, so you can now mark one for your team.

Silent reload: the loopholes are closed

Silent reload, where you press and hold the reload key, arrived on September 22, and within two weeks players found several holes in it. On September 24 Valve closed two: tapping the key before holding it gave a slightly faster silent reload, and on shotguns it let you fire faster than normal.

On September 25 Valve fixed cases where the loud reload sound kept playing while you tried to reload quietly. On October 8 the silent reload sound on the Desert Eagle was fixed. How the mechanic itself works is covered in our article on the Rush update.

Crosshairs: outline colour, a new style and the grenade crosshair in freeze time

The biggest part of the run is crosshair settings, and all of it shipped on September 30:

• you can now pick the outline colour of the crosshair;
• a new style, Static Quadrant, was added;
• the grenade crosshair now shows during freeze time if you hold the throw button, which is aimed at instant smokes in the first seconds of a round;
• the classic dynamic style now allows a negative gap, and its transparency changes in steps of 0.01;
• the display of weapon inaccuracy and spread was fixed;
• scope dot scale and colour are now part of the crosshair code, and the code format changed to fit the new settings.

On October 2 Valve fixed the grenade crosshair at a crosshair thickness of 3 pixels and updated the Workshop command whitelist for the new settings. Ready-made pro codes sit in our crosshair showcase, and you can build your own from sliders in the generator.

Rush maps and small fixes

The rest are pinpoint fixes you will barely notice in a match:

• Rush maps were fixed in three patches in a row: pixel gaps, clipping in the castle rooms on both sides, and general geometry;
• the rules on the loading screen are described more clearly, and the conditions for kicking players over team damage were adjusted;
• agents now wear their equipped gloves in the photo booth and in the buy menu, and lighting on Warehouse was improved;
• the play menu got buttons for managing downloaded Workshop maps;
• community servers got a sv_clantags_enabled option to turn clan tags off;
• the eggs of background players in main menu lobbies now rest in nests;
• a buzzing background sound during demo playback is gone.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often do CS2 patches come out?

By our count from Valve's official feed, 59 updates shipped over the last year, with a median gap of about six days between them. The rhythm is ragged, though: some months bring ten builds and some bring one. Every patch is collected in our CS2 updates feed.

Where can I read the official patch notes?

Valve posts them in the Counter-Strike 2 news section on Steam, usually in the evening UTC on the day a build ships. The notes are short and rarely give before and after numbers, which is why we break down what actually changes in the game.

Sources

Every change comes from Valve's official notes: September 24, September 25, September 28, September 30, October 2, October 5 and October 8. How to pick your mouse, sensitivity and crosshair from scratch is covered in our CS2 settings guide.