On Oct. 23, 2025, Counter-Strike 2 was updated, and it includes a new official game mode called Retakes. This update also extended the functionality of the “Trade Up Contract” to include knives or gloves as an exchange item.
Retakes is a game mode in Counter-Strike 2 that puts the player in a 4 vs 3 site retake position. Players will choose a loadout at the start of the round and try to retake the site with the chosen loadout.
Here’s the rest of the patch notes:
Gameplay:
- Adding Retakes as official game mode supporting Defusal Group Alpha and Defusal Group Delta maps on official matchmaking servers.
- Fixed Molotov and Smoke interaction logic in cases when multiple smokes are active in the map.
Maps:
- Updated Golden to the latest version from Steam Community Workshop
- Updated Palacio to the latest version from Steam Community Workshop
- Updated Rooftop to the latest version from Steam Community Workshop
Inferno Changes:
- Adjustments to top of Quad and under Balcony to improve visibility.
- Various optimizations.
Contracts:
- Extended functionality of the “Trade Up Contract” to allow exchanging 5 items of Covert quality as follows:
- 5 StatTrak™ Covert items can be exchanged for one StatTrak™ Knife from a collection of one of the items provided
- 5 regular Covert items can be exchanged for one regular Knife item or one regular Gloves item from a collection of one of the items provided
Misc:
- Performance optimizations when the game is in the main menu and item inspect UI
- Fixed inventory item icons sometimes rendering in blurry state or not rendering
- Fixed several server-only sound events to not start multiple times
- Stability improvements
