How do I get item drops?

Question

Just curious as to how to obtain item drops from the last update.

To clarify, item drops as in weapon skins, crates, anything else Valve added without letting us know, etc.

It seems that after playing a bit, I've gotten no drops, but I've seen players who've gotten drops after a few short minutes of gameplay, but I've been playing for hours.

Is the item drop system like TF2, where you can just idle, get an item drop, come back? Is it like Dota2, where you have to be in the matchmaking system and complete matches for the chance to get drops? Or do you have to be MvP to get item drops? Is it a certain time you play the game?

Also, are weapon and crate drops independent or dependent on each other? Meaning, is the drop counter shared between Weapons and Crates, or are they both separate drop counters?

Answer 1

I answered a similar question to this: How Do I Get More Guns?. Noticed that your question was posted a few hours before that though.

This is the new "Arms Deal" update which went live on 14/08/2013. Valve released a really good FAQ on it, which can be found here.

The bits of interest for your particular question, "How do I get item drops?":

• Timed weapon drops, just by playing on official and community servers (VAC enabled) in any game mode.
• Opening dropped weapon cases with a weapon case key.
• Trade weapons with other players through Steam's Trading interface.
• Purchase them from other players through the Steam Marketplace.

Regarding the first point, these are obtained for play time over the course of a week. As your play time increases, the drop rate will slow down. This is reset when the week rolls over. Not sure the start day or time of a week though.

I'm not 100% sure where you will get the weapon case keys. The below quote suggests that you buy these:

This update will also actively support the CS:GO competitive community with the introduction of the eSports Weapon Case. A portion of the proceeds from sales of eSports Case Keys will go towards prize purses at competitive events.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

You will get 2 drop maximum each day an a total of 4 each week. Half will be weapons, and half will be crates. That means that you will get 1 gun and 1 normal crate one day, and the other day you will get one weapon and one e-sports crate. If you don't want to play but still want drops, you can go to servers that are dedicated to idling.

Also, if you are interested in good quality, your best bet is to open crates. My experience is that the skins you get dropped don't have very good quality (field tested, well-worn etc.)

Answer 3

After about 14 matches, I got a skin, then a crate the match after. This appears to be happening for everybody at some point. The drops only appear after the match is over. You can also get drops from community servers, as long as VAC is enabled on the server you're playing on.

Answer 4

You can get item drops either through playtime or by leveling up on Official Valve Servers.

Case Drops:

• Cases will drop for players on any VAC protected server after a specific time interval
  • During Operations, Operation cases will only drop to players who also own the Operation pass, and are playing on Official Valve operation map servers

Item Drops:

• After leveling up to maximum of once per week, players will receive a guaranteed item drop. The results of that item drop are dependent on a few factors.
  • Items can drop as either Graffiti or Weapon Skins, which are limited to a few collections.