CS:GO skins and all other Steam Market items are subject to a $400 maximum listing price. Items are often sold for greater sums through key trades, a sub-currency of the CS:GO economy. A single CS:GO key costs $2.50 USD and can be sold on the Steam Marketplace. To break through the $400 ceiling, you convert your listing price to a key value. If you want to sell an item for $500, divide your listing price by the key value, 500 by 2.5: 200 keys. Most people use third-party trading websites to list CS:GO s rarest wares, but once a trade is made, those keys can be sold back into the Steam Marketplace.

There are some skins in our list that definitely break that cap, but due to both the extraordinary rarity of these items and their inconsistent prices in the key market, we ve pulled our best estimates from varying trading sites. These are subject to change on a whim, but remain impressive no matter how transitory.

[Updated 5/11/2016]

PC Gamer Pro is a new channel dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Victoria, StatTrak, Factory New

The Arms Deal 3 Collection, February 2014

Like a tiny machine gun for a wee tiny person, the CZ75 is great for quickly getting rid of all those pesky bullets weighing you down. Hand-decorated with gold accents and a scroll pattern, it signifies the bearer is classy and refined, so remember to extend a pinkie while firing.

Hand Cannon, StatTrak, Factory New

The eSports 2014 Summer Collection, July 2014

Weave a deadly web of bullets and preteen regret with this premium Desert Eagle, available exclusively at Hot Topic. There s no other gun capable of ensnaring such a dangerous tableaux of tacky fashion memories while firing actual bullets. Be the talk of 2005 with Crimson Web.

Cobalt Quartz, Souvenir, Factory New

The Lake Collection, November 2013

For the terrorist on a budget, look to the affordable and mostly harmless dual Beretta. To really spend money, though, you've got to go for the Souvenir editions, which commemorate various CS:GO Championships. Covered in blue quartz and gold stickers, they'll look fantastic in the dirt next to your dead body.

Case Hardened, StatTrak, Factory New

The Arms Deal 2 Collection, November 2013

Case-hardening is a chemical and industrial process that requires ferritic nitrocarburizing, nitriding, cyaniding, or, in the case of CS:GO, painting something in a computer. Either way, it's an added expense, but if buyers stand still and squint closely, they can actually see the detail they paid for.

Fade, Factory New

The Assault Collection, August 2013

If you want a weapon skin that looks like it was created with a single click on a Photoshop gradient, look to the Fade for the Glock-18. Pricey due to its status as a default weapon (despite not having StatTrak), it still moves dozens of units a week, but its sheer ugliness makes it easy to understand why one poor dope sold his for $5.17 back in early May 2014.

Ocean Foam, StatTrak, Factory New

The Bravo Collection, September 2013

There's not much difference between the prices of the Factory New or Minimal Wear versions of the Ocean Foam skin for the P2000, so you might as well go with a new one. Or, maybe spend that money on gas and drive to the nearest beach to frolic in some real, actual ocean foam. (Note: if the ocean is suspiciously foamy, it's probably industrial waste.)

Asiimov, StatTrak, Minimal Wear

The Chroma 3 Collection, April 2016

Look close enough and you ll notice that the entirety of Asimov s Foundation series is actually inscribed on this P250 s trigger. It s a metaphor for the power of reading! Jokes. This was just as close to Mass Effect as they could get without tipping off the Andromeda.

Fade, StatTrak, Factory New

The Revolver Case Collection, December 2015

The thing about this revolver is that in some places it is orange and in some places it is pink. There are worse things to spend 40 bucks on that are orange and pink in places. $40 of grapefruit, for instance. No one wants that much grapefruit. Get real. Buy a gun skin.

Nuclear Threat, Souvenir, Minimal Wear

The Nuke Collection, August 2013

Great news if you love the Tec-9: the skins don t push high volumes, even with StatTrak, because absolutely no one wants them. The bad news: if no one wants them, there's probably a reason.

Kill Confirmed, StatTrak, Factory New

The Shadow Collection, September 2015

On this USP-S, Banksy somehow snuck into CS:GO and painted a bullet passing through a skull. The Plain Jane message and exaggerated, kitschy art style are meant to deemphasize the act of pulling a virtual trigger, and make you consider this: what if there was a Disneyland, but it was a bad Disneyland?

Fire Serpent, Factory New

The Bravo Collection, September 2013

If you want a Factory New Fire Serpent, a swim in the murky waters of third-party trading forums is your best bet. That said, some are fairly reputable and require building several layers of verification and trust before allowing you to spend over a grand on viewmodel texture.

Akihabara Accept, Factory New

The Rising Sun Collection, May 2015

What is the true price of anime? CS:GO has made the question less rhetorical and pointless by throwing an anime magazine cover on an AUG. Turns out, it s expensive enough to find a way into the key market. Good job, anime.

Dragon Lore, Factory New (Field Tested pictured)

The Cobblestone Collection, July 2014

When this skin first dropped, it was known to go for nearly $10,000. Over time, it settled down to a measly 500 or so key average. Pocket change, really. There are that many CS:GO keys between my couch cushions at any given moment.

Before you overspend, read our AWP guide.

Spitfire, Factory New

The Alpha Collection, September 2013

Painting a mouth on the front of a WWII fighter? Very cool. Painting one on the front of a rifle? Mm, doesn't really work. It basically looks like the gun was dropped in wet paint. There are plenty of better looking (and cheap) FAMAS skins, if you ask me.

