How to Add Bots in CS 1.6

Want to play CS 1.6 with bots? First, a key fact: the original Counter-Strike 1.6 was released without bots. You need a build that includes a bot system — usually ZBot (the bots from Condition Zero) or PODBot. Every build on this site ships with ZBot, so if you download CS 1.6 with bots you can skip straight to the steps below.

How to start a game with bots

1. Launch the game and click New Game.
2. Choose a map (de_dust2 is a good start).
3. On the Game or Bots tab set the number of bots and difficulty.
4. Click Start.

How to add bots in CS 1.6 with the console

Open the console with ~:

Command	What it does
bot_add	Add a bot to the team with fewer players
bot_add_ct / bot_add_t	Add a bot to CT / T
bot_kick	Kick all bots (bot_kick Name for one)
bot_kill	Kill all bots
bot_quota 10	Keep exactly 10 bots
bot_difficulty 0–3	Easy, normal, hard, expert
bot_join_team ct	Bots join only CT
bot_stop 1	Freeze bots (spray practice)
bot_knives_only 1 / bot_pistols_only 1 / bot_snipers_only 1	Weapon restrictions
bot_all_weapons 1	Back to normal
bot_chatter off	Silence bot radio chatter

Bot menu

In builds with ZBot the bot menu is on H: add bots to a team, change difficulty or kick them without typing commands.

Bots don’t move or stand still?

ZBot uses a navigation file for each map (maps/de_dust2.nav). If a custom map has none, the bots stand still. Fix:

bot_nav_generate

The game analyzes the map (it can take a few minutes on large maps), saves the .nav file and restarts the round — bots will move normally after that.

PODBot instead of ZBot

Some builds use PODBot. Open its menu with the podbotmenu command (often bound to =) and add bots from there. The bot commands above are for ZBot only.