CS2 float, wear and patterns: how they work and what they change
Every CS2 skin carries two hidden numbers, both written at the moment it is created and never changed again: the float, which decides how worn the skin looks, and the paint seed, which decides how the texture landed on the model. The first drives the wear tier and most of the price of a common skin; the second turns an ordinary copy into a collector piece worth several times as much. This guide covers the exact wear boundaries, what a capped range is, why two Field-Tested copies look different, which families live on their seed, and how to check your own numbers.
In short: the two numbers that decide everything
- Float is a number between 0 and 1. The lower it is, the cleaner the skin looks. It is written when the item is created and never changes — not from playing, not from trading, not with time.
- A wear tier is just a float interval. FN 0–0.07, MW 0.07–0.15, FT 0.15–0.38, WW 0.38–0.45, BS 0.45–1. The boundaries are identical for every skin.
- Each skin has its own range. The AWP | Asiimov starts at 0.18, so Factory New and Minimal Wear do not exist for it at all. The Desert Eagle | Blaze ends at 0.08, so it never appears Field-Tested.
- The paint seed is a number between 0 and 1000. It decides which slice of the texture lands on the weapon. For most skins that is cosmetic; for a dozen families it is the main price driver.
- Doppler phases are not set by the seed. They come from the paint index — the internal finish number — which is why the phase is part of the item name.
- Checking is free. The “Inspect in game” link from your inventory carries both the float and the seed — paste it into the inspect checker.
What the float actually is
The float value (or wear value) is a fractional number between 0 and 1 that the game assigns when an item drops, is unboxed or comes out of a contract. Steam does not show it in the interface, but it lives in the item data and is exposed through the inspect link. Zero is a perfectly new item, one is as beaten up as the skin gets.
The important part is that it is static. Shooting with the weapon, years in the inventory, hops between accounts — none of it moves the number. The only way to “change” a float is to get a different copy: buy it, unbox it, or craft it with a trade-up contract, where the output wear follows the average normalised float of the inputs.
| Wear | Code | Range | What you see |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factory New | FN | 0.00 – 0.07 | The pattern is intact, no visible scuffing |
| Minimal Wear | MW | 0.07 – 0.15 | Light scratches on edges and raised parts |
| Field-Tested | FT | 0.15 – 0.38 | The widest interval and the biggest spread inside it |
| Well-Worn | WW | 0.38 – 0.45 | The pattern is clearly rubbed, metal shows through |
| Battle-Scarred | BS | 0.45 – 1.00 | Heavy wear across the whole model |
Capped ranges: why Factory New does not always exist
The artist gives every skin its own minimum and maximum wear. The game rolls a value inside that corridor, not across the full 0–1 scale. Three consequences follow, and all three confuse beginners.
- Some wears simply do not exist. If the minimum is 0.18, the skin will never be Factory New or Minimal Wear, no matter how many cases you open.
- Rarity of a wear depends on the corridor. The value is rolled uniformly inside the corridor, so on a 0–1 skin Factory New covers 7% of all copies while on a 0–0.08 skin it covers nearly 88%. That is why FN is a premium on one skin and meaningless on another.
- Contracts normalise the ranges. The raw average of input floats is useless for the maths: each value is first mapped onto its own corridor.
Ranges and the price ladder, live
Pick a skin and we show its real float corridor from the game data, the wears that exist for it, and the current best market prices, StatTrak™ included.
Prices are the best offers across five markets, refreshed about once an hour. The bar shows how much of the 0–1 scale the skin occupies: with a capped range some wears are physically impossible.
Why two Field-Tested copies look different
Three reasons, and they stack.
- Different floats inside the interval. FT runs from 0.15 to 0.38 — the widest wear in the game. A 0.16 copy and a 0.37 copy differ more than FN and MW do on another skin.
- Different seeds. The texture is laid onto the model with an offset the seed defines. On noisy finishes — Case Hardened, Fade, Marble Fade, Crimson Web — the difference is dramatic.
- Different wear geometry. Scuffing does not appear evenly but follows a wear mask: some skins lose the barrel first, others the magazine. The same float reads differently on an AWP and on a Glock.
Item pages carry a separate render for every wear, so you can see exactly what the skin loses on the way from FN to BS. Examples: AWP | Asiimov and AK-47 | Redline.
