“Key Binding” in Counter Strike (1.6) is an essential thing if you want to raise your game to the next level. When I started playing Counter Strike like five or six years from now, I did not know anything about that. I had a very good aim and hearing back then and I was confident that I could take anyone down in one-on-one battle (I wasn’t a team player back then :P).

However, during my college days, I encountered some of the fierce opponents from Going Clutch and Immortals clans, who I could not defeat very often. A few times, a watched them type lines of codes in the console, which I could not understand back then. And once they were done typing, I would watch them do crazy things like, buying multiple items with one key, equipping grenades with one mouse button, and my personal favorite was changing weapon alignment during the game play.

Eventually, I learnt the term Key-Binding or Config in Counter Strike when we playing our first tournament as Speed Attackers at Neo. We were knocked out badly and only managed to win 2 rounds in 3 matches. It was then we decided to become pros and take our game to the next level, we bought new gaming gears, and watched demos and explored how key-binding was done.

What is Binding?

In Counter-Strike, you can bind a key to an action, which means that when you press a certain key, an action will happen. For instance, you can bind a certain key to say a phrase that you often say, such as “damage”. Then, when you want to check your damage stats, just press that key instead of typing the whole thing.

To do this, you need to go into the developer console (press the tilde key ~) and type bind “key” “say whatever”.

There are dictionaries of these commands over the Internet, so I will not go into the details, but in the future.

SA Arnold Counter Strike Binds

Many top players in the world of Counter Strike have built their own binds that suit their game style. Some like to bind equip commands to mouse’s Hyperesponse buttons (Mouse4 & 5), others like to change weapon alignment using them. After a lot of effort and spending loads of hours on Counter Strike, I have mastered the binds I am going to share with you. The great thing about key binding is that you can experiment with different combinations, and then pick the one that you think is useful.

I have partitioned my config into two files; arnold.cfg and buybinds.cfg.

Arnold.cfg

This file includes some basic key binds, such as binding weapon alignment, configuring crosshair size and color, and some FPS config. I do not like the idea of binding weapon alignment on Mouse4/5 keys, which are Hyperesponse buttons. They are more suited to grenade equip binds, in my opinion. So, after a lot of thought, I bind Left weapon alignment on CAPSLOCK, and Right weapon alignment on ‘E’ (I know you’d be raising an eyebrow at this!). ‘E’ key is supposed to be used for opening doors and defusing bombs, but I wanted to use weapon alignment so much that I had to sacrifice that key in favor of that. I moved that function to Key ‘V’, which is relatively still closer and accessible with the left hand.

This .cfg looks like this:

//OVERRIDDING BINDS

bind CAPSLOCk "cl_righthand 0"

bind e "cl_righthand 1"

bind v "+use"

cl_showfps 1

fps_max 101

cl_updaterate 101

cl_upspeed 400

viewsize 110

bind f "weapon_flashbang"

bind mouse4 "weapon_hegrenade"

bind mouse5 "weapon_smokegrenade"

bind mwheeldown "+jump"

//------------------ Buy Binds ---------------

exec buybinds.cfg

//------------------ Buy Binds ---------------

You would also have noticed that I’ve also sacrificed Key ‘F’ that is a default bind for ‘flashlight’ in favor of binding Flashbang equip. That is weird, I know but the plus point of this is I have a key bind for each of the three grenades in counter strike, which honestly, I have not seen any other player doing that. It has saved me many rounds, trust me! Flashlight can be bind to any other unnecessary key.

To download, please right click arnold.cfg and choose to ‘save as’.

SA Arnold Counter Strike Buy Binds

Quick buying in Counter Strike saves you a lot of time. You only have 8-12 seconds freeze time at the start of the round, and I being the team leader had to save every bit of that. I had to ensure that I’d written the strategy call, and have geared up in time. While surfing net, I came across an article that I really liked. The author had given binds for each weapon on Functions Keys (F1-F12). So, it occurred to me that I should bind the weapons I use to them, that would save me a lot of time. For example, if I wanted to buy Colt (m4a1), I would just press F8 instead of O+4+3, and this really worked and helped speed up my buying enormously. See below:

// ----------- Buy Binds -------------------

// -------- Weapon Binds -------------------

alias w5 "wait;wait;wait;wait;wait"

bind F3 "deagle"

bind F4 "mp5"

bind F5 "snapshot"

bind F6 "defender; w5; clarion"

bind F7 "awp"

bind F8 "ak47; wait; m4a1"

// -------- Weapon Binds -------------------

// -------- Equipment Binds -------------------

//Buy up

bind F12 "flash; w5; flash; w5; buyammo1; w5; buyammo1; w5; buyammo1; w5; hegren; w5; sgren; w5; vesthelm; w5; defuser"

//Refill

bind F11 "flash; w5; flash; w5; buyammo1; w5; buyammo1; w5; buyammo1; w5; hegren; w5; sgren"

//VestHelmet + Defuser

bind F10 "vesthelm; w5; defuser"

//Vest Only

bind F9 "vest; w5; devon"

//Defuser

bind ] "defuser"

//Grenades

//All Grenades

bind INS "flash; w5; flash; w5; hegren; w5; sgren"

// -------- Equipment Binds -------------------

// ----------- Buy Binds -------------------

If you would notice the bind on F8 key. There, I have used code for Ak47 and Colt both. This saved me from a being a sitting duck and buying scout when we change teams from CTs to Ts (and are in a couple of rounds). Since, you cannot buy an AK47 as a CT, and Colt as a T, pressing F8 will only buy you the allowed weapon, thus you do not need to worry about being in the T or CT when going into a buy up round and opting for an assault rifle. I still yell at my team for not following this beautiful bind, and they keep ending up buying scout every now and then.

In addition, going into full buy-up rounds, I have a one key combo that will get you Kevlar, primary ammo, defuser kit and grenades. F9-F12 keys are full and partial buy binds, you like that?

These buy binds ensure that I get the weapon I needed, and not spend a penny extra on accidental buys such as scout or night-vision. This also makes me quick on buying and dropping weapons to my team members during freeze time, when needed.

To download, please right click buybinds.cfg and choose to ‘save as’.

You only need to execute Arnold.cfg, buybinds.cfg will automatically be included. Please note that these binds are not complete, as in, these do not offer default key binds such as left/right movement, fire keys, duck etc. I have not used unbindall command, so you may reset the configuration first, so that it becomes the default, and then type ‘exec arnold.cfg’ in your console file.

Place these files in your game’s cstrike folder.

I wrote an article a while ago about fixing FPS, if anyone of you are having problems with that, it could help you.

I am open to suggestions from our valued visitors, and would certainly appreciate your feedback. You may leave a comment below:

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