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Counter-Strike starter guide

Let me introduce myself,
I'm Mr.Fraggs and have been playing Counter-Strike for too long. Over my gaming experience I have played in clans leagues and know anything there is to know about Counter-Strike.
I played in Cal-IM during 1.5 and Cal-O for 2 seasons during 1.6, now I am currently playing ESL-A. These are all leagues like a virtual gaming league where your team goes up a ladder of ranks and gains reputation.

First some history about the game of Counter-Strike, it all started out as a small team of 3 people that wanted to mod the game Half-Life (released 1998). This quickly became one of the most successful modifications of a game ever. The first official release was beta 5.2 and then beta 7 and slowly moved to 1.0. Release 1.0 was actually later on sold in stores as boxed retail versions of Counter-Strike.

Counter-Strike is still after years one of the most popular online multiplayer games, even though it has a very old 3D engine. The engine is actually based on the Quake2 engine from ID Software and was designed a few years before Half-Life was released.

1. How to get started with Counter-Strike

In the official 1.0 retail version they actually had a training level where you could familiarize yourself with everything that was needed to know about the game play. This level or map doesn't exist in the Steam version of 1.6 any more there for we need to take a small step and teach it ourselves.

Basics should be known about movement and First Person Shooters but I will give a quick introduction.

The main aiming tool is your mouse, this moves the guns crosshair or controls the movement where you look (basically it's like moving your head but in Counter-Strike your head is also controlling your arms)

The second most important thing is your keyboard, this has all the controls you will need on it, from jumping to reloading to defusing a bomb but we will get into that later.

2. Loading the first game

First off, load Counter-Strike via steam. Once it is loaded click create game and select the map de_dust2. DE stands for defusing maps, this means that the Terrorists (T) goal is to plant a bomb and the Counter-Terrorists (CT) goal is to defuse it or eliminate the T team. (Maps that start with cs like cs_office are maps where the CT team has to rescue hostages and Terrorists have to prevent them from doing so, there are also other types of maps but we will get into that later)

Once you have the map de_dust2 selected click ok and a game will be created. This game is just for you to get used to the mouse movement and some simple things that should be known before joining an online server (if you don't know how to do some of the things I will explain in this section you will probably get called a noob)

Now in game, you will select a team. We will start off with the Terrorist team. Click terrorist and select a model that you like they are all the same just look different.

3. Getting familiar with the buy menu

Now you have spawned. The spawn point is you're so called "buy zone", this is where you can press the button "B" and get into the buy menu. In the buy menu you can move around with the mouse to buy different items, weapons, grenades etc. The first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with this buy menu as it is very important. You can also move around the buy menu by using a short cut combination of the letter b and then the different numbers for the sub menu.

For example if you press b-8-6 is the same thing as pressing b then going into the menu number 8 (misc. armor etc.) and select body armor(body armor would be item 6 in that sub menu).

Speed counts but mainly matters in matches or clan wars.

The other menus are mainly for guns. There is the first menu; it is specifically for pistols the second menu for sub machine guns (SMG) and so forth. Like I said, get familiar with the shortcuts as this will save you time and enables for faster game play due to you being ready faster. At some point you will master thee shortcuts and don't even need to think what to buy any more.

To buy anything you need to make money. To make money you need to make sure to kill people, stay alive, rescue hostages or blow stuff up depending on what team you are on.

4. Getting ready to fragg

I always recommend the HK mp5 as it is a very good weapon to start off with. Make sure you buy primary ammo and also secondary ammo. The pistol is your secondary weapon. Also remember to buy armor as this will sometimes keep you alive longer in a gun fight.

The second weapon once you have gotten some more money is the AK 47 or the Colt M4A1 (depending what team you are on). I will get into the specifics later on how to aim correctly etc.

Now you have your weapon and let's get to the fight. Of course you need to make yourself familiar with the maps but just run around and the more you play them the better you will know them.

5. Aiming with specific weapons and techniques of shooting

There are two basic ways to fire, full auto or in short bursts.

Full auto usually gets you no where (also called spraying around) as you don't really aim, some experienced players know how to spray but most people just spray and pray that they hit something.

Short bursts usually in a 3 shot burst or 5 shot burst will get you faster, just tap the fire button 3 or 5 times quickly and you have your probably most accurate shot. This will save bullets in a round and also lets you aim more efficiently.

With the SMG's I recommend aiming at the neck area, all the guns have recoil there for they will pull up as you fire them.

With a gun like the AK 47 or the M4 A1 I also recommend aiming at the neck area but if you are fire one single shot at the head with an AK 47 usually it's an instant kill if it is done right and is considered a "headshot".

6. Communication

Communication is very helpful in the game as you can use the voice system to talk directly with your teammates. (You need a microphone to do so) There are usually special names for places in the game like "balcony" or "banana" wich identify the areas where players usually run around or "camp".(camping is to sit in a corner and wait and wait and wait for an enemy to come and then slaughter them mercilessly)
7. The AWP (aka AWM, Magnum, noob gun etc)

As a noob you will hate this gun as a pro you will love it.

The AWP is the most powerful gun in the game if you master it correctly. It takes a lot of practice to master it but once mastered people will get mad at you because you own them too much with it.

A sniper rifle with superior firepower over any weapon in the game; it can kill with a single shot. Usually you will get very mad if someone else is mowing you down with one every time you run around somewhere and *bam* your dead. Well this can be to your advantage if you have one too like I said above, if it's mastered it is your friend.

AWP's can be a disadvantage because to master it, you also need to be a master at shooting a pistol as in close range the AWP is useless (unless you are godlike with it and can no scope).

While you wield the AWP you need to be able to kill a person with an AK47 with your little 12 shooter pistol or on long range just dominate him with the AWP.

8. Using grenades effectively

Grenades are a very useful tool. They can help but they can hurt. There are three kinds of grenades, the High Explosive (HE), the Flash bang (Flash) and the Smoke grenade (Smoke).

The Flash is probably used the most out of the three as it can basically disable an enemy player for a short time and you can move up on him and slaughter him while he is blind.

The HE as you can tell is a basic grenade that just blows up and can damage a player. This is usually very good if you have a few enemy players in a small room bunched together.

The Smoke grenade can help to cut off visibility to AWPers or snipers that are just plain annoying. With the Smoke in the way they can't usually see you.

9. The Hackers

Yes there are cheaters even in Counter-Strike. The CS community has been dubbed evil or a plain hacking community; about 15% of all the players in CS are hackers. They are annoying and can take the fun out of playing. They cheap with things like Aimbot wich will enable them to shoot once and kill you in the head. Speed hack wich enables them to run around the map at 16 times the speed of regular running. Wall hack wich lets them see every move the player makes through walls, floors or even the whole map.

This usually kills the game and makes people join other servers. If you see one don't threaten them you will report them because it doesn't help it will just make them hack more. Just jump onto another server and continue your fun gaming there.

10. Links

Here are some links to some Counter-Strike community sites and also other links for more information about the game and its specifics
-Specific Weapon Information-
http://www.csnation.net/view.php/csinfo/weapons.csn
-Equipment Information-
http://www.csnation.net/view.php/csinfo/items.csn
-FAQ to some Problems and Troubles you might encounter-
http://www.csnation.net/view.php/csinfo/probs.csn

you are welcome to contact me with any questions you might have either via email, pm on these forums or via Xfire (sn: fragglord)

mr.fraggs

hi and hello

tijnema

In the very beginning you noted there doesn't exist a training course anymore, well, if you have Half-Life, go through that training course first.

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