AWP | Medusa (Field-Tested)

This is the AWP | Medusa in Field-Tested, and the trade is a gorgon's face still whole over edges that have lost their pearl. Wear on the AWP | Medusa here falls between 0.15 and 0.38. Field-Tested (FT) is 23 percent of the 0.00–1.00 range. Covert rank, Gods and Monsters collection.

What the AWP | Medusa looks like in Field-Tested

The base is dark blue, and the artwork sits on the back half. The face occupies the stock; from it the snakes wind forward along the receiver in thin loops, pearl green shading into turquoise.

The front half is left unpainted: barrel and scope dark gray, with the bolt, trigger guard, magazine well and cheek rest in bare light metal. The face reads in full, eyes included, and the pearl catches light on the raised areas.

Field-Tested takes the pearl along the edges. The corners of the stock, the rib of the receiver and the lip of the cheek rest drop to a matte gray-blue. Green survives on the flats and goes at the edges. The face holds longest, on the broadest flat. One copy near 0.15 and another near 0.38 are not the same AWP | Medusa to look at.

Where the AWP | Medusa came from

The Steam Workshop has nothing to do with the AWP | Medusa — Valve drew it. The AWP | Medusa arrived with the Gods and Monsters collection on May 26, 2015, and carries number 446 in the catalog of finishes. Valve's item text claims "the image of a gorgon", then signs off: "If you can see me, you're already dead". The Operation Bloodhound note set out how such drops were earned: an Access Pass, a journal to track progress, and weapon drops earned in play.

What to check before buying

One AWP | Medusa listing differs from the next in these ways:

• float position inside 0.15–0.38, read at the cheek rest;


• how much shimmer is left on the stock corners, which the preview shows better than the number;


• What the previous owner left on the AWP | Medusa — stickers and an applied name.

What the AWP | Medusa costs in Field-Tested

Factory New runs a little over double this wear, and Minimal Wear half again as much. Below, the ladder flattens: Well-Worn comes in roughly a tenth lower, Battle-Scarred about a sixth.

Among Covert AWPs in Field-Tested this is third of nineteen, with sixteen below. Only AWP | Dragon Lore and AWP | Gungnir stand higher, at roughly three and three and a half times. The step down is steep too: AWP | The Prince asks about four fifths, AWP | Desert Hydra under half.

Getting the AWP | Medusa

There is no case that drops the AWP | Medusa. The collection came out of an operation, so copies were earned then or bought since. Contract route for the AWP | Medusa: ten skins a tier down, collection unchanged.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the AWP | Medusa

No StatTrak version of the AWP | Medusa was ever released, and no Souvenir packages were made for this finish either: packages only ever covered tournament map collections. A souvenir copy can still be built by hand. The Souvenir-O-Matic puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on a normal skin from the inventory. That is why the odd souvenir copy turns up where no package was ever made.

The unpainted front half leaves room the artwork never uses. On the painted half a sticker over the snakes cuts the lines they follow. Pearl green and dark blue take cool colors; a warm one reads as an accident.

Who this wear suits

Choose this wear of the AWP | Medusa when:

• the face and the snakes matter more than untouched edges;


• you are willing to compare previews across a wide band;


• the rifle will be played, where edge wear is invisible.

Between 0.15 and 0.20 the gap to Minimal Wear takes close inspection; by 0.38 the gray along the receiver shows in the thumbnail.