CS2 P250 pistol displayed in the weapon inventory

P250 Guide for Counter-Strike 2

Damage, armour penetration, and why $300 is the most useful money on an eco.

The P250 is the $300 pistol both sides buy when the other team has armour. It does 38 damage with 64% armour penetration, an armoured opponent takes five chest hits instead of the six to eight a starting pistol needs. One headshot kills an unhelmeted opponent out to about 50 metres, the longest of any pistol under $500.

The trade-off is range and helmets. It is accurate to only 13.7 metres standing, its running inaccuracy is 31.1 - worse than both starting pistols - and a helmeted headshot does 97.3, under three points short of a kill. This page goes through the numbers, the accuracy, when to buy it, and the skins and cases.

Last checked

September 2026

Weapon stats checked against CS2 build 1.41.7.6.

P250 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 P250: 64% armour penetration and a $300 price. Nothing cheaper gets that much through kevlar, which is why it is the standard buy on an eco round. What it gives up is range - 13.7 metres of accurate range, the shortest of the cheap pistols.

Damage and money

Price	$300
Kill reward	$300
Side	CT and T
Base damage	38
Armour penetration	64%
Headshot multiplier	4x
Damage lost at 500 units	10%
Wall penetration	100%
One-tap range, helmet	None (97.3 damage)
One-tap range, no helmet	1,987 u (about 50 m)

Handling and ammo

Rate of fire	400 RPM (one shot every 0.15 s)
Magazine	13
Reserve	39 (52 total)
Reload	2.27 s (mag in at 0.93 s)
Deploy	1.00 s
Mobility	240 (knife is 250)
Tagging power	50%
Accurate range, standing	13.7 m
Running inaccuracy	31.1
Recoil	No set pattern
Console command	`give weapon_p250`

The near miss is the helmet: 97.3 damage to a helmeted head, 2.7 short of a kill, so the P250 never one-taps a full-buy opponent. Against an unhelmeted one it does, out to 50 metres - further than any pistol under $500 and further than its own accurate range, so aim is the limit rather than damage.

P250 Damage & Armour

What one bullet does, and how many it takes.

Everything here assumes a full-health player at close range. Armour means kevlar on the body and a helmet on the head. The general rules behind these numbers are on the weapons hub.

Damage per bullet

Hitbox	No armour	Armour	Bullets to kill, no armour	Bullets to kill, armour
Head	152	97.3	1	2
Chest and arms	38	24.3	3	5
Stomach	47.5	30.4	3	4
Legs	28.5	28.5	4	4

The helmeted headshot is the famous near miss: 97.3 damage, 2.7 short. Everything else is friendly by pistol standards - three chest hits without armour, five with it, and four to the stomach through kevlar.

Where the P250 drops off

The P250 loses 10% of its damage for every 500 units of distance:

Shot	Works up to
Head, helmet - 2 bullets	3,187 u (about 81 m)
Head, no helmet - 1 bullet	1,987 u (about 50 m)
Chest, no armour - 4 bullets	1,987 u (about 50 m)
Stomach through armour - 4 bullets	1,331 u (about 34 m)
Chest through armour - 5 bullets	928 u (about 24 m)
Chest, no armour - 3 bullets	622 u (about 16 m)
Legs - 4 bullets	622 u (about 16 m)

Past each of those distances the count goes up by one. Damage is multiplied by 0.9 for every 500 units of distance, and it drops smoothly in between. Six chest hits through armour kill out to 1,793 units, about 46 metres.

What this means in a fight

Against armour the P250 needs five chest hits, 0.60 seconds at 400 rounds a minute, against six for a USP-S and eight for a Glock-18. That is the entire reason to spend the $300. Against an unarmoured opponent it is three chest hits or one headshot, and the headshot works from further away than you can reliably aim with it.

P250 Recoil & Accuracy

Short range, fast trigger, no pattern to learn.

The P250 has no set recoil pattern. Every shot after the first lands somewhere in a widening cone rather than along a path you can learn, which is why there is no spray viewer on this page. What you control is distance and pace.