The Executioner, StatTrak, Minimal Wear

The Revolver Case Collection, December 2015

The Executioner has been painted with a gruesome display of bone. Damn right it s gruesome. For 250 bucks of bone, the gruesome-per-capita better be sky high! Check out those two bones on the side, crossed over one another in an X gruesome.

Cerberus, Souvenir, Factory New

The Cache Collection, November 2014

If you re looking to maximize your dogs per skin, boy, do we have a deal for you! There s a three-headed demon beast emblazoned on the side of this gun, which is mighty cool. Maybe not 200 bucks cool, but that s the price you pay for triple the dog.

Chantico s Fire, StatTrak, Factory New

The Chroma 3 Collection, April 2016

This M4A1-S skin is a short story in absolutes. Chantico is the Aztec goddess of fires in hearths (cozy, pop down here, let s cuddle, etc.) and volcanos. She s also the goddess of precious things, which is extremely appropriate for such a unique CS:GO skin. Don t touch it. Mine.

Howl, StatTrak Factory New

The Huntsman Collection, May 2014

Your GUN won't be the ONLY thing howling if you drop that much cash on a Howl skin: your WALLET will ALSO be howling! Ha ha! But seriously, you could feed a family of five for like a while with that much money.

The Howl's extraordinary price is due to the unusual controversy that followed it after release, which included the gun's removal from distribution but not from owners' inventories. CS:GO stopped dropping new Howls long ago, so the lucky initial owners of this lion-faced piece of copyright infringement own one of the most coveted status symbols in the game.

Cardiac, StatTrak, Factory New

The Vanguard Collection, November 2014

Let s go, Broncos! is what the average Cardiac owner says at least four times a game. Or I like basic color theory in blockbuster films! again, four times minimum. Maybe My favorite colors are blue and orange in no particular order! but no more than twice. No one likes a boisterous color fan.

Ultraviolet, StatTrak, Factory New

The Arms Deal Collection, August 2013

If you can see the color of this skin, congratulations, you can see x-rays. If you can see a bunch of x-rays, I m sorry, that s probably very bad. At least you know your SG 553 is not just violet, but ultraviolet and that there s more to this life than meets the eye. 55 bucks well spent.

Blood in the Water, StatTrak, Factory New

The Arms Deal 2 Collection, November 2013

This gun has a shark on it, which makes you, the owner of said gun, a shark as well. I'm like a shark when I play, even without this gun. I immediately flop to the ground and die. In other news, good lord, that's a lot of money for a shark gun that doesn't launch actual sharks at players.

Graven, StatTrak, Factory New

The Bravo Collection, October 2013

It breaks two commandments at the same time might be the eternal peak for CS:GO gun skin flavor text. The Graven is worth the $100 just for the goofs. But which two commandments? We ll let you puzzle that one out on your lonesome.

Whiteout, Factory New

The Office Collection, August 2013

You can buy this skin for the MP7 that turns it completely white, which is coincidentally the color objects in games look when their skins don't load at all. So... money well spent, I'd say.

Bulldozer, Factory New

The Assault Collection, August 2013

This bone crusher is a devastator isn t the most colorful flavor text, even if the skin itself is a bright construction helmet yellow. Imagine a big dopey ogre or a massive tank-like robot saying it though, and all redundancy is forgiven.

Primal Saber, StatTrak, Factory New

The Chroma 3 Collection, April 2016

There s no shortage of skulls and stripes in CS:GO, thank goodness, and the Primal Saber fills an oft sought after bone niche: the prehistoric predator. If only the flavor text wasn t a wheel-spinning portentous prophecy. Every predator eventually meets their end. Well, sure. Death is a thing. Truly, this is a skin for the most melancholic of CS:GO players; those who prioritize poesy over precision.

Judgement of Anubis, StatTrak, Factory New

The Chroma 3 Collection, April 2016

For a game without respawns, invoking Anubis, an Egyptian god associated with mummification and rebirth, seems a bit off brand. But, phonetically, Anubis sounds like someone important and powerful, which is enough for some, but he s also a person with a dog head, and who doesn t love dogs? Or at least the head part of the dog? No?

Death By Kitty, StatTrak, Minimal Wear

The eSports 2013 Collection, August 2013

Also known mockingly as the "Pro 90," the significant amount of surface area is put to good use here by covering CS:GO's most powerful SMG in multicolored cat skulls. I'm not mad, just disappointed. I'm also not surprised you're both popular and expensive.

Hazard, Factory New

The Alpha Collection, September 2013

This mag-fed shotgun has a construction-themed paint job, which means you can yell PARDON OUR DUST after you kill someone. If you're on Dust at the time, it's a double-pun. Look, it's a shotgun with some yellow stripes on it, what the hell do you want from me?

Bloomstick, StatTrak, Factory New

The eSports 2014 Summer Collection, July 2014

The flowers on this gun s stock cancel out the violence. You can t put a price on peace. Buy today.

Orange DDPAT, StatTrak, Factory New

The eSports 2013 Collection, August 2013

By the time you re close enough to notice the pixels it s already too late. It s never too late to admire the orange Digital Disruptive Pattern on this skin. Little pixelated Cheetos, dancing in the wind.

Fallout Warning, Souvenir, Factory New

The Nuke Collection, August 2013

The only true thing we know at PC Gamer is that putting a sticker on something makes it unequivocally cooler. As an addendum, the more stickers placed on that thing, its coolness grows exponentially. This Souvenir XM1014 has three stickers on the side, which qualifies it as an honorary prom king or queen in at least 20 different countries.

