M4A1-S | Stratosphere (Field-Tested)

Field-Tested (FT) is the most affordable way into the M4A1-S | Stratosphere. This wear is given the float band 0.15 to 0.38. It is a Classified skin from the Ascent Collection, and copies come from the weekly reward drops.

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

The base is dark, blue-violet and mottled, with small orange-yellow dots scattered across it that read as stars. A wide light blue sweep crosses it, running from the grip up over the receiver toward the barrel. Golden-yellow rays stream back along the receiver and the barrel. A white-gray five-point star sits on the side of the receiver, and a second, golden one lies on the suppressor. The magazine is dark violet with light gray streaks, and the stock is nearly black.

In the item description Valve spells out the subject: ships traveling around a planet in open space. Neither planet nor ships can be made out on the model; what you see is a star, rays and a speckled field. In this wear the thin golden rays and the sharp points of the star go first. On the round barrel and along the edges of the receiver the lines break up, then the spine of the magazine and the corners of the stock lighten. The dark speckled field hides wear and holds longest.

Where the M4A1-S | Stratosphere came from

The author of the finish is Valve, and nobody posted a Steam Workshop submission for this artwork. The M4A1-S | Stratosphere belongs to the Ascent Collection, opened on March 31, 2025. In the note for that update Valve wrote that the Ascent, Boreal and Radiant sets had been added to the weekly drop list and bring more than seventy new finishes. Valve's catalog number for the finish is 1216.

What to check before buying

Before taking an M4A1-S | Stratosphere, look at these points:

• the float: it shows how many of the golden rays and star points are already gone;


• the edges of the receiver and the surface of the barrel, where the artwork breaks up;


• whether the M4A1-S | Stratosphere has stickers and a name tag.

The M4A1-S | Stratosphere is one and the same artwork on every copy, and there are no rare examples. You can buy the M4A1-S | Stratosphere in this wear with different degrees of wear, because the band of 0.15 to 0.38 is wide.

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

The spread across wears is uneven. Factory New costs about nine times as much, Minimal Wear three times as much, and Well-Worn about twenty percent more, even though it looks worse. Battle-Scarred is cheaper by about a quarter.

The premium on Well-Worn comes from shares of the scale. The band of 0.15 to 0.38 takes almost a third of a range that ends at 0.80, while Well-Worn gets less than a tenth.

Among the Classified skins for this rifle, the M4A1-S | Stratosphere in this wear is second by price out of twelve, and only the M4A1-S | Solitude is cheaper. The M4A1-S | Black Lotus costs slightly more and the M4A1-S | Party Animal twice as much. The M4A1-S | Fatal Glitch and the M4A1-S | Atomic Alloy cost about seven times as much.

Getting the M4A1-S | Stratosphere

This skin has never dropped from a case. Ordinary copies come from the weekly reward drops, in which the items of the Ascent Collection fall.

A contract also gets the M4A1-S | Stratosphere: ten skins of the rank below, from the same collection. The set has two Restricted finishes, the USP-S | Royal Guard and the AK-47 | Midnight Laminate, and one Classified, so the result is known in advance. The wear of the output is computed from the skins put in, so a float can be picked through a trade-up.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The M4A1-S | Stratosphere has no StatTrak version. Souvenir copies do exist, but no Souvenir packages were issued for this finish: they were made only for the tournament map collections. Such copies are built through the Souvenir-O-Matic, which applies gold tournament stickers and a player autograph to an ordinary skin from your inventory.

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Stratosphere

The dark speckled field is a handy base: a light sticker reads on it whole. White, yellow and orange pick up the golden rays, while blue and violet sink into the background. Holographic stickers echo the star dots. The handguard and magazine are free, and the side of the receiver with the star is usually left uncovered.

Who this wear suits

Buying the M4A1-S | Stratosphere in Field-Tested makes sense in these cases:

• you want a dark Counter-Terrorist M4A1-S with a space subject for CS2;


• a set is coming together in blue-violet;


• you need a dark base for light stickers in CS2.

Toward 0.38 the golden rays on the barrel are already broken and the star points are eaten away. If an intact artwork matters, look at the bottom of the band.