AK-47 | Hydroponic (Field-Tested)

The AK-47 | Hydroponic in Field-Tested (FT): wear already shows on the receiver edges and the green metal, while the silhouettes on the flat panels stay whole. Its float band here is 0.15–0.38, nearly a third of the range, since the finish's wear scale tops out at 0.80. It is a Classified skin in The Rising Sun Collection, which has no case. Copies differ by more than wear: the artwork depends on the pattern index.

What the AK-47 | Hydroponic looks like in Field-Tested

The finish is built from two halves. The lower and rear parts are lacquered brown wood on the handguard and stock, a terracotta grip, and a dark steel magazine with white ribs. The upper half is a nearly white receiver and dust cover, laid over with acid-green cannabis leaf silhouettes of different sizes. Three more parts are painted grass green: the gas tube, the front sight base, and the muzzle. The artwork goes no farther than the receiver.

In Field-Tested the wear stops being spot-like. The pale receiver grays along its edges in a continuous band. The green metal on the gas tube's high points is rubbed to steel, and the wood at the stock corners darkens and loses its lacquer. At 0.15 only the ribs and corners are worn; at 0.38 the edge of the dust cover and the top edge of the receiver are touched with gray. The leaf silhouettes on the flat of the side panel stay intact at any float inside this wear.

Where the AK-47 | Hydroponic came from

Valve made this finish; it did not come from the Steam Workshop. The Rising Sun Collection, which holds the AK-47 | Hydroponic, came out on May 26, 2015. It arrived in the game with Operation Bloodhound. The finish's number in Valve's catalog is 456.

What to check before buying

What matters when buying the AK-47 | Hydroponic:

• float: across 0.15–0.38 copies look noticeably different;


• pattern index, meaning which piece of the artwork lands on the visible side;


• what the previous owner left on it: stickers and a name tag.

Copies in this wear come with different amounts of wear, since the 0.15–0.38 band is wide. The artwork spread does not go away either: two copies with the same float look different.

What the AK-47 | Hydroponic costs in Field-Tested

• Factory New is about three and a half times the price;


• Minimal Wear is priced about 1.5 times higher;


• Well-Worn costs about a fifth more;


• Battle-Scarred is about an eighth cheaper.

The order of prices does not follow the order of wear: only Battle-Scarred is cheaper than Field-Tested, and the more worn Well-Worn costs more. The gap between the clean wear and the other four is larger than the gaps among those four.

Of fifteen Classified AK-47 finishes with a Field-Tested price, the Hydroponic is the most expensive. The nearest, the AK-47 | Jet Set, is about two and a half times cheaper, and the AK-47 | Case Hardened almost five times. The AK-47 | Redline trails by more than thirty times.

Getting the AK-47 | Hydroponic

This skin is in no case. The trade-up route to it is ten skins of the rank below from the same collection. It also works the other way: ten of these rifles go into a contract for the AUG | Akihabara Accept, the Covert finish of the same collection.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Hydroponic

No StatTrak version of the AK-47 | Hydroponic was released. There were no Souvenir packages for this finish either: those were made only for tournament map 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.

A craft on a worn body loses some of its area. At the edge of the dust cover and on the magazine ribs the paint has already sunk, so a sticker there sits on gray metal. The intact surfaces are in the middle of the receiver's side and on the wood of the stock. A side with well-placed leaves is not one to give up to stickers.

Who this wear suits

The AK-47 | Hydroponic in Field-Tested is a good buy if:

• the rifle is going into play in CS2, not into a display;


• the entry price matters: only Battle-Scarred is cheaper than this wear;


• you want to choose by number: inside 0.15–0.38 copies differ a lot.

Hunting for a specific pattern takes longer, since two parameters meet in one wear. But the leaf silhouettes on the side are intact, and the artwork reads the same as in the cleaner wears.