AK-47 | The Empress (Field-Tested)

Field-Tested is the middle of the wear scale for the AK-47 | The Empress: the grade takes almost a quarter of the float range, from 0.15 to 0.38. By price, Field-Tested (FT) sits level with the two more worn grades, while Factory New costs two and a half times as much. The rank is Covert, and the AK-47 | The Empress drops from the Spectrum 2 Case in CS2.

What the AK-47 | The Empress looks like in Field-Tested

On the side of the receiver a woman's figure is drawn in gold, with rays spreading out from her. The background is dark blue, the receiver cover and the pistol grip are coated in gold dust, and gold rivets are set across the body.

The upper handguard cover is blue with a golden checkerboard, and the lower half is red with fine filigree. Between them a row of pale heraldic shields runs across a cream field. The magazine is red, scattered with cream stars, and below them is a dark check with gold diamonds. The stock is dark blue with gold dots, like a night sky; the gas tube and the base of the front sight are red.

A tarot card sets the whole composition: gold, purple and blue are the colors of this arcanum. In Field-Tested the gold on the ribs gives way first. The edges of the receiver, the corners of the magazine and the edges of the handguard lighten, and the checkerboard loses its sharpness. The figure itself lies on the flat side and stays whole.

Where the AK-47 | The Empress came from

The finish is by Zaphk. The submission appeared on the Steam Workshop on April 25, 2017 under the name "AK 47 | The Empress", and the skin kept that name.

It is part of a series: the authors planned a tarot deck in which each weapon gets its own Major Arcana. The first series took six cards. The Fool on the P90, The Empress on the AK-47, Death on the AWP, the Moon and the Sun on the Dual Berettas, and Judgement on the Desert Eagle. Valve's description repeats the same idea: the rifle is painted after the Empress card, and the flavor text speaks of wealth.

The collection came out on September 14, 2017. In Valve's catalog of finishes the rifle is number 675.

What to check before buying

Copies of the AK-47 | The Empress differ a lot in this grade. A listing is judged like this:

• what the previous owner left on the AK-47 | The Empress, meaning stickers and a name tag;


• the state of the gold on the receiver edges and the magazine corners;


• the sharpness of the checkerboard on the handguard, since fine patterns give up sooner than large drawings.

The wear range is 0.15 to 0.38. The artwork is shared by every copy, so pattern does not move the price. What is left is the float, stickers and name tag.

What the AK-47 | The Empress costs in Field-Tested

Three grades cost practically the same: Field-Tested, Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred differ by percentages. Minimal Wear costs about a tenth more, and Factory New two and a half times as much.

Among the Covert skins for this model, the AK-47 | The Empress stands exactly in the middle: roughly half cost less and half cost more. Jaguar, one more finish and B the Monster are cheaper; Neon Revolution and Bloodsport are a little dearer. The cheapest in this rank is another finish, and the dearest is Wild Lotus.

Getting the AK-47 | The Empress

The AK-47 | The Empress falls out of the Spectrum 2 Case. A contract is made up of ten skins one step lower from the same collection. The result can come out at any wear, since it is calculated from the inputs.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | The Empress

The AK-47 | The Empress has a StatTrak version. Souvenir copies of the finish turn up as well, though no Souvenir packages were ever made for it: packages only ever covered tournament map collections. Those copies are built with the Souvenir-O-Matic, which puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on a normal skin from the inventory.

The artwork fills the whole body, and there is little free room for stickers. Gold and purple overpower almost any sticker, and white and black sit most evenly. For a craft in CS2 the stock and the receiver cover remain, and the figure on the side should not be covered.

Who this wear suits

Field-Tested on the AK-47 | The Empress makes sense for these purposes:

• you want a Covert AK with a story-driven drawing, without the premium for Factory New;


• there is no reason to go lower, since the more worn grades cost the same;


• choosing by float within a long strip matters.

The strip from 0.15 to 0.38 is long: at the lower border the skin is visibly cleaner than at the upper one, though the grade carries the same name. Up to 0.22 the gold on the edges is still almost untouched.