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. If all ten come from this 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.