AWP | BOOM (Factory New)

This is the AWP | BOOM in Factory New (FN), the most expensive of the three wears the finish has: the other two cost 3.9 and 4.5 times less. The rank is Classified, and the skin drops from the eSports 2013 Case. The float for this wear lies between 0.06 and 0.07. The skin's scale starts at 0.06, so the band is cut off from below and takes only 5% of its length.

What the AWP | BOOM looks like in Factory New

The receiver, handguard and stock are flooded with a saturated orange, almost carrot, and a net of black cracks of varying thickness spreads across it. The barrel is left bare, and the scope and bipod are dark and plain.

Valve describes the finish as a hydrographic with comic-book sound effects over an orange base. There are no letters or digits on the model: the cracks radiate from several points and in places gather into dense knots.

In Factory New the orange field is untouched. The edges of the receiver and the butt of the stock have not faded, and the black net does not merge with scuffs there.

Where the AWP | BOOM came from

The AWP | BOOM was not dreamed up in the Steam Workshop but at Valve itself. The skin appeared in August 2013, when The eSports 2013 Collection was added to the game. Valve's catalog numbers it 174.

What to check before buying

On AWP | BOOM listings, compare the following:

• float: here it never leaves the 0.06 to 0.07 range;


• the position of the cracks on the side of the receiver, which is set by the pattern index;


• the name tag and stickers, if the rifle already has them.

With a band this narrow, 0.06 to 0.07, copies hardly differ from one another.

Pattern variance on the AWP | BOOM

The pattern index shifts the net of cracks: on different copies the knots and the thickest lines fall in different places on the body. No named rare variants are recorded for this finish, but after float this is the main way listings differ. With the Factory New band so narrow, nearly all the choice comes down to where the cracks lie.

What the AWP | BOOM costs in Factory New

Minimal Wear is cheaper by a factor of 3.9, and Field-Tested by 4.5. The skin has no other wears: the scale stops at 0.28, so Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred do not exist.

Among the thirteen Classified AWPs priced in this wear, the skin is the most expensive: twelve cost less and none costs more. AWP | Silk Tiger is almost level, and the next one after it, AWP | Graphite, is three times cheaper. Lower still are AWP | Corticera, AWP | Crakow! and AWP | Electric Hive.

Getting the AWP | BOOM

The AWP | BOOM drops from the eSports 2013 Case.

For a trade-up, you gather ten skins from the tier below. If they are all from this collection, it has only two Classified skins, and the one you want comes with a chance of one in two. The rifle itself serves as an input in the contract for P90 | Death by Kitty.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The AWP | BOOM comes in a StatTrak version. Souvenir copies of the finish are around too, but Valve released no packages of it, since packages were reserved for collections of tournament maps. Such a copy is made with the Souvenir-O-Matic, which turns a regular inventory skin into one by adding gold event stickers and a player's autograph.

Stickers and craft on the AWP | BOOM

The orange field on the receiver and stock is even and large. Black, white and blue stickers read on it, while yellow and red ones merge into the base. To avoid covering the knots of cracks, it is best to place a craft on the stock.

Who this wear suits

Factory New is the one to take when:

• you want an orange AWP for CS2 with untouched paint and whole edges;


• it matters to match a copy by where the cracks fall rather than by float, which is almost the same on every one;


• you want the cleanest version of this rifle for a CS2 inventory.

If clean paint is not essential, Minimal Wear is 3.9 times cheaper.