Counter-Strike 2 has a variety of guns that have variable amounts of recoil. Recoil is the rearward motion (or knockback) of a gun when firing its bullets. This recoil causes the gun to deviate from the target when firing (typically upward), making it harder to retain accurate shooting. It can ruin players’ shot accuracy during matches. Mastering recoil control for guns in Counter-Strike 2 will enhance your shot accuracy. This is how you can get to grips with gun recoil in Counter-Strike 2.
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How to See Your Gun’s Spray Pattern
All guns in Counter-Strike 2 have unique spray patterns caused by recoil. These spray patterns are always the same for every full bullet round fired. To control gun recoil in Counter-Strike 2, you must move your target crosshair slightly in the opposite direction of the spray pattern motion when shooting. This spray control is called recoil compensation.
Looking at spray patterns for guns will enable you to see how recoil affects the direction of your shooting. You can see the spray patterns for guns by shooting at a wall, which leaves bullet hole marks. Try shooting a full round of bullets with a gun at a wall in a bot practice session without moving the mouse. The bullet marks show you the spray pattern for the gun, as in the screenshot directly below.
The AK-47’s spray pattern
Alternatively, you can see the spray patterns for all guns in Counter-Strike 2 on this Leetify page. That page also shows the recoil compensation mouse movement required to control the spray patterns. There, you can see most guns have an upward recoil that drifts slightly to the right by variable amounts. So, it’s often necessary to move the mouse slightly down to control recoil when shooting.
Make Sure the Follow Recoil Setting is Selected
Counter-Strike 2 has a new Follow Recoil option that sets your crosshair target to follow the recoil patterns of guns. Your crosshair target moves with gun spray, making it a little easier to visualize and control recoil with that setting selected. Thus, enabling that setting is one of the best ways to get to grips with gun recoil in Counter-Strike 2.
The Follow Recoil setting is enabled by default in Counter-Strike 2. You won’t need to enable that feature if you haven’t changed its default setting. However, turn that setting on if disabled. To check if that option is enabled, click Settings > Game in Counter-Strike 2 and select Yes for the Follow Recoil option.
The Follow Recoil option
Fire in Short Bursts
Recoil intensifies the longer you shoot (it increases by one per shot). Avoiding continuous spray firing will enable you to get a better grip on gun recoil in Counter-Strike 2. Fire in shorter bursts, otherwise called burst fire, to reduce the impact of gun recoil for better accuracy. A short burst of five to 10 precise bullets can be enough to kill an enemy, particularly with headshots inflicted.
Utilize Guns With Less Recoil
Guns with less recoil are typically easier to control and more accurate. So, some players prefer to play with lower recoil guns to reduce bullet spray inaccuracies. These are some of the weapons with the lowest gun recoil in Counter-Strike 2:
- Famas (assault rife)
- M4A1-S (assault rifle)
- MP5 (SMG)
- MP7 (SMG)
- Negev (LMG)
- R8 Revolver (pistol)
The AK-47 is one of the best guns in Counter-Strike 2. However, that gun also has the worst assault rifle recoil. Therefore, the AK-47 has a higher difficulty rating, but it is a very potent weapon for players who master recoil control for it.
The weapon selection box
All shotguns have very high recoil and low fire rates. Sniper rifles like the AWP also have high recoil, but that doesn’t matter so much for guns that can kill players with one or two shots. Desert Eagle is a high-damage pistol with the worst recoil for guns of its category.
Practice Recoil Control on the Recoil Master Map
Practice is perhaps the best way to get to grips with gun recoil in Counter-Strike 2. You can specifically practice recoil control on the Recoil Master – Spray Training workshop map. That map includes ghosthairs to shoot at to practice recoil compensation for different guns. This is how you can enter the Recoil Master map in Counter-Strike 2.
- Sign in to the Steam community by clicking login on this webpage.
- Open this Recoil Master – Spray Training page.
- Click the Subscribe button for that workshop map.
The Recoil Master download page
- Start Steam and Counter-Strike 2.
- Click Play > Workshop Maps inside your CS2 game.
- Select Recoil Master and click Go to enter the map.
The Workshop Maps tab
Walk into the Recoil Master room after entering the map, and shoot a gun along the wall to select one. You’ll see a counter-spray recoil compensation pattern for every gun selected on the target wall. Those are paths that compensate recoil for selected guns. Shoot at and follow the bullet hole dots on the wall with the crosshair to control your gun’s recoil. Percentage shot accuracy figures appear when you stop firing.
The Recoil Master map
You can also select some configuration settings on the right and left sides of the target wall. Shoot the Dummy Target option to add a terrorist to fire at. The Mode option enables you to switch between full-pattern, single, or single next two ghosthair configurations. You can make the ghosthair dots bigger or smaller with the Size option. Select Show Impacts to make your shot marks more visible.
So, don’t let gun recoil in Counter-Strike 2 ruin your shot accuracy. Selecting guns with lower recoil, shooting in short bursts, and turning on the Follow Recoil option will enable you to control bullet spray better. The Recoil Map is also the ideal training ground for getting a firm grip on recoil compensation in CS2.
