How to Add Bots to CS2/CSGO

Counter-Strike has always made adding, removing, and controlling bots fairly straightforward, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is no different. In this guide, we dive into the world of CS:GO bots, exploring how to add bots in CS:GO matches, how to make them execute specific commands, and even how kick them. 

Before you dive into the minute details of the commands regarding bots in CS:GO, you should know exactly what bots are and what you can expect from them. Bots are AI-controlled player characters that take the places of real players on the terrorist and counter-terrorist teams in the match you decide to play.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive allows you to play offline against bots only, but it also allows you to add bots to online matchups against other players. So, for example, you could play an online deathmatch against your friend, and add bots on both of your sides to make the match more high-stakes and entertaining. 

One of the reasons that CS:GO with bots is so entertaining to play is that it allows you to set the level of difficulty you prefer. So, you get to choose how easy or hard you want the competition to be, which you can’t do when playing an online matchup in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This Counter-Strike game has four levels of difficulty in total– easy, normal, hard, and expert.

Easy

The easy level is the default one marked by the number 0– this is the best level for beginners. This level is why many people don’t consider the Counter-Strike bots challenging, as they have very bad aim and slow movements through space, so killing them is fairly easy. 

Normal

 If you’ve played any Counter-Strike game before, even if that wasn’t recently, you can give a chance to the Normal level, which is marked by the number 1. Bots on this level aren’t particularly challenging either, but they will definitely put up a fight, which makes them an excellent pastime. 

Hard

If you’re the type of person who enjoys a challenge when playing CS:GO, then you can always set the difficulty to Hard. Although this isn’t the highest possible level you can set the difficulty to, you will still find yourself being challenged by the bots on the map, helping you improve your skill playing Counter-Strike.

Expert

Bots set to the expert level difficulty are as close to real players as you can get when playing against bots. They aim well and move quickly and will battle with you for the match goal until the very end. So, if you like having your Counter-Strike skills tested so you can beat the game’s highest difficulty level, you should try it out. 

Both options– playing against real players and playing against bots in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have their benefits and drawbacks. On one hand, playing against real players allows you to compete against your fellow players from around the globe. If you opt for ranked matchmaking, you can even compete against players who share your rank, so you’re certain you’re playing against players of your skill level. 

On the other hand, playing against bots offers you a lot more control over the CS:GO match. If you play against bots, you can control the number of bots on each side, what weapons they are equipped with, how they behave in the match, and, of course, their difficulty level. Ultimately, which option you choose depends on your preferences in the game.

Before you dive into how to add bots CS:GO and play with and against them, you should consider the main reasons for doing this. In this section, we explore what the benefits of playing with bots in CS:GO can be for your Counter-Strike skills and your entertainment.

Improving Your Skills

The primary reason you should consider playing with bots in CS:GO is to perfect your skills. You can learn how to fire the different weapons for maximum accuracy, change weapons, move through a map, and plant and deactivate the bomb most effectively. You can even start from the Easy difficulty level and then increase it as your overall game improves.

Learning the Maps and Commands

One of the best parts about playing CS:GO is that you get to play on several different fixed maps, so the more you run through them, the better you’ll get at them. Moreover, controlling the bots and playing with and against them will enable you to gain a deeper understanding of the game’s commands and how it works. 

Filling Out an Online Matchup

Sometimes, you just don’t have enough players for an online matchup, or there aren’t enough players to make the duel dynamic and entertaining. That is where CS:GO bots come in. You can use bots to fill out the empty player slots, so if the two teams have 5 real players each and they need 10 players each, they can get 5 bots on both sides to fill the quota out.

There are two options when you’re considering how to add bots in CS:GO. One option is for you to play against bots alone, which is much simpler to access, while the other is for you to add bots to an online matchup with you and other real players. Here is how you can access both.

