What float actually is
Every CS2 skin carries a hidden number called its float value (or "paint wear"): a decimal between 0 and 1.
Read the restShow less
Lower means cleaner, a float of 0.01 looks factory-fresh, while 0.90 looks beaten up. It is set the moment the skin is created and never changes. It is what makes each copy of a skin genuinely unique, not just its name.
The five wear tiers
Valve buckets that 0 to 1 range into five named tiers. The tier is what you see in the item name; the exact float sits underneath it:
Read the restShow less
| Wear tier | 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 |
Two things follow from this. First, a skin at the very edge of a tier, say a Field-Tested at 0.15, looks close to Minimal Wear but costs Field-Tested money, which is why edge floats trade at a premium. Second, some finishes only exist in certain tiers because their float range is capped, which is why you rarely see a Factory New of some skins at all.
The cap is the rule, not the exception. Of the 1 385 finishes in our trade up catalogue on 17 September 2026, 1 058 stop short of the full 0 to 1. Forty one never reach Factory New, 186 never reach Battle-Scarred, and ten start inside Field-Tested or worse. Every skin page prints the window each wear really covers on that finish; these are the ones people ask about most:
| Finish | Float range | What that means | Cheapest now |
|---|---|---|---|
 AWP | Asiimov | 0.18 to 1.00 | No Factory New, no Minimal Wear. Field-Tested starts at 0.18. | €63.80Battle-Scarred |
 M4A4 | Asiimov | 0.18 to 1.00 | Same cap as the AWP: Field-Tested is the cleanest it gets. | €66.65Battle-Scarred |
 AK-47 | Redline | 0.10 to 0.70 | No Factory New. Minimal Wear is only 0.10 to 0.15, which is why it costs so much. | €18.59Well-Worn |
 AWP | Neo-Noir | 0.00 to 0.50 | No Battle-Scarred. Well-Worn stops at 0.45 and the finish ends at 0.50. | €30.93Battle-Scarred |
 AWP | Fever Dream | 0.00 to 0.55 | Battle-Scarred exists but only 0.45 to 0.55, so it looks close to Well-Worn. | €9.95Field-Tested |
 M4A1-S | Printstream | 0.00 to 0.80 | Full tiers up to Battle-Scarred, which is capped at 0.80. | €130Battle-Scarred |
 P90 | Asiimov | 0.00 to 0.92 | Nearly the whole axis, so a 0.40 here is a very different copy from a 0.40 Redline. | €130Battle-Scarred |
That cap is worth understanding properly, because it is where float stops being one number and starts being a position. A skin whose range runs 0.10 to 0.70 at 0.40 sits halfway through its own range; a skin that runs 0 to 1 at 0.40 sits at 40 percent. Both read as Field-Tested. They are not the same copy, and in a trade up contract the game uses the position, not the raw number. That single detail is why so many contracts land a wear their owner did not expect. The trade up guide works the normalising step through with numbers.
Why float moves the price
Within a tier, a cleaner float is usually worth more, and the cleanest and dirtiest extremes carry the biggest premiums. On top of float, a few things stack:
Read the restShow less
- Pattern (paint seed), for finishes like Case Hardened ("blue gems") or Doppler (phases), the pattern index can matter more than the float. A top blue-gem pattern is a different market entirely from an ordinary one.
- Stickers and charms, applied stickers, especially rare or crafted ones, add value on top of the base skin.
- Doppler phase, a Doppler's phase (Ruby, Sapphire, Black Pearl, phases 1 to 4) can multiply the price several times over versus the plain name.
How to check a skin's float
The float and pattern live in the item's inspect data, which anyone can read from a public inspect link.
Read the restShow less
Most traders use an inspection tool or a tracker that resolves it automatically. The practical point: never value a skin by its name alone, the same "AK-47 Redline (Field-Tested)" can be a bargain or an overpay depending entirely on the copy in front of you.
PatinaAI prices every copy in your inventory by its own float, pattern and stickers, not by the name average, so what you see is what that exact skin is worth.