An Overview of The Best Guns in CS:GO
In this article, I will be taking a look at all guns in CS:GO and talking about the best ones to help improve your game.
In CS:GO, you need to familiarise yourself with all types of guns and be able to adapt given your position. In this article I will be analysing the best guns in each category based on their cost, kill reward, damage, inaccuracy (lower is better), fire rate, one-shot range (on unhelmeted enemies), and difficulty to use (1-10).
Pistols
Desert Eagle
• Cost: $700
• Damage: 63
• Standing Inaccuracy: 6.2
• 1-Shot Range: 2,139 Units
• Difficulty to use: 7
• Fire Rate: 266.67 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
The Desert Eagle is one of the best pistols in CS:GO and is famous for its 'one deag' capability, and its ability to two-shot at most distances. However, this isn't a good gun for a pistol round and should rarely even be considered to be used in the first round in any game. Furthermore, despite its one-shot capability, I wouldn't recommend this for a second round. If you lose pistol round or if you don't get any kills with it, your money will be greatly set back and your entire team's economy could be ruined. I have given this a high difficulty to use as you need to time your shots well to be very accurate and you also need to pick your fights accordingly so you actually have a good chance to secure a frag.
P250
• Cost: $300
• Damage: 38
• Standing Inaccuracy: 11.1
• 1-Shot Range: 1,987 Units
• Difficulty to use: 3
• Fire Rate: 400 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
The P250 is the cheapest pistol in CS:GO (barring the starter pistols) and is also very easy to use. Up until recently, this gun could one-shot helmeted players, which gave rise to the use of P250s on eco rounds as you could one-shot enemies on a full buy. This gun isn't as accurate as the Deagle but makes up for that by having a much higher fire rate, meaning you can spam enemies close to you and hopefully hit enough shots. Statistically, this gun is better than both CT and T starting pistols, making it a very viable choice on pistol rounds due to its high damage and fire rate. This must be taken with a pinch of salt however as buying this gun means that you won't be able to buy armor and will be at risk of dying to chest and stomach spam.
Heavy
Nova
• Cost: $1200
• Damage: 26 (per pellet)
• Pellet Count: 9
• Standing Inaccuracy: 47
• 1-Shot Range: 54 Units
• Difficulty to use: 4
• Fire Rate: 68.18 RPM
• Kill Reward: $900
The Nova is the joint cheapest shotgun in CS:GO (with the Sawed-Off). With a high kill reward of $900, this gun is a brilliant choice for an anti-eco round so you can mow down Ts and rack in tons of cash. The inaccuracy of the Nova is quite horrific, meaning that you need to be within a very close vicinity to an enemy to have any chance to one-shot them, although even then it is quite unlikely. The low fire rate also means that you need to pre-empt your shots and make sure you don't miss as you will most likely only have two shots at best to kill an enemy before they react and take you out instead.
XM1014
• Cost: $2000
• Damage: 20 (per pellet)
• Pellet Count: 6
• Standing Inaccuracy: 45
• 1-Shot Range: N/A
• Difficulty to use: 2
• Fire Rate: 171.43 RPM
• Kill Reward: $900
The XM1014 is one of my favourite guns in all of CS:GO and a fantastic choice for newer players who are just getting in to the game. The smaller number of pellets mean that the pellets go in a much closer range and are less likely to go all over the place. which is also helped with its inaccuracy as it is the most accurate shotgun. One of the most important features of the XM for me is the ability to hold down your shoot button and just aim where the enemies are. Due to its low recoil and high fire rate, it is possible to take out three, or maybe even 4 enemies, during an eco round with just one magazine, despite the fact it can't one-shot them. The cost does make it the most expensive shotgun in CS:GO and it is only usable in very few situations, ideally during an anti-eco.
Negev
• Cost: $1700
• Damage: 35
• Standing Inaccuracy: 12.17
• 1-Shot Range: 5,523 Units
• Difficulty to use: 1
• Fire Rate: 800 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
The Negev is the only LMG I decided to include in this list and I believe that it's place is very deserved. This is arguably one of the best guns for new players due to its high accuracy, RPM, and easy to master recoil pattern (just move down a little). The Negev also has very high damage and can one-shot an unhelmeted opponent from most ranges and five-shot at all ranges. One of my favourite uses for this gun is to hold down choke points on CT side, such as Apartments on Mirage, so that the enemies are forced to either try and run through your gun fire or to fall back and wait for you to stop shooting. Personally, I see very little viability to this gun on T-Side, due to its very low movement speed but I can see it as viable in almost all rounds on the CT-Side as you can mow down the Ts before they even get near the site.
SMGs
UMP-45
• Cost: $1200
• Damage: 35
• Standing Inaccuracy: 14.43
• 1-Shot Range: 584 Units
• Difficulty to use: 6
• Fire Rate: 666.67 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
The UMP-45 is the most 'rifle-like' SMG and was one of the most used weapons in 2017 when people began to realise how good it truly was. However, since then the UMP has been nerfed, such as it was given a more difficult recoil pattern and it isn't as powerful as it used to be. Given all this, the UMP is still a very strong gun and, if you can master the recoil, you will be able to have the same punch as a rifle but at less than half the price. One disadvantage it has compared to other SMGs is its reduced fire rate and difficult to control recoil pattern and its lower accuracy compared to other SMGs. Situationally, I would use this gun in a half-buy situation or in a full buy where you don't have enough money to afford a rifle full buy, and your teammates are unable to drop for you.
