CS2 Nova shotgun displayed in the weapon inventory

Nova Guide for Counter-Strike 2

Damage per pellet, range, the $900 kill reward, and when $1,050 is the right buy.

The Nova is the cheapest shotgun in CS2 at $1,050, and like every shotgun except the XM1014 it pays $900 a kill - three times what a rifle pays. Each shot fires nine pellets at 26 damage each, so an opponent without armour dies to four of them and one pellet to an unhelmeted head kills at point-blank range.

The trade-off is distance. Against kevlar each pellet does 13, so eight of the nine have to land, and the Nova loses 30% of its damage for every 500 units. It is accurate to 3.2 metres standing and fires once every 0.88 seconds. This page goes through the numbers, the spread, when to buy it, and the skins and cases.

Last checked

September 2026

Weapon stats checked against CS2 build 1.41.7.6.

Nova at a Glance

The full stat sheet, straight from the game.

Every number below comes from the game build of 18 March 2026. Two of them define the Nova: a $900 kill reward and nine pellets per shot. No gun in the game pays more per kill except the knife, and no shotgun throws more lead in one trigger pull. What it gives up is range - 30% of its damage lost every 500 units, and 3.2 metres of accurate range standing.

Damage and money

Price	$1,050
Kill reward	$900
Side	CT and T
Damage per pellet	26
Pellets per shot	9 (234 max)
Armour penetration	50%
Headshot multiplier	4x
Damage lost at 500 units	30%
Wall penetration	100%
One-pellet headshot, no helmet	55 u (about 1.4 m)

Handling and ammo

Rate of fire	68 RPM (one shot every 0.88 s)
Magazine	8
Reserve	32 (40 total)
Reload	4.74 s for a full 8, 0.54 s a shell
Deploy	1.00 s
Mobility	220 (knife is 250)
Tagging power	60%
Accurate range, standing	3.2 m
Running inaccuracy	83.8
Recoil	No set pattern
Console command	`give weapon_nova`

The weak spot is the 50% armour penetration, the lowest of any shotgun. Against kevlar each pellet drops from 26 to 13, so eight of the nine have to land to kill - and that only happens within a couple of metres. Shells reload one at a time, 0.54 seconds each, so you can stop halfway and shoot rather than wait out the full 4.7 seconds.

Nova Damage & Armour

What one pellet does, and how many have to land.

Shotguns work differently from every other gun on this site. One trigger pull sends nine pellets, each with its own damage, and the question is not how many shots it takes but how many pellets land. Everything here assumes a full-health player at point-blank range. Armour means kevlar on the body and a helmet on the head. The general rules are on the weapons hub.

Damage per pellet

Hitbox	No armour	Armour	Pellets to kill, no armour	Pellets to kill, armour
Head	104	52	1	2
Chest and arms	26	13	4	8
Stomach	32.5	16.25	4	7
Legs	19.5	19.5	6	6

Against a player with no armour, four of the nine pellets in the chest are enough. Against kevlar it takes eight of nine - almost the whole spread in one body. Legs are the one place armour changes nothing, but five pellets there add up to 97.5, so it takes six.

Where the Nova drops off

The Nova loses 30% of its damage for every 500 units of distance, ten times what a rifle like the AK loses. Because the pellets weaken together, the number you need goes up quickly:

Distance	Damage per pellet	Chest pellets to kill, no armour	Chest pellets to kill, armour
Point blank	26	4	8
39 u (1 m)	25.3	4	8
118 u (3 m)	23.9	5	9
197 u (5 m)	22.6	5	9
394 u (10 m)	19.6	6	impossible
788 u (20 m)	14.8	7	impossible

Damage is multiplied by 0.7 for every 500 units of distance, and it drops smoothly in between. Past about 220 units - 5.6 metres - all nine pellets in the chest add up to less than 100, so one shot cannot kill an armoured player no matter how well it lands. Against an unarmoured player one shot still kills out to about 30 metres on paper, but only if every pellet hits, which the spread makes unlikely (see Pellets & Spread).

What this means in a fight

The Nova is a one-shot gun against players with no armour and a two-shot gun against everyone else, with 0.88 seconds between shots. Against kevlar at anything past a few metres, plan on two shots or a head hit: one pellet to an unhelmeted head kills, and two kill through a helmet.

Nova Pellets & Spread

Why the Nova is a three-metre gun.

There is no spray pattern to learn here. Each shot throws nine pellets in a spread that has no set shape, and the gun fires once every 0.88 seconds - too slow for recoil to stack up. What decides the fight is how much of that spread lands on one body.

The three metres that matter

The Nova is accurate to 3.2 metres standing. Inside that, most of the nine pellets land where you point. Past it, the spread opens up and the damage drops at the same time - 30% for every 500 units - so both halves of the equation work against you at once. That is why the bullet counts in Damage & Armour are written for point-blank range.