Blizzard Marbleized, Factory New

The Office Collection, August 2013

Use this gun skin and go prone on CS:GO s many eternally blizzarding arctic maps for a huge camouflage advantage.

Anodized Navy, Factory New

The Assault Collection, August 2013

This Negev is navy blue in spots. Do you like navy blue? How many dollars deep is your love for navy blue?

Marketplace link

Valve introduced cosmetic stickers to CS:GO in February 2014. Normally these are some of the cheapest items on the market a referential image of a funny banana man might set you back $0.84, for example.

Although the Contraband Howling Dawn sticker goes for about $100, the first-edition esports stickers are by far the priciest. Among them, Team iBUYPOWER s holographic sticker reaches a whole other level, seemingly due to the fact that the team was banned by Valve and dissolved after the discovery that they fixed matches for their own benefit. Although no listings exist at the time we re publishing this, there are several auto-buy orders for this controversial digital logo at $400.

Crimson Web, StatTrak, Factory New (Field Tested pictured)

For now, the Crimson Web M9 Bayonet is the most expensive item in Counter-Strike. Knives are arguably the CS mascot, so it s not that surprising so much value gets placed a long, deadly implement stored on your pants that tracks the number of people you ve stabbed with it. Nothing weird about that at all, nope. If I m being honest, there are much cooler-looking knives that can be had for just a couple hundred, like the Huntsman Fade or one of the raptorlike Karambit skins.

Tennis players know the peculiar feeling of zenlike calm and control that comes with starting a serve. Suddenly, all worries about footwork, planning drop shots, and recovering from an opponent s serve dissipate: the pace of the game rests in the palm of your hand.

Wielding Counter-Strike s deadliest gun is a little like that. Like a great tennis player, talented AWPers have a mixture of patience and confidence. They tap into a slow mindset and lightning reflexes simultaneously.

The AWP is an intimidator, both when it s pointed at you and when you re learning the weapon. Carrying an AWP isn t simply an equipment decision, but a discipline in and of itself with its own set of techniques, guidelines, and pitfalls.

The basics of the AWP

The AWP is heavy, powerful, and expensive. Its reputation arises from the fact that, in a game about eliminating other players from the round, it s the only weapon that can kill someone with one body shot. However, it isn t a one-hit kill in all circumstances, as leg and lower groin shots deal 85 damage (aka legging ), as do shots that clip through surfaces such as railings or corners.

With the AWP s great power comes equal responsibility. Whether in a 5-on-5 competitive game or in casual mode, you ll put down $4,750 to buy an AWP. If that investment doesn t pay off (or worse, if an opponent kills you and steals it), it can break your team s economy for rounds to come. Other than the autosniper (aka the G3SG1/SCAR-20), the same can t be said for other investments in CS:GO.

Certain aspects of the AWP make it unwieldy to the newcomer, including its effect on mobility. A player running with the knife moves at 250 units per second; with a USP-S, 240 units per second; with the AK-47, 215; with the AWP, a mere 200 units per second—20 percent slower than with a knife. Only the light machine guns, the Negev and the M249 (195 units), are slower.

The AWP s firerate is equally slow, placing huge importance on hitting your first shot. The Scout, the AWP s cheaper sibling, features a similarly slow firerate but allows for insanely high mobility, even when scoped-in (unlike the AWP). And like many of CS:GO s guns, the AWP is sensitive to movement, requiring near-perfect stillness to execute an accurate shot (see the Advanced Techniques section for more on this). AWPers are thus faced with the dilemma of holding static angles that easily fall prey to flashbangs and pincer-pushes onto bombsites.

But the AWP has more advantages still. It boasts the best penetration in-game, both in terms of wall penetration power with a value of 250 (this value ranges from 0-300, with a higher value indicating that a bullet can penetrate harder surfaces at longer distances) but also in terms of armor penetration (97.5 out of 100 in the in-game menu, the highest in the game, which in effect nullifies the damage-softening effect of armor). The right combination of guesswork and timing can lead to impossible shots that defy logic.

When should I buy an AWP?

If you want to buy an AWP in a competitive game, the best time to do it is on the first gun round of the game (typically the fourth round) and when you re carrying at least $5,750. Even if your team has lost the first three rounds, secured zero objectives, and you personally didn t notch a kill over that time, you ll have earned $6,700 total by round four, including your initial $1,000 of starter cash.

The most effective AWPer will spend even more to purchase a set of grenades, about $6,450. Here s your shopping list for a solid buy:

• AWP - $4,750
• Kevlar & helmet - $1,000
• Two flashbangs and a smoke grenade - $700

Buy an AWP without armor, and you re making a glass cannon buy. It s an enormous risk—you re turning yourself into a slow-moving cannon with no protection, not only to damage, but to the accuracy-disrupting effects of aim punch. Avoid AWPing without full armor except in the most desperate straits, like when your opponent is on the verge of winning the match.

If your teammate in competitive mode has bought an AWP, reconsider buying another one. There are situations where the map will dictate otherwise (double AWPing as CT on de_dust2 is viable due to its long sight lines on A, B, and mid), but the economic risk is rarely worth the potential gain. In casual mode on the other hand, buying an AWP is merely a matter of buying cheaply for a round or two to save up for Big Green.

The two styles of AWPing

Broadly, there are two situations in which you ll use an AWP: covering an angle while stationary (passive AWPing), or while roaming (aggressive AWPing). In the professional CS:GO scene, players like Titan s SmithZz and the Danish player nico (who was recently replaced on Dignitas) fit into the passive style, while EnVyUs kennyS or Fnatic s JW tend to play aggressively.

