How The Weekly CS2 Drop System Works

October 5th, 2023

The new Armory skins are now available on CS.MONEY

If you’ve been playing CS2 for a while, chances are that you’ve already encountered weekly drops in the form of ‘Care Packages’ at the end of your matches over the course of your gaming experience. These Care Packages act as a replacement to the old form of drops and have certainly been considered to be a welcome change by the game’s community.

So how does the CS2 drop system work, and how does the algorithm decide when you’ll receive a Care Package? In this article, we will aim to address all your queries about the newly introduced CS2 drop system and learn how it works.

The Different Kinds Of Drops In CS2

Following the official launch of Counter-Strike 2, players can only receive in-game drops in the form of Care Packages. These Care Packages include one random Weapon Skin, one Weapon Case, and two Graffiti. However, contrary to the previous drop system, players are now able to choose what they want as their weekly rewards.

Upon receiving a Care Package in CS2, players can select up to two rewards that they want from it. For instance, players are able to choose a case and a skin, a case and a graffiti, a skin and a graffiti, or two graffiti.

Do note that Care Packages in CS2 can only be received by playing the game on official servers and leveling up your CS2 profile. You can only get one Care Package per week.

For the uninitiated, the previous drop system rewarded players with one to two weekly weapon cases randomly at the end of each game played on the official servers. This was later changed to one weekly case drop upon leveling up before the system was completely revamped with the CS2 launch.

Contrary to popular belief, the skin, case, and graffiti drops in CS2 aren’t arbitrary. In fact, there’s only a specific set of skins and cases that can be dropped in CS2. This is decided by the “Active Drop Pool”, which is constantly changing as new cases are introduced to the game by Valve.

Are You Eligible To Receive CS2 Drops?

All accounts with the Prime status are eligible to obtain Care Packages in CS2.

If you’re a CS2 player who has purchased the Prime Upgrade from the Steam Store, you are eligible to get weekly drops in CS2. You can find out more details about the Prime Status by checking out Steam’s official blog post.

Graffiti Drops

Generally, you’d want to steer clear of graffiti drops as these are the least valuable of the bunch. Most of the graffiti drops you’ll get in CS2 will be about $0.03 in price and won’t be exceeding $0.10.

You can select up to two graffiti drops per Care Package that you get in CS2.

Skin Drops

The skins that can drop in CS2 depend on the Active Drop Pool set by Valve. Currently, you can select skins from the following Collections as you obtain Care Packages on leveling up your CS2 profile:

While you won’t be getting a Dragon Lore through these skin drops, a Factory New SG 553 Integrale drop will easily net you more than a hundred dollars, which is about the maximum amount you can currently get from drops. Generally, you’ll be receiving skins priced anywhere between $0.03 to $1.00, with occasional exceptions.

SG 553 | Integrale (Factory New)

Starting at

$55.49

-34%

An important thing to note is that users are able to check the float, wear, and other details of the skin that they receive in the Care Package before claiming it, which is why if you receive a Battle-Scarred skin with a horrible float, you can choose to opt for a graffiti instead.

You’ll only get one weapon skin per Care Package that you receive in CS2.

Case Drops

Case drops are where you’ll be looking to make the most money while playing CS2. You can only get one Case Drop per Care Package that you receive in CS2.

As mentioned earlier, the cases you receive are randomly selected from an ‘Active Drop Pool’ set by Valve. This Active Drop Pool will continue to change every few months when Valve introduces a new case to the title.

Let’s take a look at the current Active Drop Pool of CS2.

Active Drop Pool

Apart from the Active case drop pool, there’s also a chance for players to receive “Rare Cases”. Each week, players have roughly a 1% chance to get a case from the ‘Rare Drop Pool’ as part of their Care Package, the contents of which are more valuable than those of the Active Pool.

Here’s a list of Rare Cases in the current drop pool of CS2.

Rare Cases

You can get only one case per Care Package that you receive in CS2.

Operation Cases

These were all the case drops that you can currently receive while playing CS2. There are also some cases that can’t drop anymore and can only be obtained through trading, the Steam Community Market, or from third-party markets. These are called “Discontinued Cases”. Here’s a list of the Discontinued Cases in CS2.

Discontinued Cases

Operation cases work in a different way than usual case drops in CS2. For instance, the last operation, named Riptide, enabled players to purchase cases directly in exchange for “stars” that they could get by simply completing various operation missions. Assuming that a player exchanged all 100 stars on cases, they would be receiving exactly 50 Operation Riptide Cases, which currently translates to about $41, much more than the initial investment of $15 on the Operation Riptide Pass itself.

Conclusion: How To Use CS2 Drops Effectively

Now that you know everything about the drops in CS2 and how the drop system works, all that’s left for you to do is to utilize the system effectively to maximize your profit. You can always come up with your own formula to get decent earnings while playing CS2, but the tried and tested way to get some easy money is through playing the game as soon as a new case drops. If you’re lucky enough to get a new case as part of your Care Package, you can swiftly sell it on the Steam Marketplace for a decent sum. Otherwise, you can also place your wagers on receiving an occasional expensive skin drop from the Active Drop Pool. Purchasing Operation Passes regularly as they release and completing missions is also a good way to make some profit off CS2.