What are Operations in Counter-Strike? | CS2 Operation Rumors and Speculations

Counter-Strike Operations have a long and storied history of awesome skins, fun maps, and new additions to the game… but it’s been a while since we’ve had one, so let’s talk about what these operations actually are and what — and when can we expect the next operation in Counter-Strike 2.

Operations are a form of DLC in Counter-Strike that introduces new maps and new skins, as well as an Event Pass that allows you to get rewards in exchange for buying the pass. Completing the Operation Pass usually gets you skins worth about at least as much as the pass price itself, meaning that it might be a good idea to buy it if you’re willing to put in the work completing quests.

So far, there have been eleven Operations in Counter-Strike, all in Global Offensive, starting with Operation Payback in 2013 and ending with Operation Riptide which started in September 2022 and ended in February 2023. Ever since then, we haven’t seen a new operation as Valve focused on bringing CS2 to the masses. But let’s start from the beginning.

How do Operations Work?

The Operation Coin

Let’s start with the old school aspect of operations, the Operation Coin.

The Operation Coin is essentially your progress tracker, allowing you to see how the Operation is going for you, the Coin has four tiers - Bronze, Silver, Gold and Diamond. The Tiers are defined by your progress in the operation. For operation Riptide the Coin had the following requirements:

Bronze Coin - Purchase the Operation Pass Silver Coin - Earn 33 Stars Gold Coin - Earn 66 Stars Diamond Coin - Earn 100 Stars

Operation Stars

Earning Stars is easy. It requires you to simply complete missions. Some missions are extremely simple (e.g. win one match), while others require some skill to complete (e.g. Deal 300 utility damage in a wingman match).

Stars allow you to progress your coin, but they also allow you to buy rewards from the star shop, which include skins, stickers, and patches. Using stars to make purchases won’t take away from your Coin Level, so don’t worry about that.

Operation Shop

The shop features everything from cases (you’ll still need to buy keys to open these) to particular Agent skins, or classic collections and skins from them. These purchases will allow you to recoup a big part of the money you spent on the Operation. For example, Operation Riptide cost $14.99, and the Operation Riptide Case never cost less than $0.50 and you could get one for 2 stars. This means that you only needed around 60 stars to recoup the cost of the Operation, AT WORST. The Operation Riptide Case now costs over $5 dollars, meaning that if you got the Diamond Coin and spent every star on cases, you’d have 50 cases worth $5.50 each, giving you $275, thus a $260 profit, as long as you hold on to the cases for around a year. That’s a pretty good deal, and that’s not even the only way to go about it, as you can mix and match risk with reward pretty well. Thus, the Operation becomes a bit of an investment.

That said, remember that every operation thus far operated in different ways, and thus there’s no one surefire way to say what the next one will be. But hey, we love speculating, so let’s speculate about what’s coming up!

CS2 Operation Rumors

We’ve heard rumors for a while about additional cosmetic items being released in the form of keychains for the weapons (known from Rainbow Six Siege, or Valorant), these would be a fun extra way to customize your gun, and just as Operation Shattered Web introduced Agents in 2019, we believe that the new Operation might introduce keychains, or perhaps, utility and bomb skins, as these have also been rumored to be coming our way for a long while.

What’s more is that CS2 has been lacking many of the game modes available in CS:GO. With Arms Race returning, we’re still waiting for the likes of Retakes, Demolition or Flying Scoutsman. With an Operation, these could return to the game as a place for missions.

Finally, a new operation means our favorite thing here on PirateSwap! New skins! We won’t speculate as to what these will be, but we’re sure some awesome community creations will be grabbing the bag.

And that’s all we know! We’re looking forward to the first Operation in CS2! Give us your guesses as to what it will be called on our socials!

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