M4A4 | Etch Lord (Factory New)

On the M4A4 | Etch Lord, Factory New (FN) decides almost everything. The engraving is a mesh of the finest light lines on black metal, and lower on the scale the lines leave the ribs first. The float limits here are 0.00 and 0.07. It is Restricted rank, and the rifle drops from the Kilowatt Case. Among Restricted M4A4 skins in factory condition, this is the cheapest way into the rank.

What the M4A4 | Etch Lord looks like in Factory New

From a distance this is nearly a plain factory rifle: the base is black-gray, and the artwork shows only up close. The engraving lies on the metal of the receiver, the top, the sides and the area around the magazine well. The handguard and grip stay gray-olive plastic; the barrel, the rail and the sights carry no artwork. The magazine is dark and translucent, with an orange checkered mesh and blue patches at the bottom. The scrollwork itself is dense vegetal curls and loops, with no letters or figures to read in it.

In Factory New the scrollwork is whole across the receiver, including the ribs and the plate around the bolt catch button. The light lines lie on raised metal and, lower on the scale, wear off before the flats do. The dark tone masks scuffing, so the difference from the neighboring wear is caught only on close inspection.

Where the M4A4 | Etch Lord came from

The finish was made by an author going by HEWOK. The author published the submission in the Steam Workshop on November 6, 2023, under the working title "M4A4 | Snakebite V2". The description gives only a note about a correct PBR material. The Kilowatt Collection was added to the game on February 6, 2024. In Valve's note the case is presented as a set of seventeen finishes by community authors, with a kukri knife as the rare item. In Valve's finish catalog the artwork stands at number 1165.

What to check before buying

Choosing a particular M4A4 | Etch Lord rests on these points:

• the float: the band is 0.00–0.07, and near the top the lines on the receiver ribs are already thinning;


• the plate around the bolt catch button, where the engraving gives out first;


• a name tag and stickers, which stay with the listing on the M4A4 | Etch Lord.

The artwork on the M4A4 | Etch Lord is applied the same way across the whole run. The 0.00–0.07 band is short: the difference between listings falls within the margin of error.

What the M4A4 | Etch Lord costs in Factory New

The price of this finish is concentrated in the top wear:

• Minimal Wear is four times cheaper;


• Field-Tested is eight and a half times cheaper;


• Well-Worn is level with Field-Tested;


• Battle-Scarred too.

The three worn wears are separated by a few cents, and the order within the trio is a matter of rounding, not of the finish's properties. The real choice here is only one: a factory copy or everything else. The gap is explained by the nature of the artwork: the etching lives on raised edges.

Within its rank, this finish is cheaper than all ten neighbors in Factory New. The closest, the M4A4 | Sheet Lightning, costs about a third more. After that the step is larger: the M4A4 | Evil Daimyo costs more than twice as much, and the M4A4 | Spider Lily almost twenty times.

Getting the M4A4 | Etch Lord

The main route is the Kilowatt Case. The M4A4 | Etch Lord can also be built by a contract of ten skins of the rank below from one set. The Kilowatt Collection has five Restricted skins, so the outcome of the trade-up is not settled in advance.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the M4A4 | Etch Lord

The M4A4 | Etch Lord has a StatTrak™ version. Souvenir copies of the finish exist too, but no packages were ever released for it: they were made only for the map collections of tournaments. 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.

The field for stickers is open here: the engraving lies in a thin layer and does not override the background, and the handguard and stock have no artwork at all. On nearly black metal everything light reads brightly, white, yellow, gold, while dark stickers get lost.

Who this wear suits

The M4A4 | Etch Lord in Factory New is a sensible buy when:

• you want the engraving whole, with unbroken lines on the receiver ribs;


• the skin is bought for a craft in CS2, where untouched metal counts;


• you want a dark rifle for a build, not a bright story-driven finish.

For play the difference is small: in CS2 in first person the scrollwork on the receiver is not visible in any wear. The Factory New premium here is manyfold, and only close inspection justifies it.