Standing still

Accurate range is 13.7 metres, the shortest of the cheap pistols - a starting P2000 reaches 22.1 and a silenced USP-S 23.8. The damage goes much further than the accuracy does: a headshot kills an unhelmeted opponent out to 50 metres, but landing one at that distance is not something the gun helps with.

On the move

Running inaccuracy is 31.1, noticeably worse than the starting pistols (19.9 and 21.3) and far behind the Tec-9's 10.7. The P250 moves at 240, as fast as any gun except the knife, so closing the distance is easy - but the shooting still wants you standing.

Pace

At 400 rounds a minute, five chest hits through armour take 0.60 seconds if every one lands. Tapping at a slower pace keeps the cone tighter than rapid tapping, and with 13 rounds a magazine there is no room for a long string of missed shots anyway.

Stopping before you shoot

Tapping the opposite movement key - counter-strafing - brings you to a stop faster than just letting go of the key. With 31.1 running inaccuracy that matters more on the P250 than on either starting pistol.

When to Buy the P250

Eco rounds, force buys, and what $300 changes.

The P250 is the pistol you buy when the other team has armour and you cannot afford a gun that ignores it. For $300 it turns an eight-hit fight into a five-hit one.

On an eco round

Saving usually means keeping money for the next round, so the question is what a small spend buys. A P250 plus nothing else costs $300; against full-buy opponents it needs five chest hits or two headshots. A Glock-18 needs eight chest hits for the same fight. If the plan is to take one close fight and get out, the P250 is the cheapest thing that makes that fight winnable.

On a force buy

With armour ($1,000), a P250 round costs $1,300 — only $50 more than an MP9 and $250 more than a MAC-10 with no armour. The gun is worse than an SMG at anything past 14 metres, but the $300 version leaves money for grenades or for the round after.

P250 or a starting pistol

Against unarmoured opponents the starting pistols are fine: a USP-S or P2000 kills with one headshot out to 45 metres and three chest hits up close, and both reach further. The P250 only pulls ahead once kevlar is in the picture: five chest hits against six, and four stomach hits against five.

P250 or a $500 pistol

The Five-SeveN and Tec-9 get over 90% through armour - four chest hits - and the Five-SeveN one-taps a helmeted head inside about 9 metres, which the P250 never does. They cost $200 more. If the round is a full force buy rather than a save, that $200 is usually worth it.

P250 vs Other Pistols

What the P250 does better, and what it gives up.

The P250 wins on damage through armour for its price, and loses on range and on accuracy while moving. The table below has all ten pistols side by side.

vs Glock-18, USP-S and P2000

The $200 starting pistols. How the P250 compares with them is in When to Buy above. Details in the Glock-18, USP-S and P2000 guides.

vs Dual Berettas

The other $300 pistol available to both sides. Same 38 damage, but 57.5% armour penetration against 64%: five chest hits through kevlar for both, though the P250 keeps that count much further out. What they have is volume - 30 rounds before a reload against 13 - and 500 rounds a minute. They are accurate to 16.9 metres against 13.7, and lose 21% of their damage every 500 units against the P250's 10%. Details in the Dual Berettas guide.

vs Five-SeveN

The CT side's $500 pistol. 32 damage with 91.15% armour penetration - four chest hits through kevlar against five - and it one-taps a helmeted opponent inside about 9 metres, which the P250 cannot do at any range. It holds 20 rounds against 13. Its running inaccuracy is 51.1 against the P250's 31.1, so it is the worse gun to shoot while moving. Details in the Five-SeveN guide.

vs Desert Eagle

$700 and the pistol that ends rounds: 53 damage with 93.2% armour penetration, and a helmeted headshot that kills out to about 51 metres. It holds 7 rounds, fires once every 0.22 seconds, and its running inaccuracy is 54.3. Where the P250 asks for five hits, the Deagle asks for one - if you can land it. Details in the Desert Eagle guide.

Pistol Stats Table

All ten pistols side by side, with the P250 already open.

This is the same table as on the weapons hub, but filtered down to pistols. The P250 row is open with its damage per hitbox and full stats, and it is already ticked for comparison with the Dual Berettas, Five-SeveN and Desert Eagle. Untick any of them, or tick the Glock-18, USP-S, P2000, Tec-9, CZ75-Auto or R8 Revolver instead - up to four at a time.

