CS2 skin rarity and float values: tiers, wear ranges and patterns

Two CS2 skins with the same name can look different and trade differently. Three things decide it: the rarity of the finish, which is the same for every copy; the float value, which sets how worn a copy looks; and the pattern template, which moves the design around. The last two are set when the item is created and never change.

The rarity tiers

Valve's item definitions list seven grades for weapon finishes, each with its own colour. Stickers and other non-weapon items use the same grades under other names, and agents use Distinguished, Exceptional, Superior and Master.

Inside the game files the grades go by internal names: common, uncommon, rare, mythical, legendary, ancient and immortal. Weapon cases contain Mil-Spec to Covert finishes plus a special item; Consumer and Industrial finishes appear in collections such as the map collections. How often each grade comes out of a case is covered in CS2 case odds.

Among weapon finishes, Contraband is a grade of one. In Valve's file only one finish has it: the M4A4 Howl, which was removed from the Huntsman Collection after its design turned out to be stolen.

Knives and gloves

Knives and gloves are the "rare special items", which case descriptions call "exceedingly rare", shown with a ★. Both carry the ★ quality and, in Valve's file, sit in the top regular grade: knives are listed as Covert, and gloves under the non-weapon name for the same grade, Extraordinary. They come from a case's special pool, or, for the Dead Hand Collection's 22 gloves, from Dead Hand Terminals. Since October 2025 five Covert skins can also be traded up for one, as CS2 trade-up contracts explains.

Valve's file gives a knife or glove pool to 43 collections: the 42 that came in weapon cases, plus the Dead Hand Collection. Collections that never came in a case, such as the map collections, have none, and neither does the Genesis Collection. Eight of the 43 hold only gloves, and gloves never come in StatTrak.

Float values and the five wear ranges

Every weapon finish has a float value, shown as Wear Rating when you inspect the item: a number between 0 and 1. Valve's guide for workshop artists says each finish sets a range of wear, a random value inside it is chosen when the finish is applied, and higher values mean more scratches and grime. The float decides the Exterior label. To see the exact number, inspect the item in game and open its details, where the Wear Rating and Pattern Template are listed.

The two disagree by 0.01 at the last two boundaries. Valve's guide, written for artists, gives 0.37 and 0.44; guides written for traders, such as BLAST.tv's, give 0.38 and 0.45. Only a float sitting right at one of those lines is affected, and there the Exterior label the item actually shows is what counts.

The ranges are uneven. Factory New covers 7% of the scale and Battle-Scarred more than half of it, so two Field-Tested copies, one at 0.16 and one at 0.36, can look quite different. The float doesn't change with use either: a skin you play with for years stays exactly as worn as the day it was made.

Float caps

A finish doesn't have to use the whole scale. Valve's item file gives each finish its own minimum and maximum, and the float is drawn between them. Of the 1,290 finishes in the file that state a maximum, 919 stop below 1.00. That's why some exteriors simply don't exist for some skins:

A Factory New Redline or a Minimal Wear Asiimov can't exist, whatever a listing claims. Caps also matter in trade-ups, where, according to players' tests since October 2025, each input's float is read relative to its own range.

Pattern templates

The pattern template, the other number shown when you inspect a skin, is a seed with about a thousand possible values. Valve's guide says each finish sets ranges for how its pattern is offset and rotated, and random values inside those ranges are chosen so that every application is unique. Scratches and grime are placed at random as well, so two copies with identical floats still wear differently.

On most finishes the template barely shows. On a few it decides the look. On Case Hardened it sets how much of the weapon is blue, and the bluest templates are known as "blue gems". Doppler works differently: Valve's file has separate entries for Phase 1 to 4, Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl, all named Doppler in game, and Gamma Doppler has Phase 1 to 4 and Emerald.

Why two copies of a skin differ

Put two copies of the same skin side by side and they can differ in:

• Float and exterior: how worn it looks, within the finish's own range.
• Pattern template: where the design sits, which matters most on Case Hardened and similar finishes.
• Quality: a StatTrak or Souvenir version of the same finish, explained in StatTrak and Souvenir skins.
• What's attached: stickers, a charm or a name tag added after the item was made.

The first two come only from inspecting that exact copy; the name on a listing tells you the exterior band, not where in the band the float sits.

Sources

• items_game.txt (Valve item definitions) — GameTracking-CS2 on GitHub
• csgo_english.txt (Valve English strings) — GameTracking-CS2 on GitHub
• Weapon finishes workshop guide — counter-strike.net
• Skins — Counter-Strike Wiki
• CS2 float: wear levels for skins — BLAST.tv
• Howl — Liquipedia Counter-Strike Wiki
• The Dead Hand — Steam News