Against armour

Eight of nine pellets have to land to kill an armoured player, which in practice means the opponent fills your screen. Past about 5.6 metres it stops being possible in one shot at all. Against players with no armour four pellets are enough, and that is a much easier ask - which is why the Nova is at its best against an eco.

Moving and stopping

Running inaccuracy is 83.8, low by the standards of rifles but it still widens an already wide spread. The Nova moves at 220, as fast as a FAMAS, so getting into range is the easy part. Stop before you shoot: tapping the opposite movement key - counter-strafing - brings you to a stop faster than just letting go of the key.

Reloading shell by shell

A full reload of eight shells takes 4.74 seconds, but each shell goes in on its own in 0.54 seconds. You can stop the reload at any point and fire, so after a fight it is worth topping up two or three shells rather than standing still for the whole animation.

When to Buy the Nova

What the $900 kill reward is worth, and when $1,050 beats an SMG.

The Nova is an anti-eco and force-buy gun. Its whole case is money: $1,050 to buy, $900 back for every kill.

The $900 kill reward

Every kill with the Nova pays $900 - three times a rifle's $300 and half again what an SMG pays. Two kills pay $1,800, which covers the gun and most of a rifle next round. On a round where the other team is saving, that is the fastest way for a team to rebuild money.

What a buy adds up to

Item	Price
Nova	$1,050
Kevlar + helmet	$1,000
Smoke	$300
Flashbang	$200
Total	$2,550

That is the same as a MAC-10 buy and $200 less than the same round with an MP9. The Nova is the cheapest gun of the three.

Nova or an SMG

Against players with no armour the Nova kills with one shot and pays $900 against an SMG's $600. What the SMG gives you is everything past three metres: the MP9 is accurate to 15.9 metres, the MAC-10 to 11, the Nova to 3.2. If the round is about holding a close corner or rushing a short angle, the Nova earns more; if you have to fight across a site, take the SMG.

Against a full buy

Against rifles and armour the Nova needs eight of nine pellets to land, and past about 5.6 metres a single shot cannot kill at all. It can still work from a corner at point-blank range, but it is a gamble on one angle rather than a gun you hold a site with.

Nova or another shotgun

The Nova is the cheapest of the four and the only one with nine pellets. The Sawed-Off costs $50 more and hits harder per pellet, the MAG-7 $250 more with a much faster reload, and the XM1014 $950 more and pays only $600 a kill. The details are in Nova vs Other Shotguns.

Nova vs Other Shotguns

What the Nova does better, and what it gives up.

All four shotguns are close-range guns with a big kill reward. They differ in how much armour they get through, how fast they reload, and how quickly their damage dies with distance. The table below has all four side by side.

vs Sawed-Off

The T side's cheap shotgun, $50 more. It hits harder per pellet - 32 against 26 - and gets 75% through armour against the Nova's 50%, so five of its eight pellets kill an armoured player where the Nova needs eight of nine. In exchange it loses 55% of its damage every 500 units against the Nova's 30%, is accurate to only 2.2 metres against 3.2, and moves at 210 against 220. Details in the Sawed-Off guide.

vs MAG-7

The CT side's shotgun, $250 more. Eight pellets at 30 damage with 75% armour penetration: five pellets kill through kevlar. Its magazine holds only 5 shells and 20 in total, but a full reload takes 2.47 seconds against the Nova's 4.74, and it moves at 225, the fastest of the four. It loses 55% of its damage every 500 units. Details in the MAG-7 guide.

vs XM1014

$950 more, and the odd one out: it pays $600 a kill instead of $900 and fires six pellets at 20 damage. Even with 80% armour penetration, six pellets through kevlar add up to 96 - it cannot kill an armoured player with one shot at any range. What it has is speed: 171 rounds a minute, one shot every 0.35 seconds, against the Nova's 0.88. Details in the XM1014 guide.

vs the cheap SMGs

How the Nova compares with the MP9 and MAC-10 on money and range is in When to Buy above. More in the MP9 and MAC-10 guides.

Shotgun Stats Table

All four shotguns side by side, with the Nova already open.

This is the same table as on the weapons hub, but filtered down to shotguns. The Nova row is open with its damage per hitbox and full stats, and it is already ticked for comparison with the Sawed-Off, MAG-7 and XM1014 - all four at once.

Click a column header to sort. Damage in the table is per pellet, so multiply by the pellet count for the whole shot. The full table with all 36 weapons is on the weapons hub.

Click any weapon for damage per hitbox, full stats and variants.

	Weapon	Type	Price	Kill $	Damage	Armour pen	RPM	Mag	Total ammo	HS kill vs helmet

Stats from the CS2 Weapon Spreadsheet, game build of 18 March 2026. Shotgun damage is per pellet. Headshot ranges are converted from game units at 39.4 units per metre. Zeus and knife values come from the game files rather than the sheet.

