Valve has a set of rules for Workshop skins: no single-color or gold designs, no borrowed artwork, no recycled patterns and nothing that makes a gun look like a toy. Yet the game contains skins that break almost every one of these rules: the white Whiteout series, the golden AK-47 | Gold Arabesque, the M4A4 | Howl, the Fade series and the anime-themed AUG | Akihabara Accept. All of them appeared back in CS:GO, carried over to CS2 and are still traded today, some for thousands of dollars. Here are the stories behind these exceptions.
Valve is quite strict about which skins move from the Workshop into official cases and collections: weapon textures have to meet a whole list of requirements. Those requirements are not always enforced, though, and some skins made the cut by sheer circumstance. That doesn't stop them from looking remarkable. For how the Workshop itself works, see where to find the Workshop in CS2.
Single-Color Skins: the Whiteout Series
One of Valve's requirements is a ban on single-color designs. That makes sense, since a skin painted in one color tends to look dull. Even so, the game has an entire Whiteout series: the MP7 (Office Collection, 2013), the P250 (Chop Shop Collection, 2015) and the USP-S (2021 Train Collection). All of them are painted completely white. However, they weren't picked from the Workshop but added by Valve itself, which means the developers broke their own rule. Today any skin from the series starts at around $30, while a Factory New USP-S | Whiteout costs about $410. More light-colored options are in our roundup of white skins in CS2.
Gold Skins: the AK-47 Gold Arabesque
Another rule for skin makers is a ban on gold items. Valve explains that there are already enough of them and that gold designs should appear only for special occasions. For example, the golden FAMAS | Commemoration came out in the CS20 Case in 2019 to mark 20 years of Counter-Strike; it now starts at about $30. The exception is the AK-47 | Gold Arabesque from the 2021 Dust 2 Collection, released with no anniversary or special occasion behind it. Apparently it simply appealed to whoever put the collection together. It drops only from Major souvenir packages, so it is expensive: roughly $1,100 to $1,850 depending on wear. We collected other well-known gold skins in a separate roundup.
Borrowed Artwork: the M4A4 Howl Story
To make it into the game, a skin must not use other people's artwork; this protects Valve from copyright problems. That rule produced the unique story of the M4A4 | Howl. It arrived in May 2014 in the Huntsman Weapon Case, but a few weeks later it turned out the designer had used someone else's work. The developers had to redraw the artwork, and then removed the skin from the case altogether and moved it into a separate Contraband category: only the copies already owned by players remained. As a result it became one of the rarest items, and today the M4A4 | Howl costs roughly $4,150 (Field-Tested) to $7,250 (Factory New). Read more in our guides to the M4A4 Howl as Contraband and Contraband skins.
Originality: the Fade Series
Another criterion in the official skin selection FAQ is originality: a finish should reflect the designer's creative approach. In practice, the same finish or pattern sometimes appears on many skins. The Fade series looks like a joke at this principle's expense: it includes more than twenty items painted with the same gradient. They do look impressive, but it is hard to call them original.
Game Style: the AUG Akihabara Accept
Valve also requires skins to match the game's overall atmosphere and style, which is harder to judge. Skins with a "silly" look that make a weapon resemble a toy usually don't get into official cases. An unexpected exception is the AUG | Akihabara Accept from the Rising Sun Collection, with an anime girl on the stock. Today it is one of the most expensive AUG skins: from about $250 in Battle-Scarred to $3,450 in Factory New.
Of course, deviating from Valve's formal rules doesn't make these skins any worse. On the contrary, if they passed selection and made it into the game, the developers considered them worthy. Many players still want to add them to their collections to stand out. If you are one of them, you can buy these and other skins on LIS-SKINS at a good price.
