AWP | Desert Hydra (Field-Tested)

The AWP | Desert Hydra in Field-Tested (FT) is the middle of the scale for an AWP with a hydra on a red-orange receiver. Covert rank, The 2021 Mirage Collection. The skin has no case; it comes from tournament souvenir packages.

What the AWP | Desert Hydra looks like in Field-Tested

The finish has two color groups. The warm one is the red-orange receiver with a gold panel and an orange-yellow glow at the magazine window. The cold one is the cream-white barrel, scope tube and butt plate, crossed by coral lines and speckles. The hydra wraps the receiver and stock in brown coils, with turquoise marks near its paws.

In Field-Tested the speckles on the pale parts become more noticeable, and scuffs on the red and gold read along the receiver edges. The float of the AWP | Desert Hydra in this wear runs from 0.15 to 0.38, and the look differs between the ends of the band.

Where the AWP | Desert Hydra came from

The AWP | Desert Hydra has no outside artist: the author is Valve itself. The 2021 Mirage Collection opened in the game on September 21, 2021, and the skin was there from the first day. Its number in Valve's catalog is 819.

What to check before buying

When choosing the AWP | Desert Hydra, buyers pay attention to the following:

• float: at 0.15 the pale parts are almost clean, and at 0.38 the speckles and the film on them are plainly visible;


• listing type: a Souvenir copy with gold team stickers and a regular one are priced differently;


• stickers on the body of the AWP | Desert Hydra and a name tag, if there is one.

Every copy is the same, so the pattern is not something to hunt for on the AWP | Desert Hydra.

What the AWP | Desert Hydra costs in Field-Tested

The other wears against this one:

• Factory New costs about 1.4 times more;


• Minimal Wear costs a fifth more;


• Well-Worn costs a few percent more;


• Battle-Scarred costs about a tenth more.

Of the five wears, Field-Tested is the cheapest. Its share of the scale is 0.23 of 0.60, about 38 percent. The skin's float tops out at 0.60.

Among Covert AWPs in this wear the skin is fifth from the top: fourteen cost less and four cost more. AWP | The Prince costs about 1.7 times more. AWP | Oni Taiji is four times cheaper, and AWP | CMYK, AWP | Man-o'-war and AWP | Sovereign Flame are about eight to nine times cheaper.

Getting the AWP | Desert Hydra

The skin has no regular case: copies come out of tournament souvenir packages for the Mirage map. A trade-up also gets you the AWP | Desert Hydra: it takes ten skins of the rank below from the collection.

StatTrak and Souvenir

No StatTrak version of the AWP | Desert Hydra has been released, but Souvenir copies exist: packages from tournaments with the Mirage map hand them out.

Stickers and craft on the AWP | Desert Hydra

The pale front half of the rifle is free of artwork, so stickers read well there. On the red-orange receiver small stickers sink into the hydra's coils. Cold colors stand out against the warm background, while yellow and orange blend into it.

Who this wear suits

Buying the AWP | Desert Hydra in Field-Tested is justified when:

• you want a Covert AWP for CS2 that costs less than any other wear of this skin;


• the look of the rifle in CS2 matters more to you than the cleanness of the white parts;


• you pick a copy near the lower end of the band: at 0.15 wear is small, and the price is the same.

If the speckles on the pale parts bother you, Minimal Wear costs a fifth more.