CS2 Weapon Tier List

Knowing what Counter-Strike weapons to buy in different in-game situations is an essential skill that leads players to success. With this CS2 weapon tier list, you can quickly understand which gun is the best for you: for team roles and round economy.

In addition to various team strategies that affect weapon picks, CS2 applies clear technical characteristics to each firearm. These numbers make a difference within specific gun types: assault rifles, SMGs, pistols, etc.

Tier Explanation

Our tier list of CS2 weapons includes five categories. The list below explains each of these tiers.

• S-Tier: These are the best guns in the game, with a great balance of price and effectiveness.
• A-Tier: Slight downsides place these weapons in a lower tier. The possible disadvantages include strong recoil and lower damage. This tier also includes the best options for force-buy and anti-eco rounds.
• B-Tier: The Counter-Strike weapons here are not really suitable for competitive play. Some B-Tier guns are very effective but too expensive. Others just have better options in higher tiers.
• C-Tier: These are lower-class guns of less effective weapon types. Purchasing them in competitive matches is not advised.
• D-Tier: You could use these guns only for casual fun, but even for this purpose, you can find better options in higher tiers.

CS2 Weapon Tier List

In the table below, you’ll find all CS2 weapons categorised by the effectiveness tiers.

S-Tier

When you have money in a CS2 round, the S-Tier weapons should be in your personal arsenal. They are the best overall guns in Counter-Strike 2.

M4A4

• Cost: $2900
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 33
• Armor Penetration: 70%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/90
• Fire Rate: 666.67 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 225

The CT assault rifle has a high rate of fire, reliable accuracy, and a large magazine. It’s a gun to hold positions, go for active defense, or retake bombsites. If you play on the Counter-Terrorist side, it’s your assault rifle to purchase. Compared to the M4A1-S, this rifle is for a more aggressive playstyle.

M4A1-S

• Cost: $2900
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 38
• Armor Penetration: 70%
• Magazine Capacity: 20/80
• Fire Rate: 600 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 225

If your playstyle is more about stealth actions, the M4A1-S is a great choice on the CT side. In addition to the silencer, this CS2 assault rifle comes with improved accuracy thanks to a more controllable spray pattern. The downsides of the M4A1-S compared to the M4A4 include a smaller magazine.

AK-47

• Cost: $2700
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 36
• Armor Penetration: 77.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/90
• Fire Rate: 600 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 215

Basically, it is a Terrorist counterpart for the M4A4, so this assault rifle is a must-buy gun for most T players. In terms of practical characteristics, the AK-47 can even better than the M4A4: higher armor penetration and damage with quicker reload.

AWP

• Cost: $4750
• Kill Award: $100
• Damage: 115
• Armor Penetration: 97.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 5/30
• Fire Rate: 41 RPM
• Penetration Power: 250%
• Movement Speed: 200

It’s the best sniper rifle in the game. With the AWP, you kill with one shot only—skills are needed to land it. It’s one of the most iconic CS2 weapons that has absolutely legendary skins, such as AWP | Dragon Lore.

Desert Eagle

• Cost: $700
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 53
• Armor Penetration: 93.20%
• Magazine Capacity: 7/35
• Fire Rate: 266.67 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 230

The class of this CS2 pistol is somewhat similar to the AWP: the Desert Eagle kills with one headshot, but using it effectively requires practice. Many CS2 esports professionals purchase the Desert Eagle as the most effective pistol.

A-Tier

Counter-Strike players go for the A-Tier weapons when they have economic difficulties or need to recover their money from a series of lost rounds.

FAMAS

• Cost: $1950
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 30
• Armor Penetration: 70%
• Magazine Capacity: 25/90
• Fire Rate: 666.67 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 220

It’s a universal assault rifle for force-buy rounds on the CT side. The M4A4 and the M4A1-S are superior in terms of damage and all the other characteristics. Still, FAMAS is a decent gun when you need to save cash.

Galil AR

• Cost: $1800
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 30
• Armor Penetration: 77.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 35/90
• Fire Rate: 666.67 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 215

The T-side players purchase the Galil AR as their budget assault rifle. The effectiveness is lower than that of the AK-47 in all aspects, but the Galil AR is the best choice for riflers with a low budget.

