AK-47 | Case Hardened (Well-Worn)

The AK-47 | Case Hardened in Well-Worn (WW) is one of the few CS2 skins where the pattern matters more than the wear. The wear covers floats from 0.38 to 0.45. It is a Classified skin that drops from the CS:GO Weapon Case and belongs to the Arms Deal Collection, which was added to the game on August 14, 2013.

What the AK-47 | Case Hardened looks like in Well-Worn

The temper colors lie on the metal only. The rear half of the top cover is deep blue-violet. The side of the receiver is brass-olive, with sparse blue patches and rust-orange flecks. The magazine is almost solid blue-violet, with gold streaks along the edge. The handguard and stock take no part in the paint: they are rust-brown wood, and the pistol grip is reddish brown.

In Well-Worn, scuffs settle where the temper layer is thinner: the cover edge, the facets of the side and the raised bits around the rivets. The blue patches on the flat surfaces hold, while the wood just darkens and picks up scratches.

What to check before buying: the pattern matters more than the wear

This is the rare case where every copy has its own artwork. The Case Hardened pattern is rolled at drop, and the price spread inside a single wear runs to tens of times. Check in this order:

• how much blue is on the body and where it sits. Copies with a large blue patch on the right side of the receiver (the "blue gem") cost several times more than ordinary ones;


• the pattern index of the listing, which pins the pattern down exactly, and collectors hunt specific numbers;


• any name tag or stickers already on the body.

The 0.38 to 0.45 stretch is narrow. Listings of this wear barely differ in float, so the choice is made by pattern, not by number.

What the AK-47 | Case Hardened costs in Well-Worn

The neighboring wears stand like this against WW:

• Factory New is priced about two and a half times higher;


• Minimal Wear is priced about one and a half times higher;


• Field-Tested is priced about a quarter higher;


• Battle-Scarred is priced about the same.

These figures are for ordinary copies. On this skin they say less than usual: a lucky pattern in Battle-Scarred can easily cost more than a plain one in Factory New. Comparing listings within one wear is pointless here, so look at the specific body.

Getting the AK-47 | Case Hardened

The AK-47 | Case Hardened drops from the CS:GO Weapon Case, the very first case in the game. This AK never appeared in any other case.

For the Case Hardened, a contract asks for ten skins one rank down from the same collection. Glock-18 | Dragon Tattoo, M4A1-S | Dark Water or USP-S | Dark Water will do. The collection has two Classified skins, so the AK comes out one time in two. The wear of the result is worked out from the wear of the inputs, but the pattern is random, so a blue gem cannot be built deliberately by contract.

The skin can also be traded up: ten Classified skins of the collection give an AWP | Lightning Strike. There is no gain in it, and the Case Hardened is not the cheapest way in, so it is rarely used for such contracts.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The game has both a StatTrak AK-47 | Case Hardened and a Souvenir release of this skin.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Case Hardened

A mottled base with a complex color transition is a hard background: stickers sink into it. The exception is large, dense ones with a clean outline. By color, blue works best because it picks up the temper, while gold and brown merge into the background completely. On copies with a good pattern, craft is usually skipped altogether: a sticker covers the very part of the body people paid extra for.

Who this wear suits

A Well-Worn AK-47 | Case Hardened makes sense when:

• you want a good pattern at an accessible price, since in the lower wears blue copies cost less;


• wear does not bother you, because on a mottled base it barely reads;


• the AK is going into a blue-and-gold build for CS2.

The pattern dulls along with the wear, so the brightest blue bodies are still found in the clean wears. In CS2 the difference is not visible in play, though it shows on inspection.