Counter-Strike: Global Offensive offers a myriad of crosshair settings for those of us who try to get an edge by finding just the right thing to put over our opponent’s head before clicking the left mouse button. One of the more popular settings is to change the indicator into a single dot crosshair so that it covers the least of the screen (including your target) and choosing a bright color to make sure it never blends into the background. It is one of the most popular crosshair commands in CS:GO.

CS:GO - how to make your crosshair a dot?

There are some great advantages to a CS:GO dot crosshair: it allows for incredible accuracy, giving you an edge in long-range fights and making one-taps easier to pull off. On the other hand, keep in mind that it will be tougher to get back into the action if you get flashed and it can also make sprays a bit more challenging if you focus too much on the dot itself instead of the spray pattern. It is one of the most often used crosshairs for CS:GO and well worth experimenting with if you want to get better in the game.

There is no best CS:GO dot crosshair as each of us have different preferences and it takes a decent amount of experimentation to find the right reticle. If you’d like to try out the dot crosshair, paste this string into your console for a simple white one with a black border:

CS:GO dot crosshair console command list

  • cl_crosshair_outlinethickness 1
  • cl_crosshairdot 1
  • cl_crosshairthickness 1
  • cl_crosshairgap -3
  • cl_crosshaircolor_g 255
  • cl_crosshaircolor_r 255 (change the other two to 0 for a red crosshair)
  • cl_crosshaircolor_b 255
  • cl_crosshair_drawoutline 1
  • cl_crosshairalpha 255
  • cl_crosshairusealpha

There you go, now you've got the crosshair commands CS:GO needed, now you're ready to play with your fancy new setup! You can also use online crosshair generators to, well, generate the specific string of commands for the crosshair of your choosing. This makes it easy to test pro player crosshairs like the popular CS:GO Scream dot crosshair.

If you’d like to research the subject further, keep in mind that “CS:GO crosshair dot” simply refers to the dot-specific command (which is therefore often applied to other types of reticles as well), and if you’re trying to gather feedback about this specific style, “CS:GO dot crosshair” is what you’re looking for!

Tips and tricks for finding the best CS:GO crosshair for you

Each pro player has their own preferences when it comes to CS:GO settings, from resolution and detail down to the crosshair and mouse sensitivity. There's no single foolproof solution, or everyone would be using that one! You need to play around with various options and figure out which one is the best fit for you. The goal of finding the best crosshair is to make sure it actually helps your aim and doesn't distract you from the state of play.

This is why one of the first changes you make in CS is to get rid of the annoying default crosshair with its overbearing animation and ridiculous size. It is also actively misleading to newcomers to the game, making them think the bullets will still hit in the expanded area covered by the wide state of the crosshair. It is, as experienced CS:GO players know, nowhere near the case as spraying in Counter-Strike can be a devastatingly wide-ranging affair.

The console commands listed above will help you go above and beyond the four basic settings offered in the menu (Default Static, Classic, Classic Static and Classic Dynamic). You can also find a workshop map made by "crashz" which lets you adjust the various settings while in-game, testing them live every second along the way.

Sometimes even the map you play on can make a difference when it comes to your crosshair choices. A yellow-ish tint probably won't go down well on Dust 2, for instance. Make sure to test your new crosshair in casual modes (retakes, unranked or DM) before heading into matchmaking - you don't want to find out two rounds into a big game that you can't actually hit the broad side of a barn with your new setup!

At the end of the day, the crosshair settings in CS:GO are just one of many aspects that determine how well you will do in a match. You can't ignore other aspects of practice and good conduct as no crosshair will make up for not knowing the map layout or forgetting your grenade spots, not to mention being toxic to your teammates, but it can be one of many small aspects that can propel you to a higher rank in matchmaking. It's well worth taking the time to find the setting you're most comfortable with as it can literally make the difference in the middle of a heated firefight.