AK-47 | Fire Serpent (Field-Tested)

The AK-47 | Fire Serpent in Field-Tested (FT) is the middle of a shortened scale: this rifle's float starts at 0.06 and stops at 0.76. It is Covert rank. The skin drops from the Operation Bravo Case, one of the earliest in the game, and it carried over to CS2 with the whole CS:GO inventory.

What the AK-47 | Fire Serpent looks like in Field-Tested

The stock, handguard and grip are painted as ginger wood with a bold grain. At the front, on the gas block by the front sight, sits the head of the serpent: green, with an open mouth, white fangs and a yellow eye. The body runs back along the receiver and turns into teal rings.

On the right side of the receiver are gold marks that look like hieroglyphs, and a row of gold rivets along the top edge. The magazine breaks from the palette: dark gray, with teal clouds and a bone-colored spine down its back. In its description Valve calls the finish a trophy brought back from the Ruins.

In FT the edges of the receiver, the top of the magazine and the corners of the stock wear away. The ginger grain lightens there, and the gold of the marks dulls at the edges. The serpent's head sits on a raised plate and takes wear among the first. The big rings on the receiver and the clouds on the magazine stay whole.

Where the AK-47 | Fire Serpent came from

Valve made this finish itself. The collection came out on September 19, 2013. Operation Bravo and its case were released together with the collection. Valve closed the operation itself on February 6, 2014 with a separate note: the passes stayed tradable after that and can be exchanged for a coin.

In the skin catalog the serpent is number 180. For comparison, the AWP | Redline, released three months later, is number 259.

What to check before buying

Here is what to verify:

• the float. The AK-47 | Fire Serpent in this wear spans 0.15 to 0.38, and near the upper edge the ginger grain on the stock lightens;


• the gold marks on the right side of the receiver, which dull first on the edges;


• stickers on the listing and a name tag.

There is no point hunting for an AK-47 | Fire Serpent by pattern index: the artwork does not change.

What the AK-47 | Fire Serpent costs in Field-Tested

The scale is cut off on both sides, and the prices show it. Factory New fits into 0.06 to 0.07 and costs about three and a quarter times as much as FT. Minimal Wear costs about two fifths more.

Going down, the order is unusual: Well-Worn costs about a tenth more than FT, and only Battle-Scarred is cheaper, by about a quarter. That wear takes the stretch from 0.45 to 0.76.

In the Covert AK-47 line, only AK-47 | Gold Arabesque and AK-47 | Wild Lotus cost more than the Fire Serpent. The nearest skin below it trails by about a seventh. After that the drop is sharp: one finish costs less than a third, another about a quarter.

Getting the AK-47 | Fire Serpent

The first route is the Operation Bravo Case. The second is a trade-up. For a trade-up you gather ten skins one rank lower from the same collection.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The AK-47 | Fire Serpent has a StatTrak version. No Souvenir packages were ever released for this finish: they were made only for the map tournament collections. But you can build a Souvenir copy yourself: the Souvenir-O-Matic puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on an ordinary skin from your inventory. That is why a few Souvenir copies turn up now and then even where no packages ever existed.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Fire Serpent

The skin is busy and has little calm space: the receiver is taken up by marks and the serpent's body. The ginger stock is the only flat spot for a sticker. By color, gold and red stickers fit: they pick up the marks on the receiver. Cool blues argue with the teal of the magazine.

Who this wear suits

Buying the AK-47 | Fire Serpent in Field-Tested makes sense if:

• you want the finish in a CS2 set but do not want to pay triple for Factory New;


• the ginger wood and green serpent matter more than even edges;


• you need a working AK for matches, not a display piece.

The AK-47 | Fire Serpent in this wear spans 0.15 to 0.38, where you will find both nearly clean bodies and noticeably worn ones.