Counter Strike : Tips and Tricks

The Game

Counter Strike is a custom game of Half Life. The game is based on two teams terrorists and counter-terrorists. And involves completing different objectives, if you are on the terrorists side you might have to plant a bomb in a key area or if you are on the counter terrorist side you might have to rescue a group of hostages captured by the terrorists. For every objective you complete you will recieve money (even staying alive will earn you money) which can be used to buy weapons and equipment.

Tips and Techniques

Beginning of Round
RULE #1- Always buy an HE grenade before anything else. You'll find this incredibly useful later on in the round because after your teammates have weakened the other team, throwing an HE grenade will most likely kill a few opposing players then if you threw it at beginning of round. RULE #2 - You'll want to purchase either full armor or just kevlar vest. Going into battle without armor is more or less shooting yourself in the foot. Those are the two primary rules that you must follow at the beginning of the round. If not, you'll most likely end up dead or not fragging anyone. RULE #3 -Iif you don't have enough money to buy a submachine gun or your favorite rifle, go for a solid pistol with full ammo. A strong pistol is 100 times more efficient then an MP5 or AK-47 with 30 bullets. After you've done the following, you'll be able to do some virtual rampaging.

Aiming and Proper Shooting Technique
This section is by far the most important factor in your Counter-Strike playing career. If your shooting and aiming techniques are poor, the other players will always have an advantage over you. Here are the proper techniques of shooting/aiming- 1) Try to aim above the CT's/T's belt. If you shoot a player above the belt, it will cause more damage then in the leg for example. After you've worked on just hitting the players above the belt, try aiming for the head. With any gun, 2-6 head shots will either kill them or severely injure them 2) Pulse your fire button correctly. Regardless what gun you purchase, your going to want to pulse your fire button. When I say pulse I mean fire bursts of bullets (usually 2-4 bullets a burst). This will increase your aim to another level. Now, if you have a highly inaccurate gun (AK-47 for example), your going to want to shoot off bursts of bullets as much as possible. If you can master the art of shotting bursts of bullets from the AK, you soon become a great Counter-Strike player. This rule goes for any other gun but I highly stress it with the AK-47. 3) Jump and strafe whenever possible.

When you're in battle, it is much more difficult to hit a target that is moving and jumping around then it is to hit a stationary one. Also, by jumping, it forces your crosshair to hit the upper part of the opposing team's bodies. Hence, increasing the chances of getting head shots and upper body shots. This technique is for advanced players, but soon enough, you'll be able to do this yourself. So don't try this when you first start out. Lastly, proper sniping technique. Regardless what rifle you're using, try to crouch and shoot when possible. Crouching will increase your aim and prevent you from moving easily. Second rule of sniping is if your ping is 10-110, try to lead the shot the most minute bit in front of the players movement. Now, if you have 120-150 ping, you'll want to increase the amount of length between your shot and the players movement. If you have 160-200+ ping, it becomes very difficult to snipe and most likely your better off not sniping at all. Some people can pull it off, some can't. It's obvious that the AWP is by far the more powerful rifle in the game, but, is it the most sufficient?

Not at all. The scout, a gun that is less played then the AWP, is a great gun. If you think about it, once you shoot a player with the scout, it stops them from moving them temporarily which leaves you to easily shoot him again. By shooting him twice with a scout, you'll probably kill him or at least hurt him badly. The rule of trying to hit above the belt also goes for sniping guns (except for the AWP, guaranteed kill regardless where shot). Some of you newbies out there are going to shoot a guy through a wall with an AWP and not kill him. I know, you'll probably be saying, "WTF?! I shot that f00 with AWP, he should have been fragged !" Wrong, depending on the thickness of the wall, the bullet will not penetrate at full speed, hence, not hitting the opposing player will full force. My recommendation, don't try sniping until you get good with all other guns.

Cheating
Regardless how much you suck the big one, NEVER NEVER NEVER cheat. Simple as that. By cheating, you're 1) Throwing away all skills which you had previously worked on 2) Not being at all l337 3) Showing lack of respect for the greatest game ever created 4) Overall, showing no regard for the reason why Counter-Strike was created, to have fun for yourself and the other around you playing.

Clans
This is not a necessity, but it can and will help in any Counter-Strike player's career. Joining a clan will not only let you practice with a group of organized, well talented players, but also let you experience the game from a professional standpoint. After joining a clan, Counter-Strike is still just as fun, but you appreciate it more and then you most likely will want to get better at the game.

