CS2 Inferno Guide (2026): Callouts, Banana, the New A Site and Setups

Inferno is the map of chokepoints. Its streets are narrow, its sites sit at the end of long corridors, and almost every round starts with a grenade fight in Banana or Apartments. It's also the Active Duty map that changed most this year: on 4 March 2026 Valve extended the Balcony at A site and closed the Graveyard. This guide covers Inferno as it plays in Premier Season 5 — the callouts on a schematic map, what the A-site change means for both sides, how to win Banana, the default executes with every grenade, CT setups, post-plants and the mistakes that throw rounds. Checked 8 November 2026 against Valve's release notes up to 5 November 2026.

Inferno in one picture: Banana, Mid and Apartments

Start at T Spawn in the bottom left of the radar. Banana runs straight north, a long curved street that ends at B site; its cover — Car at the top, Logs and Sandbags along the walls — is what both sides fight over. T Ramp leads east into Mid. From Top of Mid you can go north up Mid towards Arch and Library (the CT side of A), east through Short past Truck onto A, or down through Second Mid into Apartments, an indoor route along the bottom of the map that climbs to Boiler and drops onto A from Balcony.

CT Spawn sits at the top, between the two sites and close to both — through Construction to B and through Arch and Library to A. That's why Inferno rotations are short and why the T side has to win something before it commits. A is the bigger site with three entries (Apartments, Short and, if you control Mid, Arch side). B has one real entry, Banana, plus the CT side. Inferno is one of the oldest maps in the pool: it was first made for the original Counter-Strike in 2001 and remade for Counter-Strike: Source in 2005.

What changed on A site in March 2026

Valve's update of 4 March 2026 rewrote A site with three lines: Balcony at Bombsite A has been extended, Graveyard at Bombsite A has been closed to the public and Clipping adjusted at small window next to Second Mid Balcony. The schematic below shows what that means on the ground.

Hotspawn's reading on the day (4 March 2026): the change should make A easier for CTs to retake, since one hiding spot is gone, and the longer Balcony gives Terrorists more room to clear its angles without climbing the fence. Our take as coaches: post-plants on A are now about spreading across Pit, the Balcony and Apartments rather than hiding on the site, and CTs who used to throw a grenade into Graveyard on every retake can spend it on Pit instead. The schematic is ours and simplified — open the map in a private match to see the real geometry.

Inferno callouts

CS2 puts 21 location names into Inferno's map files — the ones you see on the radar. Players use 38 more for the corners inside them. Graveyard is still a word you'll hear for that corner of A, but there's nothing to hold there any more.

The B-site names matter most: New Box (the default plant), Coffins and Dark (the two CT hiding spots Terrorists burn Molotovs on), 1st, 2nd and Fountain on the site and Construction on the CT side. On A, learn Pit, Truck, Library and Boiler first.

Winning Banana

Banana is a tug of war, and the rope is your team's grenades. Both teams can reach it early, both have cover halfway up, and anyone who peeks into a fresh Molotov or an unflashed angle dies. Here's how each side wins it:

A quiet Banana is information too. If the Terrorists don't fight for it in the first 20 seconds, the B players should expect A — or a late B hit after they've spent their grenades. That's the read the Inferno CT side is built on.

T side: the B execute

The usual T default puts two players on Banana, two through Second Mid towards Apartments and one in Mid. When the call is B, the Banana pair has already done the hard part. The execute is short and loud:

Our addition — a second flash that pops over the site as the first player enters — makes the Coffins and Dark checks safer once the Molotovs burn out. A fast B rush with five players behind flashes is a pistol-round and post-win play; on a normal gun round, take Banana first.

T side: the A execute after the change

A is the slower, bigger hit. Two players come through Apartments to Balcony, two take Top of Mid and Short, and the fifth either lurks Banana or joins Mid. The standard grenades:

The extended Balcony helps the Apartments pair: there's more room to clear angles before dropping, as Hotspawn noted. It also means the CTs can't count on one dead corner for a Terrorist to hide in after the plant, so spread out and cross-fire the bomb instead.

CT side: 2-2-1 and the Apartments tempo

The most common Inferno CT setup is a 2-2-1: two on B, two on A and one flex player in Arch or Library who can go either way. Rotations are short, so the flex player is often the first to arrive at a hit. Below are BoostPirate's three starting looks:

The A-side player in Apartments sets the tempo of the whole half. Playing Boiler or close Apartments gets early information, but a death there hands the Terrorists a free walk to Balcony. The passive alternative concedes Apartments and holds the Balcony drop from a Library and Arch crossfire. Mix the two so the Terrorists can't time their Second Mid crossing.

Key smokes and Molotovs, in words

Lineup names from csdb.gg's Inferno lineups (reviewed 4 July 2026; later updates have shipped, so check them in a private match). Valve's in-game map guides (since 18 March 2026) can be opened from the pause menu during the first five rounds of each half in Competitive.

Retakes and post-plants

Inferno retakes are short walks for the CTs, which is why Terrorists must play post-plants with crossfires, not hiding spots. On B, CTs come through CT and Construction, and the Terrorists hold from Car, Sandbags in Banana, Coffins or New Box, with one player falling back up Banana to catch the re-push. On A, CTs come from Library and Arch (and Short if they have Mid): keep a smoke and a flash, hit from two directions at once, and pre-aim Pit. Since Graveyard closed, there's one fewer corner to clear — spend that grenade on Pit or Balcony.

As a Terrorist after an A plant: one on Pit, one in Apartments covering the site, one on Short. Don't all sit on the site; one Molotov retake clears a stack. More on this in the retakes and post-plant guide.

Common Inferno mistakes

Inferno in Season 5: the change log and the Premier draw

1. 9 July 2026Clipping fix to prevent pixel boost at Top of Mid
2. 4 March 2026Balcony at Bombsite A has been extended.
3. 4 March 2026Graveyard at Bombsite A has been closed to the public.
4. 4 March 2026Clipping adjusted at small window next to Second Mid Balcony.
5. 12 November 2025Fixed skybox on Inferno that was blocking grenades.

Nothing since 9 July 2026 has touched Inferno — the newest update we read (5 November 2026) only changed Retakes. In Premier, since 22 September 2026 Team 1 picks one map, Team 2 picks two maps, Team 1 picks a final map, and one of the four maps is drawn at random, so learn Inferno alongside three more maps — start with the Mirage guide and the Nuke guide. Grenade work is half of Inferno, so the flashbangs and Molotovs guide and the utility economy guide are worth your time next, and the map pool guide explains the full Season 5 pool.