CS2 players unify to speed up Armory Pass EXP farm: ‘Most fun I’ve had in years’

Counter-Strike 2 players are having a blast earning EXP for their Armory Passes, with some even declaring they haven't had as much fun playing CS in years — all thanks to a few "Armory Pass farm" methods the community thought up themselves.

Normally, playing a long Premier or Competitive match grants the most EXP for the pass — but players have taken it upon themselves to make up new game modes designed to speed up the EXP gain and earn the event's skins in a much quicker timeframe.

From spamming grenades in the mid lane on Dust 2 in Casual to lining up and trading knife kills in Deathmatch, the community has essentially created its own operation quests for the Armory update and is farming the event's EXP at an extraordinary rate.

One group of players — all strangers, mind you — shared a clip in the Counter-Strike subreddit where they rushed to Xbox in Dust 2, lined up one by one, and knifed each other in quick succession to rack up points.

Another group rushed into the mid lane and threw grenades non-stop, ending the round in mere seconds — meaning heaps of EXP earned in far less time than a normal Premier match.

The farming method was so fast that Valve pushed an update just days after the Armory Pass went live to limit how many points (and thus, EXP) players could earn from grenade and knife kills. Nevertheless, the community continues to band together and find new ways to unlock their Armory Credits quickly (outside of Premier and Competitive).

Now it's Deagle and pistol spam down mid, with lobbies of a dozen players co-ordinating to tie the match to earn the maximum amount of EXP each session. It's far from what Valve intended, but CS2 players are having fun nonetheless.

The CS2 community is having such a ball of a time that they're comparing this week's Casual farm to previous updates that broke the game for a short while.

"I think the farming lobbies is the funniest time I've had playing CS in a decade," one player said, adding the feeling of teaming up for EXP this week "beats reaching Global for the first time."

Many have drawn comparisons to the R8 Revolver update almost a decade ago. Valve dropped the R8 out of nowhere, but had not properly tuned the weapon's strength. Immediately, the R8 took over CS:GO thanks to its accuracy and power before Valve made necessary tweaks — but the one week of "absolute mayhem" before the nerfs was glorious.

Another comparison many made was to the AUG and SG rifle buffs in 2018 and 2019. Again, a lack of proper testing saw the rifles hit CS:GO and wreak havoc. This week's shenanigans have sparked the same feelings among CS veterans and they're loving the chilled, relaxed atmosphere in the lobby.

"It's the first time I've ever seen the CT and T play as one team for the duration of an entire game," one player added.

We've seen Valve attempt to nerf the Armory Pass farm methods already, so we're expecting a few more changes in the coming days.

But, ever the resilient bunch, the community will assuredly find another broken and fun farm method to abuse.