Tips for longer life
1) For far ranges, Crouch, Aim, shoot in 2shotburst to the chest.
2) Never, ever blast full-auto like a madman when u see your enemy a few feet away. Your bullets will most probably miss.
3) If u are close enough to recognise his gun, unlike the above. For god sake shoot his head off!
4)Always reload after a kill. AK eats bullets like a cow eat grasses.
5)For goodness sake, keep your stealth. Don't be a madman blasting at nothing! You will wake up the whole city, annoucing where u are.
6)The AK-47 has movement stopping power. Once the enemy is hit, its hard to escape the second round and so on and forth.
7)Don't scan. The rate of fire is not as high as mp-5. concentrate your fire and your enemy will be down faster then u expected.

Camping
The word is uttered with disdain and contempt, but "camping" is, when used properly, a legitimate and effective strategy.

Remember that, unlike death match games such as Quake, Counterstrike is a team-based game played within an attack-and-defend scenario or variation thereof. In the "hostage rescue" scenarios, for example, the Terrorists are on the defensive, attempting to hold off the attacking Counter-Terrorists. Likewise, in the "defusion" maps, the CTs defend their turf from the bomb-toting Ts. In either case, one side is occupying an area with the intention of keeping the other side out. Concealing yourself in a static position that offers you good visibility as well as the element of surprise is a sensible way to defend. Real combatants call this "digging in." Frustrated CS players call it "camping."

Granted, an attacker who "digs in" accomplishes almost nothing. Counter-terrorists who camp in a "hostage rescue" map, for example, are nothing more than counter-productive – unless the Terrorists venture outside in search of their enemy. (This isn’t likely to happen, though, since as of B6 the Ts will win the match if they still have their hostages when the time runs out; they may as well wait it out inside until the entire team can afford heavy weapons.) But a defender who controls access to his enemy’s objective is simply doing his job.

A Case in Point: When you’re the last Terrorist left in Canyon Siege because all of your teammates have dispersed individually across the map (and been taken out one-by-one by a cohesive CT team), you’d be amazed at how many attackers you can waste by hiding out in the vent room. Position yourself in the corner by the door, facing the vent. Listen for someone climbing up to the vent opening. When a CT crawls through the opening, the first body part you see is his head – an instant kill. Also, listen for attackers approaching the door and either fire through the door or whack ‘em as soon as they slide it open. When all is said and done, you have single-handedly held off the CTs, kept your hostages, and won the match.

(Conversely, CTs should toss several grenades through the vent before entering in order to clear nasty buggers like me out of that room. Don’t expect the hostages to survive, though.)

The other form of "camping" involves moving stealthily across the map towards your objective and taking every opportunity to ambush enemy players along the way. It is amazing that as effective as sneaking is (holding SHIFT while moving), almost no one does it.

Grenade trickery
This is a rather short strategy description, but it works well.

Often when you are on a small team playing against another small (OR large) team, rushing or hiding simply doesn't work. Often in this case, a team will have to use their brains rather than sheer firepower. One way to do this is through making your enemy think you're doing what you're not.

You know that there are three types of grenades available to you in CS. This strategy focuses on mainly the HE grenade and the smoke grenade combined, but a flash grenade can easily take the place of the HE. We will still need the cover of the smoke grenade for this.

One man can be designated the "stay-behind" grenade tosser. He will purchase these two grenades, and take it solo as quickly as possible to a popular spot in the map. He might choose to wait a few seconds at his destination, but that can be either helpful of harmful depending upon the speed at which the enemy approaches the location. This man should probably station himself in the entrance that his team members would usually take to enter this location. Still on his side of the entrance, one smoke bomb or flash bomb can be thrown into the open to blind any players of the other team. After they are most likely to be "disabled," throw in the HE grenade for the extra look of an oncoming attack, and run (or walk) like hell to catch up with the rest of your team.

This is why we have one man carrying this grenade. How often is it that a single player will stock up on every type of grenade? Not very often, so most players will assume multiple attackers. Meanwhile, the rest of the team takes a stealth entrance to swing in behind the enemy players awaiting the attack force from the choice location. Sometimes the teams may still clash, but there is a good chance that the enemy team players will still be waiting for the smoke to clear, while what they're really waiting for is their death from behind.

