M4A1-S | Printstream (Field-Tested)

The M4A1-S | Printstream in Field-Tested (FT) is the middle ground of this rifle's wear scale, with a float band of 0.15 to 0.38. It is a Covert skin and drops from the Operation Broken Fang Case. The collection was released on December 3, 2020.

What the M4A1-S | Printstream looks like in Field-Tested

The white, with a cream tint, covers the handguard, receiver, carry handle and magazine, while the barrel, suppressor, front sight and grip remain dark olive. Light and dark areas meet at the seams between parts, so the whole middle of the rifle is white.

Fine gray graphics are laid over the white: halftone dots, drafting lines and small symbols, with an "XX" and a heart readable on the side of the receiver. It reads like a page of test print. In FT the white yellows along the edges: the handguard ribs, the corner of the receiver, the bottom of the magazine. The fine graphics tear there before the paint itself gives out.

What to check before buying

What to look at when choosing a listing:

• the float: toward 0.38 the pearl glints almost vanish, leaving flat black-and-white graphics;


• stickers and a name tag already on the weapon.

Artwork does not vary on this skin, so pattern never enters the choice.

The two ends of the 0.15 to 0.38 band look quite different, so go by the float.

What the M4A1-S | Printstream costs in Field-Tested

For what sellers ask right now, see the listings above this description. Here is how the price compares with the other wears:

• Factory New costs about two and a third times as much;


• Minimal Wear costs about two fifths more;


• Well-Worn is cheaper by a few percent;


• Battle-Scarred is about a fifth cheaper.

The gap to the cleanest wear is more than double. What buyers pay for there is the pearl, the very thing that sets this finish apart from ordinary black-and-white graphics. Below this wear prices ease down gently, which makes FT the point where the effect is still visible and the premium is gone.

Getting the M4A1-S | Printstream

The M4A1-S | Printstream drops from the Operation Broken Fang Case, and the skin belongs to that case's collection.

A trade-up returns the Printstream for ten skins one step down from the same collection, for example Five-SeveN | Fairy Tale, M4A4 | Cyber Security or USP-S | Monster Mashup. The collection has two Covert skins, so the rifle comes up in half of the outcomes. A trade-up can deliver the M4A1-S | Printstream, and how clean the copy is will come from the inputs.

Beyond that, the Covert rank leads into a glove craft, not a knife one. From this collection come the Broken Fang Gloves, Driver Gloves, Hand Wraps, Moto Gloves, Specialist Gloves and Sport Gloves.

StatTrak and Souvenir

A StatTrak version of the M4A1-S | Printstream exists. Souvenir copies of the finish turn up as well, though no packages were released for it, since those were made only for tournament map collections. Such copies are built through the Souvenir-O-Matic, which puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on an ordinary skin from the inventory.

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Printstream

The black-and-white base is neutral and takes any color, but the M4A1-S has only four sticker slots, and all of them fall on the body, where the artwork is dense. Large stickers cover the pearl areas, so small, bright ones work better. Red and blue read best, and gray gets lost. The suppressor is not used for stickers, so the whole craft is built on the receiver.

Who this wear suits

This wear of the M4A1-S | Printstream makes sense when:

• you want a pearl M4A1-S for CS2 without paying double for Factory New;


• a muted glint is acceptable, since in CS2 it is hard to make out anyway;


• choosing by float matters: the FT stretch runs from 0.15 to 0.38.

The pearl is the point of this finish, and it is the first thing to dull in FT. For an even shimmer, look at Minimal Wear.