★ Butterfly Knife | Doppler Ruby (Factory New)

★ Butterfly Knife | Doppler Ruby in Factory New (FN): the second most expensive Butterfly Knife finish in CS2 and one of three Doppler gems on the model. The rank is Covert, with the ★ on the name. The knife drops from the Spectrum Case and the Spectrum 2 Case. It comes in two grades only: the scale stops at 0.08, no further than Minimal Wear (MW).

What the ★ Butterfly Knife | Doppler Ruby looks like in Factory New

The blade is flooded with saturated scarlet lacquer, lightening toward the tip and sinking at the heel to a nearly black cherry. Murky dark blotches across the flat make up the marbled structure of ruby. The handles stay black, a red-orange stripe runs along each half, and the latch is red. The cutting edge is left bright; no lettering or stamps appear.

In this grade the red lacquer is whole on the edge and on the handle ribs. Scratches settle first on the blade tip and raised ribs, where the red exposes bare metal. Minimal Wear already carries the first such marks, so the top grade is bought for an untouched edge.

Where the ★ Butterfly Knife | Doppler Ruby came from

The finish has no Steam Workshop submission: Doppler was drawn by Valve, and the catalog puts it at number 418. It came to the Butterfly Knife on March 15, 2017 with the Spectrum Case and the Take a trip to the Canals update. The model itself dates to 2014. Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl occur only on Doppler, as Gamma Doppler has none of those gems.

Phase and pattern

Doppler is a family of finishes and the phase is part of the product name: Ruby is chosen, not dropped. Phases 1 through 4 are ordinary; Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl are gems, the rare variants. Inside a phase copies still differ: the pattern index moves the proportion and placement of colors. On Phase 3 such copies are called Fake Black Pearl, on Phase 4 Max Blue. On the gems the sources disagree: CS.MONEY sees no rare variations, Pricempire ranks copies, so a pattern premium within Ruby is too early to call.

What to check before buying

Before buying, check:

• the phase in the title, since gems and ordinary phases sit on separate pages and barely differ in a preview;


• the applied name, since a name tag stays with the item;


• the float, which this grade sets at 0.00–0.07, though it does nothing visible here.

What the ★ Butterfly Knife | Doppler Ruby costs in Factory New

Inside 0.00–0.07 there is nothing better to look for, and Minimal Wear costs nearly as much. The gap between the two grades is minimal, so the listing price decides, not the wear.

Among Covert Butterfly Knife finishes, Ruby yields only to Black Pearl. Emerald Gamma Doppler is about a third cheaper, Sapphire a little over a third, an ordinary Phase 2 less than half. The cheapest finishes on the model, Bright Water and Freehand, sit about seventeen times under Ruby.

Getting the ★ Butterfly Knife | Doppler Ruby

Both cases drop the knife as a rare ★ item, with the phase decided at random. A trade-up contract is the second route: five Covert skins of one collection give one random gold item. Taking Ruby deliberately means a ready listing.

StatTrak and Souvenir

A StatTrak version exists in the game; a Souvenir release does not.

Who this wear suits

Factory New makes sense when:

• a clean scarlet blade with no marks on the edge or ribs is wanted;


• the CS2 loadout is red, and the knife is its main accent;


• the premium over Minimal Wear is small and the top grade looks better.