SG 553

• Cost: $3000
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 30
• Armor Penetration: 100%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/90
• Fire Rate: 545.45 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 210

This assault rifle has a scope, and it provides CS2 players on the T side with a high fire rate and accuracy. However, the SG 553 loses to dedicated options: like the AK-47 and the AWP.

The SG 553 is a decent choice for beginners in Counter-Strike 2 and for casual matches. Pros also can buy it or the AUG for the CT side—the competitive value is here, and it’s based on personal preference on some maps.

AUG

• Cost: $3300
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 28
• Armor Penetration: 90%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/90
• Fire Rate: 600 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 220

The CT-side players can take the AUG as a scoped assault rifle. The pros and cons are the same as those of the SG 553. It’s a choice of beginners and casual players, but the AUG also plays its role on competitive matches.

SSG-08

• Cost: $1700
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 88
• Armor Penetration: 85%
• Magazine Capacity: 10/90
• Fire Rate: 48 RPM
• Penetration Power: 250%
• Movement Speed: 230

The “Scout” sniper rifle is significantly cheaper than the AWP, but the damage with it is also much lower. The SSG-08 still has good sides: higher mobility and kill reward. Some players pick the SSG-08 for a very aggressive and active sniper style.

MP9

• Cost: $1250
• Kill Award: $600
• Damage: 26
• Armor Penetration: 60%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/120
• Fire Rate: 857.14 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 240

It’s the best SMG in Counter-Strike 2 overall, even if only CT players can buy it. The MP9 has a high rate of fire and mobility. The weapon is pretty good for accurate shots on the run.

Like the MAC-10, an A-Tier SMG for the T side, the MP9 is a very popular pick for anti-eco and force buy rounds thanks to the combo of effectiveness and high kill rewards.

MAC-10

• Cost: $1050
• Kill Award: $600
• Damage: 29
• Armor Penetration: 57.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/100
• Fire Rate: 800 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 240

In general, the MAC-10 plays the same role in CS2 as the MP9. It’s an SMG to buy for anti-eco and force buy on the T side. The weapon is cheap and effective at close range.

When you don’t need to save money, pick S-Tier assault rifles instead. Playing with the MAC-10 and the MP9 requires more experience than with the FAMAS and the Galil AR.

USP-S

• Cost: $200
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 35
• Armor Penetration: 50.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 12/24
• Fire Rate: 352.94 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 240

The USP-S is an excellent pistol, a spawn one for the CT team. You shouldn’t underestimate its level—and often, pro players pick the USP-S instead of purchasing a pistol. High accuracy and effectiveness with no expenses make the USP-S A-Tier in our list.

You definitely should replace the P2000 with the USP-S in your CT loadout.

Tec-9

As for an A-Tier pistol for the T side, the Tec-9 is a great choice. It’s a semi-automatic weapon with a high rate of fire and armor penetration. Terrorists should pay for the Tec-9, but the pistol is worthy of replacing the default Glock-18.

CZ75-Auto

With this full-auto pistol, you get a mix of high damage at a close range and low accuracy. The CZ75-Auto can be used effectively in force-buy rounds.

Five-SeveN

Players pick this CT pistol for its high rate of fire and decent accuracy. The Five-SeveN is a popular choice for force-buy and eco rounds for its effectiveness against armored opponents.

P250

This pistol has higher damage than the Glock-18, a spawn T-side pistol. Also, the P250 is rather cheap in the game. These factors make it a nice force-buy and eco pistol.

B-Tier

The weapons of this tier are secondary choices in most situations: for full buy, you go for S-Tier, while A-Tier are better for force buy and eco rounds.

Still, these guns can be taken for casual fun, as their disadvantages are based on the economy and situational effectiveness. They also may emphasize your unique playstyle and therefore become your preferred pick.

G3SG1

• Cost: $5000
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 80
• Armor Penetration: 82.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 20/90
• Fire Rate: 240 RPM
• Penetration Power: 250%
• Movement Speed: 215

It’s an exceptionally effective marksman rifle for the T side. The G3SG1 has an automatic mode to become a dangerous assault rifle, and it can do long-range shots like a very good sniper rifle.

