CS2 November 2026 update: Retakes mode changes, pet chickens, and the Entities scripting API

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Quick summary

Valve shipped a Counter-Strike 2 update on November 4, 2026. The gameplay changes target Retakes mode, the pet chickens got a small interaction tweak, and the Entities scripting API moved a set of methods while adding new ones for bot control.

Retakes mode

Bomb defusal in Retakes now finishes instantly when two conditions are met: there is enough time left in the round, and no active utility is blocking the defuse. Valve also reduced the freeze time and the round restart delay in the mode. The practical effect is a faster round pace, with less dead time between attempts.

Pet chickens

Pinging a pet chicken during freeze time now requests a trick from it. Separately, chicken names are no longer displayed when the customized item text game option is set to hidden. Both changes are cosmetic.

Scripting API

The API changes matter to map developers and server owners. Instance.Precache now accepts entities to precache. A new top level export, Entities, was added, along with Entities.Spawn. Bot control gained Instance.OnBotControl, CSPlayerController.IsControllingBot, CSPlayerController.GetControlledBotPawn, and CSPlayerPawn.Reset.

Several methods moved from Instance to Entities and were renamed:

• Instance.ConnectOutput moved to Entities and now accepts a config object
• Instance.DisconnectOutput moved to Entities
• Instance.EntFireAtName renamed to Entities.FireInput
• Instance.FindEntitiesByName renamed to Entities.FindByName
• Instance.FindEntitiesByClass renamed to Entities.FindByClass
• Instance.EntFireAtTarget renamed to Entity.FireInput

The moved and renamed methods still work in their original location, but they are deprecated. Instance.FindEntityByName and FindEntityByClass are also deprecated. Calling a method on a removed entity now reports that the entity is invalid, and ConnectOutput logs a warning when the target has no output with that name.

What server owners should do

Check custom map scripts and plugins for calls to the old Instance method names. The deprecated paths still run, so nothing breaks today, but updating the calls removes the deprecation risk and keeps the code on the supported names. If you rely on ConnectOutput, test that the target entity still exposes the output you are connecting to, because the new warning surfaces typos that used to fail silently.

Sources
Counter-Strike 2 update notes, November 4, 2026
CS2 update, November 5, 2026: Retakes improvements and API