CS2 Skins Glossary
New to Counter-Strike skins? Here's plain-English explanations of the terms you'll see across skins.ai and the wider market - from float and pattern to fades, blue gems and trade locks.
Condition & wear
- Float Value
- A number from 0 to 1 that describes how worn a skin's finish is - lower is cleaner. The float decides the exterior and visibly changes scratches and fading, so two of the same skin can look (and cost) very differently.
- Exterior (Wear)
- The five named wear bands derived from the float: Factory New (0-0.07), Minimal Wear (0.07-0.15), Field-Tested (0.15-0.38), Well-Worn (0.38-0.45) and Battle-Scarred (0.45-1.0).
- Pattern (Paint Seed)
- A whole number (0-1000) that seeds how a skin's texture is laid onto the weapon. For most skins it's cosmetic, but for a few it controls rare layouts that sell for a huge premium (see Blue Gem and Fade %).
- Float Cap
- A per-skin limit on the lowest and/or highest float a skin can have, so not every wear tier exists for every skin - the AWP | Dragon Lore caps near 0.70, so it has no true high-float Battle-Scarred. Each skin's page shows its achievable float range.
- Inspect Link
- An in-game link on a specific item or listing that opens it in the 'Inspect in Game' viewer. Float-checker tools read the inspect link to reveal a listing's exact float and paint seed before you buy.
Variants & rarity
- StatTrak™
- A variant with a built-in counter that tracks confirmed kills with that weapon (or items traded, for music kits). StatTrak versions are rarer and usually cost more than the Normal version of the same skin.
- Souvenir
- A special variant dropped to viewers during pro tournaments, often carrying the stickers of teams/players from that match. Souvenir items can't be StatTrak and have their own (sometimes very high) value.
- Rarity
- The colour-coded grade of a skin, from Consumer Grade (white) up through Industrial, Mil-Spec (blue), Restricted (purple), Classified (pink) and Covert (red). Knives and gloves are the rarest 'special' grade.
- Covert
- The highest standard skin rarity (red), one tier below knives/gloves. Covert AKs, AWPs and M4s are among the most sought-after weapon skins.
- Contraband
- A unique, discontinued rarity used only by the M4A4 | Howl, which was pulled from cases over a copyright dispute - making it permanently un-droppable and highly collectible.
Item types
- Knife
- A melee skin (Karambit, Butterfly, M9 Bayonet…) - part of the rare 'special' drop pool from cases. Knives are among the most expensive items in the game.
- Gloves
- Hand-wear skins (Sport, Specialist, Driver…), also from the special drop pool. Unlike weapons, gloves have no StatTrak version.
- Sticker
- A decal you apply to a weapon. Tournament stickers (especially Katowice 2014 holos) are some of the rarest, most valuable items in CS2.
- Charm (Keychain)
- A small dangling cosmetic that attaches to a weapon, introduced in CS2. Charms come in their own collections and rarities.
- Agent
- A playable character skin for the T or CT side. Agents are cosmetic only and come from agent collections.
- Case / Container
- A sealed crate that needs a ~$2.50 key to open, yielding one random item by the published odds. The basis of the unboxing economy.
- Capsule
- A container for stickers, patches or graffiti. Unlike weapon cases, most capsules open without a key.
- Collection
- A themed set of skins tied to a map or operation. Collections matter for trade-ups, since a contract draws its output from the inputs' collection.
- Music Kit
- Replaces the in-game music (MVP anthem, round start, etc.) with an artist's tracks. Has a StatTrak version that counts MVPs.
- Major Sticker
- A tournament sticker from a CS Major, sold in team or autograph capsules in finishes up to gold. Older Major holos - especially Katowice 2014 - are among the most valuable items in CS2.
- Autograph Capsule
- A Major capsule containing a random pro player's signature sticker, in finishes up to gold. The rarest gold autographs of star players can sell for thousands.
Special patterns
- Fade
- A gradient finish (e.g. Glock | Fade, Karambit | Fade). The 'Fade %' - how much of the full rainbow/colour the pattern shows - is set by the paint seed and drives big price differences (95-100% fades command a premium).
- Doppler & Phases
- A knife finish that comes in distinct colour 'phases' (Phase 1-4, plus the rare Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl - or Gamma Doppler's Emerald). Each phase looks different and is priced separately even though they share one market name.
- Case Hardened (Blue Gem)
- A finish whose blue/gold layout is decided by the paint seed. Seeds with a near-fully-blue playside (famous 'Blue Gems' like AK seed 661) sell for many times the base price.
- Marble Fade
- A finish with red/blue/yellow marbling whose arrangement depends on the seed - 'Fire & Ice' (and the rarer 'Tricolor') layouts are the most valuable.
Trading & market
- Trade-Up Contract
- Combine 10 skins of the same rarity from one or more collections to produce one skin of the next rarity up. Our calculator shows the odds and expected value.
- Trade Lock / Hold
- A period (commonly 7 days) during which a newly traded or purchased item can't be traded again - a Steam anti-fraud measure. Locked items often sell at a small discount.
- P2P (Peer-to-Peer)
- Buying directly from another player's Steam inventory (via a marketplace's bot or escrow) rather than from a site's own stock. Usually cheaper but subject to trade locks.
- Liquidity
- How easily an item sells at a fair price, judged by recent sales volume. High-liquidity skins are safer to buy and resell; illiquid ones can be hard to offload.
- Overpay
- Paying above the going market rate - common for rare patterns (blue gems, high fades), low floats, or four-of-a-kind sticker crafts that the raw price doesn't capture.
- Sticker Craft
- Applying stickers to a skin as a permanent combination. The right rare stickers can add a large premium, but it's one-way - a sticker can't be peeled off once placed, only deleted.
- Armory
- CS2's reward track: you earn Armory Stars through play or an optional Armory Pass and redeem them for skins, charms, cases and other items.
Want to go deeper? Read our CS2 guides on floats, rarity, trade-ups and buying safely - or jump into curated rankings.