M4A1-S | Guardian (Factory New)

The M4A1-S | Guardian in Factory New (FN) is a Classified M4A1-S for the Counter-Terrorist side. The skin drops from the Winter Offensive Weapon Case in CS2. The float in this wear runs from 0.00 to 0.07, which is 14% of the skin's scale.

What the M4A1-S | Guardian looks like in Factory New

According to Valve's description, the rifle is painted cobalt blue, with a stenciled CT logo on the magazine.

This wear of the M4A1-S | Guardian is allotted a float of 0.00 to 0.07. Wear is fixed at drop, and a Factory New copy shows almost no marks. It is the cleanest wear of the skin, and there is nothing above it on the scale.

Where the M4A1-S | Guardian came from

The skin came out in December 2013 together with the Winter Offensive Weapon Case. In its note on the update, Valve called it the first case in history assembled from community work.

What to check before buying

When choosing an M4A1-S | Guardian listing, this is what counts:

• float: the closer to 0.00, the cleaner the paint, and the wear boundary falls at 0.07;


• the stickers and name tag already on that copy of the M4A1-S | Guardian.

Copies of the M4A1-S | Guardian differ only in wear and share one artwork. The 0.00 to 0.07 band takes up 14% of the skin's scale, which ends at 0.50.

What the M4A1-S | Guardian costs in Factory New

Factory New is the most expensive wear of the skin, and all the others cost less:

• Minimal Wear costs nearly half as much;


• Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred are each about two times cheaper;


• Field-Tested is more than two times cheaper.

Among Classified M4A1-S skins, this finish holds the middle: of fifteen, six cost less and eight cost more. The nearest above is M4A1-S | Fatal Glitch, while M4A1-S | Leaded Glass and M4A1-S | Decimator sit below. The top of the row is M4A1-S | Knight.

Getting the M4A1-S | Guardian

The skin has a single case: the Winter Offensive Weapon Case.

The M4A1-S | Guardian comes out of a trade-up contract fed with ten skins of the rank below from this collection. There are three Classified finishes in it, so the odds are one in three.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Guardian

The M4A1-S | Guardian has a StatTrak version. No Souvenir packages were ever released for this finish: they existed only for tournament map collections. You can still build a Souvenir copy yourself, though. The Souvenir-O-Matic puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on an ordinary skin from your inventory. That is why a stray Souvenir copy turns up now and then even where no packages ever existed.

Stickers lie on top of the paint and do not replace it. With the artwork shared by all copies, a particular one can be told apart by its float and its stickers.

Who this wear suits

An M4A1-S | Guardian in this wear is worth buying if:

• you want a cobalt blue M4A1-S with minimal wear for CS2;


• it matters that the float does not rise above 0.07;


• the gap to Minimal Wear, which costs nearly half as much, is justified by the cleanness of the paint.