Thanks for checking this guide out, it's full of lots of helpful information about the game that will improve your skills in-game.

There is alot of Counter Strike guides out there, but I'm going to chop it up and extend it to make it more understandable for new players, even old; talented players will find this helpful. This game has alot of tatics that you have to take into play, this is not your avarge Call of Duty.

UPDATE
This guide will no longer be updated, sorry for the inactivity I just don't have time for this.
Love you guys.

<23/10/2014>Posted Guide.
<26/10/2014>Editing weapons section.
<26/10/2014>Added Overpass to the map callouts as requested.
<27/10/2014>Added Office to the map callouts as requested.
<27/10/2014>Still in progress with devloping the weapons section, may take another week.
>28/10/2014>Small changed made in settings.

You can help make the changes too! Comment a suggestion below!

Credit: dcgaming, they have some helpful information!

Overview
The principle behind setting up your driver is to always favor performance over quality. This means that we should always turn off stuff like anti-aliasing, pre-frame rendering and vertical sync, as these options all add extra input latency to your image. In other words your movement won’t feel as reactive as it could be. I’m doing this from an NVIDIA point of view, however the principles for AMD (and onboard) cards remain the same.

Lauch Options
You should now customize your CS:GO launch options (Right Click on CS:GO in your Steam Library: Properties > Launch Options) to make your new monitor Custom Resolution. My launch options are as follows:

-freq 144 -w 1600 -h 900 -threads 4 -high -novid -console

-freq 144: match your refresh rate.
-w 1600: match your screen width.
-h 900: match your screen height.
-threads 4: this should match the number of cores of your processor (CS:GO takes advantage of multithreading).
-high: tells the OS that CS:GO should run in high priority (this allows CS:GO to have more frequent CPU polling).
-novid: stops the Valve logo video from playing on launch. (Basically speeds up the launch time).

Mouse Setup
Both laser and optical mice have a more linear (less acceleration) response when using low DPI. One thing you’ll notice about almost all the pro’s is that they all tend to have similar mouse settings which include a low mouse DPI (approx. 400) and 6/11 in Windows (Windows Default) with Enhance Pointer Precision Off.

• Make sure that Control Panel > Mouse > Mouse Speed is exactly half-way (6/11) and that Enhance Pointer Precision is not enabled.
  
• Your Mouse Driver (Steelseries, Logitech, Razer etc) should have disabled Mouse Acceleration.
  
• Your Mouse Driver is set to 400 DPI or 800 DPI for a smooth feel. (or close).
  
• Set your CS:GO in-game sensitivity to around 2.0 – 3.0 because that enables you to do roughly 90 degrees with a left or right wrist movement.

Make sure that you have a good surface for your mouse. I myself, have a razer mousepad. You’ll find all sorts of different kinds of weird surfaces. The best advice I can give is use what makes you comfortable.

Crosshair
I myself tend to swap between different crosshairs, as it is your personal opinion which is better, and may make it harder to play with crosshairs you're not comfortable with.
Personally I use these settings, check them out!

cl_crosshairalpha "255";
cl_crosshaircolor "5";
cl_crosshaircolor_b "255";
cl_crosshaircolor_r "255";
cl_crosshaircolor_g "0";
cl_crosshairdot "1";
cl_crosshairgap "-15";
cl_crosshairsize "3";
cl_crosshairstyle "2";
cl_crosshairusealpha "1";
cl_crosshairthickness "1";
cl_fixedcrosshairgap "-15";
cl_crosshair_outline "0";
cl_crosshair_outline_draw "0";

Alternatively, you can use Krisskarbo’s CSGO X-Hair Generator[www.krisskarbo.com] to generate your own crosshair.

Movement is one of the most important things to consider in Counter Strike, half of the time when you die it's because your movement was off, all the rifles have a movement penalty. You need to trick the game to believe you're completly still when you're firing your weapon.

Advanced Crosshair Placement
A very indepth guide of crosshair placement.


Never, ever, walk around a corner. If you walk around a corner your opponent will see you infinitely sooner than you will see him. The only exception to this rule is when you are AWPing. Always use full speed to check a corner. CS won’t play a foot step sound until you reach a certain speed. When you do this technique properly you can peek at full speed without making a sound.

Stutter Step (Tapping)
The stutter step, this is a great techniqute that alot of pro players use to their own advantage. Basically when you're strafing around a corner, you tap back the opposite direction to completely halt your momentum. You have to be quick with the tap though, if you take to long you'll gain momentum which will mess with your aim, and if you do it fast enough, it doesn't even look like you're stopping. You should always practise this by yourself with bots, getting your stutter step aim spot on.


