Cache is back in CS2. The beloved map, originally designed by Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling, has been given a complete overhaul by Valve, bringing it back into the Casual, Deathmatch, Competitive, and Retakes modes in the April 29 update. “Welcome back, Cache,” Valve wrote in the blog post, adding “Don’t forget to clear Forklift.”
While veterans of CS:GO will find familiar locations largely intact, Valve has also billed the map as one where new players can quickly “learn the ins and outs of a classic three lane map that rewards strategy and teamplay.”
The return marks the culmination of years of community demand, ever since the map first went out of the map pool in 2019. A remake of the map debuted at ESL One New York 2019’s showmatch, but was never included in the Active Duty Map Pool. The map suffered from performance issues stemming from the incredibly dense foliage that sprawled across it. Valve purchased the map outright from original creator FMPONE in 2025, resulting in the latest rework.
The map hasn’t been added to the Premier mode or professional map pool yet, with that change expected after the IEM Cologne Major 2026. For now, players can jump in across Casual, Competitive, Deathmatch, and Retakes to learn the map’s layout and utility.
Dust2, Office, and Knife animations updated
Beyond Cache, the April 29 update also includes some smaller changes to other maps. Most impactful of those is the change to Xbox on Dust2. The change, which had accidentally debuted earlier in March, peels back the covers from the box, offering a new angle for peeks into A Short. The patch notes noted that the change was “on purpose this time.”
Hostage map, Office also received a minor change, applying a collision fix to tarps around CT spawn, while community maps Stronghold and Poseidon were both updated to their latest Workshop versions. On the technical side, Valve also updated certain Animgraph 2 animations related to the Talon and Karambit knives, alongside other bug fixes across the game.
