M4A1-S | Nightmare (Battle-Scarred)

M4A1-S | Nightmare, Battle-Scarred (BS): a dark Classified M4A1-S with blue artwork, and the most worn version of the finish. The float band of this wear on the M4A1-S | Nightmare runs from 0.45 to 1.00, which is more than half of the skin's scale. The collection is The Horizon Collection.

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

The background is dark blue, nearly black. Long light blue strokes run across it over the receiver, magazine, handguard and stock, and a bright blue band lies on the barrel between the suppressor and the handguard. The suppressor and grip are black. Valve describes the artwork as a frightening visitor in the night.

In Battle-Scarred the blue strokes break up, and against the dark background the bare light metal along the edges stands out. This wear of the M4A1-S | Nightmare is a band from 0.45 to 1.00, and listings from opposite ends of it look different.

Where the M4A1-S | Nightmare came from

The finish is by apel8. The work "M4A1-S | Nightmare" appeared in the Steam Workshop on October 29, 2017. In the description the author asks players not to fall asleep and names his sources of inspiration: Game of Thrones, the character Venom, the Lich King and the game Prey.

Valve released The Horizon Collection on August 1, 2018, and the M4A1-S | Nightmare has been part of it since launch. In the Valve catalog the finish carries number 714.

What to check before buying

Before buying an M4A1-S | Nightmare, look at these points:

• the float: near 0.45 the blue strokes are more intact, and toward 1.00 fewer of them remain;


• the edges of the receiver, handguard and magazine, where the light metal shows first;


• an applied name tag and stickers: on the M4A1-S | Nightmare they stay on the listing.

There is no choosing by artwork on the M4A1-S | Nightmare at all: copies differ only in wear.

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

The other wears, relative to this one:

• Factory New: more than thirty times as much;


• Minimal Wear: more than three times as much;


• Field-Tested: about two fifths more;


• Well-Worn: the same.

The gap to Factory New is more than thirtyfold: Factory New takes seven hundredths of the finish's scale, while Battle-Scarred takes fifty-five. The two lowest wears cost the same.

Among Classified M4A1-S skins in this wear, this one costs more than four others: M4A1-S | Control Panel, M4A1-S | Black Lotus, M4A1-S | Stratosphere and M4A1-S | Solitude. M4A1-S | Party Animal costs the same, and M4A1-S | Leaded Glass above it costs one and a half times as much. At the top of the rank stands M4A1-S | Master Piece, thirteen and a half times higher.

Getting the M4A1-S | Nightmare

The skin drops from the Horizon Case; this finish is not in any other case.

To get an M4A1-S | Nightmare by contract, you hand in ten skins one rank lower from a single collection. The Horizon Collection has three Classified skins, so the odds are one in three. The skin also works as an input: ten Classified skins yield one Covert one, AK-47 | Neon Rider or Desert Eagle | Code Red.

StatTrak and Souvenir

A StatTrak version of the M4A1-S | Nightmare exists. No Souvenir packages were released for this finish: they were made only for the tournament map collections. But a souvenir copy can be built by hand, because the Souvenir-O-Matic puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on a regular skin from your inventory. That is why a single souvenir copy occasionally turns up even where no packages ever existed.

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Nightmare

The dark areas, meaning the suppressor, grip and buttplate, give a clean background: light and yellow stickers read at once. Blue and turquoise ones get lost in the strokes, while red ones contrast with the cold palette. For a CS2 craft it is easier to keep stickers near the suppressor and grip and leave the receiver open.

Who this wear suits

Battle-Scarred is the right pick for the M4A1-S | Nightmare for these reasons:

• you want a dark M4A1-S with blue artwork for CS2 without paying thirty times more for Factory New;


• a worn look suits you, and light metal along the edges does not bother you;


• the build calls for a cold, dark base.

If the strokes must stay whole, look at Minimal Wear: it costs more than three times as much.