CS2 Dedicated Server Guide – Setup & More

This CS2 dedicated server guide will help you set up a server and play with your friend. Learn more about how it works and what to keep attention to.

Counter-Strike 2 became available a couple of weeks ago, and it quickly became one of Valve’s go-to options. Players still need to be aware of certain bugs and other issues, but Valve is doing everything in its power to fix them so people can have a flawless experience. 

Speaking of the devil, one of the things that users are missing out on is the ability to create a CS2 dedicated server. Even though this is possible, the steps are pretty hard for most people, meaning they do not know how to go through it. That’s why this CS2 dedicated server guide will help you learn more details about the entire process.

CS2 Dedicated Server Guide 

An important thing to remember is that setting up a Counter-Strike 2 Dedicated Server is not as easy as it was in CSGO. There isn’t a separate dedicated server (at least for now), so you need to do specific steps to set up a server). Luckily, you can do a couple of things to create one.

The first option consists of the following steps:

• Open Steam and head to the Library.
• Find CS2, right-click on it, and choose Manage.
• Choose “Browse Local Files”, and go to the “Game” Folder. After that, you need to select “Bin” and “win64”. This is where you will find the CS2.exe.
• Once here, create a new text file called “server.bat”.
• Edit the text by copying the following – cd “<CS2_PATH>”
• start /wait cs2.exe -dedicated -usercon -console -secure -dev +game_type 0 +game_mode 1 +sv_logfile 1 -serverlogging +sv_setsteamaccount <SERVER_ID> +map de_inferno +exec server.cfg
• Be sure to replace the <CS2_PATH> using your game path on your device (for example, Program Files > Steam > streamapps > common > Counter-Strike > game > bin > win64).

After that, you will need to set up the server ID. To do this, head over here, scroll down to “Create a new game server”, add 730 as the app ID, and choose your server name. Once ready, click “create”, and copy the Login Token. Head back to the sever.bat file you edited earlier and place this info where it says <SEVER_ID>.  Once ready, you should be able to start your server simply by clicking on that file.

CS2 Dedicated Server – Option 2

Aside from the steps mentioned earlier, there are other options to set up a CS2 dedicated server. One of them is by using SteamCMD. People who choose this option have to download this client and extract it (preferably in a new folder) that has the file in it.

Once ready, head over to the main folder (the place where you’ve put the SteamCMD.exe), and create a text file (.txt), and rename it to start.bat. Open it with one of the editors, and copy a specific text code that you can find HERE. With that said, you need to change the ID to 730 and add your Steam account and password. Of course, you have to ensure you’ve got the official CMD file from Valve because some people are trying to steal your account by offering fake CMD files.

After choosing this method, you can actually use the same steps mentioned above in terms of the “server.bat” edits (in other words, copy the same things). Once ready, you can try joining your server.

How to Join My CS2 Dedicated Server?

Even though the steps to creating a dedicated server in CS2 are a bit complicated now, you should be able to complete it in no time. Once ready, you will most likely want to know if it works, meaning you will last to test it. That’s why it is time to see how to do that.

The easiest way to access your CS2 dedicated server is by doing the following:

• Open CS2.
• Choose “Play” and select the Globe icon next to “Practice”.
• Once there, go to “LAN” and you should find the server. 

The only problem here is that you will be the only one on the server unless you do specific things that will allow your friends to come and play. Considering this is a LAN server, some people may want to use specific tools that allow them to connect to LAN servers with their friends.

Alternatively, there are specific steps you can take to allow people to connect without using these tools. However, the steps are long and require editing the firewall system.