M4A1-S | Nitro (Minimal Wear)

The M4A1-S | Nitro in Minimal Wear (MW) still shows its orange parts, at a price roughly ten times below Factory New. The float for this wear runs from 0.07 to 0.15. Its rank is Restricted, and it belongs to The Safehouse Collection.

What the M4A1-S | Nitro looks like in Minimal Wear

The paint job is small. Bright orange goes on a few places only. These are the stretch of barrel between handguard and suppressor, the gas block, the area of the feeder and bolt, the magazine catch and the trigger. Another orange patch sits on the side of the receiver and on the carry handle. The remaining parts, namely suppressor, handguard, receiver, magazine, grip and stock, keep their olive gray, and there are no inscriptions or shapes.

Hands and edges rub the same places that carry the paint, which is why the small orange details start to pale first in Minimal Wear. The large orange section of barrel lasts longer. The gray base looks unchanged, so wear reads through the orange alone. Wear is set at drop and does not change later.

Where the M4A1-S | Nitro came from

This one has no Workshop author. Valve produced the artwork in-house, so no Steam Workshop submission exists. The Safehouse Collection came out in November 2013, and the skin is number 254 in Valve's catalog.

Valve's text for the item closes with a remark about Rona, who is as good as she thinks she is.

What to check before buying

A few details are worth a look:

• the float: the 0.07 to 0.15 band is short, and the difference between its ends is small;


• the small orange details: bolt handle, feeder, magazine catch and trigger;


• stickers and a name tag already on this copy of the M4A1-S | Nitro.

Every copy carries the same artwork, so no single copy is worth hunting for. The stretch in this wear is short, 0.07 to 0.15, so chasing a number makes no sense.

What the M4A1-S | Nitro costs in Minimal Wear

Minimal Wear costs more than every wear of the skin except Factory New. The rest, relative to it:

• Factory New costs about ten and a half times as much;


• Battle-Scarred is about half the price;


• Well-Worn is about 2.3 times cheaper;


• Field-Tested is about 2.5 times cheaper.

Of the eleven Restricted M4A1-S finishes in this wear, the skin is third from the bottom by price: only M4A1-S | Night Terror and M4A1-S | Emphorosaur-S cost less. Above it come M4A1-S | Electrum, M4A1-S | Glitched Paint and M4A1-S | Liquidation, and M4A1-S | Icarus Fell tops the row.

Getting the M4A1-S | Nitro

This skin has no regular case. Its souvenir copies came from the DreamHack 2013 Souvenir Package and the EMS One 2014 souvenir packages. For a trade-up to return the M4A1-S | Nitro, ten skins one rank down from a single collection go into the contract. FAMAS | Teardown, Five-SeveN | Silver Quartz or SSG 08 | Acid Fade will do, for example.

StatTrak and Souvenir

StatTrak versions of the M4A1-S | Nitro were never released, but souvenir copies exist: they came out of the DreamHack 2013 and EMS One 2014 souvenir packages.

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Nitro

The gray base is calm, so a sticker becomes the second bright spot after the orange details. Red and crimson stickers fight the tangerine, while light blue and white give a clean contrast. The handguard, the side of the receiver and the stock are free.

Who this wear suits

Minimal Wear is worth choosing on the M4A1-S | Nitro for these reasons:

• you want an M4A1-S for CS2 whose orange details still read;


• you want the orange but do not want to pay ten times more for Factory New;


• you need an even gray base for a CS2 build.

If the orange does not matter, further down the scale the skin gets cheaper by another half or more.