Complete Review of the New CS2 Update: Which Skins to Invest in and How to Recoup the Arsenal Pass Cost
Developers released a major update for Counter-Strike 2 on April 1st, brightening up April Fools’ Day for the community. Many even needed some time to realize they weren’t victims of a prank after seeing the news on social media. Everyone also remembered trader xMercy’s bet, who promised to part with a sticker worth about $10,000 if VALVE didn’t release a major update by the end of March. According to American time, the release happened on March 31st, and surprisingly, the collector’s prediction came true at the very last moment. Let’s examine what VALVE has brought us and how to react to it.
Arsenal Expansion with an Abundance of Skins
First and foremost, the update affected the event that has been running since October 2024. In one of our recent investment articles, we wrote that “Arsenal” needed changes, and this prediction came true just a couple of weeks later. We assumed that VALVE would either completely update the collection or simply remove it from the game. The result was something in between, but we believe that the next step should be an update to the key chains, followed by replacement of the remaining collections. We also thought VALVE might introduce discounts on the pass, but the ticket still costs $15.99, and you can’t activate more than 5 at once.
Fever Case
Let’s start the review with the new container, which can be purchased for 2 stars, just like the Gallery case. In our opinion, the new case will be in high demand, and the main reason is the updated Shattered Web collection knives in Chroma finish. More specifically: Nomad, Skeleton, Paracord, and Survival knives received Doppler finishes (including Ruby, Sapphire, and Black Pearl gems), Marble Fade, Tiger Tooth, Damascus Steel, Rust Coat, and Ultraviolet. Already in the first day, people went hunting for rare Doppler phases, which many succeeded in finding. We’re sure interest in this case won’t fade for a long time, so they’ll be selling like hotcakes on the marketplace.
Besides knives, as a Covert weapon, we got the long-awaited AWP | Printstream, which became the fourth skin in the collection. Additionally, AK-47 | Searing Rage, Glock-18 | Shinobu, and FAMAS | Bad Trip also deserve special attention and will definitely be popular, at least initially. However, these items also left us somewhat disappointed, as they strongly resemble existing AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel, Glock-18 | Vogue, and the Hyper Beast collection. Perhaps the designers were following the template of the famous “No, I upgrade” meme, but we don’t appreciate that approach.
Train 2025 Collection and Limited XM1014
While a new limited item in the Arsenal was quite expected, the appearance of the updated Train collection was a big surprise. After all, the game already has skins from Train 2021 that never made it into a souvenir container from a Major. Returning to the novelties, it’s worth noting that they were much less impressive than the contents of the Fever case. The XM1014 design turned out to be original due to its dynamic pattern, but it’s a skin for a shotgun, which few people are interested in. And Train 2025 can only boast a couple of interesting skins.
We were most impressed by MP9 | Latte Rush and M4A4 | Hellish, but Glock-18 | Green Line and UMP-45 | Late Night Transit deserve special attention. First, the author of these items had a total of 4 skins accepted in this update, and second, the Glock-18 was initially in the workshop as a skin for the Overpass collection. The designer was playing with the passing train car on B-plant and called the pistol Glock-18 | Metro. Subsequently, the author simply repainted it green, and the pistol was added to the Train 2025 collection.
Weekly Rewards Update
The next important element of the update was the appearance of three new collections that drop for free each week after leveling up. Ascent, Boreal, and Radiant replaced the Bank, Italy, Lake, and original Train collections. For free drops, the new skins turned out to be extremely attractive and, we’re sure, pleased the majority of users.
The Ascent collection impressed with its blue-purple hues, where AK-47 | Midnight Laminate, M4A1-S | Stratosphere, and USP-S | Royal Guard will become true hits.
Boreal has a floral vibe and somewhat resembles the extremely expensive St. Marc collection. Here it’s worth paying attention to AWP | Green Energy, Glock-18 | Glockingbird, and USP-S | Tropical Breeze, which are perfect for green inventories.
Radiant attracted attention with AK-47 | Nouveau Rouge, Desert Eagle | Mulberry, M4A1-S | Glitched Paint, and Glock-18 | Coral Bloom, which will be in huge demand, and lucky ones will hardly want to part with these skins cheaply.
The Main Question - How Much Will These Skins Cost?
The new items can already be obtained and, interestingly, they aren’t subject to the sales block and are already available on the Steam marketplace. However, prices for rare items, as expected, are very high and definitely don’t reflect the real picture. The same extremely attractive Glock-18 | Coral Bloom received a Mil-Spec quality and in Factory New condition already costs less than $5. We’re sure prices for all collection items will decrease with each month and only serve a cosmetic function in the game. Therefore, we advise getting rid of these skins as early as possible if you get them in drops – after some time, you’ll be able to buy them much cheaper.
Which Items Should You Invest in After the Operation?
Moving on to investments. What to buy? We’re betting on the collections removed from the weekly drop: Bank, Italy, Lake, and the original Train set. Yes, there are currently huge quantities of them, but the big advantage of these collections is the presence of only one item of the highest quality, which is extremely convenient for crafting. Pay special attention to Bank, where the only top-quality skin – P250 | Franklin – is Classified, and its younger brother AK-47 | Emerald Pinstripe is perfect as a “filler” skin when crafting AK-47 | Case Hardened.
If you want to quickly recoup the operation cost, we recommend spending all stars on the Fever case and immediately selling it on the marketplace. For 40 coins, you can buy 20 cases, and there’s almost no doubt that from selling each case, you can make at least $1 in pure profit.
We also want to remind you about the Train 2021 collection, which has been limited for a long time, but now it can’t receive souvenir analogues. Hits like Glock-18 Gamma Doppler and USP-S | Whiteout won’t be available in any alternative versions, which automatically makes them rarer. Of course, they already cost far from cheap, but prices will only continue to rise.
The last prediction involves larger investments and is related to knives that received expensive finishes like Doppler in the Fever case. Now, pro players and various streamers will want to get something new and expensive, which means that Nomad and Skeleton will appear more often in the hands of many players’ idols. This will increase demand even for cheaper finishes of these knives, as happened with Stiletto, which was long uninteresting to anyone and called a “toothpick,” but then received a huge boost when it started appearing in matches on the pro scene.
Conclusion
VALVE has again achieved their goal and once again attracted players to games on official servers. But for how long? For example, you simply can’t get into the Casual 10v10 mode right now, as playing it has turned into pure star farming, where a round lasts no more than 10 seconds. Problems with cheaters haven’t been solved, and playing MM or Premier is truly uncomfortable.
In our opinion, we’ll see a repeat of fall 2024, when all the hype completely died down after just a month. The developers should focus on more global updates such as working on anti-cheat, adding new modes (Danger Zone), or operations with missions.
