Setup process

1. Remove your antivirus

Uninstall it. Disabling leaves filtering drivers loaded, and those are what break Predator's connection.

Turn off Windows Defender real time protection as well, using the steps in Antivirus and Windows Defender.

2. Stop the anti-cheat drivers

Open Command Prompt as administrator and run whichever applies to you.

FACEIT:

sc stop faceit

Riot Vanguard:

sc stop vgc
sc stop vgk

3. Clear the -vulkan launch option

In Steam, right click Counter-Strike 2, Properties, General, and clear anything in Launch Options. -vulkan is not supported.

4. Synchronise your clock and region

Settings, Time & language, Date & time. Confirm the time zone and region are right and press Sync now.

An out of sync clock fails the licence check and reports it as a connection error, which sends people looking in entirely the wrong place.

5. Update Steam

Check for updates manually, or reinstall Steam if it has not updated in a while. An outdated client is a known cause of injection failures here.

6. Download the loader

Download loadermega.nz

Extract it to a normal local folder. Not inside the archive, and not in a cloud synced folder.

7. Inject

Run the loader as administrator, enter your licence key, and inject.

Where your key is depends on how the product is delivered, and the product page says which applies. A key delivered automatically is in the email from your purchase and in your Client Area. A key delivered by staff is sent in your ticket in Discord.

8. Launch CS2 and open the menu

Start the game once the loader reports a successful inject.

Remember that -vulkan must not be in your launch options, from step 3. With Vulkan active, injection reports success and no menu ever appears, whatever key you press.