On October 2, 2024, Valve released "The Armory". It added a paid pass that turns XP into Armory Credits, and a store of items to spend them on: three weapon collections, a new case, two charm collections, two sticker collections and a limited edition Desert Eagle. Valve's Armory page counted "more than 100 new items".
This article covers the weapon items and what happened to them later. The charms, stickers and inventory rule changes from the same patch are in our October 2024 charms update article.
What the update added
| Item | What it is | Armory price at launch |
|---|---|---|
| Gallery Case | Weapon case: 17 community-designed finishes plus the Kukri Knife | 2 credits, then a key to open it |
| Overpass 2024 Collection | Map collection, 16 skins | 4 credits per random skin |
| Graphic Design Collection | Collection, 16 skins | 4 credits per random skin |
| Sport & Field Collection | Collection, 16 skins | 4 credits per random skin |
| Heat Treated Desert Eagle | Limited edition skin | 25 credits |
| Missing Link and Small Arms charms | Charm collections | 3 credits per random charm |
| Elemental Craft and Character Craft | Sticker collections | 1 credit per random sticker |
Prices are as listed by the Counter-Strike Wiki and match what our Armory explainer reports.
How the Armory worked at launch
The release notes summed it up in three steps: buy and activate an Armory Pass, earn credits "whenever you earn XP", and redeem the credits for items. Valve's FAQ added that passes were sold only to accounts with Prime status, that you could run up to five at once, and that credits could not be bought, traded or sold. The Counter-Strike Wiki lists the pass at $15.99 in the US.
Each pass held 40 credits. At launch, the first was granted the moment you activated the pass. On November 6, 2024 Valve changed that: "All 40 Armory Credits can be earned by playing and earning XP." The explainer covers the rest of the rules.
The Gallery Case
Valve described the Gallery Case as "featuring 17 community-designed weapon finishes exploring a wide range of art styles". It followed the Kilowatt Case as CS2's second new case, and was the first sold through the Armory rather than dropping in the weekly care package (see our drop pool guide). Opening one still took a Gallery Case Key.
- Covert: Glock-18 | Gold Toof, M4A1-S | Vaporwave
- Classified: AK-47 | The Outsiders, P250 | Epicenter, UMP-45 | Neo-Noir
- Restricted: Dual Berettas | Hydro Strike, M4A4 | Turbine, MAC-10 | Saibā Oni, P90 | Randy Rush, SSG 08 | Rapid Transit
- Mil-Spec Grade: AUG | Luxe Trim, Desert Eagle | Calligraffiti, M249 | Hypnosis, MP5-SD | Statics, R8 Revolver | Tango, SCAR-20 | Trail Blazer, USP-S | 27
Browse the set on Buy.
Rare special items
The gold tier reuses the Kilowatt Case's knife pool exactly. In the game files, the Gallery Case's loot list points to the same Kukri list as the Kilowatt Case, and the Counter-Strike Wiki labels its finishes "Kilowatt". That gives the Kukri Knife in 13 finishes: Vanilla, Blue Steel, Boreal Forest, Case Hardened, Crimson Web, Fade, Forest DDPAT, Night Stripe, Safari Mesh, Scorched, Slaughter, Stained and Urban Masked.
So the Gallery Case added no new knife or finish; it was a second source of the 13 Kukris from February's Kilowatt Case. Since October 2025 its Covert skins can also be traded up into a Kukri, under the rules in our article on Covert trade-ups.
The Overpass 2024 Collection
A new map collection for Overpass. Valve's page said it was inspired by the map's graffiti and runs "from the Monster to the Biergarten".
- Covert: AK-47 | B the Monster
- Classified: AWP | Crakow!, Zeus x27 | Dragon Snore
- Restricted: AUG | Eye of Zapems, Dual Berettas | Sweet Little Angels, XM1014 | Monster Melt
- Mil-Spec Grade: Galil AR | Metallic Squeezer, Glock-18 | Teal Graf, MAC-10 | Pipsqueak, Nova | Wurst Hölle
- Industrial Grade: Desert Eagle | Tilted, Five-SeveN | Midnight Paintover, M4A1-S | Wash me plz, MP5-SD | Neon Squeezer, Negev | Wall Bang, P90 | Wash me
The Graphic Design Collection
Valve's page described "16 weapon finishes exploring techniques from traditional print media". Valve's notes call it the "Graphic Collection"; in game it is The Graphic Design Collection.