Adding Bots to an Offline Match

If you want to add bots to your Counter-Strike: Global Offensive game offline when you aren’t playing against real players on servers, then you just need to do the following steps:

1. Launch the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive game
2. Access the Official Matchmaking drop-down menu
3. Click on the Practice With Bots tab
4. Choose a map that you want to play on, which will affect the team size
5. Select the bot difficulty level from the four provided options
6. Choose a side– either Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist 
7. Start playing

Adding Bots to an Online Match

If you prefer playing online against real players, but the teams are missing players, or you just want to take it to the next level, you can add bots, too. Here is the process that you need to go through to do it:

1. Start the CS:GO game 
2. Start a competitive match mode that will put you on a map with other real players
3. In the game settings, click on the Workshop tab enable the developer console
4. Launch the developer console by pressing the ‘~’ button
5. If you want to add easy bots, you need to type in bot_add_t or bot_add_ct
6. If you want to add medium bots, you need to type in bot_add_t difficulty 1 or bot_add_ct difficulty 1
7. If you want to add hard bots, you need to type in bot_add_t difficulty 2 or bot_add_ct difficulty 2
8. If you want to add expert bots, you need to type in bot_add_t difficulty 3 or bot_add_ct difficulty 3
9. If you want to add multiple bots, you need to type in bot_quota_mode fill followed by bot_quota and the number of bots you want to add

The developer console in the Counter-Strike games is one of the features that makes this game player-friendly and customizable. That is especially important when it comes to controlling the bots that you decide to add to your CS:GO game. Here are all the different commands that you can give to the bots you add. 

Adding Bots that Don’t Move to CS:GO

If you want to add bots that will simply be on the map and not attack, plant, diffuse bombs, or even move at all, there is one simple command you need to input into the console. Once you’re in the match, you need to activate the developer console, and once you do, you just need to type in the command: ai_disable. 

This is much different from making the bots idle because when you make the bots idle, they still go through their NPC motions; they are only standing in one place and not engaging in the match. If you add bots that don’t move in CS:GO, they will just be completely frozen in place, like they are an inanimate object on the map. 

Adding Idle Bots in CS:GO

If you want to make sure that the bots remain rooted in place and don’t engage in the match by shooting or even walking but still want them to look realistic, you can do that, too. In the command console, you need to input the following command: bot_zombie. Once you do that, the bots will stay in place but idle and make movements like a real player idling would.

Adding Bots to the Counter-Terrorist Side in CS:GO

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a game that allows you to add bots to specific teams, so if you think that one side could use having another bot, you can add it instead of adding bots to both teams. The command to add a bot to the Counter-Terrorist team in CS:GO is simple, you just need to type in bot_add ct in the developer console. 

Adding Bots to the Terrorist Side in CS:GO

If you need to add a bot to the terrorist side in your Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you need to access the developer console and type in the following command: bot_add t. If you simply type in this command, the game will input the bot at the default difficulty level– easy. If you want a different level, you just need to type in the command as follows: bot_add t normal (or whichever level you prefer).

Kicking Bots From the Game in CS:GO

You can remove bots from your CS:GO match just as easily as you can add them. All you really need to do is access the developer console and type in the following command: bot_kick, which will remove all bots. If you want to remove all Counter-Terrorist bots, you need to type in bot_kick ct, and if you want to remove all Terrorist bots, you need to type in bot_kick t. 

On the other hand, if you want to kick out a specific bot, you need to type in the bot_kick command followed by the bot name. For example, bot_kick Mark.

Making a Bot Act as Your Backup in CS:GO

If you want a bot to follow you around the map and act as your backup, CS:GO gives you a way to make it happen. What you need to do is access the developer console and type in the following command: bot_mimic 1. This will make the bot closest to you follow your lead. If you want to disable this feature, you just need to type in: bot_mimic 0.

Adding Crouching Bots in CS:GO

If, for some reason, you want to make all of the bots on the map crouch, CS:GO includes that command option too. To activate it, you need to access the developer console and type in: bot_crouch 1. If you decide to deactivate it, you just need to type in bot_crouch 0, and the bots will stop crouching instantly. 

