Many new and experienced players are probably interested in what CS GO skin floats are, how they differ and how they affect the appearance of the equipment. And since you are interested — we see no reason not to talk about it.
In short, Float — this is an index of the degree of wear, which is directly related to the condition of weapons, knives, and gloves. We have already written in more detail about wear and tear in one of the blogs (link here), but we will still repeat that there are 5 varieties of them in the game:
Factory New;
Minimal Wear;
Field-Tested;
Well-Worn;
Battle-Scarred.
In the vast majority of cases, the higher the visual rank of the gun — the more expensive it costs. And a little information for skeptics: the skin does not change either the degree of wear or the Float indicator over time. These values are constant. You can safely show everyone who thinks differently.
What Does Float Affect
Surely you have more than once encountered a situation in which two identical skins, with the same quality, cost completely differently. Cheating by an unscrupulous seller, or an attempt to dump the market? No, everything is much more complicated.
Let’s start with the fact that the overall Float indicator is calculated in the range from 0 (ideal condition) to 1 (complete wear). Moreover, each state has its own percentage range of values:
Factory New — from 0.00 to 0.07;
Minimal Wear — from 0.07 to 0.15;
Field-Tested — from 0.15 to 0.38;
Well-Worn — from 0.38 to 0.45;
Battle-Scarred — from 0.45 to 1.00.
You can find out the current Float indicator for your weapon on any site that sells skins. Take, for example, the official Steam trading platform, where new items are regularly released or exclusives are posted for resale.
For example, here is the P2000 | Scorpion pistol Factory New on the well-known skins exchange. The first one costs almost $9.50, the second one — only $1.70. Visually they are the same, but where does such a difference in cost come from? And this is provided that the second one has a sticker, which, in theory, should raise the price. And the answer lies precisely in Float:
Here is the first option.
Here is the second one.
Difference — only 0.02, and the price tag drops more than 4 times. Always pay attention to this when buying and selling, so that there are no unnecessary questions for the seller or the buyer.
Visual Differences of the Float Indicator
We looked at the differences within one degree of wear. What if you find similar Float parameters, but one weapon will be Minimal Wear, and the second — Field-Tested? Remember that they may have the same value of 0.15. Therefore, let’s look at these guns.
Option 1:
In the game it looks like this:
Option 2:
And this is how it looks in the game:
Does anyone see the difference? There is practically none if we talk about the visual component. But the cost is radically different. If you know this simple game mechanic, you can save a lot on buying a new skin that is interesting to you.
Now look at what the minimum Float looks like for “Minimal Wear” and maximum for “Field-Tested” for a hypothetical AWP | Medusa:
Note — this is Float 0.07, which is almost no different from Factory New, but you can significantly save on the purchase price.
And here is her darker counterpart:
Float, respectively, 0.37.
At first glance, the values are very different, but the visual cues are minimal. However, the second skin is much darker, which is very noticeable in the game. And many just strive to ensure that the weapon looks bright, fresh and without possible signs of scuffs. On the other hand, AWP with Float 0.37 will cost much less to purchase, as we have repeatedly reminded.
How to View Float in Inventory
The built-in functionality of Steam does not provide information about the level of wear and the skin index. Therefore, a lot of third-party platforms have been developed for these purposes, including CS GO Exchange. They are extremely easy to learn, and often only ask the user for a link to an account where there are things from the shooter. No passwords, personal data or other important information.
Key condition — the account must be public.
After entering the profile link — you load it into the system, wait for initialization and look at everything that is in the inventory. Here, for example, is PP-Bizon | Field-Tested and its full statistics:
Here you can clearly see both the quality and the much-needed Float. Yes, the rifle costs a penny, but you get the gist of it. There are also various extensions for Chrome that allow you to demonstrate wear directly through the Steam inventory, but we will not show them for one simple reason — account security comes first.
Rare Float Indicators
Surely you have seen that some skins not of Well-Worn or Field-Tested quality are much more expensive than a similar model Factory New. Why is this so? A very rare Float indicator, which is visually invisible, but extremely important for collectors and intermediaries involved in the purchase/sale of game assets.
Take, for example, the Nova | Modern Hunter, which is found with a Float indicator of 0.25000000000…
Interesting value for a Mil-Spec skin. This one can be sold to a collector for much more than its standard market value. And all because there are no more than 40 such skins in the game. And we’re not talking about a shotgun, but about all bladed weapons and firearms in principle. Imagine how valuable it is.
In total, there are three main anomalous values with a lot of zeros in the game:
0.250000…
0.500000…
0.750000…
Or look at the list of different skins with identical Float indicator.
How do you like this picture? If you collect the entire collection — it can be sold for a very round sum. Although most likely, such a set will be akin to winning the lottery. But this is not a software error, but real existing skins in CS GO, which many will not even pay attention to.
To summarize, Float primarily affects the value of game skins, determining their cost on trading platforms. And if you know what is in your inventory, or on a friend’s account, you can make good money on this, just by setting a goal.
