M4A4 | The Emperor (Battle-Scarred)

Battle-Scarred (BS) is the cheapest of the five wears of the M4A4 | The Emperor, with the finish's float ceiling at 0.80. It takes 44% of the finish's scale. The rank is Covert, and the skin drops from the Prisma Case.

What the M4A4 | The Emperor looks like in Battle-Scarred

This is a dark blue "starry" rifle with a bronze-and-gold receiver. The handguard, magazine, stock and grip are blue and bright blue, with gold and orange lines, star dots and triangles. A portrait of a man in fanning golden rays sits on the side of the receiver. In the middle of the handguard is a light rectangular "card" with a pale figure. The barrel, muzzle device, top rail and charging handle remain black metal.

Battle-Scarred has the heaviest wear. The thin gold rays and lines on the receiver edges and the handguard ribs go first, then the edges of the stock and the butt plate lip. The large blue fills of the magazine and stock hold out longer. The figure in the middle of the receiver lies on a flat surface, so it is the last to fade.

Where the M4A4 | The Emperor came from

Zaphk drew the finish, and the account Oni posted the Steam Workshop submission on March 15, 2018, under the name "M4A4| The Emperor". The description calls it the second installment of a tarot card collection: each weapon is one card, a major arcana, with its own illustration and a touch of the occult.

The author names the AK-47 | The Empress and the AWP | Mortis as predecessors in the series. The M4A4 | The Emperor reached the game on March 13, 2019.

What to check before buying

These are the things that set one listing apart from another:

• float, which runs from 0.45 to 0.80 for this wear;


• the gold lines on the edges of the receiver and handguard, the first thing erased at this wear;


• stickers left by a previous owner, and a rename.

The pattern does not vary: what one listing shows, the rest show too. The band is a long one, 0.45 to 0.80, so comparing several listings is worth the time.

What the M4A4 | The Emperor costs in Battle-Scarred

Every other wear costs more:

• Factory New by about 3.5 times;


• Minimal Wear by about a quarter;


• Field-Tested by about a tenth;


• Well-Worn by about six percent.

Among Covert M4A4s at this wear, the skin sits exactly in the middle: six are cheaper, six dearer. One other finish is cheaper by about 40%, and Desert-Strike, In Living Color, Temukau and Neo-Noir by almost half. Highest are Bullet Rain, Eye of Horus and Buzz Kill, with Buzz Kill at almost four times the price.

Getting the M4A4 | The Emperor

It drops from the Prisma Case, and the rifle appears in no other case.

To trade up into it, you need ten skins from the rank below. AUG | Momentum, R8 Revolver | Skull Crusher and XM1014 | Incinegator all qualify. The Prisma set has two Covert finishes, so with ten from it the odds of getting the Emperor are one in two.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The M4A4 | The Emperor has a StatTrak version. Souvenir copies are out there as well, but no Souvenir packages were released for this finish: those came only with tournament map collections. Such a copy is built through the Souvenir-O-Matic, which applies gold tournament stickers and a player autograph to a regular skin in your inventory.

Stickers and craft on the M4A4 | The Emperor

There is little room for stickers here: a portrait in rays takes the receiver, a light panel and stars take the handguard. That leaves the back of the magazine and the stock, both with even blue fills. Gold and warm orange stickers match the trim, while acid colors next to the rays fall apart. In CS2 one sticker on the stock is enough.

Who this wear suits

This wear is worth buying if:

• you want a Covert M4A4 with a tarot story, and the gold lines on the edges do not matter;


• the lowest price counts: Battle-Scarred is cheaper than every other wear, if only slightly;


• you want pronounced wear and a wide float band for CS2.

Near 0.45 the gold on the edges is still visible; closer to 0.80 mostly the blue fills remain.