Flashbang
One of the least used items in Counter-Strike is the flash bang (aka Concussion Grenade). Throwing one in to a room full of the opposing team will score you some quick kills, especially if it's a small room with only one exit. Throwing flash bangs out in the open is a bad idea though, you'll blind and hurt any team members in the area and leave them defence less against anybody on the opposing team that wasn't affected buy the blast. Comunication if very important when using flash bangs. Until Goose puts "Fire in the hole" back, always tell your team before you throw one so that they can move or turn around. There's nothing worse then a pissed team member that was just killed by your flash bang. Also don't be a jerk and throw them at your team for fun, even if FF is off, it still hurts them!.

Stalking
As you probably know by now, 90% of Counter-Strike servers play with foot steps on. The first step is to make sure you have a good sound card and speaker system (2 speakers can do it). If your sound card sucks and you've got some money just go out and buy an Diamond MX300 or an SBLive! Value. They'll run you about $100 bucks, but it's well worth it. What you view on screen is just as important as what you hear, don't make your ears mad, they love you ( ). Any speakers should do, you really won't need to get new ones, unless you feel like spending the money. Now while in CS when you hear footsteps look around. Try to center on the area that sounds the loudest while looking at it, that should be where the guy is.

Well how do you prevent others from hearing you? Simple! Just crouch or walk. If you don't know how to walk, bind a key to +speed (bind "x" "+speed" in console, replace x with whatever key you want to use).When you hear someone around you walk or crouch and you should be silent. Ladders make the most noise, be sure to duck while climbing them.

The Other Skills in Counter-Strike
When one sees multiple enemies in the game all looking directly his way, you would expect that person to immediately turn and run. Yet, few do this, instead, they tend to begin firing and die a short time later, having accomplished little. In CS, just like real life, your life is the most important thing in the game, for if you are dead, you cannot do anything and will actually harm the team in terms of morale. Instead, a veteran player should be able to realize within 1/10 of a second that he is facing against impossible odds (unless they are all standing in a tight group so that one rifle burst will take them all out). Then he will jump back into whatever cover he came out of, and use his radio to call for backup. His teammates should soon be arriving (if they are not too busy themselves), in which time he can position himself to one of an advantage instead of disadvantage. The enemies, usually feeling confident due to their superior numbers will often charge forward to attack that lone soldier. However, having now had time to position himself to a better position, that veteran player should be able to instead surprise his pursuers with a deadly ambush (by himself even). Because he knows where his enemies should be emerging from, and his enemies do not know where he is hiding, he should have the opportunity for a first shot, first kill scenario. If he feels confident at killing all of his enemies, he will continue to fire. If he is not, then he will have left himself another fallback position in which he can again repeat the process with even fewer enemies (and perhaps some backup too).

Another thing people often do wrong is the deployment of smoke grenades. I often see them thrown at my feet just as I was about to enter into a firefight. A fragmentation grenade or even a flash bang would obviously have been better at defeating or deterring me. But instead, I can use the smoke grenade to my advantage against them as I simply stand inside the smoke and use it as my cover. I will be able to see my enemies while it will take them several moments longer to acquire me as a target.Instead, the smoke grenade should be one of the most useful tools in the game. One of the jobs that the smoke grenade excels at is separating the enemy. In the map Dust, a favorite tactic of CTs is to stand on opposite sides of the tunnel shaped like a "T" through which all the terrorists must pass. As soon as a terrorist moves so into the upper part of the "T", he will instantly be attacked upon in both directions, leading to a very quick death. Even if all the terrorists were to charge through together. They would still take incredibly heavy casualties if they make it at all, even facing against a relatively small force of CTs. Instead, if the terrorists were to throw a smoke grenade down one end of the tunnel, and run down the other, they would easily win. The smoke would obscure the view of the defenders on one end of the tunnel, and they would be unable to target the terrorists charging the other direction. Another method of using a smoke grenade effectively is to block snipers. A sniper usually will select an area of low vulnerability (few angles for others to shoot at him) while still retaining a wide FOV (where everyone must pass). With the new CS 6.5 patch, a running sniper is a dead sniper. So, he will be crouching, and if a smoke grenade were to land near him, in his field of view, the sniper will either be vulnerable to a charge close in, or he must change his position, turning him into a running sniper. A smoke grenade can also be used for ambushes, if a team has good cooperation. A smoke grenade in the entrance of a large room or area will block the view of anyone brave enough to venture in. Once he clears the smoke, everyone in the room will be able to see him, and he will be quickly dispatched. For the reason described above, many people will hesitate chasing an enemy through a smoke grenade. This also leads to opportunity since whoever threw the grenade can use the time to get behind his enemies and kill them.

