AK-47 | Safari Mesh (Field-Tested)

The AK-47 | Safari Mesh in Field-Tested (FT) is sand camo without a single bright spot, and a base like that shows wear immediately. This grade runs from 0.15 to 0.38. The rank is Industrial Grade, and the finish belongs to The Dust 2 Collection. No ordinary case carries it: copies arrive in tournament Souvenir packages.

What the AK-47 | Safari Mesh looks like in Field-Tested

The whole range is sand and light olive, the mesh drawn about half a tone darker than the base. It covers the receiver, handguard, stock and magazine solidly and at one scale throughout. The barrel and gas tube are held in the same tone, and nothing is written or drawn on the body. Up close the cells pass for fabric, and on the stock the weave runs slightly larger.

In Field-Tested the pale base grays along the receiver edges and the stock corners, where the mesh rubs down to a flat tone. Pick this rifle by the number rather than the grade name: 0.15 to 0.38 is a wide band. The finish is clipped at both ends of the scale, with nothing below 0.06 or above 0.80.

Where the AK-47 | Safari Mesh came from

The Dust 2 Collection opened in game on November 27, 2013. No Workshop submission stands behind this finish: it was drawn inside Valve. The catalog gives the artwork number 72, which puts it among the very first entries on the whole list.

Pattern and how it varies

The pattern index is rolled on this finish, and for price it matters second only to the float. The stencil lands offset, so two copies of the same wear carry the mesh differently. On one the cells sit square to the receiver, on another they run at an angle. The layout has to be read off the listing's image in CS2, not off the name.

What to check before buying

On this rifle it pays to compare:

• the float number, as 0.15 keeps the mesh whole across the receiver while 0.38 leaves the edges evenly gray;


• how the mesh fell on that particular copy, the stencil offset being visible in the preview;


• the name tag and stickers, which stay with the listing.

What the AK-47 | Safari Mesh costs in Field-Tested

Factory New asks forty times as much, and Minimal Wear about a third more. Below this grade the order breaks down: Well-Worn comes in around one and a half times cheaper, and Battle-Scarred sits level with Field-Tested. Those gaps at the bottom are cents wide and rest on a couple of listings, not on anything in the finish.

Among Industrial Grade AK finishes this is the cheapest, level with Olive Polycam. The VariCamo finish runs a little above it. The top of the rank belongs to Baroque Purple, Jungle Spray and Predator, the last of them dearer by roughly eighty times.

Getting the AK-47 | Safari Mesh

Copies come out of the Dust 2 tournament Souvenir packages, of which more than a dozen have piled up. The earliest is the DreamHack 2013 Souvenir Package.

The second route is a contract. Ten skins one step down from the same collection go in, and with five Industrial Grade finishes in that collection the odds land at one in five.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The AK-47 | Safari Mesh never received a StatTrak version, though a Souvenir release does exist.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Safari Mesh

An even sand base takes almost any sticker: dark logos and bright ones both read on it. There is plenty of room, and the fine mesh does not interfere with large graphics. The body costs so little that trial builds tend to end up here.

Who this wear suits

This grade is worth taking when:

• a quiet camo AK is wanted for CS2 with no premium attached;


• the mesh has to be intact on the sides of the receiver;


• a particular stencil layout matters, not only the wear number.

Going further down the scale gains nothing: cents separate this grade from Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred, and the mesh there is rubbed harder.