Loading…
Blue, purple, pink, red, gold. Factory New to Battle-Scarred. If the colours and wear names on CS2 skins confuse you, this beginner guide makes them click with real examples.
By CSMAUK Staff
Two numbers decide what a CS2 skin is worth: its rarity and its float. Rarity is the coloured tier, from common blue up to the gold knives and gloves. Float is a hidden value between 0 and 1 that controls how worn and scratched the skin looks. Get your head around these two and the entire skin market stops being a mystery. This guide explains both from scratch, with real examples you can click through and inspect.
Every skin belongs to a rarity tier shown by a colour. From most common to most rare: Consumer (white), Industrial (light blue), Mil-Spec (blue), Restricted (purple), Classified (pink), Covert (red), and the gold Rare Special Item tier for knives and gloves. There is also Contraband, a one-off tier that applies only to the discontinued M4A4 Howl. Higher rarity generally means higher price, but not always, because supply matters just as much as tier.
| Tier | Colour | Case drop chance | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mil-Spec | Blue | 79.92% | AWP Capillary |
| Restricted | Purple | 15.98% | AK-47 Slate |
| Classified | Pink | 3.20% | AK-47 Redline |
| Covert | Red | 0.64% | AK-47 Asiimov |
| Rare Special Item | Gold | 0.26% | Karambit Doppler |
Key insight: rarity is the drop odds, not the price. A Covert from a heavily-opened case can be cheaper than a Classified from a rare one. The USP Kill Confirmed is a red Covert that costs very little, because its case was opened millions of times and flooded the market.
USP-S | Kill Confirmed
Covert (red) but cheap: proof rarity is not price
ExampleFloat is a number from 0 to 1 baked into every skin when it is created, and it never changes. Lower float means less wear and a cleaner look; higher float means more scratches and fading. That number maps to one of five named wear buckets, which is what you see on the market listing.
| Wear name | Float range | Look |
|---|---|---|
| Factory New | 0.00 - 0.07 | Pristine, no visible wear |
| Minimal Wear | 0.07 - 0.15 | Very light scratching |
| Field-Tested | 0.15 - 0.38 | Noticeable wear, the common middle |
| Well-Worn | 0.38 - 0.45 | Heavily faded |
| Battle-Scarred | 0.45 - 1.00 | Beaten up, most scratched |
How much float matters depends entirely on the skin. Some designs, like the Desert Eagle Blaze, look almost identical from Factory New to Battle-Scarred because the artwork covers the whole gun, so you should buy the cheapest wear you can find. Others, like anything in the Asiimov family, turn ugly and grey at high float, so the wear tier makes a big price difference. Always look at the actual skin at the wear you are considering before buying.
Desert Eagle | Blaze
Looks great at any float. Buy the cheapest wear.
Float-proof
AWP | Asiimov
Turns grey at high float. Wear tier matters a lot.
Float-sensitiveBeyond rarity and float, two more things can change a skin's value. Pattern index is a hidden seed that matters for randomised finishes like Case Hardened (the blue-gem hunt), Fade (how much of the gradient shows), and Doppler (which phase you get). Two identical listings can be worth wildly different amounts based on pattern alone. StatTrak is a kill counter added to about 1 in 10 dropped skins; it usually adds a premium, though not always a large one on cheap skins.
AK-47 | Case Hardened
Pattern index decides everything: same skin, huge price gap
PatternOnce this clicks, the rest of the market makes sense. You will understand why a cheap loadout can look premium, why some Coverts cost less than some Restricteds, and why knife prices swing so hard on float and pattern.
Ready to spend? Our best cheap CS2 skins under five dollars guide uses everything here to build a premium-looking loadout for pocket change. For the top end, see the best AK-47 skins, best AWP skins, and knife skins guides.