To achieve your team’s objectives in Counter Strike: Global Offensive, you’re going to need a combination of skill and knowledge. You can simply practice, but without a good understanding of the game’s mechanics, you may find yourself neglecting essential skills and strategies, or even reinforcing ineffective playstyles.
To get your CS: GO experience off on the right foot, keep reading for some of our top tips and tricks.
1. Reload Wisely
Keep an eye on your ammo. While you never want to roll up on a firefight with a single bullet left in your mag, you also need to be wary of needlessly reloading. Reloading can take a long time for some weapons, so be sure you reload when it’s safe to do so, and only if the bullets left in your mag won’t be enough to carry you through a fight
2. Weapon Switching
Sometimes you’ll be in a bad spot with no time to reload. Here you’ll want to quickly switch to your primary weapon, secondary weapon, or even your knife.
While you’ll be able to access your mouse wheel quickest, switching weapons this way is unreliable, especially in the heat of the moment. To reliably switch to the right weapon for any situation, it’s worth it to practice switching weapons with the 1–4 key buttons.
3. Learn Different Weapons’ Spray Patterns
Learning different weapons’ spray patterns and how to move your mouse to counteract them is one of the most important skills to develop.
You can also improve your aim by firing in shorter sprays; by keeping your sprays short, you can keep your shots on target just by pulling down. Short sprays are useful if you’re unfamiliar with the later portions of a weapons spray pattern.
If you haven’t downed your target after 10 shots, it’s usually better to stop shooting and take cover while you wait for your shots to recenter.
Here is a great article on learning spray patterns of different weapons in-game.
4. Don’t Neglect Psychological Warfare
Weapon skins, while purely cosmetic, can greatly improve your own enjoyment and reputation while pushing you to improve your skills so that when your opponents see the deadly flash of your custom skin, they know right to be afraid.
Beyond that, avid players may simply want to personalize their experiences, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Here CS:GO cases can be of help.
5. Bullet Penetration
In CS:GO shots from certain weapons are able to penetrate weak areas in walls, doors, and wooden boxes. By understanding how well your weapon’s shots penetrate and where to shoot, you can hit targets from out of sight.
Here is an in-depth article discussing the topic if you’d like to know more.
6. Silent Movement
If you’re running all over the place, you’re going to be making a lot of noise, and you’re going to have a hard time listening for any enemy movement. By pressing Shift, you can move slowly and silently, protecting yourself from enemy ambushes, while giving yourself the opportunity to ambush them.
It’s worth noting that if the enemy already knows where you are, and there’s only one way forward, it is pointless to move slowly.
7. Stick and Move
The last thing you want to do is make yourself an easy target; when out in the open, you can make it harder for opponents to headshot you by weaving from side-to-side. Jumping while running will help when you need to cover a large distance of open ground.
When firing back, you’re going to want to stop moving completely, fire off a short burst, before quickly moving again.
8. Peeking From Cover
Taking cover is extremely important; the guy out in the open spraying all over the place will be the first to go down. But, after you’ve gotten into cover, another skill comes into play: peeking.
It is essential that you never peek by moving forward, instead of this peek by moving side to side. This speed up your abilities both to see enemies and to move back into cover. Likewise, never peek while crouched, and always wait until after you’ve finished reloading before you peek.
9. Positioning
Remember to switch up where you position yourself each round to confuse your opponents and keep them guessing, even if you’re only making slight changes. Use buildings and terrain to reduce your opponents’ line of sight while improving yours.
10. Learn Map Layouts
Taking the time to learn the different game maps and the different areas in them will help you outmanoeuvre your opponents and communicate better with your team.
There are too many maps to make mastering all of them a viable strategy, so here are a few that every new player should take some time to learn:
- Dust II
- Mirage
- Inferno
- Train
- Cache
- Overpass
- Cobblestone
- Nuke
11. Practice Before Playing in Public Matches
The practice is an essential activity for expertise in anything. In a community-driven game like CS: GO, your teammates expect you to be at peak performance when playing competitively and even casually.
You’ll have a much better experience if you take the time to practice beforehand in offline bot matches. Here you should feel free to experiment with different weapons, explore and learn the games’ maps, and hone your aim.
12. Communicate With Your Team
Winning a match in CS:GO is about more than having the most kills on your team, it’s about communicating with others. A team that cooperates will always have an advantage over one that does not.
Communicate with your team as much as you can; it helps to have a good microphone and headset. Notify your team of enemy positions, and coordinate your role and weapon selection with them.
Use our tips to achieve your gaming goals! Good luck winning!
