Valve overhauls C4 explosions in Premier Season Five

Valve launched Premier Season Five and rolled out an overhaul to C4 explosion mechanics on all official defusal-mode maps. The update also made map, armory, engine and scripting changes across the game.

Explosions now generate a shockwave that expands outward from the plant spot. Damage is applied as the shockwave travels and is determined by precomputed simulation values embedded in each compiled map file. The shockwave interacts with walls and corners, so map geometry and cover affect how much damage a player receives. Players will see health bars flash to preview estimated damage from a nearby detonation.

Valve described the work as a redesign of the effective range and extent of C4 explosion damage across official defusal maps. The change replaces the previous instant-application model and uses damage values baked into map files rather than calculating them dynamically at runtime. The patch also fixed a bug that could prevent players from picking up dropped weapons through the Buy Menu.

The Active Duty map pool now includes Cache and removes Overpass. The Armory added two weapon collections, Spy Tech and Arabesque, and two sticker collections, Fruits & Vegetables and Auto Racing. Train 2025 and Sport & Field weapon collections and the Sugarface 2 and Elemental Craft sticker collections were removed from the Armory.

The update reduced the performance cost of displaying the scoreboard, an issue that could significantly lower FPS when the scoreboard was shown. Engine code was updated to the latest version of Source 2. Community maps Boulder, Fachwerk, and Shelter were added to Competitive, Casual, and Deathmatch modes, while Debris and El Dorado were added to Wingman. Community maps Warden, Stronghold, Alpine, and Sanctum were removed from all modes.

Workshop support for Custom Paint Job Extended now includes an option for a dedicated overlay mask texture and separate overlay UV randomization. Map scripting gained new functions including Instance.QueueAfterThinks, Instance.OnWeaponDrop, and CSWeaponBase.GetOriginalOwner. Errors caught during the CompileModule step now report file name and line number. Support for deprecated vts assets was removed.

Specific map fixes include clipping adjustments on Cache, a pixel-gap fix and clipping adjustment outside the tunnel on Dust II, and a clipping fix on Inferno to prevent a pixel boost at Top of Mid. The release also restored some material blending effects that could disappear at close range, increased sticker rotation precision to allow half-degree increments on the application screen, and addressed other bugs listed in the patch notes.