Economy is one of the most unique aspects of CSGO. It adds a layer of complexity to the game that few other first-person shooters have done, inherently generating a reward/punishment system for losing and winning rounds. In this article, we are going to fully cover this aspect of CSGO, the terms associated with it, and when you should buy/what you should buy. Grab some coffee and be prepared to read a lot of words and numbers.

What do I buy? Read below for more details.

Round Win/Loss Bonus:

Here are all the numbers you need to know for money in terms of round win or loss assembled in a nice table for reference. These numbers will have greater relevance later on when we discuss buys.

Action + Money Reward

Bomb plant +300
Bomb defuse +300
Round win via Kills +3250
Round win via Objective +3500
Losing 1 round +1900
Losing 2 rounds +2400
Losing 3 rounds +2900
Losing 4+ rounds +3400
Out of time (CT) +3250
Out of time (T) 0
Ts Plant Bomb +800 for team and +300 for planter, win or lose

Gun Kill Bonus:

In this table are all of the money bonuses that you can get from getting a kill with a certain weapon.

Weapon + Kill Bonus

Pistol +300
Rifle +300
AWP +100
SMGs (Except P90) +600
P90 +300
Shotgun +900
Grenade +300
Knife +1500

Buys:

There are generally 5 types of buys of which you can then mix and match with your teammates. In certain situations, it is advisable for your teammate to buy in order to get down to the same money as you. Evening the money might require differing buys or allow one person to buy a little more. These are Ecos, Anti-Ecos, Half Buys, Forces, and Full Buys. Keep in mind that the CTs buy will generally be a few hundred dollars more expensive due to having to buy more expensive weapons/defuse kits/molotovs. If you want to read about the pistol round buys and what you should do generally during pistols rounds, visit this article.

Ecos: Ecos include both full ecos and ecos. Full ecos are fairly simple. BUY ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. You stick with whatever you spawned with, maybe with one person buying one or two flashes to allow you to rush somewhere. If you're ecoing in general, you might buy a gun and maybe utility. The utility you will be buying is probably a flash/decoy/smoke (200, 50, 300). All in all, if you're ecoing, you should be at max spending 700 dollars. This may be any combination of the below options + utility.

Buy Cost

Nothing 0
P250 300
CZ75/Tec-9/FiveSeven 500
Desert Eagle (if you're confident) 700

Anti-Ecos: This is the buy that you will do if you suspect the opposing team will be ecoing. This usually consists of multiple SMGs plus one rifle. Sometimes, if you know that they are full ecoing, you can sometimes get away with a pistol + full armor in order to buy an AWP or a rifle next round (this will be at your discretion). You should buy full armor as the knockback/getting one tapped by a pistol is not worth the 350 dollars that you saved. This I cannot stress enough. Full armor should always be bought; otherwise, you risk getting one tapped by the CZ75 or any of the other pistols. In Anti-Ecos, you should always be buying utility as well. Do not skimp on utility for the same reasons as above. Losing the round is not worth saving a few hundred dollars. Winning the round will always give more money than saving your money on utility or armor will. The buy for an anti eco will look similar to a force's economy.

Buy Cost

Pistol + armor 1300-1700
SMG + armor 2050-3300
Rifle + armor 3000-4100

Half Buys: Half Buys are when you spend down to about 2000$ or when your team is trying to even out the economy. You never use all your money as in a force buy, but instead is used to even out money so that you can all buy later on, but still can (more likely) cause damage to the other team's economy so that your full buy later on might encounter a lighter buy. Most of the time, you will be buying a pistol and body armor + maybe utility. Sometimes, you will also buy nothing to help even out economy. Usually, this results in about 1700 dollars at max investment. If you have more money than that, you might consider a force/saving to buy an AWP for a teammate or yourself.

Buy Cost

Nothing 0
P250 + armor 950
CZ75/Tec-9/FiveSeven + armor 1150
Desert Eagle + armor 1350

If you buy head armor, add an extra 350 on plus various utility costs.

Forces: Forces are when your team decides to buy all-in with all your available money. You can both buy pistols and SMGs with armor and the occasional lesser rifle (Galil or Famas). If you are lucky enough to have enough money, you can buy an AK/M4 or maybe even an AWP. Force buys are often called if you need to win the round or you believe that the opponent's economy is also extremely damaged, leading you to try to go for the round win. Sometimes, you call them to surprise the other team or maybe even steal some weapons away for the next round. Keep in mind that as a CT, you can sometimes afford to not buy head armor due to the Ts AKs. The following table assumes you buy full armor.

Buy Cost

Pistol + armor 1300-1700
SMG + armor 2050-3300
Rifle + armor 3000-4100

Buy utility if you have money.

Full Buys: This is the most self-explanatory of all the buys. Buy Rifles/AWPs with full armor and utility. You can opt for a few lesser rifles/SMGs if your economy is a little hurt. If you're on the CT side and your economy is fragile, also consider buying body armor only and have only a few of your teammates buy a kit. Also, you may choose to go glass cannon with your AWP as armor is not necessarily needed with the AWP even though it helps a lot.

Buy Cost

AWP + armor 5750
SMG + armor 2050-3300
Rifle + armor 3000-4100

When to Buy/What to Buy:

Your buys will depend on what you think the other team is buying/their economy and the context of the previous round. I am going to cover the first three rounds of any half, which will generally cover most of the scenarios in terms of economy. The pistol round is covered in the article I linked above. Now, after the pistol round comes the decision-making tree. I have included both an image and a text version of this tree for both kinds of learners.

Courtesy of assassino1 on Imgur

CT:

If you win pistol, you anti-eco and try to build your economy slowly and steadily.
If you lose pistol round, you force on the 2nd round and eco on the 3rd round, since you'll be able to buy on the 4th round.
If you get reset after pistol round, follow the bullet point above.

T:

If you win pistol round, you again anti-eco and attempt to build your economy.
If you lose pistol but planted the bomb, force on the 2nd round and be head-to-head against the CTs.
If you lose pistol and didn't plant the bomb, you force, then eco, followed by a full buy in the 4th round.

These decisions assume a loss in some cases. If you win the round in any of the scenarios, you should either be anti ecoing or full buying depending on what you think the opponent is going to be buying. In general, just look at your money and the opponent's money and think about what happened the past few rounds (how many survived on either side, who won the rounds, consecutive rounds won?) and then decide to buy depending on that context.