AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel (Battle-Scarred)

Battle-Scarred (BS) is the bottom of the scale for the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel and the cheapest way into the finish. Its float runs from 0.45 to 0.70, and no copy exists above 0.70. The skin is Covert rank and drops from the Operation Vanguard Weapon Case.

What the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel looks like in Battle-Scarred

This is a scruffy rifle in sandy brown. Dirty streaks and stains cover the handguard, the stock and the top of the gas tube. The dust cover and magazine are nearly black, crossed by white spray strokes. The grip is olive-sand with pale red smears, and the barrel, gas block and front sight are left as dark metal with a rusty tint.

The white graffiti sits in two patches, one along the cover and one on the side of the magazine. The strokes suggest letters, but no words form, and the small dark inscription on the side of the receiver under the graffiti cannot be read either.

In Battle-Scarred the white layer on the raised edge of the cover and the ribs of the magazine is thin, so the graffiti gives way first. The ribs of the handguard, the corners of the stock and the edge of the magazine well come bare next. The sandy base never goes patchy. It only darkens and gets grimier.

Where the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel came from

The finish was made by SA_22, who put the "Tribute AK47" submission on the Steam Workshop on October 23, 2014. The Vanguard Collection came out on November 11, 2014, and the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel has been in it since release. Valve's catalog number for the finish is 380.

What to check before buying

Listings of this skin vary in three respects:

• float: at 0.45 the white strokes still hold, and at 0.70 only scraps remain;


• the edge of the receiver cover, where the graffiti loses its strokes first;


• stickers and a name tag already on the rifle.

The pattern is identical on all copies of this rifle. Pick by the number rather than the wear label, because 0.45 to 0.70 is a wide band. The finish's scale is cut on both sides and runs from 0.05 to 0.70, and this wear takes 38% of that stretch.

What the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel costs in Battle-Scarred

How the rest of the wears compare with Battle-Scarred:

• Factory New runs about five and a half times higher;


• Minimal Wear sits about a sixth higher;


• Field-Tested sits about a tenth higher;


• Well-Worn sits roughly a seventh higher.

The four lower wears differ only a little. The one big drop is factory cleanliness, so paying extra for fresher wear in this part of the scale buys almost nothing.

On price the skin sits in the middle of the Covert AK-47 row. Its nearest neighbors above are AK-47 | Fuel Injector, AK-47 | AUTOEXEC and AK-47 | Jaguar. Below it come AK-47 | Consequence of the Jinn and AK-47 | Leet Museo. AK-47 | Aphrodite is the cheapest in the row and AK-47 | Wild Lotus the most expensive.

Getting the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel

The main route is the Operation Vanguard Weapon Case. For a trade-up, you put in ten Classified skins, such as P250 | Cartel or SCAR-20 | Cardiac. Taken from this collection, where two skins are Covert, that gives a one-in-two chance of this one.

A Covert skin also works as an input of its own: five Covert skins go into a knife craft.

StatTrak and Souvenir

This finish comes in a StatTrak version. Souvenir packages were never released for it: they existed only for collections of maps played at tournaments. A Souvenir copy can still be made at home, because the Souvenir-O-Matic converts a regular skin from your inventory and adds gold event stickers and a player's autograph.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel

The dark cover and magazine give a clean ground for light and yellow stickers, while the white strokes on them clash with white ones. The sandy handguard and stock suit dark and red stickers. In Battle-Scarred the edges are already bare, so it is easier to place stickers on a flat surface than near an edge.

Who this wear suits

Three situations favor Battle-Scarred:

• you want a Covert AK-47 in this finish at the lowest price of the five wears;


• the scuffing does not bother you, since Valve itself describes the finish as distressed;


• the rifle is going into CS2 as a working skin, or into a collection that makes no claim to mint condition.

The scuffing does not spoil the look of the finish here. Paying extra for a factory look is for those who care about the white strokes in full.