The Ultimate CS2 Crosshair Guide

In Counter-Strike, the crosshair is a reticle in the middle of your screen that helps you aim by indicating where your shots will hit. It makes aiming significantly easier compared to real life, where you don’t have a built-in crosshair to help you target your shots.

That being said, the crosshair is an important tool to practice accuracy and precision, essentially impacting your overall ability to aim. Though any type of crosshair serves the same purpose, different players may prefer various types of crosshairs. Some prefer small crosshairs that are less distracting, while others prefer bright-colored crosshairs that are visible in the dark.

There are layers to building the perfect Counter-Strike crosshair to play with, as there are a total of six components that are responsible for building one. In this section of the article, we’ll go through all of the aspects and why they are important.

Color

Let’s go over the most basic component, which is the color. It should be pretty obvious already, but all we’re doing for this one is changing the crosshair to a different color.

The most important thing to consider when choosing a color is taking dark areas on certain maps into account. A map like Ancient has a lot of dim areas that are barely lit up, so playing with a dark crosshair color is not ideal for your vision. However, there are also bright areas on maps, and playing with too bright of a color might make it less visible.

Since there are many things to think about, it is safer to choose a color that is bright and stands out. Therefore, the most recommended crosshair colors preferred by professionals are either green or cyan. Some players prefer using white, but it could be disadvantageous in bright areas.

Length

The length of your crosshair impacts how large or small your crosshair will appear. With the length, you are essentially stretching the crosshair lines inward or outward.

Almost all professional players are using small crosshairs as they are more helpful when it comes to precision. Heads in Counter-Strike are relatively tiny, so a crosshair with a short length is ideal for hitting more headshots.

However, new players often use larger crosshairs as it helps them aim at a distance. A larger crosshair is more visible and will help you hit body shots. Still, it is not a good habit to aim for the body, and eventually, a smaller crosshair is required to improve your game.

Additionally, large crosshairs can take up a lot of your screen, reducing your vision and often distracting you from the situation at hand.

Thickness

The crosshair thickness is directly related to the length. The length determines how long the lines are, while the thickness determines the size of these lines. Therefore, a thick crosshair will make the lines bulkier.

Generally, thick crosshairs are preferred as the lines will help you focus more on your screen. You might have your eyesight on the minimap or somewhere else on your screen, and a thick crosshair allows you to easily move your eyes back to the center of your screen in milliseconds.

However, making your crosshair too thick might cause it to cover your screen and make you less accurate. Some players would rather use thin crosshairs for less obstruction. Thin lines will ensure that you can see the center of your screen properly.

Determining what crosshair thickness to use entirely comes down to how focused you can be on your crosshair and other parts of your screen. If you need thick lines to recenter your attention to the crosshair, then you should go for it.

Gap

The crosshair gap refers to the spacing in the center of your four crosshair lines. This area of your crosshair is extremely vital because that’s where you should put an enemy’s head on.  There is one great trick to determine what crosshair gap you should use. Imagine how large an enemy player’s head would be, and set the crosshair gap approximately that size. However, you must remember that the size of these heads can change depending on distance. If you are far away, heads will appear way smaller.

Still, a smaller crosshair gap is generally accepted by professional players. Most maps have spots for long-ranged gunfights, and a large crosshair gap will not help you hit heads from such distances.

More than the others, choosing a crosshair gap requires you to load into a private server and continuously adjust it to find the perfect one.

Outline

Your crosshair outlines are additional black lines that cover the border of your crosshair. The outline isn’t as important as the other components, and is solely used for extra visibility.

Outlines can be very useful in chaotic gunfights where there’s a lot of stuff going on. These dark outlines reduce the time it takes for players to look for their crosshairs. Setting high crosshair outlines will make these dark lines thicker.

Though outlines sound very useful, most professional players stray away from using them because it makes their crosshairs look smaller. As long as you’re very focused on the game, you shouldn’t need any crosshair outlines.

You can always do some testing to determine which of the two options you like better. Try playing a full match with crosshair outlines and another one without. Two matches should be enough to help you decide which one to go for.

Dot

The final crosshair component is the crosshair dot, which comes down to two options: you either want it, or you don’t. The name itself is pretty self-explanatory – enabling it will put a dot in the center of your crosshair, and disabling it won’t.

It is widely agreed that the crosshair dot is not ideal, as the dot will cover what players see in the middle of their crosshairs, which would usually be an enemy player’s head. It is very rare to see any professional players use a crosshair dot, and we recommend disabling it as well.

