Every CS2 skin carries a hidden number between 0.00 and 1.00 called the float value, and it decides how worn your skin looks. Lower numbers mean cleaner finishes, higher numbers mean more scratches and fading. That single number is what splits a skin into Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn, and Battle-Scarred.
Last updated: June 14, 2026. Verified against current CS2 mechanics, June 2026.
What the float value actually is
When a skin generates, the game rolls a random number on a 0.00 to 1.00 scale. That number, the float, is permanent. It never changes with use in CS2 (the "wear" is purely cosmetic data, not something that degrades as you play). The lower the float, the less the skin's wear texture shows through, so the paint looks sharper and the colors pop.
Think of it as a master dial for grime. At 0.01 a skin looks showroom fresh. At 0.90 it can look like it survived a warzone. Where exactly that grime appears, and how harshly, depends on the specific skin's artwork, which is why some skins still look gorgeous at 0.40 and others fall apart by 0.20.
The five wear grades and their float ranges
The full 0 to 1 range is sliced into five named bands. These cutoffs are fixed across the game:
| Wear grade | Abbreviation | Float range |
|---|---|---|
| Factory New | FN | 0.00 to 0.07 |
| Minimal Wear | MW | 0.07 to 0.15 |
| Field-Tested | FT | 0.15 to 0.38 |
| Well-Worn | WW | 0.38 to 0.45 |
| Battle-Scarred | BS | 0.45 to 1.00 |
Notice the bands are not equal in size. Field-Tested covers a huge 0.23-wide slice, which is why FT skins vary so much in appearance. A 0.16 FT and a 0.37 FT are technically the same grade but can look like different skins.
Why every skin does not reach Factory New
Here is the part that trips up new collectors. Each skin has its own float cap, a minimum and maximum that can be tighter than 0.00 to 1.00. The visible float you see is actually scaled inside that skin's allowed window.
- Some skins have a minimum float above 0.00, so they can never be true Factory New. The AK-47 Cartel and several others simply cannot drop below a certain number.
- Some skins have a maximum below 1.00, so a "Battle-Scarred" version is capped and never gets as trashed as the scale allows.
- This is why one skin's FN starts at 0.00 and another's effective floor is, say, 0.10.
So when you compare floats, compare within the same skin. A 0.10 on one AWP is not the same look as 0.10 on another. Browse a single model end to end on our AWP hub or AK-47 hub to see how wear behaves on that specific artwork.
Why low floats cost more
Three forces stack up to make low-float skins pricier:
- Scarcity at the edges. Rolls cluster in the middle of a skin's range. Genuinely low floats (a sub-0.01 Factory New, for example) are rare, and rarity drives price.
- Looks. Cleaner texture simply reads as more premium, especially on bright or detailed finishes.
- Collector demand. Hardcore buyers chase "the lowest float" of a given skin almost like a leaderboard. A record-low float can command a serious premium over a normal FN.
The premium is not linear. The jump from a 0.05 FN to a 0.02 FN can be small, but the jump from 0.02 to 0.003 can be huge because you are now in trophy territory. The same logic runs in reverse at the top: extreme high-float Battle-Scarred skins are sometimes hunted as curiosities too.
Pattern is a different game from float
Float controls wear. Pattern (also called the pattern index or seed) is a separate hidden roll, usually 0 to 1000, that decides how the design is positioned or which variant you get. Two skins can share an identical float and an identical wear grade and still differ by 10x in price purely on pattern.
Here are the famous cases where pattern, not float, drives value:
- Case Hardened blue gems. The AK-47 and other Case Hardened skins have patterns that show more or less blue. Top patterns that are almost fully blue on the most visible side (certain seeds are legendary among collectors) sell for enormous premiums over a muddy blue-and-gold roll.
- Doppler phases. Doppler and Gamma Doppler knives come in Phase 1 through Phase 4, plus rare variants. Ruby, Sapphire, and Black Pearl appear on the regular Doppler, while Emerald appears on the Gamma Doppler. The phase is set by pattern, and Rubies or Sapphires cost far more than a Phase 1.
- Marble Fade Fire and Ice. The most prized Marble Fade arrangement, where red and blue sit in a clean "Fire and Ice" layout, is pattern-driven and carries a steep premium.
- Fade percentage. Fade skins are graded by how much of the full color gradient shows. A 98 to 100 percent Fade beats a 80 percent Fade on the same skin.
- Crimson Web placement. A big, centered web on the most visible part of the skin beats a scattered one.
When you are hunting these, the float and the pattern both matter, and the cheapest within-variant listing is what you actually want to find. Our full catalog and best-of guides let you filter the model down, and knives is where pattern premiums get most dramatic.
The bottom line
Float is the 0 to 1 number that decides wear, pattern is the separate roll that decides placement and variant, and the real money is made by understanding both at once. Learn a skin's float caps, know where it looks best on the scale, and then check whether pattern is in play before you buy. When you are ready to compare live prices, run your collection through the inventory value calculator, browse containers for drop sources, and let SkinWise point you to the cheapest honest listing.
Remy, SkinWise