M4A1-S | Flashback (Battle-Scarred)

This is the M4A1-S | Flashback in Battle-Scarred (BS), the widest of its five wears by float: 55% of the skin's scale. The band for this wear is 0.45 to 1.00. Its rank is Restricted, and it comes out of the Glove Case.

What the M4A1-S | Flashback looks like in Battle-Scarred

The rifle is painted olive-khaki, with swampy green and sandy patches on the base. Cream-white graffiti runs over it, covering the suppressor, the receiver, the magazine and the stock. The lettering is large on the suppressor and smaller on the receiver. The magazine and grip keep to the same palette.

The skin has no single picture: it is a set of graffiti laid over camouflage. Some short phrases in Latin letters can be read, some are smeared deliberately, and numbers appear on the receiver. In places the cream leans yellow.

The wear in this band hits the edges hardest: the cream letters go first there and break up into separate strokes.

Where the M4A1-S | Flashback came from

The finish is credited to Superior Weapons and has number 631 in Valve's catalog. The skin was released in November 2016 with the Glove Case. Valve's description says the rifle was painted by hand in an attempt to hint at the duality of man. It then signs off with a line about the joker in each of us.

What to check before buying

Listings of this rifle differ in three ways:

• the float: from 0.45 to 1.00 the scuffing builds up noticeably;


• the large lettering on the suppressor, which shows how much paint is left;


• what the previous owner left on the rifle, stickers and a name tag.

The pattern is not a lottery: every copy is the same. Because the scuffing builds up so much across 0.45 to 1.00, listings from the two ends of the band look different.

What the M4A1-S | Flashback costs in Battle-Scarred

Of the five wears, this is the cheapest. Well-Worn costs 1.1 times more, Field-Tested 1.4 times more and Minimal Wear 2.6 times more. Factory New costs 38 times more.

Among Restricted rifles with a price in this wear, the skin is seventh from the bottom of eight: six are cheaper and one costs more. Only the M4A1-S | Basilisk is above it, at 2.7 times the price. The nearest below is the M4A1-S | Glitched Paint, three times cheaper, followed by the M4A1-S | Liquidation and the M4A1-S | Electrum.

Getting the M4A1-S | Flashback

It drops only from the Glove Case.

A contract also yields it: ten skins one rank lower. The collection has five Restricted skins, so with all ten from it the chance of the one you want is one in five.

StatTrak and Souvenir

StatTrak copies of this finish exist. There were no Souvenir packages for it: those were issued only for tournament map collections. A Souvenir copy can still be made by hand, since the Souvenir-O-Matic puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on an ordinary inventory skin.

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Flashback

The graffiti occupy almost the whole body, so there is little bare background. Cream and white stickers get lost among the lettering, while dark and colored ones read on the olive base. The flat places for a craft are the magazine and the butt of the stock.

Who this wear suits

Battle-Scarred is justified when:

• you want the cheapest graffiti rifle for CS2;


• the artwork matters more than clean letters: on the olive base it is recognizable even on a scuffed body;


• the band from 0.45 to 1.00 is wide, so listings can be compared by float.

Field-Tested costs 1.4 times more, and Minimal Wear 2.6 times more.