The latest update for Counter-Strike 2 saw Valve bring in a series of big changes. Gameplay updates included changes to the Incendiary Grenades and Vertigo, while simultaneous Economy changes aim to bring the CT side to level footing. But the most interesting update for us was the introduction of a new rental system for skins in the Kilowatt Case.
What is Skin Rental?
Renting skins is an activity as old as the introduction of skins themselves with many pro players borrowing skins from big traders for events like the Majors. For the casual players too, many services popped up over the years with the ability to rent skins for a limited time with a price much lower than buying.
Now Valve has brought in their own system allowing you to Rent Skins in CS2. This update essentially launches it as a pilot program running on the only CS2 case so far, the Kilowatt Case. Instead of just unlocking the case with a $2.50 key, now players will be given an option to rent the skins in the case for a period of 7 days instead.
That means for under $3 you can play with all the latest skins in the game for a week, without having to drop the hundreds of dollars you’d need to buy these skins. In fact, for the price of an average float of just the AWP | Chrome Cannon alone, you can rent the entire set of skins for nearly 5 months.
How to Rent Skins in CS2?
As the service is only available on the Kilowatt Case so far, it should be noted that you will need the case to start with, which can be acquired by simply playing the game or heading to the steam community market to get one.
When you open the Kilowatt case, you’ll see the option to rent the skins except the Rare Special Item (Knife). Here’s the steps:
- Launch CS2
- Go To Inventory
- Right-Click the Kilowatt Case and click on “Unlock Container”
- Buy a Key for $2.50 if you don’t own one already
- Click the “Open to Rent” option to rent the skins for 7 days
- Ensure that you equip your selected skins in the inventory before jumping into your first match
How does this change the CS2 Skins Market?
First and foremost is the impact this will have on case supplies moving forward. Right now it is limited to the Kilowatt Case alone, but in the future it may be applied to all CS2 cases. And with no change to the drop rates at the moment, it means that more people will open Cases to rent skins, dropping the supplies significantly.
A drop in the case supplies and fewer people opening the cases means that the supplies for the skins to purchase will also dwindle. So if you want a particular skin from a case, expect to pay a premium compared to older skins.
It is important to note that rented skins can’t be modified with stickers, name tags or be sold on the market, meaning that once your 7 days are over, the skins and the case are gone forever, unlike previously where all skins remain on the market somewhere.
By adding this permanent removal mechanic to the game, Valve has kept their margins on the case the same, lost some of the revenue on skin trading through the market, but will make a fortune as skin supplies dwindle forcing more people to open newer cases more regularly.
Only time will tell the tale of how drastic the effect on the market will be.