Adding Bots With Specific Names in CS:GO

If you want to add bots that have unique names, assign them instead of the BOT [Name] type of designation that the game gives them, you can do that too. When you input the bot_add command, you just need to adjust it to say bot_add ct or bot_add t, and then add easy, normal, hard, or expert for a difficulty level, and finally, the name. So, the command would look like this: bot_add ct normal Michael Jordan.

Choosing Specific Armor and Weapons for Bots in CS:GO

You can choose whether you want the bots to have a kevlar and helmet or only one of these types of armor. If you want them to have both, you need to enter mp_free_armor 2 into the developer console. If you want them to have kevlar and no helmet, you need to enter: mp_free_armor 1; mp_max_armor 1. 

Alternatively, you can make the bots fight only using knives simply by inputting the following command: bot_knives_only.

While this isn’t very common, as most people want to play competitive matches online so that they can play against real people, not bots, sometimes adding bots can add to the experience. This is especially true if one of the teams or both are missing players on one of the larger maps, which is more difficult to cover with fewer players. By adding bots, you make the game much more fast-paced.

When you add the bots to the competitive match, you should keep in mind that they will spawn at the lowest possible difficulty level, which is easy. If you want to up the ante and make them more competitive, you can input the command: bot_add expert. That way, all of the bots that spawn will play at the highest possible difficulty level. 

Playing with bots in a casual match in CS:GO may be even more entertaining than playing in a competitive match because the rules aren’t as rigid. The friendly fire option is completely disabled, and you can even respawn during the round. Each round also lasts longer, so it isn’t as intense. 

All of the same commands about the bots apply in terms of adding them, changing their difficulty levels, choosing their weapons and behavior, and even kicking them out. Casual Matches are usually meant for friends who want to play a friendly game of CS:GO, and if you and your friends miss a few players, the bots are an ideal solution to that. 

Playing a Deathmatch mode on CS:GO with bots is probably the mode that will help you refine your movement and precision skills the most. The goal of the Deathmatch mode is to make the most kills during a period of play. Each time a player, be it a real player or a bot, gets killed, he respawns immediately, and instead of buying a weapon, you can pick from the weapons on the ground. 

Playing Arms Race with bots is another game mode that will help you improve your skillset and grow your weapons mastery. Instead of buying weapons, in this mode, you start out with a basic weapon, which is the default pistol for the terrorists and counter-terrorists alike. The more kills you make, the more you progress through weapons, with the final weapon being a knife. The first player to get a kill with a knife is the winner.

Not only will this game mode teach you how to operate and shoot multiple different types of weapons, ranging from pistols and sub-machine guns to semi-automatic rifles, snipers, and knives. You can set the bot difficulty level at whichever level suits you so that you can progress and win but still feel like you’re being challenged. 

Danger Zone in CS:GO is incredibly entertaining because there are no two teams that work together to achieve a goal. Instead, it’s every man for himself. Whether you play online with other real players and bots or offline, only with bots, your goal is to be the last man standing on the map.

So, you need to plan and strategize about how to go around and eliminating all of the other bots and players from the maps. This is a more demanding CS:GO mode, as you play against twice as many opponents as usual. If during a casual match, you have 9 teammates and 10 opponents, during Danger Zone, you have 19 opponents.

Knowing how to add bots in CS:GO is one of the most useful skills you can learn when playing this game, as bots can truly enhance your Counter-Strike playing experience. You can use them to practice your skills, try out different maps, and even experience the different modes of playing before you join your fellow real-life players.

Playing bots offline is fairly simple, as the game already has a built-in feature that allows you to pick everything from the bot difficulty to the map. On the other hand, when you’re playing online and adding bots, you need to input the correct command to add bots to the two teams with your preferred difficulty levels.