Operation Broken Fang was CS:GO's tenth operation, running from December 3, 2020 to May 3, 2021. It let players spend stars in a shop instead of following a fixed track, introduced the Broken Fang Premier and Retakes modes, and debuted Ancient, which went on to replace Train in the competitive map pool. Its case, home of the M4A1-S | Printstream, carried a new set of gloves as rare special items. The operations overview covers the series as a whole.
Dates and the pass
Broken Fang launched on December 3, 2020. According to the Counter-Strike Wiki it was first planned to end on April 30, 2021; Valve's notes of May 3, 2021 announced it "has come to an end", with unspent stars redeemable until May 15.
Dexerto reported the pass at $14.99, the same as Shattered Web's. Valve's operation page listed what it included:
- An Operation Broken Fang Coin, levelled from bronze to diamond.
- Access to operation rewards: agents, weapon collections, stickers, cases, patches and more.
- Access to Broken Fang Premier mode.
- The Operation Stats page.
- XP boosts for completed missions.
Without a pass you could still play missions, but you received no rewards and could not take on missions that needed Premier.
The star shop
Missions came on weekly cards, as in Shattered Web, and the wiki gives a cap of six stars a week, ten in the first week. The difference was what you did with the stars. Dexerto summed it up: there was no tier system, and you spent stars on "the content you want."
| Reward | Cost in stars |
|---|---|
| Operation Broken Fang Case | 2 |
| Random skin from the Control, Havoc or Ancient Collection | 4 |
| Metal Skill Groups patch | 2 |
| Broken Fang or Recoil sticker, or graffiti | 1 |
| Agent | 5 to 25, by rarity |
The shop prices come from the Counter-Strike Wiki and Gamepur. The coin upgraded on stars earned from missions, not bought ones: silver at 33, gold at 66 and diamond at 100, per the wiki.
The new agents came from SWAT and The Professionals, and the Metal Skill Groups patches turned the competitive ranks into embroidered badges. The agents and patches guide covers both.
New modes, maps and features
Broken Fang Premier was 5v5 competitive matchmaking with map picks and bans before each match, at first only for pass holders. The wiki notes it opened to everyone on March 29, 2021.
Retakes was the other new mode, open to all players, and it outlived the operation.
Maps. Valve added Ancient, Engage and Apollo to Scrimmage, Casual and Deathmatch, Frostbite to Danger Zone, and Guard and Elysion to Wingman, while removing Mutiny and Swamp. Valve's page called Ancient "a brand new competitive map."
The same update added a dynamic ping system to more modes and a customisable chat wheel.
The Operation Broken Fang Case
Valve's page described the case as "17 community-designed weapon finishes" that "includes an all new set of gloves as rare special items."
| Grade | Finishes |
|---|---|
| Covert | M4A1-S Printstream, Glock-18 Neo-Noir |
| Classified | Five-SeveN Fairy Tale, M4A4 Cyber Security, USP-S Monster Mashup |
| Restricted | AWP Exoskeleton, Dual Berettas Dezastre, Nova Clear Polymer, SSG 08 Parallax, UMP-45 Gold Bismuth |
| Mil-Spec | CZ75-Auto Vendetta, G3SG1 Digital Mesh, Galil AR Vandal, M249 Deep Relief, MP5-SD Condition Zero, P250 Contaminant, P90 Cocoa Rampage |
Valve credited the Printstream to the artist JTPNZ.
The Broken Fang gloves
The rare special items are 24 gloves across six models. One model was new: the Broken Fang Gloves, in Jade, Yellow-banded, Needle Point and Unhinged. The other five models (Driver Gloves, Hand Wraps, Moto Gloves, Specialist Gloves and Sport Gloves) each got four new finishes, such as the Driver Gloves | Snow Leopard and Sport Gloves | Slingshot.
That set went on to appear in two later cases, the Snakebite Case in 2021 and the Recoil Case in 2022. It also stayed the newest glove set in the game until the Dead Hand Collection added 22 gloves in March 2026, as the gloves guide explains.
Control, Havoc and Ancient
The three weapon collections were shop rewards, each with a single Covert. Valve gave each a one-line tagline.
| Collection | Valve's tagline | Covert |
|---|---|---|
| Control | "Order over chaos." | AWP Fade |
| Havoc | "Sneak in, run out, hit high and low." | AK-47 X-Ray |
| Ancient | "Ancient designs meet modern weaponry." | M4A1-S Welcome to the Jungle |
Further down, Control includes the M4A1-S | Blue Phosphor, Havoc the MAC-10 | Hot Snakes and Ancient the AK-47 | Panthera onca.
What Broken Fang changed
Ancient in Active Duty. On May 3, 2021, as the operation ended, Valve added Ancient to the Active Duty group and removed Train. HLTV noted it was the first change to the pool since Vertigo replaced Cache in March 2019.
Premier for everyone. The same notes kept Premier Competitive "available for all players", with picks and bans across the whole Active Duty pool. CS2 later reused the Premier name for its main ranked mode, covered in the CS2 launch article.
Retakes stayed. Retakes moved into War Games after the operation and later returned in CS2.
Stats behind a subscription. The Operation Stats page became CS:GO 360 Stats, a subscription service.
The shop model. Operation Riptide kept the star shop, which makes Shattered Web's fixed track the one-off.
Sources
- Introducing Operation Broken Fang — Counter-Strike blog
- Release Notes for 12/3/2020 — Counter-Strike blog
- Operation Broken Fang — counter-strike.net
- Release Notes for 5/3/2021 — Counter-Strike blog
- Ancient replaces Train in active duty map pool in latest CS:GO update — HLTV.org
- CSGO Operation Broken Fang battle pass details: cost, rewards, more — Dexerto
- All new skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Operation Broken Fang — Gamepur
- Operation Broken Fang — Counter-Strike Wiki