Lanes

There are "safer" lanes in every single Counter-Strike map. There's a way to move where you only expose yourself to one angle at any given time, while at the same time playing the inside lane. When I say play the inside lane, I mean always be on the inside of the threatening corner. ALWAYS. The only exception to this rule is if you are walk peeking with an AWP but that's a separate thread entirely.

An example of an inside corner is hugging the left wall as a T pushing A long on Dust2. The reason you always hug the inside corner is that a peeker has to fully expose his body to peek you. This gives you more time to make the frag. A lot of newbies run up the outside lane thinking they can see a defender first, but they're just going to get shot by a peeker’s left eye ball.


Tips
Always run out of spawn with your knife, as Counter Strike movement speed depends on how heavy the guns is, holding your knife is the quickest way to move around the map.

All the weapons behave differntly, most do different damage and the spray is different, but after using a certain gun for a period of time, you learn how to use it. I'm not going to use all the weapons, just the most used.

Pistols

Glock: The Glock 18 is a serviceable first-round pistol that works best against unarmored opponents and is capable of firing three-round bursts. (Price: $200 | ROF: 400 RPM)

P250: A low-recoil firearm with a high rate of fire, the P250 is a relatively inexpensive choice against armored opponents. (Price: $300 | ROF: 400 RPM)

Desert Eagle: As expensive as it is powerful, the Desert Eagle is an iconic pistol that is difficult to master but surprisingly accurate at long range. (Price: $650 | ROF: 267 RPM)

Dual Berettas: Firing two large-mag Berettas at once will lower accuracy and increase load times. On the bright side, you'll get to fire two large-mag Berettas at once. (Price: $800 | ROF: 500 RPM)

Tec-9: A low-accuracy semi-automatic, the Tec-9 offers excellent penetration damage and a high magazine capacity, though its recoil can be unforgiving. (Price: $500 | ROF: 500 RPM)

CZ75 Auto: A fully automatic variant of the CZ75, the CZ75-Auto is another inexpensive choice against armored opponents. But with very little ammo provided, strong trigger discipline is required.(Price: $500 | ROF: 600 RPM)

USP-S: A fan favorite from Counter-Strike: Source, the Silenced USP Pistol has a detachable silencer that gives shots less recoil while suppressing attention-getting noise. (Price: $200 | 352 RPM)

P2000: Accurate and controllable, the German-made P2000 is a serviceable first-round pistol that works best against unarmored opponents. (Price: $200 | ROF: 352 RPM)

Rifles

Galil AR: A less expensive option among the terrorist-exclusive assault rifles, the Galil AR is a serviceable weapon in medium to long-range combat. (Price: $2000 | ROF: 666 RPM)

AK47: Powerful and reliable, the AK-47 is one of the most popular assault rifles in the world. It is most deadly in short, controlled bursts of fire. (Price: $2700 | ROF: 600 RPM)

SSG 08: The SSG 08 bolt-action is a low-damage but very cost-effective sniper rifle, making it a smart choice for early-round long-range marksmanship. (Price: $1700 | ROF: 48 RPM)

AUG / SG 553: Powerful and accurate, scoped assault rifle compensates for its long reload times with low spread and a high rate of fire.

AWP: High risk and high reward, the infamous AWP is recognizable by its signature report and one-shot, one-kill policy. (Price: $4750 | ROF: 41 RPM)

Dac Dac (SCAR-20 / G3SG1): The SCAR-20 is a semi-automatic sniper rifle that trades a high rate of fire and powerful long-distance damage for sluggish movement speed and big price tag. (Price: $5000 | ROF: 240 RPM)

Submachine guns

UMP-45: The misunderstood middle child of the SMG family, the UMP45's small magazine is the only drawback to an otherwise versatile close-quarters automatic. (Price: $1700 | ROF: 571 RPM)

PP-Bizon: The Bizon SMG is low-damage, but offers a uniquely designed high-capacity drum magazine that reloads quickly. (Price: $1400 | ROF: 750 RPM)

P90: Easily recognizable for its unique bullpup design, the P90 a great weapon to shoot on the move due to its high-capacity magazine and low recoil. (Price: $2350 | ROF: 857 RPM)

(To-do: A more in-depth weapon guide.)

First up, let's just say that decoys are dumb and only useful in such specific situations that you would be better off spending money on a flash which always has utility. Let's order the grenades, top being the most useful, bottom being the least of them (but still very useful).

