Money is a major gameplay mechanic featured in the Counter-Strike series. Players start out a match with a specified amount (usually $800 but can be changed into nearly any price), and will receive more as the match goes on, with the maximum amount a player can have set to $16000.
Players receive money for completing rounds, with more money awarded for winning a round. On servers that use plugins to give players large cash reserves, money management is less important than in servers that do not artificially adjust them.
Players use money to buy various weapons and equipment. When looking at a player's saved loadouts on the buy menu, any loadout that cannot be fully-purchased with the player's current cash reserve will be slightly grayed-out, as will specific weapons and items in the categories of equipment. Often times, players may be forced to pick a different weapon selection than they prefer due to monetary limitations.
The money system has been slightly updated in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to award differing reward amounts for getting kills with certain weapons and currently any money gain/loss is noted above the player's health in the HUD with text notifying what the change was for (such as "$300 awarded for planting the C4" or "$300 awarded for neutralizing an enemy with the M4A4"). In addition, if playing a Casual Mode game, all money awards for kills are halved.
Counter-Strike to Counter-Strike: Source
Money rewards
- Killing enemy players ($300)
- Interacting with hostages (gives the player $150 each, but only the first time they interact with that specific hostage)
- Rescuing hostages ($1000)
- Completing rounds ($3250 to the team that eliminates all enemy players in defusal maps or a time win, $3500 for the Terrorists if the bomb explodes and $3600 if all enemy players are eliminated in hostage maps)
- $850 team reward for the CT side for every hostage they rescue even if they lose the round.
- If Terrorists were able to plant the bomb but lose the round, all Terrorists receive an $800 bonus in addition to the cash values above.
In Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero games:
- Killing the VIP as a Terrorist ($2500)
- Successfully guarantee the escape of the VIP as a Counter-Terrorist ($2500)
- The losing team receives:
- $1400 after losing the first round
- $1900 after losing 2 rounds in a row
- $2400 after losing 3 rounds in a row
- $2900 after losing 4 rounds in a row
- $3400 after losing 5 or more rounds in a row
Penalties
- Every time the player injures a hostage they will receive a -$150 penalty
- Killing hostages (-$1500)
- Killing the VIP as a CT (-$3300)
- Killing a Teammate (-$3300)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
All information below only applies to Classic Modes (Casual and Competitive) as Arsenal and Deathmatch do not use money.The Money cap in Casual Mode has been changed to $10000 as opposed to $16000 in Competitive.
Kill awards
| Weapon/Equipment | Casual | Competitive |
|---|---|---|
| Knife | $750 | $1500 |
| Pistol | $150 | $300 |
| - CZ75-Auto* | $50 | $100 |
| Submachine gun | $300 | $600 |
| - P90* | $150 | $300 |
| Shotgun | $450 | $900 |
| Rifle | $150 | $300 |
| - AWP* | $50 | $100 |
| Grenade | $100 | $300 |
| Zeus x27 | $0 | $0 |
| * indicates exceptions. | ||
Round end rewards
| Objective | Team Reward |
|---|---|
| Winning By Team Elimination (Bomb Defusal) | $3250 |
| Winning By Team Elimination (Hostage Rescue) | $3000 |
| Winning By Time Win | $3250 |
| Winning By Bomb Defusal (CT) | $3500 |
| Winning By Bomb Detonation (T) | $3500 |
| Winning By Hostage Rescue (CT) | $2900 |
| Losing 1 Round In A Row | $1400 + $800 if bomb planted as T |
| Losing 2 Rounds In A Row | $1900 + $800 if bomb planted as T |
| Losing 3 Rounds In A Row | $2400 + $800 if bomb planted as T |
| Losing 4 Rounds In A Row | $2900 + $800 if bomb planted as T |
| Losing 5+ Rounds In A Row | $3400 + $800 if bomb planted as T |
- Players who committed suicide will not receive any round-end money to discourage "denying" (prevent the enemy from getting a kill award by committing suicide).
- In Bomb defusal mode, surviving Terrorists will not receive any round-end money if the round is lost by running out of time.
Round start
- At the start of a normal round, players will retain the amount of money they have in the last round.
- At the start of the warmup, players will have their money set to the money cap of the game mode.
- At the start of the pistol round, players will have their money set to $800 in Competitive and $1000 in Casual.
Penalties
- When the player injures hostages, the player will receive a -$30 penalty for every point of damage dealt to the hostage.
- In competitive mode, teamkilling will result in a penalty of -$300.
Other
- Picking up a hostage awards $600 for the whole team.
- Defusing or planting the bomb awards $300 for the team.
Achievements
- Special
|
War Bonds Earn $125,000 total cash. |
|
Spoils of War Earn $2,500,000 total cash. |
|
Blood Money Earn $50,000,000 total cash. |
|
The Frugal Beret Win 10 rounds without dying and not spending any cash. |
- Team Tactics
|
War Bonds Earn $50,000 total cash. |
|
Spoils of War Earn $2,500,000 total cash. |
|
Blood Money Earn $50,000,000 total cash. |
|
The Frugal Beret Win ten rounds without dying or spending any cash in Classic mode. |
Trivia
- The currency used in all of the Counter-Strike games is the U.S. Dollar.
- In some maps (especially in the beta), money can be seen as (unobtainable) props.
- The money cap of $16000 can be exceeded with customization of a server.
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