SSG 08 | Dragonfire (Factory New)

The SSG 08 | Dragonfire in Factory New (FN) is a Covert Scout on which the fire artwork shows without a single scuff. The float band runs from 0.00 to 0.07, which is 14% of the skin's scale, since that scale tops out at 0.50. It drops from the Glove Case and suits either side.

What the SSG 08 | Dragonfire looks like in Factory New

The front of the receiver and the forend are painted orange with red streaks, like tongues of flame. Dark scales run through the middle of the weapon, woven with black and turquoise tones, and a dragon's head can be made out on them. The stock is orange; the barrel with its muzzle brake, the bipod and the scope are black.

Valve's description speaks of a hydrographic coating with a monstrous dragon breathing fire. In Factory New the colors keep full brightness. The orange and red are untouched along the edges, and the scales in the middle have lost none of the depth of their black.

What to check before buying

Three things separate one SSG 08 | Dragonfire listing from another:

• float: there is almost nothing to choose from, because the band from 0.00 to 0.07 is short;


• the brightness of the orange on the forend and stock;


• the name tag and stickers already applied to this SSG 08 | Dragonfire.

No pattern variants exist for the SSG 08 | Dragonfire, so the artwork gives you nothing to pick by.

What the SSG 08 | Dragonfire costs in Factory New

Every other wear costs less than Factory New:

• Minimal Wear: about 1.3 times less;


• Field-Tested: about 1.5 times less;


• Battle-Scarred: about 1.6 times less;


• Well-Worn: about 1.7 times less.

The steps are small, and the cheapest wear sits only 1.7 times below the cleanest one.

There are just two Covert SSG 08 skins. The other one, the SSG 08 | Blood in the Water, costs about two and a half times less than this skin in this wear.

Getting the SSG 08 | Dragonfire

The skin drops from the Glove Case and from no other case. The Glove Collection it belongs to came out in November 2016, and the skin arrived with the same update. Ten Classified skins from this collection can be traded up into the SSG 08 | Dragonfire. That makes the odds one in two, since the collection holds just two Covert skins.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The SSG 08 | Dragonfire comes in a StatTrak version. Souvenir packages were never issued for this finish, since they existed only for tournament map collections. A Souvenir copy can still be built by hand: the Souvenir-O-Matic applies gold tournament stickers and a player autograph to an ordinary skin from your inventory. So the odd Souvenir copy turns up occasionally even where no packages ever existed.

Stickers and craft on the SSG 08 | Dragonfire

On a clean receiver, stickers sit on bright orange, and red and yellow ones dissolve into it. White, turquoise and light blue ones stand out instead. The dark scales in the middle make a calm backdrop for pale stickers.

Who this wear suits

Factory New is worth buying for the SSG 08 | Dragonfire in these cases:

• you want a Covert Scout whose fire has not been touched by scuffs;


• the skin is going into a CS2 inventory to be inspected up close;


• paying 1.3 times as much as Minimal Wear does not put you off.

In CS2 matches, the difference between the wears is barely visible at a distance.