A high price makes the G3SG1 mainly unusable in CS2. It can be fun in casual matches, though.

SCAR-20

• Cost: $5000
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 80
• Armor Penetration: 82.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 20/90
• Fire Rate: 240 RPM
• Penetration Power: 250%
• Movement Speed: 215

A scope and an automatic mode make the SCAR-20 a nice universal CT-side weapon. Even if it loses in effectiveness to dedicated models, the rifle is really good.

However, you need to pay quite a lot for this flexibility. It’s a pretty rare choice in the Competitive and Premier CS2 modes.

UMP-45

• Cost: $1200
• Kill Award: $600
• Damage: 35
• Armor Penetration: 65%
• Magazine Capacity: 25/100
• Fire Rate: 666.67 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 230

This SMG deals high damage and comes for a low price. On the other hand, the UMP-45 has the lowest rate of fire among all SMGs in Counter-Strike 2. Combined with a low magazine capacity and a long reload time, the UMP-45 becomes a less efficient choice than the MAC-10 and the MP9.

P90

• Cost: $2350
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 26
• Armor Penetration: 69%
• Magazine Capacity: 50/100
• Fire Rate: 857.14 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 230

The P90 has clear in-game advantages: a controllable recoil and a large magazine. This allows CS2 players to spray bullets with this SMG and be quite dangerous. At the same time, the damage is relatively low, and the purchase price is rather high. Experienced players prefer other SMGs.

C-Tier

This category includes the worst choices among the popular weapon types. Also, you’ll find here good picks for the uncommon guns: heavy and shotguns.

MP7

• Cost: $1500
• Kill Award: $600
• Damage: 29
• Armor Penetration: 62.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/120
• Fire Rate: 750 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 220

It’s a pretty expensive SMG in CS2. The MP7 has a lower rate of fire than the top-tier options, but that supports a more controllable recoil and somewhat high accuracy.

You may take the MP7 for its easy-to-use qualities. The price difference is a hard blow to the economic reasons for using SMGs.

PP-Bizon

• Cost: $1400
• Kill Award: $600
• Damage: 27
• Armor Penetration: 63%
• Magazine Capacity: 64/120
• Fire Rate: 750 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 240

With the PP-Bizon, you can have a very large magazine, a high fire rate, and a low recoil. It’s a weapon pick to spread bullets all over CS2 maps. The cons include lower damage and armor penetration than other options. For competitive play, MP9 and MAC-10 are much better SMGs.

R8 Revolver

• Cost: $600
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 86
• Armor Penetration: 93.20%
• Magazine Capacity: 8/8
• Fire Rate: 120 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 180

This pistol has some advantages, but the downsides of the R8 Revolver make it unusable in competitive play. The gun is in one class with the Desert Eagle, and it even deals bigger damage while being slightly cheaper. At the same time, the R8 Revolver is much slower, which is unacceptable when you want to land a quick headshot—and that is the main purpose for it in CS2.

Dual Berettas

• Cost: $300
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 38
• Armor Penetration: 57.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/120
• Fire Rate: 500 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 240

The advantages of these dual pistols in CS2 include a high rate of fire and a large magazine. The Dual Berettas’ damage is slightly higher than of spawn pistols. At the same time, low accuracy and substantial damage dropoff make the Dual Berettas unpopular in Competitive Mode and put the pistols in this low category of our CS2 weapon tier list.

Check out our CS2 damage guide to get more info on dropoff and other aspects that directly affect the outcome of your duels.

P2000

• Cost: $200
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 35
• Armor Penetration: 50.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 13/52
• Fire Rate: 352.94 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 240

It’s another option for CT’s spawn pistol. Compared to the USP-S, the P2000 has lower accuracy and damage. Most players prefer not to take it to competitive play, despite even a larger magazine capacity.

Glock-18

• Cost: $200
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 30
• Armor Penetration: 47%
• Magazine Capacity: 20/120
• Fire Rate: 400 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 240

The default T-side pistol comes with a large magazine capacity, but its armor penetration is very low. The Glock-18 can be effective at close-range combat, but most players prefer to replace it with a more effective choice when they have this opportunity.

