CS2 Inferno Guide and Tactics for Both Sides

CS2 Inferno Guide - Header Image — CS2 Inferno Guide

Inferno is one of Counter-Strike’s oldest and most revered maps. Set in a peaceful Italian village, it turns the paesino into a war zone. The map has a three-lane design, a bit different from other classic maps like Mirage and Dust II. The only way to get to B other than Banana is via CT-Spawn, meaning you have to slip past the A defense to perform a split. This, along with the apartments on A, makes the map strategically deeper than its other two classic counterparts. This CS2 Inferno guide will help you navigate these intricacies, though! We'll go over each site and Mid, and how they should be played on both sides—but before that, some general tips.

General Tips

Learning utility usage on Inferno is absolutely crucial on both sides. While you can get away with knowing only a few smokes on Mirage or Dust II, on Inferno, you have to know everything your opponents can throw at you. From simple smokes to molotov timings, you should definitely watch some YouTube tutorials on the map. We recommend NadeKing.

Beyond that, Inferno is perhaps the best map for CT aggression, so beware if you’re a terrorist. With a lot of variants and the spawn-to-bottom-mid smoke, you can end up with a nasty surprise waiting in Banana, Apartments, and Mid. If you’re on CT, give different looks every time, but coordinate. If you rush down Banana without help from Mid, you’ll lose the site. A good setup may lock your opponents in a pincer.

Finally, this is perhaps the worst map to go for solo plays. They rarely work. Play with your team, and you will be rewarded.

A-Site

CT Side

Being a CT on A is perhaps the most diverse CT experience you’ll get. You can AWP Middle, you can play passive, and you have many different positions, including a boost on Short to look forward to. This site is a labyrinth of sorts, and you can get away with doing a lot. The most important positions are Balcony, Under Balcony, Pit, Graveyard, Library, Porch, Apartments, Boiler… as you can see, there’s a bunch of places you can set up in. Equally, however, there are a bunch of angles to defend, as your opponents can come from Apartments, Long, and Short. The deeper you go, the more potential angles you have to defend, making teamwork paramount. If you have only two people on A for some reason, we’d stick to a pretty passive defense from Library and Pit, for example. If you are playing 3A, you can go a bit wild, setting up crossfires in Mid or going aggressive into Apartments.

T Side

As you can see, the CTs have various choices when defending, making the job of a T extremely unpredictable. This isn’t B, where you can run in with a simple execute, and most of the time, it’ll be a question of out-aiming your opponent. On A, you have to be really methodical and careful.

The most important thing you should do is save your mollies for Pit, Under Balcony, and the site itself. Smoking off Long will also help if you haven’t managed a split, ensuring that the only position you really have to worry about is Graveyard.

It seems simple, right? Well, the approach to A is the real issue. You’re likely to face duels when you come out of Mid or Apartments, so you might want to use your utility on Long or Short, depending on where you want to approach from. This puts you at a disadvantage when entering the site. Going into Mid without the utility may result in a quick sweep against your team. So what’s the solution?

B Presence. If the other team thinks you’re going B, you’re going to face fewer players, particularly on Short and in Apps, meaning you’ll be able to take more risks. To do so, you need to take Banana early… and keep it. Banana presence will also be useful in stifling rotations. Keep reading to learn the most important aspects of taking Banana and faking B in order to free up A.

B-Site

CT Side

Playing CT on B is all about one choice—taking Banana, or playing passive. Playing passive is safe and will put you in a good position to counter any potential simple B-hits, but playing aggressively can be round-winning, quickly limiting the space your opponents have to execute their strats.

The main flashpoint of all this is Car. The timing is such that teams have each other in their sights by the time the CTs reach the position or the half-wall nearby. Holding that position will allow you a sightline down Banana and to make a choice whether to continue onto Logs and take full control, or simply set up safely on Sandbags and listen out for any executes. Throwing down a bunch of utility down Banana, particularly molotovs, will secure you against any mad rushes but will leave you open for late-round aggression. A good idea is to have one extra player from A come over to drop utility before securing the site.

In the site itself, there are a few nooks and crannies to hide in, most notably Coffins, Quad Box, Dark, and the 1st and 2nd boxes. Coming from CT-Spawn, you also have a position near Church and a sneaky boost onto Flower Pot… Just use it sparingly, because it’s a bit of a one-hit wonder otherwise.

Whatever happens, you don’t want to be stuck with a B retake, given that it’s perhaps the hardest site to retake in all of Counter-Strike. Playing a single B anchor is risky, but might be great if you see that the T-Side is struggling with taking the site from Banana.

T Side

B is a tough nut to crack; however, with a good plan and utility, you might just be able to take it. The crucial part is taking Banana, and you can do so patiently, waiting for the CT aggression, or impatiently, extinguishing mollies and going for it. The former is usually what we would go for, but if you notice that the B defense is lazy or smaller than usual, this might be a great idea to force a reaction.

Once you have control of Car, you have one question to answer: whether you should keep going or hit the pause button. Oftentimes at lower levels, taking Banana will result in an over-rotation, so keeping one lurk while running into A with your full force may be a great counter. However, if you have some smokes and mollies left over, a full-on execute may be a great way to surprise your opponents.

A rare way to take B is the CT wrap. This is usually hard, as the CTs are defending A, meaning they’re more than likely to see and hear you coming and relay the info to the B defenders. However, with a bit of luck and good timing, you might get away with it, especially if you throw in a sneaky lurker to do the thing, particularly if your opponents have the tendency to avoid defending Long altogether. A pincer maneuver towards B is much harder to defend but still doesn’t guarantee a round win unless the B defense is caught totally unaware.

Whatever strategy you choose, observe your opponents, count the utility, and react based on that.

Mid & Second Mid

CT Side

The battle for Mid is a bit different than most maps, since the lane here is actually… two lanes, with a labyrinthine system of apartments connecting them on different levels. This means that CT aggression is limited by the risk of exposure to many different angles, focusing the main battle on two positions: Top-Mid, and Apartments.

If you want to play Top-Mid aggressively, you better go for an AWP at the start of the round. Hell, this position is one where some people actually double-scope their Big Green.

Otherwise, you have a few ways to play Apartments. If your teammate has Bottom-Mid covered, you can play aggressively from Window and hope that nobody manages to get through the T-Apps to your left. However, more typically, you’ll be playing defense from Boiler Room, or the A-Site Balcony, or you’ll leave the position to the terrorists altogether, going for a passive A defense instead.

T Side

This is the rare map where the Ts have a distinct advantage on Mid, given that they are usually pretty safe there unless a YOLO AWPer comes along to try and snipe them down. This means that you’re most likely to battle it out when you enter Apartments. You can do so through the door on the right side of the map, or via a skill-jump to Window. The former is definitely the quicker option; however, Window room is sometimes left uncovered in some passive setups, allowing you to sneak through to Boiler. Essentially, it all depends on your read as to what the defense is doing and how they’re set up.

There’s also a great wallbang spot when on the 2nd Mid Bridge, allowing you to take some health off of a player defending from the site-side hallway. If you know somebody’s standing in that corner or rushing Apps round after round, it’s worth it to try for a wallbang, though plenty of players know to look out for that particular maneuver.

Conclusion

Your main takeaway from this guide should be that Inferno, more than any other map, is based primarily on communication and coordination. We know many great aimers who struggle there, as duels are hard to find, and a puggy style fails more often than on Mirage and Dust. That’s why you should talk to your teammates, use utility wisely, and don’t go looking for duels without the proper setup. And hey, if you haven't already, check out our CS2 Mirage guide next!

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