Nova Skins & Cases

Nova skins by market listings and price, and where they come from.

Three ways to look at Nova skins. Most listed are the ones with the most offers across the markets I track, in other words the ones currently offered most often. Most expensive are the skins that stay expensive even in their cheapest wear. Cheapest are the ones that stay cheap even in their best wear. Prices update every 15 minutes, and the range on each card runs from the cheapest variant to the most expensive one, wear and StatTrak included.

Consumer Grade

Predator

$0.01 - $7.44

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Mandrel

$0.02 - $0.07

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Sand Dune

$0.02 - $6.35

View prices →

Mil-Spec Grade

Dark Sigil

$0.03 - $0.34

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Marsh Grass

$0.01 - $0.02

View prices →

Restricted

Rising Sun

$0.31 - $5.65

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Polar Mesh

$0.02 - $15.00

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Currents

$0.01 - $11.19

View prices →

All of them, with a price for every wear, are on the Nova skins page.

Cases with Nova skins

Every case that can drop a Nova skin, newest first. The number under each case is how many Nova skins it holds.

Fever Case2025 · 1 skin

Kilowatt Case2024 · 1 skin

Snakebite Case2021 · 1 skin

Operation Broken Fang Case2020 · 1 skin

Shattered Web Case2019 · 1 skin

Danger Zone Case2018 · 1 skin

Horizon Case2018 · 1 skin

Clutch Case2018 · 1 skin

Glove Case2016 · 1 skin

Gamma Case2016 · 1 skin

Operation Wildfire Case2016 · 1 skin

Falchion Case2015 · 1 skin

eSports 2014 Summer Case2014 · 1 skin

Operation Breakout Weapon Case2014 · 1 skin

Operation Phoenix Weapon Case2014 · 1 skin

eSports 2013 Winter Case2013 · 1 skin

Winter Offensive Weapon Case2013 · 1 skin

CS:GO Weapon Case 22013 · 1 skin

Operation Bravo Case2013 · 1 skin

Nova skins that never came from a case

Some Nova skins come from map collections, operations, or the Armory instead of cases. Collections marked "souvenir" also come in souvenir packages from Majors.

The 2018 Nuke Collection1 skin · souvenir

The 2021 Dust 2 Collection1 skin · souvenir

The 2021 Train Collection1 skin

The 2021 Vertigo Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Achroma Collection1 skin

The Ancient Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Anubis Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Arabesque Collection1 skin

The Ascent Collection1 skin

The Aztec Collection1 skin

The Bank Collection1 skin

The Canals Collection1 skin

The Cobblestone Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Dust 2 Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Genesis Collection1 skin

The Gods and Monsters Collection1 skin

The Havoc Collection1 skin

The Inferno Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Italy Collection2 skins · souvenir

The Militia Collection2 skins

The Overpass 2024 Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Radiant Collection1 skin

The Sport & Field Collection1 skin

The Spy Tech Collection1 skin

The Train 2025 Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Train Collection1 skin · souvenir

Browse all CS2 cases and all collections, or check what your own skins are worth with the Inventory Value Calculator.

Common Nova Mistakes

Small habits that cost rounds, and what the numbers say instead.

Shooting from too far

The Nova is accurate to 3.2 metres and loses 30% of its damage every 500 units. Past about 5.6 metres one shot cannot kill an armoured player even if all nine pellets land. A shot from across a site wastes a shell and tells the other team where you are. The numbers are in Damage & Armour.

Buying it against a full buy

Against rifles and armour, eight of nine pellets have to land. The Nova works from a corner at point-blank range, not as the gun you hold a site with. More in When to Buy.

Waiting out the full reload

Shells go in one at a time, 0.54 seconds each, and you can shoot at any point. Standing still for the whole 4.7 seconds after a fight is how people get caught mid-reload - two or three shells are enough to take the next fight.

Aiming at the body up close

One pellet to an unhelmeted head kills at point-blank range, and two kill through a helmet. Aiming at chest height needs four pellets without armour and eight with it. At shotgun range the head is a big target.

Chasing kills with it

Every kill pays $900, but at 220 mobility and a 0.88-second gap between shots, pushing into open space gives the other

More Close-Range Guns

The other three shotguns, plus the two cheap SMGs that do a similar job.

// CT · $1,300 · five pellets kill

MAG-7

The CT-exclusive Mag-7 delivers a devastating amount of damage at close range. Its rapid magazine-style reloads make it a great tactical choice.

Read the guide →

// T · $1,100

Sawed-Off

The classic Sawed-Off deals very heavy close-range damage, but with its low accuracy, high spread and slow rate of fire, you'd better kill what you hit.

T shotgunopen →