Valve’s latest CS2 update introduced significant changes that greatly impact the skin market. The biggest news of the update is the ability to trade Covert-quality (red) items for knives and gloves, which caused major price shifts across nearly all skins. In addition, the update includes the return of the official Retakes game mode and minor map improvements.
What is a CS2 trade up contract and how it works for knives
The Trade Up Contract is a CS2 system where you can exchange ten lower-tier items for one of higher quality. Now this functionality has been expanded to include knives and gloves, with a small difference.
Instead of ten items, you only need five Covert-quality items to trade for a knife or gloves. With StatTrak versions, you receive a StatTrak knife, and with regular items, you receive either a regular knife or gloves.
An important detail is the collection restriction. The knife or gloves you receive will come from the same collection as one of the items you traded. In other words, if you trade five Covert items from different collections, the result can come from any of those collections. It’s therefore worth thinking carefully about which items you use in the trade.
Impact of knife trade ups on the CS2 market
This change has triggered a massive market reaction. The prices of many — especially cheaper — Covert-quality skins have risen sharply, as players buy them for trade ups. At the same time, the prices of many knives and gloves have dropped significantly as more supply enters the market.
Cheaper knives and gloves in particular have seen the largest price declines. Items that were previously rare are now accessible to more players through the trade up system.
The market situation is still moving, and prices will continue to stabilize over the coming weeks. At the time of writing, the total market value of skins has fallen from six billion dollars to around three, and then risen back to four. We recommend monitoring the market closely and making your own buy/sell decisions, keeping in mind that no one can predict the market perfectly and item prices can fluctuate considerably.
Retakes game mode returns officially to CS2
CS2 Retakes has finally returned as an official game mode. In this mode, you jump directly into a 4v3 post-plant situation where the bomb is already planted and time is limited.
The mode supports Defusal Group Alpha and Delta maps on official matchmaking servers. In practice, you are given a limited set of resources and weapons, and the objective is either to defuse the bomb or defend it depending on your side.
Retakes is an excellent way to practice the most critical situations in the game and improve your skills quickly. Because every round starts straight in the action, you get many repetitions in a short time. This makes it a perfect training tool for competitive play.
Summary and other update improvements
In addition to the trade-up and Retakes changes, the update brought a range of small improvements to both gameplay and individual maps. Community maps were updated to their latest versions, and visibility was improved in several locations on Inferno.
Valve listens to the community and actively develops CS2. The new knife trade up possibilities are the update’s biggest change, reshaping the entire skin economy and opening new ways to obtain rarer items. The return of Retakes is also a welcome addition for practice, while map improvements and technical fixes make the game better than before.
It remains to be seen how strongly this update will ultimately affect the market, but we always offer a fair price for skins — easily and reliably!
