



Operation Hydra is the eighth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive operation released on May 23, 2017, succeeding Operation Wildfire.

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Overview

Operation Hydra was released on May 23, 2017, introducing six new community created maps and three new game modes (known as Hydra missions) for the price of $5.99 USD/€5.29 EUR/£4.80 GBP . The operation ended in November 13, 2017. The six chosen maps and the Hydra events are currently available for free to all players on official servers.

Maps

Hostage rescue

Bomb defusal

Other maps

Operation Hydra Coin

Main article: Operation Coin

Badge Progress

Bronze : Purchase the pass

: Purchase the pass Silver : Accrue 5 stars

: Accrue 5 stars Gold : Accrue 18 stars

: Accrue 18 stars Diamond: Accrue 25 stars

Levelling Requirements

Every week there will be a rotation between the three campaign game modes. These games are available to everyone to play, but in order to gain the ability to gain event experience, the player must be a badge holder. Each week will allow for one star to be gained. Based on the operation's scheduled length (18 weeks), the only way to earn the diamond coin is to get every weekly star on time (18 stars) as well as completing the campaign (7 stars) for a total of 25 stars.

Campaigns

Operation Hydra has only one single campaign, making it the operation with the fewest campaigns included. Like its most recent predecessors, Operation Hydra includes a full storyline to accompany the campaign.

Unlike previous campaigns, there are no Challenge Award missions to give the player extra stars. Instead, a Guardian XP bar tracks the amount of Mission XP the player had gained through playing missions. The player gets one star for every 2,000 Guardian XP earned, up to a maximum of 7 stars. Only the first completion will grant the player Guardian XP.

Operation pass holders will receive an Operation weapon drop when gaining an Operation Star through Guardian XP, awarding a total of 7 weapon skins.

Available Campaign

Hydra The Hydra Campaign has 30 Guardian missions designed for cooperative play. Unlike other missions, these missions can be replayed at any time. Unlike the Gemini campaign from the last operation, this campaign features no Co-op Strike missions. The maps featured in the campaign are the six operation maps above, plus Mirage, Canals, Inferno, Train, and Rialto.

Events

A new addition in Operation Hydra is the Operation Hydra Events, also called Hydra Events. The events consist of the three unique game modes: War Games, Wingman, and Weapons Expert. These events are available in a weekly rotation, accessed from the small screen on the left of the main menu. All players can play these game modes, but players with the Operation Hydra All Access Pass can earn Event XP and work towards coin upgrades and item drops.

In the first week, all players start with a pool of 2,000 Event XP, the maximum they can reach when playing the Hydra Events. For each following week, the pool extends by 2,000 XP, up to a maximum of 36,000 XP many weeks later. Every 2,000 event XP rewards the player with a star, and the maximum amount of stars that can be gained through Hydra Events only is 18.

Operation pass holders will receive an Operation drop when gaining an Operation Star. The drop alternates between an Operation Hydra Case and a weapon skin, awarding a total of 9 weapon skins and 9 Operation Hydra Cases through Event XP.

Gallery

Pre-release

Before the reintroduction of Inferno, the CS:GO Official profile uploaded old versions for demo payback maps of all operation maps; all old versions of maps with text hinting at their possible inclusion in the next, yet unnamed operation. Subsequent updates removed all previous operations maps, Co-op Strike maps and Guardian maps[1], as well as adding the Heavy Professional[2] and thumbnails for the next operation's maps[3] to the game files.

Additionally, the operation was first officially teased during the "Hello CS" presentation in China, which also confirms the game's port to Source 2.[4]

Behind the scenes

In game files, all resources of War Games, Wingman and Weapons Expert game modes have the prefix operation 7 in the filename, referencing Operation Wildfire.

in the filename, referencing Operation Wildfire. Despite the last level of the Operation Coin is called diamond in-game, file names for the textures and the inventory image refer to it as platinum . [5]

. Audio clips suggest Dust2 was originally planned to be featured in the Hydra Campaign.[6]

Trivia

The background of the title image features the maps Black Gold and Thrill.