A CS2 charm is a decorative item that dangles from your weapon. Valve introduced charms with The Armory update on 2 October 2024. The item name in the game is Charm, while much of the community still says keychain, and the game's own data files use the word keychain for the item type.
You drag and drop a charm to place it precisely on a weapon skin. Valve's release notes state that a weapon can have one charm attached at a time. Unlike a sticker, a charm can be taken off again and returned to your inventory, but that needs a separate consumable called a Charm Detachment. Redeeming a charm from the Armory comes with three free detachments, and more can be bought.
How do you get charms in CS2?
Charms came first from the Armory, where you spend Armory Credits earned through XP with an active Armory Pass to redeem items from a charm collection, and new charm collections have followed in later updates. Charms also carry a pattern number that changes small details on some designs, and collectors track those numbers the way they track pattern indexes on skins.
Once released, charms trade on the Steam Community Market and on third-party marketplaces like any other item. Their prices range from a few cents to large sums for the rarest designs in the set.
Do charms add value to a weapon?
A charm on a weapon is like a sticker: it stays on the item until you use a detachment. Because detachment returns the charm to your inventory, an attached charm keeps more of its value than an applied sticker, but the buyer still needs a Charm Detachment to separate the two, so expect a discount for that.
Charms do not change how the weapon plays. They swing a little as you move, and some players find them distracting, so a weapon with a charm is not always easier to sell than the same weapon without one.