When you join a server, you’ll start with $800. There’s a few ways you can spend this money, and it depends on your playing style.

Glock, Kevlar, & Ammo

If you’re a Terrorist, you’ll spawn with a glock. While the glock is an extremely weak weapon, it does have some benefits that may merit holding onto it. Firstly, glocks exhibit no recoil. This means that while the bullets are weak, you may fire them very rapidly without having to worry about losing control of the gun at any point. Speaking practically, this translates into somewhat of an Uzi-equivalent among handguns, and for this reason, many CS players will say the glock is the best handgun in the game.

The other benefit of the glock is its MI (movement impairing) ability. Any time you strike an enemy player with a glock bullet, they will be frozen in place. Not all weapons exhibit this feature, and it is quite a deadly feature in most any situation. Coupled with the ability to fire rapidly without losing the quality of the aim and damage dealt, the glock’s MI ability makes this pistol quite a unique amalgam of features, perfectly suited for those who enjoy spraying bullets up close and personal, particularly those good at circle strafing. If this suits your playing style, then the glock is certainly the gun you want. Simply get Kevlar and ammo and you’re good to go.

The glock has an alternate burst mode, which is selected by clicking the right mouse button. You really never want to use this. The strength of the glock is in its accuracy, which you completely lose when you turn on burst firing. If the damage dealt were greater, akin to a shotgun maybe, it would be arguable without question. But because the bullets are so weak, spreading them thin virtually renders the weapon useless. Glock shots must be concentrated on a single point in order for the weapon to deliver on its merit. For this reason, you generally want to keep it on semi-automatic.

USP, Kevlar, & Ammo

Counter-terrorists spawn with USPs. This pistol has the advantage over the glock in terms of damage. It is also the only pistol that comes with a silencer, which reduces accuracy but may be useful to you. But the USP recoils, and it lacks the MI you’ll get with a glock. It also exhibits a slower rate of fire. This is sort of a middle-of-the-road pistol, and it’s actually not that great a weapon against a glock. Because of the fact that it recoils and the glock doesn’t, along with the fact that being shot with a glock will impair your movement, you will end up stuck in place with no choice but to fire relatively slowly while the enemy is putting streams of bullets through you. Because of this, even though the USP is a stronger pistol, if the case is that you and your enemy are evenly skilled, you will be at a disadvantage.

If you’re a CT and your aim is not great, keeping the USP and adding Kevlar and ammo to your gear will probably be the best way to spend your spawn money. If you have aim, consider the following.

Desert Eagle & Ammo

The Desert Eagle, at this stage in the game, is one-hit or two-hit killer. If you want to significantly tilt the odds your way, this pistol, along with good aim on your part, will certainly do the job. But there are two caveats to selecting this weapon. The first problem is that, with only $800 to spend, you will not be able to buy Kevlar, since the gun will knock off $650 right away. The second problem is you will only be able to afford 28 bullets, 7 in the gun and 21 in extra magazines.

As far as not being armored with Kevlar, the damage you will deal with a Deagle is so great in comparison to any other pistol that not only will your enemy’s armor be offset by all the extra damage they will take, but it will even be surpassed. The power of the Deagle is simply unfair at this stage in the game. But the reason it may still be a questionable selection for many CS players is in the fact that the ammo for it is severely limited.

28 bullets is not a lot. In fact an entire magazine can be fired off in about 2 seconds, meaning a panic-prone newbie probably has about 8 total seconds worth of bullets with this gun. You have to make a conscious effort to conserve by only firing when you know you have a good chance of making the shot count. This means you must rely on your aim, which many CS players may not yet have. For those players, this is the worst pistol choice, and they would be best off acquiescing with the default gun and armor.

But in general, this is the pistol everybody should hope to master. The reason is the Desert Eagle will generally kill first among pistols simply because of its sheer power. The only prerequisite is solid aim. Once aim is acquired, no matter what other pistol the enemy is using, regardless of what armor they have on, your Desert Eagle will make you fiercely unmatched.

Other pistols?

All the other available pistols should be avoided on your first-round buy. Their benefits over your spawn pistol are so menial as to not justify sacrificing the money you could be spending on Kevlar. If you want to upgrade your gun, the Desert Eagle is the only valid option. If you don’t like the Desert Eagle, keep your default gun and opt for the armor until your aim improves enough for you to like it.

Grenades

I don’t generally spend any cash on grenades at this point in the game. Grenades can certainly be useful. A hand grenade can soften up an enemy prior to the kill or finish a partial job. Flash bangs will obviously blind your enemies. The trouble is once you’ve utilized your grenades, you’re very ill-equipped to handle the remainder of the round. This wouldn’t be the case had you had a large sum of money to spend. But you only had $800, meaning you sacrificed much on gear for them. So they really have to count.

This might be ok if you know what your opposing team is likely going to do. Hand grenades inflict splash damage and flash bangs blind all the in the area. So if you’re pretty sure the opposing team is going to travel in a tight mass or bottleneck somewhere where they’ll need to clump together, then your grenades may be justified. But it may be that your encounters with the enemy are rather going to be sparse. In these cases, a grenade will impact only a marginal number of opponents, and once you’re out of grenades, you’re going to be short-handed against the remaining enemy team.

Most of the time, you’re not going to know what the other team is planning in your first round on the server, and grenades are going to be a gamble. Unless you have some other specific reason, such as having organized some grenade tactic with your team, your money is going to be better spent on weapons and armor.