Passive AWPing best works at corners where you have the option of retreating behind solid cover, where you can protect yourself until the AWP is ready to fire again (e.g. the box at the back corner of B site on de_dust2). Passive players only have to worry about one angle, avoiding getting flashed or smoked out of their roost, and hitting the shot.

Passive AWPers are also the ones who have to worry the most about the maximum zoom setting when scoped-in. The AWP features two zoom settings which right clicking cycles through: one further out and a magnified one.

As a rule of thumb to the young AWP initiate, use the single-zoom setting in all of your duels. A passive AWPer holding a long position such as from bombsite A towards pit on de_dust2 should consider using the maximum zoom setting to increase chances of hitting a distant, protected target. AWPers planning on holding close angles or playing with mobility should avoid the maximum zoom setting in almost all circumstances, as it inhibits reaction to unexpected threats.

Aggressive AWPers have a much more complex portfolio to work with in terms of using the gun. For them, techniques such as walking while scoped in and searching for enemies have no place, as the maximum field of vision and information is required in order to hit lightning-fast shots. These players rely on advanced techniques of AWPing.

Learn specific AWPing techniques on the next page.

Advanced techniques

As an aggressive AWPer, you re defying some of the native characteristics of the AWP to gain map control. The aggressive AWPer needs to know when to push angles that would seem suicidal in normal scenarios and often wield their slow, clunky weapon more like a shotgun than a sniper rifle. The aggressive AWPer uses a two-handed sword as if it were a one-hander, relying on speed, intuition, and tricks to gain the advantage.

Passive AWPing can only take you so far. Think of it this way: holding an angle won t work if you meet an opponent who s quicker on the draw. Aggressive AWPers incorporate movement and manipulative model tricks (peeking at certain angles crouched or with a varying speed) to defeat their opponents.

Crouch-peeking and shoulder-peeking relies on the inherent advantage that comes with peeking in CS:GO (check  this GIF below for a visual representation) by turning corners quickly, scoping in, and firing with a little bit of guesswork. Although some of this technique relies on popping out at an unexpected place or time, it s also underpinned by two mechanics of the game itself. AWPers use corner advantage, the Source engine s preference for the camera to be slightly left-of-center, allowing them to see an opponent just a moment before they see you.

To shoulder-peek, you should quickly strafe a corner or known angle with a shot in mind, scope-in and automatically fire, and strafe back in the opposite direction right away; all of this should be one fluid motion with no delay except to stop and quickly shoot. This technique tries to limit the chances of being prefired or tagged, and keeps you mobile as an AWPer.

Crouch-peeking adds one more element to this act of angle manipulation, by bringing the player into a crouched-state as they round a corner. This is meant to throw off a defensive player whose crosshair, if they re experienced, is most likely aimed at head height. To crouch-peek, hold the crouch key as you round a corner, falling into your aim in one motion. In the brief moment that you re stationary, you should be crouched, scoped-in, and aiming at an angle that you are looking to clear. Chances are the opponent is trying to correct his aim and you ve got a clear shot!

Aggressive AWPers have to master this quick input of keys: crouch, strafe, scope-in, and fire, without doing any of these commands too quickly or else the recoil is thrown off. The crouch key needs to be pressed exactly as the player rounds the corner, and not before or after.

Quickscoping is a technique where right-clicking is immediately followed by a left click, granting a more accurate shot than you would have by noscoping. To try a quickscope, stop moving, then right and then left click in rapid succession. Practice this technique in casual play so you ll have more opportunities to buy the AWP and less pressure to contribute to a victory.

Noscoping, or the art of using the AWP like it s the world s largest pistol, is still functional and sees occasional use by pro players in the highest echelon of CS:GO. Noscoping is often the best and only choice when someone is rushing you head-on. If you find yourself in this situation, dip your aim to around center of mass on an enemy, stop moving as much as possible before you shoot, trust your muscle memory, and wait until the last possible moment to fire to maximize the angle and distance between you and your target s hitboxes.

Wallbanging is Counter-Strike s tasteful way of referring to shooting through hard map surfaces. There are certain angles that only an AWP (or an autosniper as well) can penetrate and several of these happen to be in very useful positions. As seen in these clips on de_cache, preset angles can be used to try and tag players on the other side of the map. The best way to try this yourself is to load a map on an offline server (simply type map de_dust2 in console, for example), then enter sv_showimpacts 1 in the console to track bullet penetration and search for new spots.

Lastly, and very infrequently, the AWP is able to hit accurate shots at the apex of a jump, similar to the notorious Scout jumpshot but far less dependable and requiring near perfect timing. Rarely seen, this technique is best left to hyper-aggressive players willing to take the risk.

---

PC Gamer Pro is a new channel dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Tennis players know the peculiar feeling of zenlike calm and control that comes with starting a serve. Suddenly, all worries about footwork, planning drop shots, and recovering from an opponent s serve dissipate: the pace of the game rests in the palm of your hand.

Wielding Counter-Strike s deadliest gun is a little like that. Like a great tennis player, talented AWPers have a mixture of patience and confidence. They tap into a slow mindset and lightning reflexes simultaneously.

The AWP is an intimidator, both when it s pointed at you and when you re learning the weapon. Carrying an AWP isn t simply an equipment decision, but a discipline in and of itself with its own set of techniques, guidelines, and pitfalls.

