Desert Eagle | Golden Koi (Factory New)

The Desert Eagle | Golden Koi in Factory New (FN): the scale relief is intact across the whole body, and there are no pale bald patches on the slide edges. The finish's float scale breaks off at 0.12, so this Deagle exists in just two wears, and this is the upper one. Covert rank, The Bravo Collection, source the Operation Bravo Case. By float the wear covers 0.00 to 0.07.

What the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi looks like in Factory New

The finish has a single palette: creamy gold, almost champagne, with darker shadows between the scales. There are no bright colors at all. The scales run unbroken over the slide, the frame, the grip and even the trigger guard; only the sights are skipped. Every scale is outlined, and the rows overlap like roof tiles.

A light base gets marred early, and in the factory wear that is exactly what the premium pays for. The first thing to smooth out on this finish is the scale relief along the slide edges: the scales lose their outlines and turn into a smooth pale patch. In Factory New there are no such spots, and the rows read the same from the front sight to the rear.

Where the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi came from

The artwork was made by Valve itself; the finish has no Steam Workshop submission. The Bravo Collection was added to the game on September 19, 2013. In a note dated December 19, 2013, Valve opened the maps Cobblestone and Overpass, leaving official matchmaking on them to Bravo participants. That is how balance data was gathered. In Valve's finish catalog this Deagle is number 185.

What to check before buying

Before buying the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi, check the following:

• float within 0.00 to 0.07: near the top of the band the first pale dots appear on the slide edge;


• how the scales lie: their layout on this finish changes from listing to listing;


• an applied name tag and stickers, if they are already on this Desert Eagle | Golden Koi.

The finish has pattern variance, and it is the second parameter to choose by after float. The pattern index shifts how the scales are laid over the body, so the rows and the shadows between them fall in different places on different copies. The Desert Eagle | Golden Koi has no named phases, so the preview is the only guide. On the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi the 0.00 to 0.07 band is narrow, and the copies are almost indistinguishable.

What the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi costs in Factory New

The finish has two wears and the gap between them is small: Minimal Wear is cheaper by about a tenth. The saving is token, and in the lower wear the scale relief along the edges is already smoothed.

Four Covert Deagles have a price in this wear, and the Golden Koi is second from the top among them. Only one finish costs more, while Desert Eagle | Code Red and one other cost less.

Getting the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi

This Deagle drops from the Operation Bravo Case, and no second case with this finish was ever released.

The Desert Eagle | Golden Koi comes out of a trade-up contract: you put in ten skins of the rank below from the same collection. Bravo has two Covert finishes, so the result is random. The Deagle itself also works as an input: five Covert skins from one collection combine into an Extraordinary item.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi

A StatTrak version of the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi exists. No Souvenir packages were released for this finish: they were made only for the tournament map collections. But you can build a Souvenir copy yourself — the Souvenir-O-Matic puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on an ordinary skin from your inventory. That is why the odd Souvenir copy turns up now and then even where no packages ever existed.

This Deagle has no flat surface for a sticker: scales lie even on the guard. The creamy gold base is warm, so gold and beige stickers simply dissolve on it, while dark and cool ones give contrast. In the factory wear a craft cancels out exactly what the premium here pays for, the untouched look.

Who this wear suits

Factory New is worth buying for the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi if:

• you want whole scale relief, with no pale patches on the edges;


• predictability matters: the band is short, and the listings resemble one another;


• the premium over Minimal Wear is small and not a pity to pay for the look.

For CS2 matches a factory copy is overkill: from a distance the scales look the same at any float. The point of this wear is the intact outline of the scales, which shows on inspection.