However, dot crosshairs do exist in the game. These crosshairs are just a simple dot on your screen, while the four lines are completely removed. It’s either you use a crosshair without a dot, or a dot without a crosshair. Almost nobody uses both.

Now that we’ve understood what all the crosshair components do in Counter-Strike, we can begin changing our crosshairs to meet personal preferences. There are two primary ways to change your crosshair settings in CS2.

Through the In-game Settings

The first and most common method of adjusting your crosshair settings is directly through the in-game settings menu.

To navigate to your crosshair settings in the game, follow the steps below.

1. Launch Counter-Strike 2.
2. Go to your Settings page by clicking on the gear icon.
3. Next, go to the “Game” section and select “Crosshair”.
4. Here, you can adjust all the settings for each crosshair component.

You can see how the crosshair will look as you are changing the settings. You can also choose different maps to display to check the brightness of your crosshair and how it would feel.

Using Console Commands

The other method is intended for more advanced users who know their way around the console. Valve has created a handful of CSGO crosshair commands that allow players to change their crosshair settings in an instant.

To enable your developer console and input console commands, follow the steps below.

1. Launch Counter-Strike 2.
2. Go to your Settings page by clicking on the gear icon.
3. Next, go to the “Game” section.
4. The first setting you should see is “Enable Developer Console”.
5. Change the setting from “No” to “Yes”.

Once you have enabled the console, tap the “~” button on your keyboard which is above “TAB” and below “Esc”. 

Some of the most notable crosshair commands include:

• cl_crosshaircolor 1
• cl_crosshairdot 0
• cl_crosshairsyle 1
• cl_crosshairdrawoutline 0
• cl_crosshairthickness 1

You need to change the numerical values at the back of these commands to apply changes to your crosshairs.

If you don’t know where to start when crafting your ideal crosshair, you can always copy the crosshairs of the best players in the world. You can use these crosshairs as a reference and begin to edit them to your liking. Here are the crosshair codes of some of the best Counter-Strike players in the world.

s1mple: CSGO-24JmN-TMFyF-dqavU-3JAkA-CW9vO

donk: CSGO-imsvB-aqkV2-tbZp5-n6NPd-Oqw5G

ZywOo: CSGO-BxYA4-u8xrB-voGTj-t6Jyr-ruWPA

NiKo: CSGO-jZEM9-7LFM5-VEqXb-Gh73i-3oAQL

m0NESY: CSGO-s5Qbj-nvF89-cJjDd-mRdSG-5Yt4N

dev1ce: CSGO-LG5aR-u3qCV-rarKd-tSPBf-ZbJaA

ropz: CSGO-MMQuh-Hs3Sj-Qv9zd-VaCmc-3QqNO

jL: CSGO-9nZqk-V38NE-bcR4d-B52Vo-Mv5qB

XANTARES: CSGO-xbpe2-E24RJ-YXNuO-pQvt8-ppNAK

Twistzz: CSGO-zWRiZ-W5HP2-N4e2z-AVQTL-kj74E

How to Copy Crosshair Codes

You can copy these crosshair codes above and immediately import and apply them immediately. This can be done through your in-game settings. Here is how you can import these CSGO crosshair commands.

1. Copy the desired crosshair code to your clipboard.
2. Next, launch Counter-Strike 2 and go to your “Game” settings.
3. In the “Game” settings, go to the “Crosshair” section. 
4. Click “Share or Import”.
5. Finally, paste the crosshair code into the text box provided.

It will take a while for you to finally settle in for the perfect crosshair, so a lot of testing is required. Here are some general tips to test if a crosshair is effective for you.

Crashz Crosshair Generator Map

The first way to test your crosshair is going to a community workshop map called Crashz Crosshair Generator Map. This map has all the resources you need to craft the ideal crosshair.

The map has numerous testing areas where you can check your crosshair color on different maps, and also provides moving bots for target practice. On the fly, you can also use boards on the map to change your crosshair settings in an instant.

Load Into the Different Competitive Maps

Unfortunately, the Crashz Crosshair Generator Map does not feature all the Counter-Strike maps. So, you should load into a private match on the different competitive maps and just start walking around. Try visiting the dark areas of the map, such as Tunnels on Dust II, and also go to bright maps such as Vertigo to see if your crosshair color works under different shades.

Play a Deathmatch Game and Make Adjustments

Finally, you will get nowhere without any practical testing. At the end of the day, you’ll play against real players with your crosshair.

The final way to test your crosshair is to load into a deathmatch game and start shooting heads. As you are playing, you can also make more adjustments on the spot to see if these changes can produce any immediate results.