All About Cases in Counter-Strike 2

Thanks to the recent launch of Counter-Strike 2, Valve’s seminal multiplayer shooter series has never been more popular.

That makes this a perfect moment to take a look at cases, a longstanding yet controversial addition to the game that has allowed it to become a massive free-to-play competitor to Fortnite, PUBG, and others.

All About Cases

If you’ve never opened a case before, and generally don’t approve of these newfangled microtransactions, don’t worry. Cases in CS2 contain exclusively cosmetic items, such as skins for character models, guns, and knives. There’s no pay-to-win here.

Nevertheless, thanks to the invisible hand of the market these cosmetic items can end up being extremely valuable, depending on their rarity and desirability—so valuable that there’s a whole industry of websites like hellcase.com that exist to get around Steam’s $2,000 balance limit.

There are two ways to obtain cases in CS2. You can either earn them through gameplay or you can buy them directly. Either way, you’ll need to buy a key to get the thing open.

While you can never know exactly what’s going to come out of a case, it’s always possible to see the contents. The more expensive a case is, the more likely it is to contain rare and valuable items, and it can be a thrill opening a case that you know for a fact is harboring a virtual object worth as much as a second hand car.

Whether you actually get your hands on that item when you use your key is down to chance.

There are themed collections and limited edition releases, too, designed to only be around for a short while. These generally prompt a stampede among players looking to get hold of unique and potentially profitable stuff.

The Most Expensive CS2 Cases

At this point, you’re no doubt wondering just how much money there is to be made by opening virtual boxes in CS2, and where you need to go to find them. We can’t guarantee you riches, but we can tell you about some of the most expensive cases in the game.

Weapon Case

This is your basic all-purpose CS2 case, containing weapon skins at all levels of desirability, from cheap and common to rare and valuable. Opening a Weapon Case could net you, for example, an M4A4 Howl skin, worth a couple of thousand bucks.

Huntsman Weapon Case

The Huntsman contains an assortment of goodies, including weapon cosmetics and several highly valuable knife skins. As ever, you’re much more likely to end up with a common skin than a rare one, but this is still a hugely popular case.

That means Huntsman Case Keys are pretty pricey, currently selling for around $19 on the Steam Community Market.

Operation Hydra Case

This one is linked to the Operation Hydra event, making it a limited edition package containing rare and valuable items—though your odds of obtaining these items are relatively slim. To open the Operation Hydra Case you’ll need an Operation Hydra Case Key, which costs a smidge more than a standard key on the open market.

There are tons of others, yielding items that are worth considerably less than the price of the key you used to open them, and items that are worth enough to cover your rent for the next three months.

As always, the house is destined to win in the end, but you might just hit the jackpot if you’re lucky.

You can download Counter-Strike 2 from Steam, and the game’s official site is here.