Operation Hydra was CS:GO's eighth operation, running from May 23 to November 13, 2017. Its main addition was a set of weekly event modes, one of which, the 2v2 Wingman mode, is still in Counter-Strike today. It also added a diamond tier to the coin and a case with gloves rather than a knife as its rare items. The operations overview covers the series; this article covers Hydra in detail.
Dates and the All Access Pass
Hydra launched on May 23, 2017, and Valve's post of November 13, 2017, "The Best of Hydra", marked its end. The release notes priced the Operation Hydra All Access Pass at $5.99 and listed what it included:
- A Guardian Mission campaign of 30 missions you could complete, and replay, at your own pace.
- Operation weapon drops and the new Operation Hydra Case.
- An Operation Hydra Challenge Coin upgradable to a new Diamond level.
- An Operation Hydra Journal with your stats and friends leaderboards.
Everyone could play the event modes and maps. The pass decided whether that play counted towards stars, the coin and drops.
Hydra Events: three new modes
Valve's centrepiece was the Operation Hydra Events, "unique game modes that are available for a week at a time," rotating through three formats:
| Event | What it was |
|---|---|
| Wingman | 2v2 competitive matches on single-bombsite maps, best of 16 rounds, with its own skill group |
| Weapons Expert | 5v5, best of 30 rounds, and once you bought a weapon you could not buy it again that match; its own skill group |
| War Games | Drop-in twists on normal play, such as special heavy armour, low-gravity sniping, team deathmatch, and knife and Zeus-only rounds |
Valve tweaked the layouts of Safehouse, St. Marc, Lake and Bank to suit War Games and Wingman. It also added two maps alongside the operation: Rialto, for Guardian and 2v2, and Dizzy, for the Flying Scoutsman mode.
The maps
Seven community maps were featured in the weekly events and in regular casual and competitive matchmaking. Valve described them as four new maps and three returning ones.
| New in Hydra | Returning |
|---|---|
| Austria, Shipped, Lite, Thrill | Agency, Insertion, Black Gold |
Agency had appeared in Bravo, Phoenix and Bloodhound, while Insertion and Black Gold came back from Breakout.
Stars, XP and the diamond coin
Hydra dropped Challenge Award missions and tied stars to XP instead. Valve's operation page explained the maths: you earned a star for every 2,000 Guardian XP, up to 7 stars, and for every 2,000 Event XP, up to 18. Event XP came from a pool that started at 2,000 and grew by 2,000 each week to a cap of 36,000, so late starters could catch up.
According to the Counter-Strike Wiki, silver needed 5 stars, gold 18 and the new diamond tier 25. The wiki notes that diamond meant collecting every weekly event star plus all seven Guardian stars. Each star also triggered an operation drop for pass holders: Guardian stars gave a weapon, and event stars alternated between a weapon and an Operation Hydra Case.
The weapons came from the same six collections Bloodhound had introduced as the operation drop list: Cobblestone, Cache, Overpass, Gods and Monsters, The Rising Sun and Chop Shop. Hydra was the last operation to use that list.
The Operation Hydra Case
The case holds 17 community-made finishes, and the Counter-Strike Wiki says it was an exclusive drop for pass holders during the operation.
| Grade | Finishes |
|---|---|
| Covert | AWP Oni Taiji, Five-SeveN Hyper Beast |
| Classified | Dual Berettas Cobra Strike, Galil AR Sugar Rush, M4A4 Hellfire |
| Restricted | AK-47 Orbit Mk01, P2000 Woodsman, P250 Red Rock, P90 Death Grip, SSG 08 Death's Head |
| Mil-Spec | FAMAS Macabre, M4A1-S Briefing, MAC-10 Aloha, MAG-7 Hard Water, Tec-9 Cut Out, UMP-45 Metal Flowers, USP-S Blueprint |
The wiki notes that the Oni Taiji's name comes from a Japanese phrase meaning "evil spirit extermination".
Gloves, not a knife
Hydra was the first operation case whose rare special items were gloves. They are the same 24 gloves as the Glove Case of November 2016: Bloodhound Gloves, Driver Gloves, Hand Wraps, Moto Gloves, Specialist Gloves and Sport Gloves, four finishes each.
Despite the name, Hydra Gloves are not in the Hydra Case. They arrived later, in the Clutch Case. The gloves guide sorts out which case holds which set.
What Hydra changed
Wingman stayed. In "The Best of Hydra", Valve called Wingman "the most popular Operation Hydra Event" and kept it, now with map selection and a dedicated Wingman skill group. According to the Counter-Strike Wiki, Wingman also carried over into CS2.
War Games became a menu. Valve kept the War Games format as a home for alternative modes, with Arms Race, Demolition and Flying Scoutsman, the most popular War Game of the operation.
Map pools got tighter. The same update added Agency to Competitive and stopped featuring the least-played maps in official Competitive Matchmaking. Austria, Shipped, Agency and Insertion went into the casual groups.
A long pause. Dexerto counted 910 days between Hydra and the next operation, Shattered Web, which replaced campaigns with weekly mission cards and a battle pass.
Sources
- Operation Hydra — Counter-Strike blog
- Release Notes for 5/23/2017 — Counter-Strike blog
- Operation Hydra — counter-strike.net
- The Best of Hydra — Counter-Strike blog
- Operation Hydra — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Operation Hydra Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Wingman — Counter-Strike Wiki
- New CSGO Operation Shattered Web goes live 910 days after Hydra — Dexerto
