Get ready, for this is not a drill: CS:GO has released a brand new operation after what seemed like an eternity. Operation Shattered Web brings character customization, Overwatch-style end-of-match accolades, new maps for Flying Scoutsman and Danger Zone, weekly missions, a co-op campaign alongside the usual slew of weapon skins and stickers. Also, balance changes!

What is Operation Shattered Web?

It’s taken over two years, but a follow-up to Operation Hydra has finally arrived – and it’s a real doozy. The CS:GO operations are purchasable DLC content for the game with a variety of different content ranging from community maps, weapons collections, an upgradable coin, unique mission-based content and more. This time, the usual operation content was bundled with what seem like a massive overhaul of the game’s graphical capabilities, allowing for visual character customization beyond the weapon skins for the first time in CS:GO history. Also, the display of stats and performance metrics at the end of the match seem to have been directly taken from games like Overwatch, highlighting more than just the KDAs at the end of a match.

You can find out more on the official CS:GO Shattered Web page.

A new, community-made Danger Zone map called Jungle was added to the rotation, and a map called Lunacy is now available to play in Flying Scoutsman missions. The Casual and Scrimmage map pools were also scrambled (see below), with a new entry called Studio added to the mix.

There was speculation about a new operation coinciding with the return of Cache to the competitive match pool after its graphical overhaul, plus datamined and leaked content from early September also suggested some sort of new content coming up the pipeline.

Operation Shattered Web balance changes

The elephant in the room has been adjusted: the SG553’s price has been returned to $3000, but perhaps even more interestingly, the cheap rifles both received a buff. The full-auto spraying accuracy of the FAMAS and the Galil are both improved, and their prices have been reduced by $200, to $2050 and $1800 respectively.

Read more: Why you don't need to rename terrorists in CS:GO

Operation Shattered Web miscellaneous changes

The workshop received a new kind of weapon finish called pearlescent coating. Per the official blog post,

“We have added support for applying a pearlescent coating to weapon finishes. Pearlescent coatings use ceramic crystals to reflect and refract light, splitting it into different colors as the view angle changes. This effect can be used in a number of ways to subtly enhance your weapon finish or make drastic changes. The new Operation Shattered Web collections have some weapons with pearlescent coatings to illustrate some of the ways this new feature can be used. The Workshop Workbench has been updated to include this feature so you can experiment with adding this coating to a weapon finish. Using higher values will make the color bands tighter and more frequent and using negative values will flip the spectrum to start on the opposite end. It should be noted that this coating will shift the hue of your weapon finish so parts with no saturation, and therefore no hue, will have no pearlescent effect. We look forward to seeing what interesting applications you come up with.”

Also, Cache is now back in the competitive matchmaking map pool while Zoo and Seaside have been removed from the casual map groups to make place for Studio. The layout of Vertigo was also adjusted.

Photo credit: Valve