- Covert: AWP | CMYK
- Classified: AUG | Lil' Pig, Desert Eagle | Starcade
- Restricted: CZ75-Auto | Slalom, M4A4 | Polysoup, P90 | Attack Vector
- Mil-Spec Grade: AK-47 | Crossfade, SCAR-20 | Wild Berry, SG 553 | Berry Gel Coat, XM1014 | Halftone Shift
- Industrial Grade: FAMAS | Halftone Wash, Galil AR | NV, M249 | Spectrogram, MP7 | Astrolabe, P2000 | Coral Halftone, SSG 08 | Halftone Whorl
The Sport & Field Collection
Sixteen finishes "ready for any competition", in Valve's words. Its Five-SeveN | Heat Treated is a separate skin from the limited edition Desert Eagle below.
- Covert: M4A1-S | Fade
- Classified: Galil AR | Rainbow Spoon, Glock-18 | AXIA
- Restricted: Five-SeveN | Heat Treated, MP9 | Arctic Tri-Tone, UMP-45 | Crimson Foil
- Mil-Spec Grade: Nova | Yorkshire, P250 | Small Game, SSG 08 | Zeno, USP-S | Alpine Camo
- Industrial Grade: AK-47 | Olive Polycam, FAMAS | Half Sleeve, MAG-7 | Wildwood, MP5-SD | Savannah Halftone, PP-Bizon | Cold Cell, Tec-9 | Tiger Stencil
All three are plain collections: each redemption gives one random skin, rarer tiers are less likely, and there is no knife or glove tier. Skins from one collection can still be combined in trade-up contracts to reach the next grade.
The Desert Eagle | Heat Treated
The first limited edition item in the Armory. Valve's page said: "Forged in fire, each Heat Treated Desert Eagle is unique in its wear and pattern. Available for a limited time in the Armory." It is a Classified skin whose item description calls it "color case-hardened", and at 25 credits it was the most expensive item at launch.
Charms and stickers
The update also introduced weapon charms, with the Missing Link (17 charms) and Small Arms (16) collections, and two sticker collections, Elemental Craft (26) and Character Craft (25). Full lists, the sticker scrape changes and the new 7-day re-trade restriction are in our charms update article.
Other changes in the patch
- Animation: reworked foot placement to remove "aggressively leaned characters (AKA the MJ lean)", new run, walk and crouch animations, and ladder animations that better match where the player's camera is.
- Grenades: flashbangs and HE grenades no longer detonate early when they exceed their "stuck bounce" limit.
- Maps: Italy added to Competitive, plus fixes on Ancient, Anubis, Dust2, Mirage, Nuke and Overpass.
- Networking: the network quality readout started counting jitter. Many players read the worse numbers as new packet loss, and on November 12, 2024 Valve changed the readout again to count only network events that hurt gameplay.
Where it stands now
Valve has rotated most of this content out. From its later release notes:
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| Jan 14, 2025 | Heat Treated Desert Eagle "no longer available to claim from The Armory" |
| Sep 10, 2025 | "Last chance" notice for the Gallery Case and Graphic Collection |
| Oct 1, 2025 | Gallery Case and Graphic Collection removed from the Armory |
| Jul 8, 2026 | Sport & Field "no longer available in the Armory" |
None of Valve's notes up to October 2026 announce the removal of the Overpass 2024 Collection. The Heat Treated Deagle was followed by the XM1014 | Solitude in March 2025, covered in our Fever Case article. Removed items keep trading; what stops is the supply of new copies through the Armory. For how that interacts with prices, see how new cases move skin prices.
Sources
- The Armory — Counter-Strike 2 news
- Release Notes for 10/2/2024 — Counter-Strike 2 news
- The Armory — Steam
- Gallery Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Armory — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Overpass/Gallery — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Counter-Strike 2 Update, October 1, 2025 — Counter-Strike 2 news
- GameTracking-CS2 item schema — SteamDatabase on GitHub
