If you think playing Counter-Strike is a waste of time since you don’t earn money from it, you’re slightly wrong. Active CS2 players who meet certain criteria are eligible to receive free item drops from Lord Gaben himself.
These free rewards come in the form of weapon cases, graffiti, or CS2 skins. Once a player obtains a drop, they can immediately use the item or sell it for real money on the Steam Marketplace.
In the past, in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, players would receive a random drop once a week for playing a set amount of matches on Valve matchmaking servers. However, in the introduction to CS2, the entire weekly drop system has been reworked. This article will cover everything you need about the new CS2 drop reward system and how to get CS:GO drops for free.
What Is The Weekly CS2 Drop System?
The weekly drop system is an incentive created by Valve to ensure players are actively playing CS2. As the name suggests, players who log in and complete matches regularly will receive item drops as free rewards.
Frankly speaking, playing CS2 for item drops will not make you rich, as the items you will receive are completely random. However, there’s a high chance you will get drops worth less than a dollar. Still, these drops are completely free, and free stuff is always appreciated.
In the past, all you needed to do to receive a drop from Counter-Strike was to play matches on official Valve matchmaking servers. You must play a certain number of matches or spend a specific amount of time on the game, and you’ll receive an item drop at the end of a match.
The game mode you play and your performance in the game would not matter. This was a massive flaw in Valve’s system, and players would abuse it to receive free items. They would make alternate accounts and go AFK and get free items for doing absolutely nothing.
As a result, Valve has come up with a new way of dropping items, which is called the “Care Package” system.
New Care Package System – How Do CS2 Drops Work?
In Counter-Strike: 2, you will not receive item drops at the end of a match. To get item drops with the new system, you will receive Care Packages that contain item drops.
If you couldn’t guess already, these Care Packages contain items, and not only one. A package contains four items: a random weapon skin, a random weapon case, and two random graffiti sprays.
Players are able to choose two items of the four choices. For the most profit, it is usually best to pick the weapon skin and weapon case, as Graffiti in CS2 won’t fetch you more than ten cents. However, you’re completely free to choose!
Though the new system is more refined than how drops worked in CS:GO, players would receive less free items now than they would before.
How To Get Drops In CS2? (Care Packages)
Care Packages sound pretty cool, right? Yes, it’s free, but there are certain requirements on how CS:GO drops work. Let’s go over the two main factors you must note and discuss how do CS:GO drops work.
Have A Prime Protected CS2 Account
The first criterion is the most important. To be eligible to receive Care Packages, a player’s account must be protected by CS2’s Prime system.
Counter-Strike: 2 is completely free to play, but Valve has put a paywall for players looking to access the game’s full experience. As a result, only players with a Prime Status will be able to receive Care Packages.
There are two ways to get a Prime account:
- If you purchased CS:GO when it was a paid game, your account will automatically be protected by the Prime Status.
- Prime protection can be purchased directly from the in-game store for $14.99. Unfortunately, the “free” drops from weekly Care Packages aren’t actually free.
So, you must pay Valve $14.99, whether it was through purchasing CS:GO initially or buying the Prime Status from the store. Still, if you are an active CS2 player, you will eventually receive enough drops that will accumulate to $14.99 when sold on the Steam Marketplace.
Once you have paid off your $14.99 investment, you will be able to infinitely receive weekly Care Packages.
Level Up Your Account Every Week
Care Packages are a weekly thing, which is why they are usually called “Weekly Care Packages,” and there is an apparent reason for this.
When playing CS2 matches, players will receive XP (experience points) for completing the game. Players can accumulate XP and level up to the next rank. If you’re an active player, leveling up will only take you a handful of matches, and it’s not impossible to level up three to five times a week.
As a result, players can finally receive a Care Package by reaching the next level. After leveling up from completing a match, the Care Package will directly be sent to your account.
You can farm XP points by playing in the following game modes:
- Premier Mode
- Competitive Mode
- Wingman Mode
- Casual Mode
- Deathmatch Mode
However, you are only able to receive one Care Package per week!
So, when a week is reset, you will only get your Care Package from the first time you leveled up. A “Care Package week” in CS2 refreshes every Wednesday.
If you are trying to maximize farming Care Packages weekly, it could be wise to collect XP points and stop before you are about to level up. Once the sun rises on Wednesday, you can get those last few remaining points and get your Care Package immediately.
Still, playing more than five Premier or Competitive matches a week should realistically be enough to get your weekly Care Package secured.
Note: Only Works In Official Valve Servers!
On a side note, it is important to remember that XP points and Care Package drops can only be obtained when playing on official Valve matchmaking servers.
