AWP | Electric Hive (Factory New)

AWP | Electric Hive in Factory New (FN) is the top of the scale for this finish and its most expensive version. The rifle's own float range ends at 0.40, so the skin has no Battle-Scarred at all, and the lowest wear is Well-Worn. It is Classified rank, from The eSports 2013 Winter Collection; the source is the eSports 2013 Winter Case. In this wear the AWP | Electric Hive comes within 0.00 to 0.07.

What the AWP | Electric Hive looks like in Factory New

The base of the rifle is violet-lilac with a metallic sheen, and a net of red-orange honeycomb cells with a dark outline is scattered across it. The hexagons vary in size and overlap in places; toward the edges the net thins out. The honeycomb covers the receiver, handguard and stock, and the long barrel is left dark. The bipod and the rings on the barrel are violet, and there is no lettering on the body.

On this finish, wear settles first on the edges of the receiver and stock: the cells lose their dark outline there, and the violet goes to gray. In the factory wear there are no such spots, the outline is intact over the whole body, and the sheen holds even on the ribs. Valve described the finish in one line: hydrographic with a hexagonal pattern.

Where the AWP | Electric Hive came from

There is no Steam Workshop submission behind this finish: Valve drew it itself. The collection was released on December 18, 2013. In the note for the same update Valve said it had replaced the previous eSports case with a new winter one. In Valve's skin catalog the rifle is number 227.

What to check before buying

What matters when buying the AWP | Electric Hive:

• float within 0.00 to 0.07: near the upper bound the first light dots appear on the receiver edges;


• how the net lies: the layout of the cells on this finish changes from lot to lot;


• a name tag and stickers already carried by this AWP | Electric Hive.

The finish has pattern variance, and after float it is the main parameter of choice. The pattern index shifts how the net sits across the body: on one copy large cells land on the side of the receiver, on another the thinned edge falls there. The source names no named rare variants for the AWP | Electric Hive, so previews are compared, not a label. Choosing the AWP | Electric Hive by float leaves little to choose from — the 0.00 to 0.07 stretch is short.

What the AWP | Electric Hive costs in Factory New

Minimal Wear is about two and a half times cheaper, and Field-Tested almost three times cheaper. Well-Worn, though, breaks out of this order: it costs more than both Minimal Wear and Field-Tested, behind only the factory wear.

The cause is the width of the bands: Well-Worn's 0.38 to 0.40 is ten times shorter than Field-Tested's. The finish's own ceiling cuts that wear off almost entirely.

There are thirteen priced Classified AWPs in this wear, and the Electric Hive is sixth by price from the top. AWP | Crakow! costs nearly the same, and below it come two more skins. The top of the rank is held by AWP | Silk Tiger, which costs almost seven times more than this finish.

Getting the AWP | Electric Hive

The rifle drops from the eSports 2013 Winter Case, and no other case has this finish.

The trade-up route is this: ten skins one rank lower from the collection. The collection has three Classified finishes, so the contract will return a random one.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the AWP | Electric Hive

The AWP | Electric Hive has a StatTrak version. No Souvenir packages were issued for this finish: they were made only for tournament map collections. But you can build a Souvenir copy yourself — Souvenir-O-Matic puts golden tournament stickers and a player autograph on an ordinary skin from the inventory. That is why single Souvenir copies occasionally turn up even where packages never existed.

The net takes up the receiver, handguard and stock, and only the dark barrel stays free. The red-orange cells mute warm stickers, while cool blue and white ones read on the violet base. In Factory New you pay extra for exactly the untouched outline, and a craft on such a copy cancels that premium.

Who this wear suits

Buying the AWP | Electric Hive here makes sense if:

• you want an intact cell outline and an even violet sheen;


• the rifle goes into a CS2 inventory for inspection, not into combat;


• choosing how the net lies matters more than the float number.

In combat the difference doesn't show: at range in CS2 the net reads the same at any float. A factory copy is taken for close inspection.