CS2 Float Values Explained: Exteriors, Caps and Wear

A float value is a number between 0 and 1 attached to every CS2 weapon finish, knife finish and pair of gloves, and it decides how worn the paint looks: the lower the number, the cleaner the item. The float also sets the exterior name, from Factory New (0.00–0.07) to Battle-Scarred (0.45–1.00), and each skin can only have a float inside its own range, which is why some skins never come in certain exteriors.

What a float value is

Every skin gets its float at the moment the item is created, whether it comes out of a case, arrives as a drop or is the result of a trade-up contract. From then on the value is fixed. Playing with the weapon, racking up kills or applying stickers never changes it, so a Factory New rifle stays Factory New for as long as it exists.

In the game the float is shown as the Wear Rating. Next to it sits a second number, the Pattern Template, which controls how the design is positioned on the model. That is why two copies of the same skin with almost the same float can still look quite different, most visibly on finishes such as Case Hardened or Fade.

Float is purely cosmetic. Damage, recoil, accuracy and every other weapon stat are identical at 0.01 and at 0.99.

The five exteriors and their float ranges

CS2 sorts floats into five exterior names, and those names appear in the game, in item names and on the Steam Community Market, for example AK-47 | Redline (Field-Tested). These are the ranges:

The bands are not the same size. Factory New and Well-Worn each cover only 0.07 of the scale, while Battle-Scarred takes up more than half of it. Field-Tested is wide enough that a copy at 0.16 looks close to Minimal Wear and a copy at 0.37 is almost Well-Worn, which is why players often look at the exact number and not only at the exterior name.

Capped float ranges: why some skins skip exteriors

Not every skin can land anywhere between 0 and 1. Each finish has its own minimum and maximum float, defined in the game’s item data, and a new copy always falls inside that range. The exteriors a skin can have follow directly from those limits. Some examples from the current game files:

Fade finishes are the best-known capped skins. The AWP, Glock-18 and knife versions stop at 0.08, so they only exist as Factory New or Minimal Wear. Not every Fade follows that rule, though: the MP7 | Fade reaches 0.25 and also comes in Field-Tested.

A raised minimum works the other way. The AK-47 | Redline and the P250 | Asiimov start at 0.10, so neither can ever be Factory New, and the AWP | Asiimov starts at 0.18, which rules out Minimal Wear as well. A low maximum removes the worn end instead: the M4A4 | Howl stops at 0.40 and never appears Battle-Scarred, while the AWP | Redline is held to 0.10–0.40 and only exists in the three middle exteriors.

Some older finishes, Crimson Web among them, use the game’s default range of 0.06–0.80. They can technically be Factory New, but only in the narrow strip between 0.06 and 0.07.

How float shows on the model

Every finish has its own wear built in, and the float decides how much of it you see. As the number climbs, scratches, faded color and chipped edges spread across the paint, and on many finishes the highest floats leave bare metal showing through. Where the wear appears and how early it becomes noticeable depends on the design, so some skins still look clean in Field-Tested while others pick up visible marks at fairly low floats.

The range limits also cap how worn a skin can ever look. A finish that stops at 0.08 never shows heavy scratching, and one that starts at 0.18 never looks brand new. Only the paint is affected: the weapon model itself is the same at any float.

How to check an item’s float

• In CS2: open your inventory, inspect the item and open the information (i) panel. The Wear Rating line is the float, and since April 2024 the same panel also names the exterior as the Wear Category.
• From Steam: in your Steam inventory, choose Inspect in Game… on the item to open it in CS2 and read the same panel.
• While spectating: you can open the loadout of the player you are watching and inspect their items, including the wear on their gloves.

Third-party marketplaces and inventory tools read the same inspect data, so most of them list the float next to each item.

Floats in trade-up contracts

A trade-up contract exchanges ten skins of one rarity for one skin of the next rarity from the collections you put in, and since October 2025 five Covert skins can also be exchanged for a knife or gloves. The result’s float is worked out from the inputs: the game measures where each input sits within its own skin’s float range, averages those positions and places the output at the same point in its own range. Inputs near the bottom of their ranges give a clean result, and the output never leaves its limits, so no trade-up can produce a Factory New AK-47 | Redline. Guides that simply average the raw floats describe the older method, which was replaced in late 2025. You can browse the collections in the wiki to see which skins share a collection.

FAQ

Does a skin’s float change as you use it?

No. The float is set when the item is created and stays the same for good, however many rounds you play or kills you get with it.

Why can’t I find a Factory New AWP | Asiimov?

Its float range starts at 0.18, above the Factory New and Minimal Wear bands, so every copy is Field-Tested, Well-Worn or Battle-Scarred.

Does float affect how a weapon performs?

No. Float only changes how the finish looks. Every copy of a weapon handles the same whatever its wear.

Do knives and gloves have floats too?

Yes. Knife finishes follow the same rules as gun finishes: Doppler, Gamma Doppler, Marble Fade, Tiger Tooth and Fade knives are limited to 0.00–0.08, Slaughter to 0.01–0.26 and Crimson Web to 0.06–0.80. Gloves carry a float as well, and you can check it in the same inspect panel.