When firing a weapon in many first-person shooters, there will be a recoil penalty. The bullets coming out of your gun will have varying levels of accuracy and you may need to mitigate it to keep your shots accurate. Counter-Strike 2 is no different. In this blog post, we’ll be going over recoil patterns in CS2, and tips to control your spray more effectively.

How does recoil work in CS2?

In earlier iterations of Counter-Strike, recoil was much more random. This was done to disincentivize players from spraying their weapons, and instead force them to rely on tapping and bursting. In Global Offensive and CS2, weapon recoil always follows a static pattern with an added element of spread, or randomness.

This means you can learn the recoil pattern and the mouse movements required to mitigate the rise and movement of bullets as you spray. Each automatic weapon in the game has its own unique pattern, including the SMGs which can also be controlled with some practice.

Rifle Spray Patterns

Note: These screenshots were taken with weapon spread disabled to provide the best visual of the recoil patterns.

AK-47 Pattern

The recoil for the AK-47 is more intense than most weapons in the game. In the first 5 bullets of the pattern, there is a big rise in recoil before it shifts to the right and left.

The initial pull down of your mouse will be larger than most weapons, and it can take some practice getting the timing right. Like with most of the patterns, at distance the pattern is accentuated heavily, so controlling recoil at distance requires more drastic movements of the mouse.

M4A4 Pattern

The shape of the recoil pattern of the M4A4 is similar to that of the AK-47, but less intense in the initial rise and movement at the top of the pattern.

This recoil is very controllable for large volumes of fire and also resets quicker than the AK.

M4A1-S Pattern

The M4A1-S recoil follows the same formula to that of the other two primary rifles, a straight vertical rise into some left and right movement at the top. The hallmark of the silenced M4’s pattern is how tight the grouping between bullets is.

This means it requires less movement to control, and can be quite forgiving at range as well as while moving. The downside, of course, is the reduced damage at range, as well as the reduced magazine capacity.

AUG Pattern

The AUG has a pretty forgiving recoil pattern. A consistent rise into a pretty flat, horizontal pattern. While scoped in, the pattern’s spread is decreased heavily, so keep this in mind when engaging enemies while using the zoom.

SG-553 Pattern

The scoped – side rifle has a significant left-to-right drift as it rises. At the top of the pattern it sticks for a moment before jerking to the right, then left. Easily controllable for the first 10 bullets or so.

Like with the AUG, the pattern has significantly decreased spread when scoped.

FAMAS Pattern

The FAMAS can be somewhat difficult to control. After the first 5 or 6 shots, the pattern shifts to the left while it’s still rising, then quickly to the right. The initial first burst of 3 to 5 shots drifts off a bit to the right, so keep that in mind when firing in short bursts.

Galil Pattern

The Galil recoil is characterized by a slight drift to the left as it rises, followed by a quick turn to the right as it reaches its apex. The rest of the pattern is fairly flat with further horizontal motion.

SMG Spray Patterns

The SMGs also have unique recoil patterns, but their secondary usage and increased spread make them an afterthought to learn. However, knowing the trajectory of the first 5 to 10 bullets can be the difference, so learning them will be beneficial. We’ll be covering the main 3 SMGs you will see in competitive play.

MAC-10

The MAC-10 is similar to the Galil, but with less extreme right-to-left drift. Seeing as you’ll be using this weapon mostly while moving and to create space, the pattern is less important than the next two.

MP9

The MP9’s recoil pattern is worth learning because of its quick, almost entirely vertical rise. Once you’ve learned that initial vertical movement, it makes light work of helmeted opponents in close range due to its extreme rate of fire, making for rapid headshots.

UMP-45

The UMP has seen recent favor among some pro players. The recoil pattern is quite forgiving for an SMG. A short, consistent rise with a tad of left-to-right drift. At the apex, the bullets will stay where they are for the most part. Low capacity means you won’t be spraying much with this weapon anyway, but it’s worth knowing.

How to train your recoil with any weapon in CS2

Training your ability to control recoil can be a time-consuming task. Simply improving by playing the game will take hundreds of hours. Targeted, intentional training with accurate feedback is how you improve rapidly.

Refrag’s Recoil Trainer is the best way to train your spray control in CS2. To load Recoil Trainer, type .recoil into the in-game chat. Upon spraying, your recoil pattern will be projected by a purple line. This shows you exactly where your crosshair moves as you mitigate recoil. To toggle the spray pattern for your current weapon, double-tap the E key. This will give you an exact reference to follow to learn the spray pattern. Pressing Mouse2 will clear your previous pattern.

Refrag’s Recoil Trainer allows you to get instantaneous feedback on your recoil control. It automatically analyzes your spray based on the weapon you have equipped, and prints your accuracy to the in-game chat. It will even automatically adjust based on distance.

To get a better idea of how your spray would look on a human target, you can type .bot to place a bot. The chat will now print how many bullets in your spray impact the bot. If you find that the red impact squares are distracting, you can turn them off using the .impacts command.