How To Get Cases In CS2: Price, Best Knives, Best Weapons And More

It can be tempting to open CS:GO cases or, more recently, CS2 cases, but you should be aware of a few factors first. Here is how CS2 cases operate, including how to purchase and open cases as well as whether you should.

Although Counter-Strike is well known for its intense 5v5 matches, slick gameplay, and thriving esports sector, the game also has an in-game economy that is worth billions of dollars.

All of this originates from cases that you can open for a modest fee in exchange for possibly receiving a pricey item.

With the release of CS2, case openings have increased significantly in 2023, with big streamers attempting their luck to obtain a knife in more cases opened each month than ever before. But do cases merit opening, and if so, how can you acquire them?

In Counter-Strike 2, you can obtain a case in one of two methods. We shall describe both of these approaches.

Case drops

The first option is cost-free and just entails playing the game. You will receive a weekly drop and have the option to select a case as one of your rewards if you rank up your account level for the first time in a given week. Although there is a 99% probability that the case you receive will come from the “active drop pool,” it will be completely random. There are five of these open at the moment: the Revolution Case, Recoil Case, Dreams & Nightmares Case, Snakebite Case, and Fracture Case.

You have a 1% chance of getting a “rare” case drop, which is usually a more expensive case. Later on, we’ll go into case prices.

Cases purchased

Cases can also be obtained by purchasing them, which is the only option if you intend to open multiple cases. In addition to third-party websites, you can purchase cases via the Steam Market.

Upon purchasing a case or several cases, they will be placed to your inventory and made available for opening. This manner, you can purchase any case you like and check to see what skins and knives are contained within each one.

If you decide not to open the cases, you may also resale them on the open market, but keep in mind that there is a 15% fee, so you won’t get your money back in full unless the case’s value has improved.

How to start a case in CS2

A key is the final item you need once you have a case or cases you wish to open in order to access them.

A single key that is unique to each scenario is needed. Just before opening the case, you can purchase the key directly from Steam. But take note: Steam market keys cannot be returned or sold, so only purchase them if you intend to use them.

You will be able to examine all the possible skins before opening the case as well as the cost of the key you must purchase.

How much are the CS2 case keys?

Case keys are available for a one-time fee of $2.49, or its equivalent in your currency. It will cost you substantially more to purchase keys from the Steam Market. Purchase them straight from the game’s store.

If you do purchase a key from the Steam Market, it indicates that it is still tradable because it was purchased prior to the update in which Valve deemed all keys non-tradable. To recuperate your investment, you should just resell it on the Steam Market.

CS2 case odds

Of course, the chances of opening a case and finding a rare item like a stealth skin, knife, or gloves are not particularly high.

When you open a case, you usually get a “Mil-Spec” (blue rarity) item, however occasionally you’ll also get a Restricted (purple) or Classified (pink) item. The case odds are displayed here in CS2:

There is still no mention of StatTrak products. A 10% possibility exists that each item in a case will be “StatTrak.” This gives the weapon or knife a kill counter (but not the gloves, because you can’t kill foes while wearing gloves!).

Cases are they worth it?

As you can see, you will receive a Blue or Purple skin in 95% of the cases you open, with a Blue skin appearing most frequently. Except in a few exceptional cases, Blue and Purple skins are always the least expensive, often costing just a few cents to a few dollars at most.

You lose, on average, 60–70% of your money with every case, given the cost of the case and the key. Therefore, if you spent $100 on cases, you will most likely obtain $30 to $40 in value.

Naturally, it’s always a possibility that you’ll be extremely fortunate and open a Knife with your first case, generating a huge profit. But the chances of this are extremely slim.

Instead of wasting money on cases, you should just purchase the skins you want from the Steam Market or other websites.

Best examples to open in CS2

Even with the poor odds, you should at least try to start cases that will yield the highest returns if you can’t help but feel the temptation to try your luck on a few.

These are the best CS2 cases to open in 2023 based on the average cost of the skins in the case and the cost of the case & key:

There aren’t any “most profitable” CS:GO scenarios if that’s what you’re searching for. You simply need to be extremely lucky in order to make money opening cases.

CS2 cases with knives

Obviously, the knives are what appeals to people the most when they open cases. There is a 0.26% probability that you will receive a knife (or gloves) on average out of every 400 cases.

Green butterfly knife from Summit1g

This is a rare Emerald Butterfly Knife, which sells for over $20,000.

However, not all knives are available in every case. For example, the coveted Butterfly Knife, the most expensive type of knife, is only in three specific cases. Here are some of the most desired knives in CS2, and which cases they are in.

Butterfly Knife cases

• Operation Breakout Case
• Dreams & Nightmares Case
• Operation Riptide Case

Karambit cases

• Gamma Case
• Gamma 2 Case
• Chroma Case
• Chroma 2 Case
• Chroma 3 Case
• Revolver Case
• Operation Vanguard Weapon Case
• Operation Pheonix Weapon Case
• eSports 2014 Summer Case
• Winter Offensive Weapon Case
• CS:GO Weapon Case 3
• eSports 2013 Winter Case
• CS:GO Weapon Case 2
• eSports 2013 Case
• Operation Bravo Case
• CS:GO Weapon Case

M9 Bayonet cases

• Gamma Case
• Gamma 2 Case
• Chroma Case
• Chroma 2 Case
• Chroma 3 Case
• Revolver Case
• Operation Vanguard Weapon Case
• Operation Pheonix Weapon Case
• eSports 2014 Summer Case
• Winter Offensive Weapon Case
• CS:GO Weapon Case 3
• eSports 2013 Winter Case
• CS:GO Weapon Case 2
• eSports 2013 Case
• Operation Bravo Case
• CS:GO Weapon Case

Skeleton Knife cases

• Fracture Case
• Shattered Web Case
• Pandora’s Box Gloves cases
• Glove Case
• Operation Hydra Case
• Vice Gloves cases
• Clutch Case
• Revolution Case

Most expensive CS2 cases

• CS:GO Weapon Case: $81.95
• Operation Bravo Case: $56.64
• eSports 2013 Case: $47.99
• Operation Hydra Case: $27.73
• CS:GO Weapon Case 2: $18
• CS:GO weapon Case 3: $10.99
• Huntsman Weapon Case: $10.46
• eSports 2013 Winter Case: $8.87
• eSports 2014 Case: $7.71
• Winter Offensive Weapon Case: $6.99

The most expensive CS2 cases are typically so because they are old, rare, or even discontinued. This means that every time one is opened, there are fewer in supply.

Cheapest CS2 Cases

• Snakebite Case: $0.37
• Recoil Case: $0.57
• Fracture Case: $0.69
• Clutch Case: $0.80
• Prisma Case: $0.81
• CS20 Case: $0.89
• Prisma 2 Case: $0.93
• Danger Zone Case: $0.96
• Horizon Case: $1.09
• Shadow Case: $1.18

The cheapest cases usually include less desirable skins, or are in abundance, meaning they are not very rare at all. These prices will fluctuate on the Steam Market, but are generally around this price, as of September 2023.

Hopefully, though, it is clear that opening cases will not be a profitable endeavor. If you see friends or big streamers getting lucky and opening knives and gloves, it is still likely that they have made a loss overall due to the number of cases opened.

You may see stories like a new player opening a knife worth over $150,000, but remember the odds of this are in the millions, and you would be just as well playing the lottery.

With Counter-Strike 2 replacing CS:GO, case openings are likely to continue to increase, but remember the golden rule: just buy the skin you want, instead of buying the case.