de_dust2

Lore & Background

Dust II was developed by David Johnston for the first game in the series as a conceptual sequel to the existing Dust map. Chris "MacMan" Ashton helped provide textures for the map. Johnston originally titled it "Dust 3" because he did not think it was a worthy successor to Dust; before the game's launch it was retitled Dust II. The map was designed to be simple and balanced. During the initial development of the map, "Long A", a long pathway that leads towards the "A Site", was not present. It existed in the map because of space limitations of the engine. During development, map features such as caverns that would have provided cover, a window in "B Site", and a longer ramp in the Counter-Terrorist's Spawn to A Site were removed. After its initial release on March 13, 2001, as part of Counter-Strike 1.1, the map received minimal changes following updates to the rest of the game, but received small graphical updates and lighting changes. It also received graphical updates in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike's Xbox release.

In Their Own Story

The sun hangs low and white over the sandstone walls, turning the whole map into a single shade of amber. The round starts. You hear the soft scrape of rubber on packed dirt down the tunnel—two Terrorists, maybe three, pushing B with a smoke already blooming over the site. Your AWP is warm in your hands. You hold the long A angle, crosshair locked on the pixel where a head will be if they peek. A flash pops from short. You blink. The world goes white, then clears, and for one half-second you see the silhouette of a terrorist rounding the corner, rifle raised, and you pull the trigger before your brain finishes the thought. The body drops. The round continues. It always continues.

Reader's Guide

Dust II is set in a dusty environment based on a mixture of North African, Turkish, and Andalusian influences. Players are divided into two teams: Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists. The Terrorists have a limited time in which to plant and detonate a bomb; the Counter-Terrorists try to stop them from planting the bomb or to defuse it if it has already been planted. The Terrorist side must gain control in one of two locations to plant the bomb; these sites are easily accessible to the Counter-Terrorists at the beginning of the round. The map has a few main choke points: "Middle", "Long A", and "B Tunnels". Middle has three main areas: Catwalk, an elevated pathway that leads to Short on A site; Lower Tunnels, a tunnel leading from Middle to Upper Tunnels; and Middle Doors, that has a set of open double doors at Middle, which leads to the Counter-Terrorist's spawn. At Long A, there are another three important areas before approaching the A Site: Long Doors, Pit, and Counter-Terrorist spawn. B Tunnels has two main areas: Upper Tunnels and Lower Tunnels. Upper Tunnels leads to the B site or Terrorist spawn; Lower Tunnels leads to Upper Tunnels or Middle.

Did You Know?

• Dust II was originally titled "Dust 3" by its creator David Johnston because he did not think it was a worthy successor to Dust.
• The map was first released in March 2001 for the original Counter-Strike game.
• Dust II was removed from the Active Duty Competitive Pool in Global Offensive in February 2017 and replaced by Inferno, causing backlash from professional players.
• The map has been recreated in real life, though the location of its recreation is not known.
• In 2023, a user named Nic remade Dust II from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5 over the course of a month.