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7 top tips to dominate in CS:GO Danger Zone
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's much rumoured battle royale mode is finally here, and it's pretty different to the other BR games out there. You'll need these tips to get off to a solid start.
This is it. You've finally installed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive now that it has gone free to play on Steam. After all, it would be rude not to at least try it now that it's totally free, and that new battle royale mode sounds so much more fun than an hour's 5 vs 5 match.
You realise this could be a historic moment, the first time that the next CS superstar boots up the game, so to make the story even better when you inevitably tell it to a crowd of enamoured journalists when you're a multi-Major winner, you decide to stick on some epic music and grab some accessories to make sure you're looking fresh for a quick selfie to immortalise the moment.
You enter your first ever game of Counter-Strike, of course going straight into the battle royale option, Danger Zone, before even playing against bots. 16 players is nothing. You've had more kills than that in a single game of PUBG so getting a win should be easy.
You land on the ground, and then, within 30 seconds of landing, three shots connect with your head, a big 16th place badge pops up on screen, and your game is over. What you do need to do is brush up on your CS:GO knowledge with some tips for Danger Zone, which we have right here.
Follow the drones
Unlike most battle royale games, CS:GO's Danger Zone mode differs in that you can actually have weapons, ammo, armour, and other items delivered directly straight to you via drone. Just drop some of your hard earned cash, tap the touchscreen of your in-game tablet, and useful items will fall from the sky a few seconds later.
It sounds great, but, of course, it gives away your position to anyone that spots the drone flying across the map. So if you're feeling confident, and want to rack up some kills, one of your best tactics is to follow the drones and take out whoever's unfortunate enough to be waiting for a delivery. Sometimes, smarter players will leave their deliveries for a while, to make sure the coast is clear before collecting, and may even use deliveries to try and bait others in for an easy kill, but for the most part drones lead to other players and potential kills. Watch out for those digital deliveries.
Shoot down the drones
If you're not a player who wants to hunt down every kill on the map, but do want to put your opponents at a disadvantage, then you can try and shoot down the drones. It's not particularly difficult, but it will make a lot of noise, and probably give away your position. However, if they're carrying supplies, then those supplies will be yours for the taking.
Taking a drone out can be a massive swing in your favour, but you'll have to decide if making serious noise is worth the chance of free loot – and if you miss the drone, then you've really messed up, as ammo is pretty sparse here.
The Danger Zone looks quite scenic at times
© Valve
Always stock up on ammo
Ammo is very, very limited in Danger Zone, so much so that with some weapons, missing one shot can cost you massively. Most weapons don't ever come with a full magazine so you'll be forced to get some more ammo from somewhere before you can be confident spraying down a foe. If you have a solid weapon, say an SMG or a rifle, you'll want to spend your money on an ammo drop or try and find some ammo lying around as soon as possible.
Always keep an eye on your ammo count, and never walk past a full ammo crate without picking it up, because you never know when you'll run out of bullets, but you can be sure that it'll lose you a few games sooner or later.
Change tactics based on your weapon
In regular CS:GO you change your tactics based on your weapon, and you need to do the same in Danger Zone. If you only have a shotgun, you're going to want to stick to close quarters, maybe hold out in a building or trying to sneak behind someone for a quick takedown.
If you manage to find an AK or M4, then fighting at range is a better play, because there's a good chance your foe won't have a weapon that’s good at range. The amount of times we've seen someone try to engage us with an SMG when they're in another hexagon is far too high. Remember what your weapon is good at, and play accordingly.
Don't trust the red barrels
Barrels in Counter-Strike have long been a bastion of safety, but in Danger Zone, they're untrustworthy, game ruining devices that seem set on killing you. Never go near a red barrel when in a fight. If anything, run towards the incoming stream of bullets and away from the red barrel, because if one of those bullets hits that barrel, and you're close, then it'll explode into the sky, dealing a lot of damage in a surprisingly large area. Of course, you can use this to your advantage, but so far we've had barrels do more damage to us than we've done to others.
Use natural cover and hold angles
Again this comes down to basic CS:GO tactics, but we've seen countless people seemingly ignore this standard of play, and it usually doesn't work. Check every corner as you move through buildings, and if you want to remain stationary, find an angle and hold it. The map is so large that no one is going to check every angle when they move so you'll have the advantage a lot more than in standard 5 vs 5.
When you do move, stick to cover, as running out in the open is a terrible idea with that bright orange jumpsuit on. If you stick next to a wall, where you can only be seen from 180 degrees instead of 360, you have a much better chance of survival. It's the basics of CS, but new players may not realise just how important this style of play is.
Yellow hexagons on the map mean an enemy is in them
We'll be honest, it took us way too long to figure this one out, but when you look at the map on your in-game tablet, and see that there are some hexagons marked as yellow and some that aren't coloured, that shows where the enemies are.
Your hexagon will always be yellow, but the other yellow ones mean there's an enemy somewhere in that area. In the mid-game, this becomes a super useful thing to check every so often, and it can prepare you for an upcoming fight and stop you being caught off guard. This is something you should be checking at least every minute, if not more often.
