AK-47 | Slate (Battle-Scarred)

In Battle-Scarred (BS) the AK-47 | Slate is a black AK-47 without a single colored patch, and the most worn version of the finish. The float runs from 0.45 to 1.00, more than half of the skin's scale. Its rank is Restricted, its collection is The Snakebite Collection, and the case has the same name.

What the AK-47 | Slate looks like in Battle-Scarred

Valve's formula for the finish is black on black on slate-black, and there truly are no other colors in it. The design rests on texture. It has a ribbed underside of the handguard, a grooved grip, a woven magazine surface, and the difference between matte and glossy black on the receiver and stock.

Battle-Scarred adds wear to that texture. The paint rubs off on the edges of the receiver, handguard and magazine, and light metal shows underneath. On a black base each such edge stands out, so near the upper limit of the band the body looks mottled.

Where the AK-47 | Slate came from

The AK-47 | Slate appeared on May 4, 2021, when The Snakebite Collection was added to the game. Valve's catalog lists the finish under number 1035.

What to check before buying

Before paying for an AK-47 | Slate, it is worth checking:

• float: near 0.45 there are few worn edges, and toward 1.00 they cover most of the body;


• the edges of the receiver, handguard and magazine, where metal shows first;


• the stickers and name tag already on this copy of the AK-47 | Slate.

The design of the AK-47 | Slate is not a lottery: all copies are the same. The band from 0.45 to 1.00 does leave a choice, though: copies closer to 0.45 are cleaner.

What the AK-47 | Slate costs in Battle-Scarred

The other wears, relative to this one:

• Factory New sits above it by a factor of more than four;


• Minimal Wear costs almost twice as much;


• Field-Tested costs about a fifth more;


• Well-Worn costs the same.

The two lowest wears do not differ in price, even though Well-Worn takes up only 0.07 of the scale and Battle-Scarred 0.55. The biggest gap is with Factory New, where the black paint is intact across the whole body.

Among the eight Restricted AK-47 skins in this wear, the Slate is fourth by price. AK-47 | Rat Rod costs a tenth more, AK-47 | Orbit Mk01 about seven times as much, and AK-47 | First Class more than twenty times. Four other skins sit below, the cheapest of them AK-47 | Emerald Pinstripe, almost twice as cheap.

Getting the AK-47 | Slate

The skin drops from the Snakebite Case, and no other case holds this finish.

The AK-47 | Slate comes out of a contract fed with ten skins of the rank below from this collection. The inputs are the set's Mil-Spec skins. The Snakebite Collection has five Restricted skins, so the chance is one in five.

StatTrak and Souvenir

A StatTrak version of the AK-47 | Slate exists. Souvenir packages for this finish were never released, because they were made only for the tournament map collections. Even so, you can build a souvenir copy yourself, since the Souvenir-O-Matic applies gold tournament stickers and a player autograph to an ordinary skin from the inventory. Which is why a single souvenir copy occasionally appears even where no packages ever existed.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Slate

Any bright sticker reads at once on black, while dark and gray ones vanish. Worn edges add light patches, so stickers are better placed on solid areas: the stock, the handguard and the side of the receiver. For a build in CS2 the body is neutral, with no artwork to account for.

Who this wear suits

Buying the AK-47 | Slate in Battle-Scarred is worth it if at least one of these holds:

• you need a black base for stickers, and clean edges do not matter;


• a worn look suits you, and light metal along the edges does not get in the way;


• you want an AK-47 for CS2 at a price below Field-Tested.

Even black paint remains only in Factory New, which costs more than four times as much.