• Smoke
  
• Flash
  
• HE Grenade

Most people would assume flashes are more useful, let me explain why they're not. Flashes win encounters, but smokes win rounds. Controlling space is very important. It's so important I cannot properly articulate it. Always go for a smoke over a flash, always.

Lets not forget Molotovs. They're not really useful unless you're trying to push enemies to a cetain location, like towards team mates, or out to wear you can get a good shot on them. But, for $800, you won't want to mess it up. If you're playing defence you're better off stopping a rush with a smoke, because armored players can run right through a molotov's fire and only lose 20-30 hit points. No one survives running though a smoke nade.

Get aggressive. The peeker in CS has an advantage. Peekers advantage means you’ll see the defender before he’ll see you. This is true in all situations except when peeking against an AWP already in position. Make people react to you. You never want to be reacting to others. By playing aggressively you get to dictate flow. Now, if someone knows where you are you need to readjust immediately or push them. Think of it like Judo, you need to use your opponent’s momentum against him. So let’s say I unpeek a corner, and you’re coming after me. I’m going to wait until the very moment you step in and begin to come around the corner, then, the very moment you’re moving to engage, I’m going to come out on you. By sweeping into someone’s turn I’ve now caught them flat footed and can finish them off. This is a very important lesson. Aggress into aggression.

To gain peeker’s advantage as a defensive player stutter step back and forth while covering an area. This way, you’ll be peeking into an advancing player granting you an advantage, and even more importantly it reduces the probability you will be prefired! If you aren’t peeking 75 percent of the time, that’s 75 percent more time you aren’t getting prefired in the face.

Prefiring means to begin shooting into a location before you’ve peeked the corner. It’s basically moving and shooting in a single action. If someone’s location is known, they cannot out-react a prefire, and they will perish. Do not be afraid to prefire known hiding spots.

Learn the encounter points. They’re obviously specific to each map. Once you figure it out learn how to flash push into encounter points so you can take extra ground and set yourself up for a play.

When playing a defensive angle, it is infinitely valuable to play a passive angle. What does this mean? Alright, let me set up a scenario. You’re on A site as a CT on dust2 watching catwalk. You’re behind the food crates. You should not be peeking at the catbox. Instead, position yourself so you are aimed a little bit to the right of catbox. This way, a T player peeking the catwalk corner will not see you in the site. It is only upon him stepping up catwalk and beginning his approach that you are visible. Now, he has no where to go, and he is caught by surprise. Even better, you didn’t get peeked. A passive angle is one where you do not engage corner to corner, but rather let your opponent clear his peek spot before engaging. This is easier to demonstrate in video and perhaps I will set up some video tutorials later.

Baiting

Let your team mate fire from one corner while you set up an ambush on the other. Your team mate goes passive, and then when your opponents charge him you can pick up the frags. This is the easiest play to set up and the most effective.

Teamwork

Let me set up a scenario as an example. The bomb is planted on A site on inferno. You and your team mate are CTs trying to retake the site against a single terrorist. Should you split up and one person go attack from truck side and the other player from arch side so you surround the site? Or should you both pick a side and go together?

9/10 players will chose the first option. They are all wrong and bad. See, people believe that surrounding your enemy is the appropriate response. Unfortunately, Sun Tzu never played CS. If you chose to surround your opponent you have now granted him two 1v1 scenarios. Each engagement happens independently and he has a high chance of victory. If you chose the second option you’re now engaging at the same time. This is a 1v2 scenario at the point of engagement. In the worst case scenario your opponents kills your team mate and you kill him. This is known as an effective trade.

If you are the terrorist in this scenario you need to push out, get aggressive, and kill one of the rotating players before they can link up. Ideally, you can force a 1v1 engagement on each one of them.

Clutching

I am writing this addition because I see good players make this mistake all the time. Even I, on rare occasion, make this single stupid error. When in a 1v1 situation you should virtually never, ever, throw a grenade. You need to have your gun out and make a frag. A lot of people panic and start throwing flashes, forgetting that this is Counter-Strike GO and you have no idea if that flash was successful or not. 90 percent of the time flashes do not work in this game. Your opponent will either turn away, dodge it, or it will just straight up fail to blind. By throwing grenades you have now given away your position. The most important parts to winning a clutch situation are surprise and aggression. Put the nades away and shoot them in the face.

Dust 2

Cache

Inferno

Mirage

Nuke

Train

Overpass (New)!

Office

Credits:
FourTwenty *
mR.Waffles
Shibuhya