The basics of the AWP

The AWP is heavy, powerful, and expensive. Its reputation arises from the fact that, in a game about eliminating other players from the round, it s the only weapon that can kill someone with one body shot. However, it isn t a one-hit kill in all circumstances, as leg and lower groin shots deal 85 damage (aka legging ), as do shots that clip through surfaces such as railings or corners.

With the AWP s great power comes equal responsibility. Whether in a 5-on-5 competitive game or in casual mode, you ll put down $4,750 to buy an AWP. If that investment doesn t pay off (or worse, if an opponent kills you and steals it), it can break your team s economy for rounds to come. Other than the autosniper (aka the G3SG1/SCAR-20), the same can t be said for other investments in CS:GO.

Certain aspects of the AWP make it unwieldy to the newcomer, including its effect on mobility. A player running with the knife moves at 250 units per second; with a USP-S, 240 units per second; with the AK-47, 215; with the AWP, a mere 200 units per second—20 percent slower than with a knife. Only the light machine guns, the Negev and the M249 (195 units), are slower.

The AWP s firerate is equally slow, placing huge importance on hitting your first shot. The Scout, the AWP s cheaper sibling, features a similarly slow firerate but allows for insanely high mobility, even when scoped-in (unlike the AWP). And like many of CS:GO s guns, the AWP is sensitive to movement, requiring near-perfect stillness to execute an accurate shot (see the Advanced Techniques section for more on this). AWPers are thus faced with the dilemma of holding static angles that easily fall prey to flashbangs and pincer-pushes onto bombsites.

But the AWP has more advantages still. It boasts the best penetration in-game, both in terms of wall penetration power with a value of 250 (this value ranges from 0-300, with a higher value indicating that a bullet can penetrate harder surfaces at longer distances) but also in terms of armor penetration (97.5 out of 100 in the in-game menu, the second-highest in the game, which in effect nullifies the damage-softening effect of armor). The right combination of guesswork and timing can lead to impossible shots that defy logic.

When should I buy an AWP?

If you want to buy an AWP in a competitive game, the best time to do it is on the first gun round of the game (typically the fourth round) and when you re carrying at least $5,750. Even if your team has lost the first three rounds, secured zero objectives, and you personally didn t notch a kill over that time, you ll have earned $6,500 total by round four, including your initial $800 of starter cash.

The most effective AWPer will spend even more to purchase a set of grenades, about $6,450. Here s your shopping list for a solid buy:

• AWP - $4,750
• Kevlar & helmet - $1,000
• Two flashbangs and a smoke grenade - $700

Buy an AWP without armor, and you re making a glass cannon buy. It s an enormous risk—you re turning yourself into a slow-moving cannon with no protection, not only to damage, but to the accuracy-disrupting effects of aim punch. Avoid AWPing without full armor except in the most desperate straits, like when your opponent is on the verge of winning the match.

If your teammate in competitive mode has bought an AWP, reconsider buying another one. There are situations where the map will dictate otherwise (double AWPing as CT on de_dust2 is viable due to its long sight lines on A, B, and mid), but the economic risk is rarely worth the potential gain. In casual mode on the other hand, buying an AWP is merely a matter of buying cheaply for a round or two to save up for Big Green.

The two styles of AWPing

Broadly, there are two situations in which you ll use an AWP: covering an angle while stationary (passive AWPing), or while roaming (aggressive AWPing). In the professional CS:GO scene, players like Titan s SmithZz and the Danish player nico (who was recently replaced on Dignitas) fit into the passive style, while EnVyUs kennyS or Fnatic s JW tend to play aggressively.

Passive AWPing best works at corners where you have the option of retreating behind solid cover, where you can protect yourself until the AWP is ready to fire again (e.g. the box at the back corner of B site on de_dust2). Passive players only have to worry about one angle, avoiding getting flashed or smoked out of their roost, and hitting the shot.

Passive AWPers are also the ones who have to worry the most about the maximum zoom setting when scoped-in. The AWP features two zoom settings which right clicking cycles through: one further out and a magnified one.

As a rule of thumb to the young AWP initiate, use the single-zoom setting in all of your duels. A passive AWPer holding a long position such as from bombsite A towards pit on de_dust2 should consider using the maximum zoom setting to increase chances of hitting a distant, protected target. AWPers planning on holding close angles or playing with mobility should avoid the maximum zoom setting in almost all circumstances, as it inhibits reaction to unexpected threats.

Aggressive AWPers have a much more complex portfolio to work with in terms of using the gun. For them, techniques such as walking while scoped in and searching for enemies have no place, as the maximum field of vision and information is required in order to hit lightning-fast shots. These players rely on advanced techniques of AWPing.

Learn specific AWPing techniques on the next page.

Advanced techniques

As an aggressive AWPer, you re defying some of the native characteristics of the AWP to gain map control. The aggressive AWPer needs to know when to push angles that would seem suicidal in normal scenarios and often wield their slow, clunky weapon more like a shotgun than a sniper rifle. The aggressive AWPer uses a two-handed sword as if it were a one-hander, relying on speed, intuition, and tricks to gain the advantage.

Passive AWPing can only take you so far. Think of it this way: holding an angle won t work if you meet an opponent who s quicker on the draw. Aggressive AWPers incorporate movement and manipulative model tricks (peeking at certain angles crouched or with a varying speed) to defeat their opponents.

Crouch-peeking and shoulder-peeking relies on the inherent advantage that comes with peeking in CS:GO (check  this GIF below for a visual representation) by turning corners quickly, scoping in, and firing with a little bit of guesswork. Although some of this technique relies on popping out at an unexpected place or time, it s also underpinned by two mechanics of the game itself. AWPers use corner advantage, the Source engine s preference for the camera to be slightly left-of-center, allowing them to see an opponent just a moment before they see you.

