M4A4 | Griffin (Minimal Wear)

The M4A4 | Griffin in Minimal Wear (MW) is a gray M4 whose griffin illustration is whole and whose edges have only begun to lighten. It is Restricted, from The Vanguard Collection, with a float in the 0.07 to 0.15 band.

What the M4A4 | Griffin looks like in Minimal Wear

The ground is gray-olive and almost matte. At the center sits a light eagle head with a copper-toned wing across the receiver and magazine. A turquoise glow lies on the magazine, and dark bird silhouettes show on the handguard and stock.

Minimal Wear touches the most exposed edges: the receiver facets, the ends of the handguard and the edge of the stock. The center of the artwork stays untouched, so in this wear the illustration reads the way it does on a factory copy.

Where the M4A4 | Griffin came from

Operation Vanguard opened on November 12, 2014, and the M4A4 | Griffin was released that day. Valve offered six community maps and campaigns with two missions a week. Valve's description of the skin ends on Felix, who assembled a team of operatives from around the world.

What to check before buying

The differences between copies come down to this:

• Float: in this wear a copy falls within 0.07 to 0.15.


• The receiver and handguard edges, where the paint lightens.


• A name tag and stickers, if this copy already has them.

Pattern is fixed on this skin, so it has no bearing on price. The 0.07 to 0.15 band is tight, and copies at the extremes differ only in the number. It is 10% of the 0.00 to 0.80 scale.

What the M4A4 | Griffin costs in Minimal Wear

How the other wears relate to this one:

• Factory New costs almost 13 times as much.


• Field-Tested is almost half the price.


• Well-Worn costs the same.


• Battle-Scarred is about 1.85 times cheaper.

Of the eleven Restricted M4A4s, this skin in this wear has four cheaper and six dearer. The M4A4 | Red DDPAT, M4A4 | Modern Hunter and M4A4 | Daybreak all cost more. The nearest one below is the M4A4 | Evil Daimyo, cheaper by only a seventh.

Getting the M4A4 | Griffin

You do not have to buy the M4A4 | Griffin, you can build it. Ten skins from the rank below go into the trade-up, and the collection of the result depends on the inputs. It drops from the Operation Vanguard Weapon Case.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The M4A4 | Griffin has a StatTrak™ version. No Souvenir packages were released for this finish.

Stickers and craft on the M4A4 | Griffin

The gray handguard and stock leave a free field for stickers, while the illustration on the receiver is better left open. Bronze, white and turquoise stickers show up well on the gray-olive ground. The dark bird silhouettes are small, and a large sticker would cover them.

Who this wear suits

Minimal Wear is worth buying on this skin for these purposes:

• you want the center of the artwork untouched without paying for the factory look, which costs almost 13 times as much.


• the illustration matters more than scuffs on the edges.


• you need an M4 for a CS2 loadout, where wear does not affect shooting.