CS2 update — March 18, 2026
New reload: leftover ammo is discarded
GAMEPLAY
- Reloading has been refactored to encourage more careful consideration of the use of ammo. When you reload a magazine-fed weapon, all remaining ammo in the magazine is discarded and a new, full magazine is taken from the reserves.
- Reserve ammunition is now represented either as number of magazines, shells, or bullets, depending on the weapon.
- The fill-level of the current weapon is now displayed below the ammo count.
- Tuned reserve magazine counts per-weapon.
MAP GUIDES
- Limited map guides are now available in Competitive and Retakes (first 5 rounds of the half, 30 node max).
- sv_allow_annotations_access_level supports 3 values: 0 – disabled. 1 – limited view. 2 – full and editable.
- sv_annotation_limits_max_rounds_per_half (default 5) determines how many rounds into the half guides are allowed. -1 for unlimited.
- Minimal starter map guides have been added for all Active Duty maps.
WORKSHOP MAPS
- Friends playing a Practice or Workshop map can be joined through the friends menu if they have Open Party set.
In short: what changed
- Reloading now discards the remaining ammo in the magazine.
- Reserves are shown as magazines.
- Map guides are allowed in the first 5 rounds of each half.
Source: the official Counter-Strike 2 blog on Steam. Text and images belong to Valve.