Full CS2 Case Guide: What’s Inside, How to Get Them, Their History, and More!

Valve occasionally invented the trendiest microtransaction scheme. It started with Team Fortress 2. The game featured a ton of boxes that players could open to receive new weapons and hats, which was very popular. Soon, Valve added boxes to their next games. One such was CS:GO (and then CS2), whose case system we’ll explore on this page.

But before we start… If you’re familiar with CS2 cases at the base level, you know they are difficult to receive. Third-party sites can fix it. For example, you can earn crystals on Farmskins by opening each case, which allows you to purchase cases for free in the future. The site also has free cases that you can open daily without a key requirement!

History of Cases in CS:GO

When CS:GO was launched in its first ALPHA and BETA patches, there were no cases. In August 2013, Valve added the eSports 2013 Case which allowed to win knives for players who’ve completed several VAC-secured matches.

The first game’s case was a success, which incentivized Valve to develop cases and add 4 new ones quickly. Since then, Valve has released several cases each year, including the ones that can drop randomly at any time or during eSports matches.

How to Get a Case

There are several ways to receive the CS2 case, the first of which is through match drops. Anyone who has a full-fledged CS account is entitled to a weekly case and weapon drop that occurs randomly after matches.

The next way to get a case is through weekly rewards. This progress system implies that you must gain experience to receive threshold rewards. Unlike match drops, weekly rewards can’t provide you with the freshest and most expensive cases, which makes them lacking.

If you want to exclude the randomness when receiving cases, you might want to buy them. They’re available in the Steam market. Alternatively, you can trade your items for cases, which requires you to find a person with a desired case and send him a trade offer.

How to Open a Case

Each in-game case requires a key to open. Keys cost $2.49 each, and you can purchase them from the Steam market or the CS2 client directly. You can also trade keys.

Types of CS2 Cases

By 2024, Valve had invented many different cases. The first is a basic weapon case, which contains around 15 unique weapon skins and some knives with random patterns. One such case is the Riptide Case. It contains Desert Eagle Ocean Drive, AK-47 Leet Museo, Glock-18 Snack Attack, SSG 08 Turbo Peek, and several patterns for Butterfly Knife, Huntsman Knife, Falchion Knife, etc.

Next, we have capsules. These box types carry stickers, many of which are dedicated to teams and tourna ments; however, they also feature some general design stickers. There are also graffiti stickers.

Quite recently, Valve added patches to the game. You can get these solely from patch capsules, which sell on the Steam market for $1. A similar situation with music kits. If you want to change the track that plays at the end of the round, you must buy music kit boxes for $6+.

Alternative Way to Open Cases

Beginning case openers don’t know that the CS client isn’t the only place to open cases. You may also do it at case-opening sites. Their benefit is that they offer plenty of bonuses and unique features.

For example, if you access such a site for the first time, you might loot a welcome offer. It will give you several bucks or free cases. Further on, case-opening sites will provide you with a VIP program that rewards you according to your deposits.

Such sites also add cases on events. Most commonly, event cases have a good price-to-profit ratio and are available for a limited time. Besides arriving on common celebrations (like Christmas or Halloween), event cases also appear on less important dates like the beginning of the educational year.

Another benefit of case-opening sites is unique cases. For example, the site that we recommend at the beginning of this page has Discovered Cases. They allow you to open a case 3 times for the price of one or take one of those 3 items.

Finally, case-opening sites offer unique opening modes. Case battles are probably the coolest of them. They allow you to team up and fight the other openers to see who can open the most expensive items. What’s then? If your total item price is more expensive than your opponents have, you take home your and their loot.