M4A1-S | Basilisk (Field-Tested)

The Field-Tested M4A1-S | Basilisk (FT) is a near-monochrome rifle whose entire design rests on thin, pale lines. The float boundaries here are 0.15 and 0.38. The rank is Restricted, and the M4 drops from the Operation Vanguard Weapon Case.

What the M4A1-S | Basilisk looks like in Field-Tested

Do not go looking for a bright monster on the body. The whole rifle is kept in a dark gunmetal gray with a cold bluish cast. The coiled serpent is drawn on the receiver side in a line one shade lighter than the ground. Three identical lines run down onto the magazine. Beside the figure sits a small engraving that resembles writing, but no text resolves. The suppressor differs from the body in texture alone, carrying rows of dimpled notches.

Bare metal in the usual sense does not exist here, and painted areas barely differ from unpainted ones. That gives this grade a quirk of its own: rubbing strikes the thin lines on the receiver corners, the magazine ribs and the edge of the handguard. Contrast on the engraving is low to begin with, so every lost stretch pushes the look closer to a plain, unfinished rifle.

Where the M4A1-S | Basilisk came from

BRZF posted the submission on October 20, 2014, while the finish itself is credited to the artist Gaunt. In the description the author listed what the engraving covers on the blued steel. It names the top and bottom of the receiver, the outside of the barrel, the carry handle and the front sight. The basilisk is taken in a dark medieval key, a four-eyed two-legged king of serpents with a petrifying gaze and poisonous breath. The Vanguard Collection appeared on November 11, 2014, and the finish holds catalog number 383.

Operation Vanguard started right after and brought campaigns with weekly missions, plus free access to six community maps. The operation's weapon cases were among the rewards for those missions.

What to check before buying

Before paying it is worth checking:

• the float, which decides whether the engraved line has survived on the edges;


• the magazine ribs, down which the design runs in three lines;


• stickers already applied to the body, and the name tag.

Within 0.15 to 0.38 both tidy and heavily rubbed copies have room.

What the M4A1-S | Basilisk costs in Field-Tested

Factory New asks more than three times as much, Minimal Wear about half again. Well-Worn on this skin is dearer than Field-Tested by nearly a third, while Battle-Scarred runs level with it. The float ceiling equals 0.68, so the most rubbed grade occupies 0.45 to 0.68.

Among the model's Restricted finishes this one is third from the top: only M4A1-S | Bright Water and M4A1-S | Dark Water ask more. M4A1-S | Flashback and M4A1-S | Liquidation are markedly cheaper. M4A1-S | Night Terror, M4A1-S | Nitro and M4A1-S | Emphorosaur-S cost several times less.

Getting the M4A1-S | Basilisk

The Operation Vanguard Weapon Case hands the finish over directly. A contract reaches the M4A1-S | Basilisk too: ten skins one rank below, the same collection. The inputs that serve are Five-SeveN | Urban Hazard, G3SG1 | Murky, MAG-7 | Firestarter, MP9 | Dart and UMP-45 | Delusion. The set holds four Restricted finishes, so the chance of landing the M4 itself is one in four.

The Basilisk in turn feeds a contract one step up. The Classified items of the Vanguard set are P250 | Cartel, SCAR-20 | Cardiac and XM1014 | Tranquility.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Basilisk

The M4A1-S | Basilisk has a StatTrak version. No Souvenir packages were ever made for this finish, because 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.

A dark, even body accepts any color, and a sticker becomes the single bright spot on it. The engraving is barely visible by itself, so a receiver side covered by a sticker loses little. The magazine and the stock are also free for a craft in CS2.

Who this wear suits

Buying the M4A1-S | Basilisk in Field-Tested is worth it when:

• a restrained dark M4 for CS2 is wanted as the base of a sticker build;


• the engraving is interesting as a detail rather than as the main design;


• paying three times over for Factory New for the sake of thin lines makes no sense.

At playing distance the design does not read anyway, and the rifle looks close to untreated. If the engraving has to be crisp, the cleaner grades are the place to look.