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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?

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  • Apparently Valve changed the TF2 drops system so idling doesn't get you items: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/40442/…
    – shanodin
    Aug 15, 2013 at 1:22
  • Well, you can idle to get items, you can only get one item in the queue at a time, so that's the only issue.
    – childe
    Aug 15, 2013 at 1:32
  • Aha, fair enough
    – shanodin
    Aug 15, 2013 at 1:33
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    Hi, I answered a similar question to this: How Do I Get More Guns?. Substitute guns for item drops and I think they are the same. Hope that helps.
    – Lyrical
    Aug 15, 2013 at 8:48
  • Strangely enough I've got 5 skins in a row on different games , and only 1 crate. So I think it's totally random how it goes.
    – user55011
    Sep 9, 2013 at 6:43

4 Answers 4

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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.

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    Don't forget to add that you need to be on VAC enabled servers, or items won't drop for you.
    – childe
    Aug 18, 2013 at 0:46
  • Presumably CS:GO keys work the same as TF2 and Dota2 keys, in which you will always have to buy or trade for the keys; they will never be given out. Valve does this intentionally, to give the in-game economy a standard unit of account. Sep 5, 2013 at 11:01
  • So basically the less I play per week, the more I earn? WHAT!?
    – Neffer_23
    Jul 15, 2014 at 14:28
  • As of the operation bloodhound update, there has been a significant change to the 'timed dropped' weapon skins. counter-strike.net/operationbloodhound
    – Colin D
    Jun 20, 2016 at 19:15
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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.)

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  • What does quality matter anyway? What is the exact difference between a well-worn and a factory-new skin, other than an arbitrary piece of text?
    – user79446
    Dec 24, 2014 at 14:45
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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.

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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:

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