AK-47 | Elite Build (Minimal Wear)

The AK-47 | Elite Build in Minimal Wear (MW) is a black AK with golden trim, where the first scuffs are only starting to gather. This wear covers floats from 0.07 to 0.15, which is 8% of the skin's float scale; that scale goes up to 1.00. The skin is Mil-Spec and belongs to the Chroma 2 Collection.

What the AK-47 | Elite Build looks like in Minimal Wear

The rifle is almost monochrome. It has a graphite-black body, dark gray patches on the top cover and a thin gold trim along the edges of the handguard, the receiver sides and the stock. The gold emblem on the gas tube, the "AK" logo and the lines of small text are the only bright marks. The magazine carries an orange inscription naming the Master Series.

Wear takes this artwork first: it sits on the edges, while the large black surfaces barely show wear at all. In Minimal Wear the band is the short stretch from 0.07 to 0.15, so there is no reason to chase the number.

Where the AK-47 | Elite Build came from

The author is M1nD. He described his Mastery series this way: he was tired of futuristic, cartoonish and flashy designs and wanted a hard, classic look with careful attention to detail. Valve's item description names the technique outright: hydrographics, neat stenciling and thermal decals. Valve's catalog number for the skin is 422.

What to check before buying

Buyers of the AK-47 | Elite Build check the following:

• float within 0.07 to 0.15;


• any stickers or name tag already fitted to this copy;


• listing version: regular or StatTrak.

This skin has no pattern variants, and so nothing to pick between on that score.

What the AK-47 | Elite Build costs in Minimal Wear

Factory New costs 2.3 times as much. Field-Tested is 1.7 times cheaper, Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred about half.

Of the seven Mil-Spec AK-47 skins priced in this wear, this one is second from the top. The AK-47 | Steel Delta and the AK-47 | Crossfade are 10 to 15% cheaper, and the AK-47 | Wintergreen costs half as much. The AK-47 | Uncharted is nearly four times cheaper, while the AK-47 | Green Laminate costs more than five times as much.

Getting the AK-47 | Elite Build

The skin is from the Chroma 2 Case, the case that contains it; the key is bought separately.

A contract will not return the AK-47 | Elite Build, since Mil-Spec is the bottom rank of the collection. As an input it does the job: ten Mil-Spec skins from this collection give one Restricted skin, for example the MAG-7 | Heat or the UMP-45 | Grand Prix.

StatTrak and Souvenir

A StatTrak version of the AK-47 | Elite Build also exists. Souvenir copies of the skin turn up as well, yet there was never a Souvenir package for it; those covered only the tournament map collections. You make such a copy yourself in the Souvenir-O-Matic, which puts gold tournament stickers and a player's autograph on an ordinary skin from your inventory.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Elite Build

On a dark base any color but black reads. Warm and gold stickers echo the trim, and white ones add contrast. There is no point covering the side with the "AK" logo, while the handguard and the stock are free.

Who this wear suits

Minimal Wear is a sensible choice for the AK-47 | Elite Build when you:

• want a dark AK for CS2 at roughly half the price of Factory New;


• need the gold on the edges to stay visible, but do not need a fully clean wear;


• want a StatTrak version of a skin with little wear.