M4A4 | Asiimov (Field-Tested)

This is the M4A4 | Asiimov in Field-Tested (FT), and the finish gets no cleaner than this: its wear scale starts not at zero but at 0.18. Neither Factory New nor Minimal Wear exists for it, so the choice comes down to three grades. The float limits here are 0.18 and 0.38. The skin is Covert, and the rifle drops from the Winter Offensive Weapon Case.

What the M4A4 | Asiimov looks like in Field-Tested

White dominates the body: the handguard, receiver, stock and magazine are covered in white with a grayish cast. Orange runs as bands along the edges of the handguard and as a wide strap across the receiver. A stripe at the base of the magazine and trim on the stock carry it too. The pistol grip, the top rail, a section of the barrel and the flash hider stayed black and gray.

The finish has no figures or scenes. It all rests on the contrast between white planes and the orange bands that wrap around them. You can make out black triangles and diamonds on the side of the receiver and on the magazine. There is an orange chevron on the receiver and a small mark on the magazine. No letters or numbers are legible.

In Field-Tested the white grays over its whole area. The metal shows through on the ribs of the handguard, the edge of the magazine well and the corners of the stock. The orange bands suffer most: they lie on the raised rings of the handguard, exactly where wear arrives first.

Where the M4A4 | Asiimov came from

Coridium drew the finish. His Workshop submission, "M4A4 - ASIIMOV", went up on November 10, 2013, and he described it as the second piece in his series of science-fiction finishes. The Winter Offensive Collection dates from December 18, 2013. In the notes to that update Valve pointed out that the case was the first one assembled from community work. The finish's number in Valve's catalog is 255.

What to check before buying

Before buying an M4A4 | Asiimov, check the following:

• the float: at 0.18 the white is still even, while by 0.38 a gray haze lies over the whole body;


• the state of the orange bands on the handguard rings;


• the name tag and stickers the M4A4 | Asiimov already carries.

The pattern index changes nothing on the M4A4 | Asiimov. In this grade the band runs from 0.18 to 0.38, so listings range from nearly clean bodies to ones that are noticeably rubbed.

What the M4A4 | Asiimov costs in Field-Tested

The finish has three grades, and the steps between them are large: Well-Worn is about one and a half times cheaper, and Battle-Scarred two and a half times cheaper. The white base explains it, since gray haze shows on it immediately and every step down is obvious at a glance.

Among Covert M4A4s this finish is eleventh of fourteen counting up. Right alongside are M4A4 | Eye of Horus and M4A4 | Buzz Kill. Below them comes a sudden drop: M4A4 | Royal Paladin, M4A4 | Bullet Rain and M4A4 | X-Ray cost about two and a half times less. The dearest in the rank is M4A4 | The Coalition, and the cheapest is M4A4 | The Battlestar.

Getting the M4A4 | Asiimov

There is one route, the Winter Offensive Weapon Case; the finish has never appeared in any other case.

A trade-up contract for the M4A4 | Asiimov is built from ten skins of the rank below, all from one collection. Two finishes share the collection's Covert rank, so the odds are one in two.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the M4A4 | Asiimov

The M4A4 | Asiimov has a StatTrak version. No Souvenir packages were ever made for this finish, because packages only ever covered tournament map collections. A souvenir copy can still be built by hand. The Souvenir-O-Matic puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on a normal skin from the inventory. That is why the odd souvenir copy turns up where no package was ever made.

A craft shows up better on a light body than on dark finishes: a dark sticker does not get lost on the white field. Orange stickers argue with the bands, and light ones vanish against the white. The stock and the stretch of receiver between the straps are free for a craft.

Who this wear suits

Field-Tested on the M4A4 | Asiimov is sensible in these cases:

• you want a white M4 for CS2, and this grade is as clean as the finish gets;


• the difference within the band matters: near the lower limit the body is almost fresh;


• the lower grades will not do, because gray haze on white shows at once.

The extra money here goes into keeping the white intact, not into rarity. Toward the top of the band the body visibly dulls, so listings in CS2 are worth filtering by float.