MP9 | Starlight Protector (Field-Tested)

The MP9 | Starlight Protector in Field-Tested (FT): the wear scale of this finish ends at 0.80, and Field-Tested takes almost a third of the whole scale. It is of Covert rank, the skin drops from the Dreams & Nightmares Case, and it is the only Covert on the MP9 model. The submachine gun is in the counter-terrorist buy menu, so in CS2 the finish goes only to counter-terrorists.

What the MP9 | Starlight Protector looks like in Field-Tested

The base is white marble with gray veining. It covers the top panel of the receiver, the handguard and the magazine. A thin gold trim runs along the edges, and Art Deco gold diamonds are gathered on the magazine and grip. Gold stars are scattered over the body, and the muzzle end is black, with a gold monogram.

At the back, by the base of the stock, is the head of a unicorn. The head is pale gray, and the mane turns into a rainbow: raspberry, teal, green and violet bands fan out and run down onto the grip. It is the only colored spot, and everything else rests on marble and gold.

In Field-Tested wear lands on the edges of the top panel, the rim of the magazine and the stock, and the gold trim breaks there first. The white base is mottled by the veining, so scuffs read less strongly on it than on flat paint. The rainbow mane sits on a covered area and stays whole.

Where the MP9 | Starlight Protector came from

The finish was devised by a Steam Workshop artist who goes by TheDanidem. He posted the submission, "MP9 :: Starlight", on October 20, 2021. The occasion was the Dreams & Nightmares Workshop contest, which Valve announced on July 21, 2021, and the work was submitted straight for Covert rank.

The author described the idea himself: the unicorn is conceived as a deity of sleep and a protector, and he drew the artwork from Art Deco. The mane gets a separate mention, with motifs of Alphonse Mucha in it. He made the white areas of the body look like marble. The Dreams & Nightmares Collection appeared on January 21, 2022.

What to check before buying

When comparing listings, weigh:

• float: nearer 0.38 the gold trim along the edges breaks in several places;


• the state of the top panel, where gray worn patches show through the marble;


• an applied name and stickers, if they remain from a previous owner.

The float limits here are 0.15 and 0.38. All copies carry the same pattern.

What the MP9 | Starlight Protector costs in Field-Tested

For the asking price in this wear, see the listings above. The spread between wears on this finish is small:

• Factory New costs about one and a half times as much;


• Minimal Wear costs about a tenth more;


• Well-Worn costs practically the same;


• Battle-Scarred is cheaper, within a tenth of the price.

A gap of one and a half times to the cleanest wear is modest for a Covert skin. The reason lies in the base: veined marble hides wear, and the gold takes up thin lines.

Within the model there is nothing to compare it with, since the game has no other Covert MP9. The Dreams & Nightmares Collection has two Covert skins, and the second, AK-47 | Nightwish, costs more in this wear.

Getting the MP9 | Starlight Protector

The skin drops from the Dreams & Nightmares Case. A trade-up for the MP9 | Starlight Protector takes ten skins one rank lower from this set.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The MP9 | Starlight Protector has a StatTrak version. Souvenir packages for this finish were never issued, since those were made only for tournament map collections. Still, you can build a Souvenir copy yourself: the Souvenir-O-Matic fits golden tournament stickers and a player autograph to an ordinary skin from the inventory. That is why a Souvenir copy can exist even where no packages ever did.

Stickers and craft on the MP9 | Starlight Protector

The background is light and uneven: veined marble and gold lines. Dark, dense stickers read best on it, while white and gold ones vanish. The top panel and the magazine are free, and the unicorn side is left open, since the mane fights any colored sticker.

Who this wear suits

Field-Tested is worth buying under these conditions:

• you want a Covert submachine gun for CS2 without paying one and a half times as much for Factory New;


• it matters that the rainbow mane is whole, because wear does not reach it;


• you choose a listing by float number, not by the wear name.

The whole span from 0.15 to 0.38 fits inside this wear, and the copies at its two ends look little alike. Near the upper limit the gold trim on the edges is already broken up.