AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel (Field-Tested)

For the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel, Field-Tested (FT) is the condition where the white graffiti has begun to flake and the sandy base has simply darkened. This wear covers the band 0.15 to 0.38. Covert rank; the rifle comes from the Operation Vanguard Weapon Case.

What the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel looks like in Field-Tested

The handguard, stock and the top of the gas tube are painted sandy brown, with dirty streaks and stains. The dust cover and the magazine are almost black, with white spray-paint strokes laid over them. The pistol grip is olive-sand with pale red smears. The barrel, gas block and front sight are left as dark metal with a rusty tint.

The white paint is gathered into two patches: along the dust cover and across the side of the magazine. The strokes look like letters, but no word comes together.

The white paint lies in a thin layer on the protruding edge of the cover and on the ribs of the magazine. That is why, in Field-Tested, the graffiti is the first to lose strokes. Next the ribs of the handguard, the corners of the stock and the edge of the magazine well are bared. The sandy base does not go bald in patches; it just gets dirtier.

Where the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel came from

The author of the paint is known by the nickname SA_22. He posted the submission on October 23, 2014, under the working title "Tribute AK47". In Valve's skin catalog the item is number 380.

In the game, The Vanguard Collection was opened on November 11, 2014. Valve described the operation itself in a separate post: six community maps free to play, and a format that was new at the time, campaigns made of missions.

What to check before buying

What sets listings of the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel apart:

• the float: at 0.15 the white strokes are almost fully intact, at 0.38 only scraps of them remain;


• the condition of the dust cover edge: this is exactly where the graffiti gives way;


• the name tag and stickers this AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel already carries.

There is no choosing the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel by pattern: it is the same on every listing. Search for it by the number, not by the wear label: the 0.15 to 0.38 band is wide. The paint's own scale is cut off on both sides: there are no copies cleaner than 0.05 or more battered than 0.70.

What the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel costs in Field-Tested

The neighboring wears, relative to this one:

• Factory New is about four times dearer;


• Minimal Wear costs about a tenth more;


• Well-Worn is about one and a half times dearer;


• Battle-Scarred costs practically the same.

The order here is not continuous: the more battered Well-Worn turns out to be dearer, and Battle-Scarred costs the same as this wear. On a sandy base, the condition of the body is hard to see.

Twenty-four Covert AKs have a price in this wear. Jaguar and one other skin sit right alongside. The Empress costs about a third more, Nightwish a fifth less, Neon Rider almost half as much. The most expensive Covert AK here is Wild Lotus.

Getting the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel

The first route is the Operation Vanguard Weapon Case. Ten skins one rank down from a single collection go into a trade-up for the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel. Two skins share the Covert rank in the set, so the chance of landing the one you want is one in two. The skin itself is Covert, so it is also accepted as an input for a knife trade-up.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel

The AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel has a StatTrak version. No Souvenir packages were released for this paint: 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's autograph on an ordinary skin from the inventory. So the odd Souvenir copy turns up now and then even where no packages ever existed.

The dark dust cover is convenient for stickers: the background is not busy, and almost everything reads on it. The main spot is taken by the graffiti, so the room for a craft is the handguard and the stock. In Field-Tested, the edges of stickers land on the bared ribs.

Who this wear suits

Buying the AK-47 | Wasteland Rebel in Field-Tested is justified in these cases:

• a battered look is no problem: the paint was designed to look scuffed;


• the rifle is going into CS2 matches, where the dirt on the sandy base is impossible to tell apart;


• you do not need the clean wear with its fourfold markup.

There is a difference within the band: near the lower limit the smearing is almost intact, near the upper one only scraps remain. Check the float before buying, even if the rifle is not headed for a CS2 display.