AK-47 | Slate (Minimal Wear)

Minimal Wear (MW) is the first wear after Factory New, so it shows the earliest wear on this black AK-47. The float runs from 0.07 to 0.15, about 8% of the finish's scale. The AK-47 | Slate is a Restricted skin that drops from the Snakebite Case.

What the AK-47 | Slate looks like in Minimal Wear

The finish is black and graphite from end to end. Texture stands in for color: a ribbed handguard, a woven magazine, a grooved grip, and patches of differing sheen on the receiver and stock. Valve describes it as a combination of three shades of black.

Minimal Wear shows the earliest wear: light specks appear only on exposed edges, while the flat surfaces stay black. What catches the eye is the difference in sheen, and worn-through metal is barely noticeable on a body like this. Between 0.07 and 0.15 there is nothing to choose between when looking for the best copy of the AK-47 | Slate.

Where the AK-47 | Slate came from

The finish came out on May 4, 2021, as part of The Snakebite Collection. Its catalog number in Valve's system is 1035.

What to check before buying

Choosing a particular AK-47 | Slate comes down to these points:

• float between 0.07 and 0.15: near the lower border the edges are still even;


• the exposed edges of the receiver and handguard, where the paint comes off first;


• an applied name tag and stickers: on the AK-47 | Slate they stay with the listing.

There is no pattern to choose on the AK-47 | Slate: it is the same on every listing.

What the AK-47 | Slate costs in Minimal Wear

The other wears, relative to this one:

• Factory New costs over twice as much;


• Field-Tested costs about one and a half times less;


• Well-Worn costs almost half;


• Battle-Scarred costs almost half.

Going up to Factory New the price rises by a little over double, and going down to Battle-Scarred it falls by almost half. The two lowest wears cost the same.

Among Restricted AK-47 skins, this one in Minimal Wear is fourth from the top by price. AK-47 | Blue Laminate costs more than twice as much, AK-47 | Orbit Mk01 more than four times, and AK-47 | First Class more than twenty times. AK-47 | Midnight Laminate and AK-47 | Rat Rod cost a bit less.

Getting the AK-47 | Slate

The finish comes from the Snakebite Case and from no other case.

A second route to the AK-47 | Slate is a trade-up: ten skins of the rank below go in, from any collection. Pick all ten out of this set and the result comes from here. The Slate also works as an input itself: ten Restricted skins give one Classified skin, for example MP9 | Food Chain.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The AK-47 | Slate has a StatTrak version. No Souvenir packages were released for this finish, since 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 the odd souvenir copy turns up now and then, even where no packages ever existed.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Slate

A black base takes any color, and foil and holographic stickers look especially vivid against a matte background. In Minimal Wear the edges are almost clean, so a sticker sits on a whole surface and does not compete with scuffs. For a craft in CS2 the stock, the magazine and the side of the receiver are free: they are ordinary flat surfaces with no artwork.

Who this wear suits

Buying the AK-47 | Slate in Minimal Wear specifically is sensible when:

• you want a black body on which wear hardly reads;


• factory cleanliness is not required, and paying double for it is unappealing;


• you need a flat black surface for stickers.

If not a single speck on the edges is acceptable, look at Factory New.