How to set up a Counter-Strike 2 server

With your own Counter-Strike 2 server you decide the map, the mode and who gets in. Good for scrims, practice with your team or a relaxed evening with friends.

What you need

• A Headpat Space account with a verified email address and your billing details filled in.
• Counter-Strike 2 on Steam.
• A Steam Game Server Login Token. Valve asks for one for every public Counter-Strike 2 server. Step 1 shows how to get it.

1. Create a Steam server token

1. Open https://steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers and sign in with your Steam account.
2. Enter 730 as the App ID. That is the ID of Counter-Strike 2.
3. Add a note so you recognise the token later, for example the name of your server, and create it.
4. Copy the token.

The token belongs to your Steam account. Do not share it, and use a separate token for every server.

2. Order the server

1. Sign in to the panel, open Game Servers in the sidebar and click New server.
2. Under 1. Pick a game, choose Counter-Strike 2.
3. Under 2. Pick a variant, choose the variant. If there is only one, the panel picks it for you.
4. Under 3. Pick a location, choose the location closest to your players.
5. Under 4. Configure resources, set CPU, RAM and disk. The recommended values are already selected. The game files are large, so do not lower the disk size.
6. Under 5. Name and finalize, give the server a name.
7. Check Game settings. Paste your Steam token into Steam Gameserver Login Token and choose an RCON Password (letters, numbers, - and _ only). Both are required. Give the server its own Server Name too.
8. Click Continue to checkout and pay. You land on the page of your new server, where the installation starts on its own.

3. Start the server

The installation downloads the complete game, so it takes a while. The server does not start by itself afterwards. Watch the Console until the installer is done, then click Start under Server actions.

The server is ready when the status shows Running.

4. Connect

The Address card on the server page shows the Host and the Port of your server.

1. In Counter-Strike 2, open the settings and switch on the developer console in the game settings.
2. Open the console with the ~ key.
3. Type connect, followed by the host and the port:

connect 203.0.113.10:27015

If you set a server password, add it in the same line:

connect 203.0.113.10:27015; password YourPassword

5. Change the server settings

The name and the passwords are set in the panel. Open Startup. Under Variables, change a field, click Save next to it and restart the server.

Field	What it does
Server Name	The name shown in the server browser
Server Password	Password players need to join. Leave empty for a public server
RCON Password	Password for remote admin access, which only works while Enable RCON is 1

Gameplay rules go into server.cfg, which Counter-Strike 2 reads every time a map starts.

1. Open Files and go to the folder game/csgo/cfg.
2. Click server.cfg. If the file is not there yet, create it on your computer and upload it with Upload.
3. Add your settings, one per line, and click Save.
4. Click Restart on the server page.

A simple start:

mp_autoteambalance 1
mp_freezetime 10
mp_maxrounds 24

This keeps the teams even, freezes players for 10 seconds at the start of a round and plays 24 rounds per match.

Do not put hostname, sv_password or rcon_password into server.cfg. They would override what you set in the panel.

6. Change the map and the game mode

To switch maps while the server runs, type the command into the field below the console and press Enter:

changelevel de_mirage

Other map names are de_dust2, de_inferno, de_nuke, de_ancient and de_anubis. The map the server starts on and the player limit are the fields Map and Max Players under Startup.

The game mode is a combination of two values, game_type and game_mode:

Mode	game_type	game_mode
Casual	0	0
Competitive	0	1
Wingman	0	2
Deathmatch	1	2

Set both under Startup, in Gametype and Gamemode, and restart the server. A new server starts in Competitive.

If something does not work

• Players cannot connect after a game update: Counter-Strike 2 is updated often, and the server has to run the same version as the game. Click Restart: while Auto-update server under Startup is 1, the server updates on every start. If that is not enough, click Reinstall under Server actions and leave Also delete all files switched off, so the installer updates the game and your settings stay.
• The server is not public: check Steam Gameserver Login Token under Startup. A token that was deleted or is used by another server does not work.
• Your settings are not applied: check that the file is named exactly server.cfg and sits in game/csgo/cfg, then restart.
• Something broke after a change: put back a backup. See Back up and restore your game server.

Ready to start? Order your Counter-Strike 2 server.