Valve released Counter-Strike 2's Season 5 update on July 8, 2026, announcing in a Steam post that the operation brings a reworked bomb detonation, a change to the Active Duty map pool and two new collections in the Armory.
The map pool change is the headline competitive item: Cache has entered Active Duty and replaces Overpass. Valve framed the swap around Premier, the game's ranked queue, describing Cache as the newest map on which players will climb the Premier ranks.
How the new bomb damage works
Valve said bomb damage has been "completely reworked". Where detonation previously applied damage on proximity alone, the explosion now sends a wave outward from the bombsite and through the map. Players standing close to the bomb are still killed outright.
The wave is directional rather than uniform. According to Valve, the shockwave dissipates around corners and does not travel through walls, so at sufficient distance a player can survive the detonation by taking cover. The health bar now flashes a preview of how a player would fare in the blast, giving an in-round read on whether a given position is survivable.
Armory and community maps
Valve said it had put out a call for new weapon and sticker collections and that the community responded. Two weapon collections, Arabesque and Spy Tech, have been added to the Armory, alongside two sticker collections, Fruits & Vegetables and Auto Racing.
Five community maps also entered rotation. Boulder, Fachwerk and Shelter were added to Competitive, Casual and Deathmatch, while Debris and El Dorado are now available in Wingman.
The update also carries bug fixes and map tweaks, and Valve said scoreboard performance has been improved so that players can check their stats as often as they like. The announcement did not enumerate the individual map changes, and Valve pointed players to the full release notes for the remaining details.
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