M4A1-S | Stratosphere (Factory New)

M4A1-S | Stratosphere in Factory New (FN) is a dark rifle with a space scene, and the most expensive of the skin's five wears. It is Classified rank, from The Ascent Collection, where it is the only Classified skin. In CS2 it is played on the Counter-Terrorist side.

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

Look for the stars first: small orange-gold dots speckle a mottled, dark blue-violet base. A pale blue arc of a planet crosses the receiver and the grip. Beside it run small light silhouettes of ships, each trailing a golden wake. The magazine is dark purple with pale swirls, and the stock is almost black.

The float band for this wear lies between 0.00 and 0.07. At that level the thin golden wakes run in unbroken lines, and the pale blue arc is not rubbed at the edges. The float is written into a copy at drop and does not change afterward.

Where the M4A1-S | Stratosphere came from

Valve drew the M4A1-S | Stratosphere itself, and the Steam Workshop has no submission for it. Its number in Valve's catalog is 1216. Valve describes the subject in a few words: spaceships circling a planet.

The skin appeared on March 31, 2025, when The Ascent Collection was added to the game. Valve's note that day announced three new sets for the weekly reward list, Ascent, Boreal and Radiant, and mentioned more than seventy new finishes.

What to check before buying

Before paying for an M4A1-S | Stratosphere, check these:

• float: it has to fall between 0.00 and 0.07, otherwise the listing is not this wear;


• any name tag and stickers already applied: on the M4A1-S | Stratosphere they stay on the lot.

There is no choosing by pattern on the M4A1-S | Stratosphere as such. Inside 0.00 to 0.07 there is no best copy to hunt for.

What the M4A1-S | Stratosphere costs in Factory New

Of the skin's five wears, Factory New is the most expensive. The rest come out like this:

• Minimal Wear is three times cheaper;


• Field-Tested is more than eight times cheaper;


• Well-Worn is about seven times cheaper;


• Battle-Scarred is more than eleven times cheaper.

Among the fifteen Classified M4A1-S skins in Factory New, this one is fourth from the bottom by price. Cheaper than it are the M4A1-S | Solitude, the M4A1-S | Black Lotus and the M4A1-S | Party Animal. The M4A1-S | Decimator and the M4A1-S | Leaded Glass cost about a tenth more.

Getting the M4A1-S | Stratosphere

No CS2 case contains the M4A1-S | Stratosphere. The Ascent Collection is on the weekly reward list for playtime, and copies arrive from there.

A trade-up contract can produce the skin when it is fed ten skins of the rank below from this collection. The Ascent has two Restricted skins: the AK-47 | Midnight Laminate and the USP-S | Royal Guard. There is only one Classified skin, so the result of such a trade-up is known in advance.

StatTrak and Souvenir

No StatTrak version of the M4A1-S | Stratosphere was ever released. Souvenir copies do turn up, but there were never packages for this finish, as those were made only for the 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 your inventory.

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Stratosphere

The body is dark, so light stickers show on it at once. Light blue ones echo the planet, and yellow and gold ones echo the wakes of the ships. Dark blue and violet stickers dissolve into the base. The planet sits in the middle of the receiver.

Who this wear suits

Buying the M4A1-S | Stratosphere in Factory New makes sense under these conditions:

• you want a dark M4A1-S with the planet and the ships and no scuffs, for CS2;


• you are putting together a loadout in blue and violet;


• you need a Classified skin from the lower third of the M4A1-S price ladder.

If spotless paint is not essential, Minimal Wear costs a third as much and remains the nearest step down.