The latest Counter-Strike 2 update brings quicker endings to Retakes mode, a playful new interaction with pet chickens, and a reworked map scripting API that gives mapmakers a cleaner way to work with entities. Here is what changed.
Retakes Mode Gets Instant Defuses and Faster Rounds
Retakes is getting a few changes aimed at keeping rounds moving. Bomb defusal now finishes instantly when there is sufficient time remaining in the round and no active utility remains to prevent the defuse. Valve has also reduced both the freeze time and the round restart delay, so players spend less time waiting between attempts. These CS2 Retakes mode update adjustments should make the flow of each round feel tighter.
Pet Chickens: Ping Them for Tricks
Pet chickens gain a small new interaction. Pinging a pet chicken during freeze time requests a trick from it. Pet chicken names also no longer appear when the customized item text game option is set to hidden, which helps players who prefer a cleaner screen.
Map Scripting Overhaul: New Entities Export
For creators, the biggest change is a reorganization of the CS2 map scripting API. A new top-level export, Entities, now groups entity-related functionality, including Entities.Spawn. Instance.Precache also accepts entities to precache. Several methods have been moved and renamed to fit the new structure: Instance.EntFireAtName became Entities.FireInput, Instance.FindEntitiesByName became Entities.FindByName, Instance.FindEntitiesByClass became Entities.FindByClass, and Instance.EntFireAtTarget became Entity.FireInput. Instance.ConnectOutput has moved to Entities and now accepts a config object, while Instance.DisconnectOutput has also moved to Entities.
Scripting changes have appeared in earlier patches too, as in our coverage of the hostage scripting and gamerules update.
New Bot Control and Player APIs
The update adds several new hooks for working with bots and players. Instance.OnBotControl is new, alongside CSPlayerController.IsControllingBot and CSPlayerController.GetControlledBotPawn. CSPlayerPawn also gains a Reset method.
What Mapmakers Need to Know About Deprecations
Moved and renamed methods remain available in their original locations, but they are now deprecated, so creators should plan to update their scripts. Instance.FindEntityByName and FindEntityByClass are deprecated as well. On the debugging side, calling a method on an invalid, removed Entity now reports that the Entity is invalid, and ConnectOutput logs a warning when the target has no output with that name.
Source: Steam Counter-Strike 2 update notes, published 2026-11-05.