CS:GO Item Quality Guide

This guide will go into more detail about the different item qualities in Counter-Strike Global Offensive.
The arms deal update
The arms deal was a big update for CS:GO and added two things into the game:

1. Added two new weapons who had long been requested: The M4A1-S and USP-S (silenced CT weapons). You can swap these weapons in the inventory, so that they appear in the buy menu. They will replace the M4A4 and the P2000. If you right click with the weapon equipped, it will remove the silencer.
   
   
2. Added cosmetic skins. These skins do not change the way guns shoot, recoil, reload or behave in any way the only difference is the look.
   

Some facts about weapon skins:

• The weapon skins are purely cosmetic. A default weapon works exactly the same as a weapon withanother skin.You can use all of theseskinsin any game mode anywhere. Even classic competitive.
  
  
• Some weapon skins are more rare than others (we will explain item rarity later on).
  
  
• There are exceedingly rare special items that are knives. These knives are heavily altered from the default knife models and so is the animation.
  
  
• The models of the guns themselves are barely altered if at all. The skins are basically paint jobs.
  
  
• There are StatTrak versions of some skins, thesewill track your kills with the weapon.
  
  
• The skinstypically drop at the end of a game mode, when a winner is declared. In community servers, VAC has to be enabled to drop skins.
  
  
• You can buy and sell your items/skins on the steam market.
  

How to get weapon skins
If you play online on official Valveservers or community servers with VAC enabled, you will have a chance to get weapon skins or cases to drop at the end of every match. If you get a case, you have to unlock it with a key. Keys can be bought from the store/Steam marketplace. Items, cases and keys can also be traded with others and you can but them from the marketplace. Drops cannot happen on offline servers.
You do not have unlimited drops, there is an internal timer that resets every week. This means that you have X drops each week. The exact amount is unknown.
Usefull links:

• Next CS:GO drop reset timer
  
  
• Arms Deal FAW
  

Item Rarity
There are weapon skins in the game that are less common than others. The rarity hierarchy goes as follows:
From the most common to least common.

1. Consumer grade (white)
   
   
2. Industrial grade (light blue)
   
   
3. Mil-spec (darker blue)
   
   
4. Restricted (purple)
   
   
5. Classified (pinkish purple)
   
   
6. Covert (red)
   
   
7. Exceedingly Rare (gold)
   
   
8. Contraband (light orange) discontinued skins
   

[b]What can drop?[/b]
Consumer grade to classified weapon skins can drop in-game, while covert or exceedingly rare items must be unlocked from cases. The chance of aconsumer grade skin dropping is much higher than getting a classified drop.
[b]StatTrak[/b]
StatTrak versions of weapon skins exists. They will track how many kills you get with the weapon/knife. Getting a StatTrak version makes a weapon skin even more rare.
Facts about StatTrak:

• StatTrak weapon skins cannot be a drop they must be obtained by opening a case (or bought from marketplace).
  
  
• Bot kills do NOT count as a StatTrak kill and it will not increase the counter.
  
  
• If someone else picks up another players StatTrak weapon, the digital readout will read ?error and ?unknown user. Kills will not increase the counter.
  

Usefull links:

• Weapon finishes (wiki)
  
  
• Weapon skins (wiki)
  

[b]Examples[/b]

Example of a case that can be dropped in-game. On the right you can see which items it can hold, sorted by item rarity. It only contains one weapon skin.

Example of a StatTrak weapon.

Example of an exceedingly rare special item. The rarest item that can be obtained in cases.At the moment, all exceedingly rare items are knives. Some of them can have StatTrak, which makes them even more rare. The most rare item of my knowledge, is a StatTrak Karambit (fade or slaughter) with Factory New exterior. Especially if its 100% fade or a special pattern slaughter.
Item Exteriors
Exterior arebasically the quality of the paint job on the weapon skin. The hierarchy for item exterior is as follows (goes from worst to best exterior):

1. Battle-Scarred [BS]
   
   
2. Well-Worn [WW]
   
   
3. Field-Tested [FT]
   
   
4. Minimal Wear [MW]
   
   
5. Factory New [FN]
   

The item exteriors will not change/decrease over time. It issimply another variation of weapon finishes. Factory new is normally the best exterior to get. Some skins is only availablewith some of the exteriors. For example:

• Asiimov: Battle Scarred / Well-Worn / Field Tested.
  
  
• Fade pattern: Minimal Wear / Factory New.
  
  
• Slaughter pattern: Field Tested / Minimal Wear / Factory New.
  
  
• Boom pattern: Field Tested / Minimal Wear / Factory New.
  

Item/skin Patterns
We are working on a separate article about skin patterns.
Souvenir Items
Souvenir items are special skins given to players for ?attending certain events.These events can officially announced strams/GOTV broadcasts that offers souvenirs. For example the DreamHack Winter 2013 tournament was an offical event which was streamed. While players where watching the tournament, there was a random chance to get a souvenir package. They do not require keys to open an contains one item. The souvenir items are the same as the weapon skins, except they have a sticker from the event on them.
[b]Some facts about souvenir items:[/b]

• Souvenir packagescan only be obtained from watching an official event. You can buy them off of the market if someone puts them up for sale or you can getthem fromtrading.
  
  
• Souvenir items are the same as normal weapon skins, but includesa sticker on them that relates to the event they were found in.
  
  
• Souvenir packages do not require keys to open.
  

Example of a souvenir package in CS:GO.
Stickers (sticker quality)
Stickers was added to the game at the 2nd of June 2014.
[b]Sticker facts:[/b]

• Stickers can be put on weapon skins (not knives).
  
  
• You can put stickers on the base models of guns. This will create an extra skin with the base model + the sticker.
  
  
• You can apply multiple stickers to any single gun (to a maximum of 4).Every sticker has 4 positions on a gun.
  
  
• Stickers can be received from sticker capsule drops (like weapon cases).
  
  
• Capsules can be opened with a sticker capsule key. The cost for a key is about 1 dollar.
  
  
• Stickers can be scraped off. If they are scraped off, they are permanently destroyed. You do not get them back.
  
  
• When you trade or sell a gun with a sticker, the sticker goes with it, justlike name tags.
  
  
• Stickers and sticker capsules can be sold on the marketplace.
  

Like skins, stickers havediffering rarities. As of now, there are three different qualities:

1. High Grade (normal)
   
   
2. Remarkable (hologram / holo)
   
   
3. Exotic (foil)
   

Normal is least rare, holographic is second rarest and foil is the rarest stickers.
CS:GO sticker qualities.Example of a sticker capsuleExample of a foil sticker
Contraband items
Contraband items are skins removed from cases and therefore cannot be obtained anymore.On June 11th 2014, the M4A4 | Howl and the Howling Dawn sticker became labeled as contrabanditems and the original graphic on the gun was changed. This wasbecause the artwork used on the gun/sticker was stolen from a user on Deviant Art. The user on Deviant Art filed a claim against Valve and requested themto remove his artwork from the game. Valve then removed the items from the Huntsman Case, and all of the items that already existed had their graphics changed. The item can no longer be found in the huntsman case.
This is how the M4A4 |Howl looked like before it was changed.This is the new design of the M4A4 Howl.

Holy shit this dude really out here making a killing off of farming steam posts, I should have done this

Good !! Thank you my friends !!! Counter strike is the best game forever !