M4A4 | Griffin (Field-Tested)

The M4A4 | Griffin in Field-Tested (FT) is the finish's bottom price: Factory New costs more than twenty-five times as much. Field-Tested takes floats from 0.15 to 0.38. The skin is Restricted and belongs to The Vanguard Collection.

What the M4A4 | Griffin looks like in Field-Tested

The base is gray-olive with almost no shine. An illustration of a griffin runs across the receiver and magazine: a pale eagle head and a wing in copper-bronze tones, with a turquoise glow on the magazine. Small dark bird silhouettes are scattered over the handguard and stock.

Valve calls it a hand-drawn illustration of a griffin. The image is gathered on the receiver and magazine and the other parts are left gray, so the rifle reads as a painting on a neutral ground.

Where the M4A4 | Griffin came from

The M4A4 | Griffin appeared on November 12, 2014, when The Vanguard Collection was added to the game. The same day Valve launched Operation Vanguard: free access to six community maps and a campaign mode in which missions paid out rewards, among them the operation's extra cases.

What to check before buying

On an M4A4 | Griffin listing, these are the points to check:

• the float inside 0.15 to 0.38: two listings of the same wear can differ noticeably;


• the receiver and magazine, where the illustration sits: the state of the paint there matters more than on the gray handguard;


• any name tag and stickers: on the M4A4 | Griffin they stay with the listing.

The artwork on the M4A4 | Griffin is fixed and does not depend on the copy. A 0.15 copy and a 0.38 copy both count as Field-Tested, and they do not look alike.

What the M4A4 | Griffin costs in Field-Tested

Against this wear, the others price out like this:

• Factory New is more than twenty-five times dearer;


• Minimal Wear is about two and a quarter times dearer;


• Well-Worn is about twice as dear;


• Battle-Scarred costs almost the same.

Field-Tested and Battle-Scarred make up the finish's bottom price, while Well-Worn is already twice higher. The float ceiling of this finish is 0.80, and Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred share the stretch from 0.38 to 0.80.

Among Restricted M4A4s, this finish in Field-Tested comes seventh by price from the top out of eleven: six cost more and four cost less. The nearest above, the M4A4 | Spider Lily, is almost three times dearer. The M4A4 | Evil Daimyo costs practically the same.

Getting the M4A4 | Griffin

The skin drops from the Operation Vanguard Weapon Case and belongs to The Vanguard Collection. The finish is in no other case.

In a contract, ten skins from the rank below in this collection turn into the M4A4 | Griffin.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The M4A4 | Griffin has a StatTrak version. It never had souvenir packages, since those were made only for tournament map collections. A souvenir copy can be assembled by hand, though. The Souvenir-O-Matic fits gold tournament stickers and a player autograph onto a regular inventory skin, and that is how isolated souvenir copies appear where no packages existed.

Stickers and craft on the M4A4 | Griffin

The illustration takes the center of the weapon, so stickers on the receiver compete with the griffin. The gray handguard and stock are free, and warm bronze and turquoise stickers go there well, echoing the palette of the artwork.

Who this wear suits

Buying the M4A4 | Griffin in Field-Tested is the right call if at least one of these fits:

• you want the griffin illustration on a gray M4A4 for a CS2 loadout;


• you want the finish's lowest price: Battle-Scarred costs the same;


• you choose by float number rather than by the wear label.

In CS2 matches, wear has no effect on shooting. If the artwork has to stay free of scuffs, look at Minimal Wear, which costs about two and a quarter times more.