P90
• Cost: $2350
• Damage: 26
• Standing Inaccuracy: 14.65
• 1-Shot Range: 130 Units
• Difficulty to use: 2
• Fire Rate: 857.14 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
The P90 is colloquially known as the 'silver gun' due to its ease of use and massive mag size of 50 bullets. By reading these stats, it is also apparent that it has an incredibly high fire rate. meaning that you can just spray and move your mouse down a little and be pretty much guaranteed one or two kills. However, to counteract this, the P90 has incredibly low damage and a very small one-shot range. This means that you need to be able to at least hit four or five shots to guarantee a kill so there is some element of skill to this gun. In higher ranks, the P90 is very rarely used, partly to its negative reputation and also because if your opponent is good with a rifle, they will likely be able to kill you before you can kill them. But, the P90 is still usable as an anti-eco gun. For example, you could hold a tight angle and spray enemies as they leave or just run out and spray down as many people as you can.
Rifles
AK-47
• Cost: $2700
• Damage: 36
• Standing Inaccuracy: 7.01
• 1-Shot Range: 9,024 Units
• Difficulty to use: 9
• Fire Rate: 600 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
The AK-47 is a staple of Counter-Strike and is the most used weapon at almost every rank with good reason. For professional players, this gun is a go-to due to its huge one-shot range and massive damage. However, to counteract this, the spray pattern is incredibly difficult to learn and master. This gun also has a very low inaccuracy, which has also given rise to the ability to one-tap players with this gun. In my opinion, it is always better to save for an AK over a Galil as it is so superior and the Galil is no match for it. The only possible reason I could see to use the Galil is if you are a newer player, as it has a much easier spray pattern and 5 more bullets per mag. As a CT, I would also encourage you to pick up this gun off of a dead enemy whenever possible.
M4A4
• Cost: $3100
• Damage: 33
• Standing Inaccuracy: 5.5
• 1-Shot Range: 4,557 Units
• Difficulty to use: 7
• Fire Rate: 666.67 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
The M4A4 and M4A1-S are the CT side alternatives to the AK-47. Here, I have decided to only analyse the M4A4 as it is an objectively better gun than the M4A1-S. For the same price, you get 10 extra bullets in a mag and a much higher fire rate. The M4A1-S does benefit from a much bigger one-shot head shot range but you are more likely to be sprayed down before you can spray them down, due to the much lower fire rate. The M4A4 does have a more difficult spray pattern but it pays off very well and you are much more likely to win your duels with the M4A4 than the M4A1-S.
AUG
• Cost: $3150
• Damage: 28
• Standing Inaccuracy: 2.42
• 1-Shot Range: 2,804 Units
• Difficulty to use: 5
• Fire Rate: 666.67 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
The AUG just recently faced a buff in the form of a reduced price. This price change has lead to somewhat of a meta change with the AUG being seen much more in both competitive and normal game play. I personally believe that the main people many people didn't use this gun before was because of its stigma as the "COD Gun" due to its scope. The stats of this gun didn't change with the latest patches, yet it feels to be a much different and more useful gun. Statistically, this gun is incredibly accurate with one of the lowest inaccuracies in the game and it can also one-shot from most positions on every map. This gun also has quite a simple spray pattern and also has quite high damage, meaning that you can kill most enemies in four shots.
SG553
• Cost: $2750
• Damage: 30
• Standing Inaccuracy: 2.48
• 1-Shot Range: 4512 Units
• Difficulty to use: 6
• Fire Rate: 666.67 RPM
• Kill Reward: $300
Much like the AUG before, the SG553 also benefitted from a price reduction recently putting it just $50 more than the AK-47 but it is statistically better than the AUG. Along with these above stats, the SG553 also has a 100% armour penetration, making it perfect for buy rounds as it does just as much damage to a fully armoured enemy as it does to an unarmoured one. Once more, this gun can one-shot from any point on any map to another and the only big disadvantage this gun has in comparison to the AUG and other rifles is its difficult to control recoil pattern and, like the AUG, its stigma as a "COD gun".
AWP
• Cost: $4750
• Damage: 115
• Standing Inaccuracy: 2.2
• 1-Shot Range: 75,920 Units
• Difficulty to use: 4
• Fire Rate: 41.24 RPM
• Kill Reward: $100
The AWP is the best sniper rifle in CS:GO and is seen as the best gun in the game for some people (mainly AWPers). This gun can one-shot unarmoured opponents from any distance on every map. The one time when the AWP doesn't one-shot is if you end up shooting the enemy in the leg as that will only do ~80 damage to the enemy. Naturally, this gun is incredibly accurate, although some people have expressed dislike for the fact that there is any innacuracy while using the AWP whatosever as that isn't realistic and you can end up missing shots you should have easily hit.
Hopefully this guide on the best guns in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive helps you pick your favorite weapon!
Like our content? Support us by getting our merchandise in our shop
