Every CS2 skin has a float value, a number between 0 and 1 that sets how worn it looks. The float decides the wear tier in the item’s name, from Factory New to Battle-Scarred, and on popular skins it can change the price several times over. Here is how floats work, why some skins skip whole wear tiers, and what to check before you buy.
What a float value is
A float is fixed when the skin is created: when you open a case, get a drop or complete a trade-up. It never changes after that. Playing with a skin does not wear it down, so a Field-Tested skin stays Field-Tested forever.
Lower means cleaner. A 0.01 skin looks fresh from the factory, a 0.90 skin looks like it has been dragged across Dust II.
The five wear tiers
The tiers are the same for every weapon skin, and the boundaries are hard cut-offs: 0.0699 is Factory New, 0.0701 is Minimal Wear.
| Wear | Float range | Share of the scale |
|---|---|---|
| Factory New (FN) | 0.00–0.07 | 7% |
| Minimal Wear (MW) | 0.07–0.15 | 8% |
| Field-Tested (FT) | 0.15–0.38 | 23% |
| Well-Worn (WW) | 0.38–0.45 | 7% |
| Battle-Scarred (BS) | 0.45–1.00 | 55% |
The tiers are not the same size: Battle-Scarred covers more than half of the scale, Factory New only 7% of it.
Float caps: why some skins skip tiers
Each skin has its own minimum and maximum float. The game rolls a value and fits it into that window, so many skins cannot exist in every wear. Examples from our case database:
| Skin | Case | Float range | Possible wear |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWP | Asiimov | Operation Phoenix | 0.18–1.00 | FT, WW, BS |
| AK-47 | Redline | Operation Phoenix | 0.10–0.70 | MW to BS |
| MP9 | Starlight Protector | Dreams & Nightmares | 0.00–0.80 | FN to BS |
| AWP | Printstream | Fever Case | 0.00–1.00 | FN to BS |
Knife finishes have ranges too. Doppler and Gamma Doppler knives only go from 0.00 to 0.08, so they exist in Factory New and Minimal Wear only. The Operation Phoenix case page shows the float range for every skin in the case.
Caps also explain some odd prices. When a skin’s range ends just above 0.07, Minimal Wear copies are rare, and SteamDB found Minimal Wear selling above Factory New on capped skins like the Glock-18 | Fade.
How much wear changes the price
The gap between the best and worst wear depends on the skin. SteamDB’s lowest listings from July 2026:
| Skin | Factory New | Battle-Scarred | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| AK-47 | Asiimov | $344 | $38 | 9.0x |
| AWP | Printstream | $220 | $39 | 5.6x |
| USP-S | Kill Confirmed | $267 | $53 | 5.0x |
| Desert Eagle | Printstream | $79 | $34 | 2.3x |
Clean, bright finishes like Printstreams and Asiimovs show scratches early, so wear costs the most there. Patterned finishes are different: on a Case Hardened, the pattern (which parts are blue) moves the price far more than the float, and on a Doppler, the phase matters more than the wear.
How to check a float
- Your own skins: inspect the item in your CS2 inventory. The panel shows the exact wear rating.
- Skins on sale: paste the listing’s inspect link into a float checker such as CSFloat’s. It also shows the paint seed, which matters for pattern-based skins.
- Marketplaces: many third-party markets show the float on every listing and let you sort by it.
Floats and trade-ups
In a trade-up contract, the output float comes from the average float of your inputs, scaled into the output skin’s range. Low-float inputs give a clean result, which is why low-float cheap skins sell for more than their wear tier suggests. The same rule applies to the five-Covert knife trade-up.
What to check before you buy
Look at the exact float, not just the tier name. A 0.15 Field-Tested and a 0.37 Field-Tested carry the same label but can look very different. Check where the float sits in that skin’s range, and for pattern skins, look at the actual item, because two skins with the same float can look nothing alike.