The pattern: a number between 0 and 1000
The paint seed is an integer from 0 to 1000 — exactly 1001 variants. It decides how the texture sits on the model: the offset, the rotation, which fragment of the artwork ends up on the side you see. Float and seed are independent: a flawless float can come with a dull pattern and the other way round.
| Family | What the seed decides | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Case Hardened / Heat Treated | The share of blue (or gold) on the playside — from plain to “Blue Gem” | Case Hardened family |
| Fade / Amber Fade / Acid Fade | The fade percentage: at 100% the gradient reaches the edge of the model | Fade family |
| Marble Fade | The colour layout, which is where “Fire & Ice” and the other named schemes come from | Marble Fade family |
| Crimson Web | How many webs there are and where they land; big centred webs are the prized ones | Crimson Web family |
| Doppler / Gamma Doppler | Nothing: the phase comes from the paint index, not the seed | Doppler family |
Fade percentages are computed deterministically from the seed and the weapon model — every gun has its own table. “Fade 98%” is therefore not an eyeball estimate but a specific number that every calculator agrees on.
How to check a float and a seed
- 1 Grab the inspect link
Every item in the CS2 inventory and every Market listing has an “Inspect in game” button. Copy the
steam://rungame/730/.../+csgo_econ_action_preview...link — it identifies that exact copy. - 2 Paste it into the checker
The Float and patterns section takes the link and returns the float, the wear, the seed, the pattern rank and the current price. Nothing to install.
- 3 Compare it with the known seeds
Popular families have pages with their best patterns and renders — for example the Case Hardened blue ranking. If your seed is on the list, the copy is worth more than the base price.
- 4 Check the price for your wear
The skin page shows the price ladder across every wear and for StatTrak™, so you can see immediately whether your copy sits in the expensive half.
How float and pattern move the price
- The wear tier is the main multiplier. On a popular skin the gap between FN and BS is usually twofold or more; every item page carries the full ladder.
- Inside a tier people pay for the edge. The priciest copies sit right at the bottom boundary: “FN 0.006”, “FT 0.151”. The more liquid the skin, the bigger the premium.
- A pattern multiplies rather than adds. Top Blue Gems and Fire & Ice copies sell for multiples of the base price: that is rarity of the artwork, not wear.
- On common skins the seed means nothing. Two Asiimovs with different seeds are the same product; there is nothing to overpay for.
- StatTrak™ and souvenir quality are separate axes. They do not change the float but they do change the price — see Souvenir and StatTrak.
Float myths
| Myth | What actually happens |
|---|---|
| Skins wear out over time | No. The float is fixed at creation and never moves. |
| Every skin has a Factory New version | No. If the minimum of the range is above 0.07, Factory New does not exist. |
| A float of 0.00 exists | Practically no. Values approach zero, but record copies read 0.000x rather than a clean zero. |
| A seed can be changed | No. No in-game tool alters the pattern of an existing item. |
| The Doppler phase can be read from the seed | No. The phase comes from the paint index and is written in the item name. |
| Lower float always costs more | Not always. On capped skins the gap between two wears can be smaller than a market fee. |
A float checker, an inspect-link checker and the famous seeds of every family, all in one section.
Check a float or a seedАсуулт, хариулт
What is float in CS2?
A number between 0 and 1 assigned when the item is created that decides how worn it looks. The wear tier follows from it: FN up to 0.07, MW up to 0.15, FT up to 0.38, WW up to 0.45, BS above that.
Does float change over time?
No. The value is fixed the moment the item appears and does not depend on playing, trading or how long it sits in your inventory.
Why do some skins have no Factory New version?
Because each skin has its own float corridor. If the minimum is 0.18, as it is on the AWP | Asiimov, lower values are never generated, so Factory New and Minimal Wear do not exist.
What is a paint seed and what does it affect?
An integer from 0 to 1000 that sets where the texture lands on the model. On most skins it is cosmetic; on Case Hardened, Fade, Marble Fade and Crimson Web it is the main price factor.
How do I find the float and pattern of my skin?
Copy the “Inspect in game” link from your inventory or from a market listing and paste it into the checker on the Float and patterns page. No Steam login is required.
Why do two identical Field-Tested skins look different?
Field-Tested is the widest interval — 0.15 to 0.38 — and the spread inside it is large. On top of that the paint seed and the wear mask of the model differ.
What is a Blue Gem?
A Case Hardened copy with a large share of blue on the playside. The share is measured on renders of all 1001 patterns, and the top seeds sell for multiples of the ordinary price.
Does float affect gameplay?
No. It only changes looks and price: a Factory New and a Battle-Scarred weapon behave identically.