To shoulder-peek, you should quickly strafe a corner or known angle with a shot in mind, scope-in and automatically fire, and strafe back in the opposite direction right away; all of this should be one fluid motion with no delay except to stop and quickly shoot. This technique tries to limit the chances of being prefired or tagged, and keeps you mobile as an AWPer.

Crouch-peeking adds one more element to this act of angle manipulation, by bringing the player into a crouched-state as they round a corner. This is meant to throw off a defensive player whose crosshair, if they re experienced, is most likely aimed at head height. To crouch-peek, hold the crouch key as you round a corner, falling into your aim in one motion. In the brief moment that you re stationary, you should be crouched, scoped-in, and aiming at an angle that you are looking to clear. Chances are the opponent is trying to correct his aim and you ve got a clear shot!

Aggressive AWPers have to master this quick input of keys: crouch, strafe, scope-in, and fire, without doing any of these commands too quickly or else the recoil is thrown off. The crouch key needs to be pressed exactly as the player rounds the corner, and not before or after.

Quickscoping is a technique where right-clicking is immediately followed by a left click, granting a more accurate shot than you would have by noscoping. To try a quickscope, stop moving, then right and then left click in rapid succession. Practice this technique in casual play so you ll have more opportunities to buy the AWP and less pressure to contribute to a victory.

Noscoping, or the art of using the AWP like it s the world s largest pistol, is still functional and sees occasional use by pro players in the highest echelon of CS:GO. Noscoping is often the best and only choice when someone is rushing you head-on. If you find yourself in this situation, dip your aim to around center of mass on an enemy, stop moving as much as possible before you shoot, trust your muscle memory, and wait until the last possible moment to fire to maximize the angle and distance between you and your target s hitboxes.

Wallbanging is Counter-Strike s tasteful way of referring to shooting through hard map surfaces. There are certain angles that only an AWP (or an autosniper as well) can penetrate and several of these happen to be in very useful positions. As seen in these clips on de_cache, preset angles can be used to try and tag players on the other side of the map. The best way to try this yourself is to load a map on an offline server (simply type map de_dust2 in console, for example), then enter sv_showimpacts 1 in the console to track bullet penetration and search for new spots.

Lastly, and very infrequently, the AWP is able to hit accurate shots at the apex of a jump, similar to the notorious Scout jumpshot but far less dependable and requiring near perfect timing. Rarely seen, this technique is best left to hyper-aggressive players willing to take the risk.

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Every highly-specific hobby you can imagine has a dedicated home on YouTube. Backyard metallurgy. 46-minute marathon Kinder Egg openings. Children in suits evaluating junk food. YouTuber ZaziNombies makes Lego game guns, and he's pieced together everything from the Scout's Force-A-Nature to a whole series of zappers from Destiny.

Joining that armory this week is Counter-Strike's iconic long gun: the AWP. ZaziNombies used about 1100 Lego pieces to put together a four-foot-long facsimile, including a convincing reconstruction of the AWP's optics that's mostly tires. You can tell he's done this before. The color is more mint than the AWP's classic olive drab, the plastic rounds seem smaller than the .338 Lapua that AWPs allegedly shoot, and the trivia ZaziNombies rattles off is clearly from a Wiki, but otherwise the resemblance is striking.

There isn t enough poetry being written about guns. Not literal limericks or sonnets (that would be creepy), but words that dig into and capture what makes one game s AK-47 more fun than another s.

Weapon feel continues to be the nebulous catch-all for the nuances that make guns fun. Most of the reviews of shooters I read offer the same praise: guns feel great or feel really powerful. If the writer s being generous, they ll use a word like punchy to describe an SMG. I ve been guilty of this too during my six-year term at PC Gamer.

Months of work goes into designing, animating, and balancing the things that put the S in FPS, so maybe we should take a moment to talk about what makes a good gun good.

I think the visual design of weapons matters far less than we think it does. There s a tendency, probably because they re planted right in front of our perspective at all times, to think of guns as a collection of aesthetics: firing and reload animations, SFX, screen shake, particle effects, and the death animations they produce. Those things make a gun, right? So if those things are good, surely we have an interesting and fun video game weapon, right?

No. Consider the AWP: it s olive green, it s bland, and its simple animations are more run-of-the-mill than Rambo. The only aesthetically remarkable thing about the most revered, iconic, and infamous sniper rifle in a video game is that it s a bit loud. And yet thousand-comment debates erupt when Valve tweaks the way the AWP s scope works. Why?

A gun s look and sound are part of its personality, sure. But if you ask me, great video game weapons have meaningful, interconnected relationships with other game elements. Those elements differ from game to game, of course. In CS case, the appeal of the AWP is born from the fact that CS is an FPS with body-part-specific damage modeling and no respawns. In that context, it s the only gun that grants an instant kill if you tag someone above the waist.

That feeling of possibility is fun within the strict rules of CS movement: if you can hit it, you can kill it… but you also can t be moving too much when you fire. With that power comes responsibility, too. Killed players surrender their equipped weapon in CS, and stolen AWPs not only save your team $4750 but act as a kind of trophy. This is doubly the case in CS:GO, where a player s custom AWP skin reminds all spectators which irresponsible player allowed their AWP to fall into enemy hands. Buying an AWP, then, to some extent, announces to the rest of the server: I think I m a good enough shot to protect this valuable asset from the other team.