To ensure you are on Valve servers, select the “Matchmaking” category under the “Play” button. The “Practice” and “Workshop” categories will not give you free drops!
Back in CS:GO, players could receive item drops by playing in community servers, which is why there are numerous servers created for players to go AFK and receive item drops. This abuse of the system can no longer work.
What Drops Can You Expect To Receive?
There are three main types of items you can get from Care Packages:
- Graffiti sprays (2x drop in a Care Package)
- Weapon skins (1x drop in a Care Package)
- Weapon cases (1x drop in a Care Package)
Let’s go over each type of drop and dive a little deeper on each.
Graffiti Sprays
In CS2, graffiti sprays are a fun touch for players to express themselves in a game. These sprays can be pasted on walls and floors during rounds. However, monetarily, they aren’t worth much.
Most graffiti drops won’t fetch you more than ten cents on the Steam Marketplace, so it is almost always not worth it to pick graffiti sprays over the weapon case or weapon skin drops.
Even if there is a funny graffiti spray that you want to take from a Care Package, it could be a wise economic decision to take the case or skin, sell it on the market, and buy the same spray at a lower price.
Weapon Skins
Most of the time, it is the best option to select the CS2 weapon skin option as one of your two choices.
You can expect to receive weapon skin drops from eight skin collections. Here is a list of all the collections and the three best drops you can obtain from each:
The 2018 Inferno Collection
- SG 553 | Integrale ($4.86 – $128.18) *Best possible drop you can get*
- AK-47 | Safety Net ($2.95 – $8.00)
- P250 | Vino Primo ($0.75 – $7.97)
The 2018 Nuke Collection
- M4A1-S | Control Panel ($6.22 – $70.46)
- Glock-18 | Nuclear Garden ($1.27 – $7.39)
- Tec-9 | Remote Control ($1.04 – $6.14)
The Bank Collection
- AK-47 | Emerald Pinstripe ($2.30 – $10.28)
- P250 | Franklin ($0.65 – $1.75)
- Desert Eagle | Meteorite ( $0.64 – $1.12)
The Italy Collection
- M4A1-S | Boreal Forest ($0.06 – $2.01)
- Glock-18 | Candy Apple ($0.30 – $0.75)
- Nova | Candy Apple ($0.07 – $0.11)
The Lake Collection
- Dual Berettas | Cobalt Quartz ($0.12 – $0.26)
- AWP | Safari Mesh ($0.06 – $1.26)
- P90 | Teardown ( $0.16 – $0.54)
The Safehouse Collection
- M4A1-S | Nitro ($0.35 – $6.75)
- SSG 08 | Acid Fade ($1.01)
- FAMAS | Teardown (0.17 – $0.63)
The Train Collection
- M4A4 | Urban DDPAT ($0.09 – $2.80)
- Tec-9 | Red Quartz ($0.12 – $0.24)
- Desert Eagle | Urban Rubble ($0.19 – $0.53)
The Dust 2 Collection
- P2000 | Amber Fade ($2.85 – $9.62)
- AK-47 | Safari Mesh ($0.08 – $2.38)
- PP-Bizon | Brass ($0.34 – $2.18)
With all these skins and prices in mind, you have to be really lucky to get anything good, and something “good” will not even guarantee you a nice cash injection. The best weapon skin drop you can receive is the SG 553 | Integrale, but you will need it to come in at least Minimal Wear condition for some decent profit.
Weapon Cases
Players have a chance to receive 29 of the 40 CS2 weapon cases in the game. However, the odds of receiving cases differ. This can be an alternative for those who do not want to buy CS2 cases.
Valve significantly increases the drop chances of the five most recently released cases. Each of the five cases below have close to a 20% chance of dropping:
- Kilowatt Weapon Case ($1.25)
- Dreams & Nightmares Weapon Case ($0.76)
- Fracture Weapon Case ($0.21)
- Recoil Weapon Case ($0.13)
- Revolution Weapon Case ($0.28)
Six weapon cases are discontinued and cannot be received as drops:
- Operation Riptide Weapon Case
- Operation Broken Fang Weapon Case
- Operation Shattered Web Weapon Case
- eSports 2014 Summer Weapon Case
- eSports 2013 Winter Weapon Case
- eSports 2013 Weapon Case
The remaining 29 weapon cases are incredibly rare, only having around a 0.03% chance of dropping. You can consider yourself very lucky if you get any of the three most valuable cases:
- CS:GO Weapon Case ($71.36)
- Operation Bravo Weapon Case ($36.78)
- Operation Hydra Weapon Case ($14.10)