XM1014

• Cost: $2000
• Kill Award: $600
• Damage: 20
• Armor Penetration: 80%
• Magazine Capacity: 7/32
• Fire Rate: 171.43 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 215

It’s the only automatic shotgun in CS2. An increased rate of fire and a high kill reward make the XM1014 a good choice for anti-eco rounds. The XM1014 is pretty expensive in the game, and you need good skills to be effective with it.

MAG-7

• Cost: $1300
• Kill Award: $900
• Damage: 30
• Armor Penetration: 75%
• Magazine Capacity: 5/32
• Fire Rate: 70.59 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 225

Like all the other shotguns in CS2, the MAG-7 can be effective only in very specific situations: at a very close range. You need to know how to ambush your opponents to benefit from using this type of weapon.

The MAG-7 can play a role for your team’s economy: thanks to being the most cost-effective option among the available shotguns. A detachable magazine increases the reload speed. Only CT players can buy it, though.

Negev

• Cost: $1700
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 35
• Armor Penetration: 71%
• Magazine Capacity: 150/300
• Fire Rate: 800 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 150

The machine gun is a deadly thing thanks to its 150-round magazine and the ability to spread bullets nonstop. The downsides are substantial: a very low movement speed with this weapon and extreme inaccuracy.

For casual fun, some players can still take the Negev. Compared to the other Heavy option in Counter-Strike 2, the M249, the Negev is substantially cheaper.

D-Tier

If you think about picking these weapons, just don’t. Every gun in the bottom category of our CS2 weapon tier list has better options—even for very specific situations, like casual experiments with Heavy.

MP5-SD

• Cost: $1500
• Kill Award: $600
• Damage: 27
• Armor Penetration: 62.50%
• Magazine Capacity: 30/120
• Fire Rate: 750 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 235

In theory, the MP5-SD is designed for stealthy play, as it has a silencer. Practically, this SMG is rather expensive and has a lower rate of fire and on-run accuracy than the top-tier models.

The very niche it should be used for is not really in tune with the aggressive playstyle players prefer for SMGs. As the MP5-SD goes to one slot with the MP7, you better take that weapon as your expensive submachine gun.

M249

• Cost: $5200
• Kill Award: $300
• Damage: 32
• Armor Penetration: 80%
• Magazine Capacity: 100/200
• Fire Rate: 750 RPM
• Penetration Power: 200%
• Movement Speed: 195

This machine gun is the most costly weapon in Counter-Strike, and this expense is not reasonable beyond some fun in casual play. The M249 deals high damage, and its magazine is really large. The inaccuracy and slow movement speed compensate for that.

Nova

• Cost: $1050
• Kill Award: $900
• Damage: 26
• Armor Penetration: 50%
• Magazine Capacity: 8/32
• Fire Rate: 68.18 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 220

The shotgun combines a cheap price, which makes the Nova an appropriate economic investment, and a very low armor penetration. It’s a weird mix, as the Nova may not be the most effective choice for one-shot kills.

Sawed-Off

• Cost: $1100
• Kill Award: $900
• Damage: 32
• Armor Penetration: 75%
• Magazine Capacity: 7/32
• Fire Rate: 70.59 RPM
• Penetration Power: 100%
• Movement Speed: 210

Compared to other shotguns, the Sawed-Off loses its effectiveness at mid-range more significantly. Beyond that, the Sawed-Off is cheap and deadly when used face-to-face.

Tips for Choosing the Right Weapon

It’s always a good idea to buy the best weapons in CS2, but you should consider other factors. Here are some tips to help you always make the best purchases.

Conclusion

Throughout countless Counter-Strike matches, the community distinguished the general effectiveness of each weapon. In addition to the practical characteristics, players consider economic factors. It’s a foundation for our CS2 weapon tier list.

You should consider these tiers for your purchases as well as personal preferences. The choice should change according to the situation in each round. Also, don’t forget that Counter-Strike is a team game: your weapon buys should consider thr purchases and roles of your teammates.

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