The Armory arrived in CS2 on October 2, 2024 and has been one of Valve's main channels for new cosmetic collections since, alongside weekly drops. Instead of the old operation model of missions and stars, it uses something simpler: buy a pass, play on official servers, and spend the credits you earn on items. The same update also introduced weapon charms and changed several inventory rules.
How the Armory works
You buy an Armory Pass in the in-game store. It cost about $16 in the US at launch and is only sold to accounts with Prime status. Once you activate it, every bit of XP you earn on official Valve servers also counts toward Armory Credits. Steam Support's FAQ lays out the rules:
- One pass earns up to 40 credits. Since November 2024, activating a pass no longer grants the first credit straight away; all 40 come from playing.
- You can run up to five passes at once, and progress counts toward all of them.
- Credits cannot be bought, and passes cannot be traded, gifted or sold on the Market.
- Credit progress is steady and separate from your weekly profile XP.
- Non-Prime matches, leaving early, or a match cancelled for irregular play give no credit progress.
- Passes do not expire, and an unactivated pass can be refunded. An activated one cannot.
When a pass is finished you clear it in-game and can activate a new one. HLTV called the Armory the first operation-sized update for CS2. Unlike operations, though, there are no missions, campaigns or event modes. Credits come from playing, and that is the whole loop.
What credits buy
At launch, Armory items had fixed credit prices. A random skin from one of the weapon collections cost 4 credits, a random charm 3, the Gallery Case 2 (you still needed a key to open it), a random sticker 1, and the limited edition Desert Eagle | Heat Treated 25.
Most redemptions are random rolls inside a collection, so you get one item from that set with rarer items less likely, much like a case. Cases and limited edition items are fixed purchases. Limited edition items stay in the Armory only for the period shown on their tile.
What the Armory has offered
Valve rotates content in and out, and once an item leaves the Armory it can no longer be redeemed with credits. Here is the timeline from Valve's release notes:
| Date | Added | Removed |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2024 | Overpass 2024, Graphic Design and Sport & Field collections; Missing Link and Small Arms charms; two sticker collections; Gallery Case; Heat Treated Desert Eagle | — |
| Jan 2025 | — | Heat Treated Desert Eagle |
| Mar 2025 | Train 2025 collection; Fever Case; XM1014 Solitude | — |
| Aug 2025 | M4A1-S Solitude | — |
| Oct 2025 | Missing Link Community and Dr. Boom charms; 2025 Community and Sugarface 2 stickers | Gallery Case; Graphic Design collection; Character Craft stickers |
| Jan 2026 | AK-47 Aphrodite | — |
| Jul 2026 | Arabesque and Spy Tech collections; Fruits & Vegetables and Auto Racing stickers | Train 2025 and Sport & Field collections; Sugarface 2 and Elemental Craft stickers |
Community artists are increasingly part of that pipeline. In December 2025 Valve introduced optional supplemental terms that let it license Workshop items for a flat fee: $35,000 for a weapon finish and $6,000 for a sticker or charm. Accepting them makes an artist's items eligible for places such as the Armory, and the July 2026 collections came from a themed "Call to Arms" for Workshop submissions.
Charms
Charms are small 3D trinkets that hang from your weapon, and they debuted as Armory items. A weapon can carry one charm at a time, and you drag it to the exact spot you want. To take a charm off you use a Charm Detachment, which returns the charm to your inventory so you can reuse it. Each charm redeemed from the Armory came with three free detachments, and more can be bought.
Charms have since spread beyond the Armory. At the 2025 Austin and Budapest Majors, playoff souvenirs came with Souvenir Charms that carry a match highlight. The charms guide covers attaching them and charm patterns.
The inventory changes that came with it
The Armory update changed more than the store. It added:
- A seven-day re-trade and re-market restriction on items acquired from the in-game store (including the Armory), trade offers and the Steam Community Market.
- A scrape level selector when applying a new sticker, plus a precise wear selector when scraping one you already have. Applied stickers can only get more scraped, not less.
- A way to remove a sticker outright instead of scraping it away.
- Previews of any sticker, patch or charm from the Market, the Armory or a friend's inventory on your own items.
- The end of deleting weapon cases from your inventory.
Trading rules have moved on since then. Steam's trade protection, added in July 2025, changed how traded CS2 items behave in their first seven days. The trade protection explainer covers how that works now.
Is a pass worth it for you?
That depends on what you want from it. Because most redemptions are random, a pass is a poor way to get one specific skin; buying that skin directly is more predictable. Where the Armory makes more sense is for limited edition items while they are available, for cases you plan to open anyway, or if you simply enjoy the roll. Check what the current rotation holds, and how long each item has left, before you activate a pass, since activation ends your option to refund it.