Click a column header to sort. 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.

P250 Skins & Cases

P250 skins by market listings and price, and where they come from.

Three ways to look at P250 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

Facility Draft

$0.02 - $0.10

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Boreal Forest

$0.02 - $5.62

View prices →

Mil-Spec Grade

Cassette

$0.07 - $0.50

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Plum Netting

$0.01 - $11.54

View prices →

Mil-Spec Grade

Re.built

$0.05 - $0.62

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Copper Oxide

$0.01 - $0.03

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Sand Dune

$0.02 - $5.39

View prices →

Consumer Grade

Sleet

$0.01 - $4.27

View prices →

All of them, with a price for every wear, are on the P250 skins page.

Cases with P250 skins

Every case that can drop a P250 skin, newest first. The number under each case is how many P250 skins it holds.

P250 skins that never came from a case

Some P250 skins come from map collections, operations, or the Armory instead of cases. Collections marked "souvenir" also come in souvenir packages from Majors.

The 2018 Inferno Collection1 skin · souvenir

The 2018 Nuke Collection2 skins · souvenir

The 2021 Dust 2 Collection1 skin · souvenir

The 2021 Mirage Collection1 skin · souvenir

The 2021 Vertigo Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Achroma Collection1 skin

The Alpha Collection1 skin

The Anubis Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Arabesque Collection1 skin

The Ascent Collection1 skin

The Bank Collection1 skin

The Boreal Collection1 skin

The Cache Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Canals Collection1 skin

The Chop Shop Collection1 skin

The Control Collection1 skin

The Dead Hand Collection1 skin

The Dust 2 Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Genesis Collection1 skin

The Havoc Collection1 skin

The Inferno Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Lake Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Militia Collection1 skin

The Mirage Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Nuke Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Radiant Collection2 skins

The Rising Sun Collection2 skins

The Sport & Field Collection1 skin

The Train 2025 Collection1 skin · souvenir

The Train Collection1 skin · souvenir

The X-Ray Collection1 skin

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

Common P250 Mistakes

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

Counting on the helmet headshot

A helmeted headshot does 97.3 damage - 2.7 short of a kill. Against a full buy the P250 never one-taps, so plan on two head hits or a head plus anything else. The numbers are in Damage & Armour.

Taking fights at range

Accurate range is 13.7 metres, the shortest of the cheap pistols. The damage reaches 50 metres, the accuracy does not. On an eco round, pick the angle where the fight starts close.

Shooting on the move

Running inaccuracy is 31.1, half again worse than a P2000's 19.9. The P250 moves at 240 but shoots like a gun that wants you still. Stop first: tapping the opposite movement key - counter-strafing - brings you to a stop faster than just letting go of the key.

Buying it when the other team has no armour

Against unarmoured opponents a starting pistol kills in three chest hits and one headshot out to 45 metres, and costs nothing. The $300 is for kevlar fights - five chest hits instead of six or eight. More in When to Buy.

Rapid tapping

There is no set pattern to control - the cone opens with every shot. At 400 rounds a minute, rapid tapping opens it quickly, and five shots already use almost 40% of the magazine.

Reloading after every fight

Since the 18 March 2026 update, a reload throws away whatever is left in the magazine and takes a full one from your reserve. The P250 has three spare magazines of 13, so a reload with six rounds in the gun throws away more than a tenth of your ammo for the round.

More Pistols

The other nine pistols in CS2, starting with the other $300 buy.

// Both · $300 · the other $300 buy

Dual Berettas

Firing two large-mag Berettas at once will lower accuracy and increase load times. On the bright side, you'll get to fire two large-mag Berettas at once.

Read the guide →

// T · $200

Glock-18

The Glock 18 is a serviceable first-round pistol that works best against unarmored opponents and is capable of firing three-round bursts.

T defaultopen →

// CT · $200

USP-S

A fan favorite from Counter-Strike: Source, the Silenced USP Pistol has a detachable silencer that gives shots less recoil while suppressing attention-getting noise.

CT defaultopen →