AK-47 | Case Hardened (Battle-Scarred)

The AK-47 | Case Hardened in Battle-Scarred (BS) has the longest stretch of this skin's scale and the most worn metal. Wear in this band lies between 0.45 and 1.00. The rank is Classified, and the rifle is part of The Arms Deal Collection. In CS2 you can buy this rifle in all five wears.

What the AK-47 | Case Hardened looks like in Battle-Scarred

Only the metal carries temper color. The top cover is brass-gold at the front and blue-violet at the rear. The side of the receiver is brass-olive with orange-brown flecks, and the magazine is nearly all blue-violet with gold streaks near the upper edge. The gas tube is brass, and the front sight is blue. The wooden handguard and stock are reddish brown, and the pistol grip is darker and redder. This is one possible layout: every copy has its patches arranged differently.

Valve describes the finish as hardening by color, with charcoal and high heat. In Battle-Scarred, wear is easiest to see on protruding metal: the rivets, the facets of the side, the edge of the magazine opening and the cover edge. The flat blue fields on the cover and magazine hold better, while the wood darkens and picks up scratches. Wear is fixed at drop and does not change afterward.

Where the AK-47 | Case Hardened came from

The AK-47 | Case Hardened came out of Valve, not the Steam Workshop. The skin appeared in the game in August 2013, along with The Arms Deal Collection. In Valve's catalog it carries number 44.

What to check before buying

Before buying an AK-47 | Case Hardened, check the following:

• the float: the band of 0.45 to 1.00 covers 55% of the skin's scale and leaves room to choose, and copies near 0.45 are cleaner;


• the color layout, which is set by the pattern index and is different on every copy;


• whether this AK-47 | Case Hardened carries stickers and a name tag.

Pattern variance

The temper pattern is rolled when the skin drops: a "blue gem" costs dozens of times more than an ordinary copy. So float is not the only price factor on this skin. A worn blue gem in Battle-Scarred can cost more than an ordinary copy in Factory New, and listings should be compared by the pair of float and pattern.

What the AK-47 | Case Hardened costs in Battle-Scarred

Against Battle-Scarred, the other wears look like this for ordinary copies:

• Factory New is 2.32 times pricier;


• Minimal Wear is 1.46 times pricier;


• Field-Tested is 1.16 times pricier;


• Well-Worn is 1.05 times pricier.

The gap between the two lower wears is minimal, and the main step falls at Factory New. Among Classified AK-47 skins, the Case Hardened in this wear is third by price of fifteen: only the AK-47 | Hydroponic and AK-47 | Jet Set cost more. Next comes the AK-47 | Panthera onca, almost two fifths cheaper. The AK-47 | Redline and AK-47 | Cartel are several times cheaper.

Getting the AK-47 | Case Hardened

This skin sits in the CS:GO Weapon Case. There is no second case with it.

A trade-up leads to this rifle too: the input is ten skins one rank down from The Arms Deal Collection. The AK-47 | Case Hardened itself can go in as an input for the AWP | Lightning Strike. Such a contract offers no gain, though, because the Case Hardened is not the cheapest input.

StatTrak and Souvenir

A StatTrak version of the AK-47 | Case Hardened is released. There were no Souvenir packages for the finish. You can still assemble a Souvenir copy yourself, since the Souvenir-O-Matic applies gold tournament stickers and a player autograph to a regular skin from the inventory.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Case Hardened

The wood of the handguard and stock is not painted, so a sticker next to it does not fight with the temper colors. On the metal a sticker covers the very patches the rifle is bought for. Light and gold stickers read on the blue-violet fields, while dark ones vanish there.

Who this wear suits

Battle-Scarred suits the AK-47 | Case Hardened in these cases:

• you want one specific pattern at the price of the lowest wear, and clean metal does not matter;


• the rifle is for CS2, where edge scuffs change nothing in a fight;


• the color layout matters more than a factory look, and paying twice or more for Factory New is not justified.