Many people who play CS are quite predictable. They tend to move the same way over and over again. For instance, I will see them sneak out from behind a crate, take a few pot shots at me, and then sneak back. If I was not aware of there being an enemy behind that particular crate, he might hit me once or twice while I did not even have the time to react and return fire. However, I will then see him come out from behind that same crate and move to almost the same position and try to target me again. However, in the time it took him to duck back and come forward again, I have already moved to a new position far away from where I had been. Furthermore, I have also leveled my crosshair to where he was bound to pop-up, right at the head level. While he searched for me, I will have made sure to put a bullet or two into his head before he finished. So the lesson here is-don't be predicable. Mix things up. If you popped out from this side of the crate the first time, pop out from the left the second, or even not at all. If you must come out from the same side again, don't just do exactly what you did before, jump out from cover, and attempt to dodge until your opponent's fire is thrown off by the recoil (described below) and then fire back. If you get shot at, don't stand in the same place trying to get shot at again. If you know where the fire is coming from, then immediately get into a position so that you can return fire with at least equal footing. If you don't know where they are shooting at you from, then don't make it easy for them by standing still! Jump around, strafe, and dive for the nearest cover. Try to find your assailants by lowering your arc of vulnerability (its at 360o when you are in an open field!) It can easily be done by standing next to a wall, (which lowers it to 180o) or even better, a corner (then its only 90o). Basically get to where there are less positions from which enemies can shoot at you from (by positions I mean any arbitrary point from which there is a clear LOS to you.) Again, any time you cannot see an enemy, make it hard for them to shoot at you, even if you do not think there are any in the area. While still on the subject of predictability, I also see many people who will use an advantageous place to kill me quickly (camping). I do not mind this, because many times they will do the same thing at the same place again, and I will kill them this time. If you are going to defend in such a way, don't use the same place over and over! Rotate between the places that you know and try to throw off your opponents that way. If you are one of those people who likes to attack instead, then simply remember all the places that you have seen opponents "camp" and either be ready to kill them, or if that's not possible, simply avoid them. When clearing these spot remember the vulnerability issue described above, clear only one spot at a time and don't ever believe that no one could be there. That one time you don't think there is anyone will be the time when you die. Often the best way to clear a "campground" is not to play it cautiously, but instead jump in aggressively and kill that opponent who is not expecting someone to be so aware of his presence.

The final thing is the game mechanics, and specifically how accuracy works. Every submachine gun in this game will have a bullet spread in the shape of a circle. The size of the circle is quite small and as a result, it is useful to shoot them continuously unless engaging enemies at long range. On the other hand assault rifles all exhibit what I call the "T" effect, in that its bullet spread is in the shape of a "T". The first 3-4 bullets (6-7 when scoped) will usually land exactly where the crosshair was aiming, at the bottom of the "T". The next few bullets will then kick up, forming the stem of the "T". If gunfire is continued, the kick will not only go up but also in a random direction (to the left, middle, or right). Finally the muzzle climb will max out and then the bullets will sweep left and right, forming the top of the "T". What does this mean? Not much, unless you know what to do with it. While playing, simply remember that if you do not use the scope in your gun, keep the bursts to 3-4 rounds (unless using the AK-47, in which case 2-3 rounds). If you need to fire more and it is close range, push your mouse forward. In scoped fire, you should never, fire more than 9 rounds, because the jerking motion of the scope makes it impossible to push the mouse down a correct amount when coupled with the fact that your aim sweeps left to right and the fact that your opponent is far away. Use this knowledge in accordance with what with discussed above and you will easily be able to defeat your opponents. It is also recommended that you move between bursts if absolutely no cover is available, since at least you will be harder to hit during the time that you are not firing. At close range even submachine guns and pistols become extremely deadly if you aim before you fire since a few head shots will fell any opponent. Add to this the controllability of these guns while moving, and assault rifles no longer are superior anymore. But you must also remember wall penetration of a rifle when in such a situation because I like to shoot opponents through walls if they decide to hide behind a thin object. Simply understanding this fact should make you more effective in choosing your cover, but also remember that CS HAS NO PENETRATION TEXTURES, meaning that a rifle round will pass through five inches of granite just as easily as it wood pass through five inches of Styrofoam (if there were such a texture in the game).

These tips will not help you unless you consciously use them. And also, if you get killed, don't just chalk it up to bad luck of lack of skill, but instead pinpoint exactly the thing or things that you did wrong to get killed. Then don't do it again the next time. If you combine these time while at the same time improving your accuracy etc. through practice, you will soon become a much, much better CS player.