All of this makes the AWP a weapon with abundant meaning. Even its shortcomings (slow rate of fire, difficult to use in close quarters) are a source of fun: the noscope is a revered skillshot.

In Tribes case, its weapons shake hands with its player movement really well, arguably the quality that defines it as an FPS. Again, like the AWP, the Spinfusor isn't visually extraordinary: it fires discs at a medium speed, and its animations and SFX are pretty modest. But the Spinfusor is the perfect fit, the perfect baseline weapon in a game where your targets are typically skiing along the ground at high speed. Its splash damage leaves room for error and its relatively slow travel time creates an exciting feeling of uncertainty as you admire your shot. Like throwing up a three-pointer in basketball, you get to experience that arc of Will it go in? It might not go in. It went in! as the disc travels toward its target.

The Fusion Mortar creates the same sort of feeling while operating as a parabolic siege weapon. The design of the weapons actually encourages you to spend as much time as possible in the air: the threat they pose encourages you to master movement to have the best chance of staying alive. In each of these examples, the weapons strengthen the meaning and significance of core systems like movement, damage modeling, or weapon purchasing.

Every Monday in Triggernometry*, Evan writes about FPSes.

Aiming is one of Counter-Strike s central skills. Good aim can get you out of a bad situation, like a mistimed rush or a weapon disadvantage. Even if you ve been playing CS for a decade, I m willing to bet that, like me, you ve got some bad aiming habits.

I ll go first: I m awful with the AK at long range, and I struggle to get kills with the P250 on eco rounds. I ll probably get better with those guns as I keep putting hours into CS:GO s competitive matchmaking, but bad habits are easy to lose sight of in the middle of a match, when you re caught up in the emotion of the situation. CS:GO also hides a ton of its nuances—especially the bullet spray patterns of its weapons.

Aim maps have a way of immediately illuminating what you ve been doing wrong. Through repetition and drilling, they can teach you a lot about your own bad (and good) aiming behaviors. These are my three favorites.

How to play custom CS:GO maps locally:

• Subscribe to maps on Steam Workshop
• Launch CS:GO
• Click Play > Offline with bots
• Click Workshop, search for the map you subscribed to
• Select the map, select No bots

training aim csgo 2

download

This is CS:GO s best drill map, and it has a ton of customizability. You can tweak it to test almost anything you need to work on, from long-range AWPing to short-range spraying against targets that take multiple hits to break. I particularly like the sliding test, which lets you set up static or pop-up targets along different axes, letting you practice the rhythm of strafing, stopping, and shooting outside of a live environment. I also get a lot out of the Burst Training, which tracks how many of your shots connect on a full spray.

Training: Bot Aim V4b

download

You can work on any weapon on this map, but I ve found it to be best for building pistol skills. It loads a number of bots into a narrow corridor and has a few toggleable obstacles—crates and a pair of doors—that you can bring into the setting to make it feel more practical. Bots can be set to return fire or not. The god mode setting is really helpful if you want to focus on training one weapon for a sustained period.

aim botz

download

This rifles-and-pistols map is the best one I ve found for working on killing enemies who are moving laterally. The bot movements are a little unnatural (you can also set them to move faster than players can in-game, as in the GIF above), but you can set them to mirror different ADAD patterns (alternating left and right strafing), which can be a particularly tough maneuver to counter. There s a good amount of setting customization, too, including boxes and uneven ground. You can also toggle on impact visualization, which will produce a wireframe of the bot hit that lingers in the environment.

*[Hats off to Reiniat, who suggested that we call this column "Triggernometry" instead of its original, inferior label "Shooterology." If you're listening, get in touch with me in the comments below to collect a prize that I have not yet determined. —Evan]

Some people complain there are too many zombies in video games. Well, you know what? There are. That's why you need to kill them. The newest undead invasion is hitting the Counter-Strike universe, with Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies releasing on Steam today. It's free-to-play too, so getting involved in the extermination won't cost you a cent.

For anyone who took part in the open beta, Nexon has released a list of new bug fixes and improvements to coincide with the official release. These include important design changes including the ability to craft and disassemble certain items without using Points, through to cosmetic changes like the length of chat messages, prettier colour coding and more. 

The game currently boasts 50 maps, over 20 game modes including both PvP and PvE, and more guns than Nexon's previous effort Counter-Strike Online. Most interesting is the crafting system, which allows players to change the appearance and statistics of weapons. Nexon is also promising to continue adding new content for the game, so if you hate zombies, or love them, you should be set for a while. 

Evan writes about FPSes every Monday in Shooterology.

There was a round of CS:GO during last Friday s Dreamhack Invitational matches that I found really inspiring. I ve recorded some commentary over it at 25% playback speed in the video above.

The round, from a match between two of the best teams in the world, showcases Swedish sniper jw s absurd spider sense. It s a terrific individual effort, and while it delivers as a Sick MLG Pro 420 Noscope Frag Video™, it also showcases two of CS:GO s best aspects: the importance of physical awareness and the way the game s decade-old, refined map layouts prompt tough decisions.

CS:GO isn t without flaws—aside from the presence of hackers in competitive matches, the CS:GO competitive scene itself continues to suffer from DDOS attacks on players and servers during matches. The Dreamhack Invitational, despite being a LAN event, wasn't even safe from this. And those ancient maps, terrific as they generally are, aren't perfect. Nuke continues to heavily favor the CT side in CS:GO, arguably giving advantage to the team who starts on that side.

You really should watch the rest of the tournament, though, especially the final between French rivals Titan and Team LDLC.

Evan writes about FPSes every Monday in Shooterology.

There was a round of CS:GO during last Friday s Dreamhack Invitational matches that I found really inspiring. I ve recorded some commentary over it at 25% playback speed in the video above.

The round, from a match between two of the best teams in the world, showcases Swedish sniper jw s absurd spider sense. It s a terrific individual effort, and while it delivers as a Sick MLG Pro 420 Noscope Frag Video™, it also showcases two of CS:GO s best aspects: the importance of physical awareness and the way the game s decade-old, refined map layouts prompt tough decisions.

CS:GO isn t without flaws—aside from the presence of hackers in competitive matches, the CS:GO competitive scene itself continues to suffer from DDOS attacks on players and servers during matches. The Dreamhack Invitational, despite being a LAN event, wasn't even safe from this. And those ancient maps, terrific as they generally are, aren't perfect. Nuke continues to heavily favor the CT side in CS:GO, arguably giving advantage to the team who starts on that side.

You really should watch the rest of the tournament, though, especially the final between French rivals Titan and Team LDLC.

Every Monday, Evan writes about first-person shooters.

Playing a competitive online game means being subjected to a certain amount of unsolicited criticism. I think you receive a bit more of it in CS:GO, though, because your dead teammates form a kind of peanut gallery who can talk to you from beyond the grave. Being the last one alive as four other players hover over your digital shoulder is a quintessential CS experience.

I ve been that digital shoulder hundreds of times, struggling to clutch while a person I ve never met tells me which gun I should grab to retake Nuke s A bombsite, or chastises me for using a grenade in a one-on-one situation. It s annoying, but I m actually grateful for a lot of the harsh feedback that s been handed to me in these moments because it s shaken me out of some bad habits.

Below, a selection of some of the criticism that s been condescendingly muttered at me in CS that turned out to be great advice:


Don t reload.
Shooters, single-player shooters especially, condition us to reload as a Pavlovian response to getting a kill. Resisting that urge is one of the first things most new CS players have to unlearn. Most weapons in CS:GO take between two and four seconds to reload: plenty of time for someone to peek around a corner or move through the space you should be defending. But maybe more importantly, in close-quarters, reloading betrays your position with sound. Consider the trade-off: would you rather have a full mag and an enemy who knows where you are, or a shallow mag and an enemy who s out of position?

Don t underestimate how much you can do with four or five bullets. With a rifle, it takes three or four non-headshots to take an enemy from full health to none and in late-game situations, it s even less likely that the enemy around the corner has 100 HP.


Don t pretend.
A few months ago one of my teammates in a match I d solo queued into called me out on this. What are you doing? I bet you saw that on Twitch or some shit, right? He was right. I was ADAD spamming (quickly tapping A and D in alternation) to hold a corner on de_inferno. There was no purpose or tactical value to what I was doing, I was just miming something I d seen in a tournament. It was the equivalent of doing a bunch of fancy dribbling in soccer with no one playing defense against me.

It s great to experiment with stuff you see in competitive play, but understanding the situational benefits of each maneuver is a huge step toward pulling it off successfully. After the ESL, I started backing away from my own flashbang grenades on entries, something I loved seeing in that tournament. But then I realized that my grenade placement wasn t nearly good enough to guarantee that I was flashing enemies at all I was just imitating for the sake of imitating.


Please, please don't throw that grenade.
Put the pin back in. I see so much misplaced faith in the frag grenade in CS:GO, partly because I used to be that guy who d start a bombsite retake with a frag toss, often coming around corners while still in the follow-through animation for the throw. Here s what I learned, after someone finally scolded me: your frag isn t going to kill anyone. Even if you re the Joe Montana of grenades and toss directly into the enemy player s mouth, it ll do 57 damage. If you played a lot of CS:Source, where grenades did a max of 72 against armored opponents, take a moment to realize that a perfect toss will only inflict as much as about two bullets.

In almost all situations, but especially in one-on-ones, your rifle is going to be able to kill someone faster and more safely than any sort of offensive grenade. Flashes are handy in a lot of situations in CS, but they re also unreliable: you can t be sure how well you ve blinded someone. If I had just kept my gun out instead of reaching for that 4 key, I would ve won many more rounds for my team.


Don't turn a three-on-one into a series of one-on-ones.
This is the one I ve started to preach most to players that I solo queue in Competitive mode with. It s easy to take a round win for granted when you re in a 3-on-1 or a 4-on-2. The easiest way to give away an easy win, though, is arranging your team in a way that the enemy can encounter you one at a time, on their own terms. When you re defending a bombsite against a shorthanded enemy, your goal should be to guarantee a trade: put the enemy in a position where they must cross the firing line of Player B if they want to kill Player A.


Are you afraid of your own pistol, or something?
Pistols have an amazing amount of utility in CS:GO. In the current build, the CZ75 the only automatic pistol has a ludicrous amount of value as a short-range, spray-and-hope-for-the-best gun when your AWP isn t cutting it or your M4A1-S runs dry. Even with the recent change to price it at $500, the cost of two grenades, it s a strong backup for serial AWPers who fear being rushed.


Dude, why would you ever crouch-walk?
This is ancient, ancient advice, but it s something that I still occasionally see players doing on casual servers. Crouch-walking around a corner will always grant advantage to someone who s watching that corner they ll always be able to see your gun poke out, then your knees, and blast you before you see them. If you need to check around an object, shoulder peek: dart out of cover while revealing as little of yourself as possible, then back in as quickly as possible, purely to see where an enemy is.