CS2 Float Value: What It Is, How It Works and Why It Affects Price

Every CS2 skin has a CS2 float value – a number between 0.00 and 1.00 assigned at the moment the skin drops or a case is opened. That number is permanent. It determines the visible wear condition of the skin and directly affects the price. The same float CS2 value can have a significant visual impact on one skin and almost no impact on another, depending on the finish type.

This article covers how float works, what the five wear conditions mean, and why float affects price differently across skin types.

What Is Float Value in CS2?

A CS2 float value is a unique decimal number between 0.00 and 1.00 generated at the moment a skin enters the game – through a case opening, a drop, or a trade-up contract. Once assigned, it does not change. No amount of use, time, or trading alters the float of a skin after it is generated.

Float value and wear condition are related but not the same thing. The wear condition – Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn, or Battle-Scarred – is simply the label for the range that a skin's float falls into. Two skins both classified as Field-Tested can have floats of 0.16 and 0.37 respectively – the same wear label, but visually and commercially different. The float CS2 number is the precise measurement; the wear condition is a broad category built around it.

That distinction matters practically. When comparing two skins at the same wear grade, the float value within that grade determines which copy shows less surface wear and, in most cases, trades at a higher price.

The Five Wear Conditions and Their Float Ranges

The five wear conditions divide the 0.00-1.00 float range into fixed bands. Understanding those bands – what the CS GO float table looks like in practice – explains why certain wear grades are more common on the market than others and why some grades command higher prices regardless of the skin.

Factory New (0.00-0.07)

The Factory New range covers only the bottom 7% of the total float scale. Skins in this range show minimal surface wear – scratches, scuffs, and material degradation are absent or barely present at normal viewing distances. That visual cleanliness is why Factory New commands the highest price for most skins. The narrow float range also means fewer copies of any given skin land here relative to wider ranges – which keeps supply lower than in Field-Tested or Battle-Scarred at the same drop rate.

Minimal Wear (0.07-0.15)

Surface wear in the Minimal Wear range is light and often difficult to distinguish from Factory New during active play. At normal in-game viewing distances, a 0.08 float and a 0.06 float frequently read as identical. That visual proximity to Factory New makes Minimal Wear the most common alternative when Factory New copies are priced significantly higher – the price gap between the two grades often exceeds the visible difference, which drives consistent demand for the upper end of the Minimal Wear range specifically.

Field-Tested (0.15-0.38)

The field tested float range is the widest of the five conditions, spanning 0.23 of the total scale. That width means more copies of any skin land in Field-Tested than in any other wear grade at the same drop rate – which makes it the most common condition on the market by volume. Visible scratching and surface wear are present at this range, with severity increasing toward the upper end. A field tested float of 0.16 reads noticeably cleaner than one at 0.37, despite both carrying the same wear label.

Well-Worn (0.38-0.45)

At 0.07 wide, the Well-Worn range is the narrowest of the five conditions – narrower even than Factory New. That width means fewer copies of any skin land here than in Field-Tested or Battle-Scarred, which makes Well-Worn paradoxically less available than the grades above and below it. Surface wear at this range is pronounced – scratching covers a significant portion of the skin surface and affects how patterns and artwork read. The narrow band combined with visible degradation places Well-Worn in low demand for most skins, with prices typically sitting below Field-Tested rather than above it.

Battle-Scarred (0.45–1.00)

The Battle-Scarred range covers more than half the total float scale, which means it contains more possible float values than all other conditions combined. Surface wear at this range is heavy – paint loss, deep scratching, and significant material degradation are present across most of the skin surface. For the majority of skins, Battle-Scarred is the least valued condition by price. The exception applies to specific finish types where heavy wear produces a visual result that is intentional rather than degraded – rust-effect finishes, dark metallic designs, and certain solid-color skins where the worn surface texture adds visual depth rather than removing it. For those specific cases, high float within Battle-Scarred can carry collector interest that mid-range Battle-Scarred copies do not.

Why the Same Float Means Different Things for Different Skins

A float CS2 value of 0.15 is technically Field-Tested on every skin it appears on. What that value means visually depends entirely on the finish type – and that dependency is where most surface-level explanations of float stop short.

Solid Color finishes – skins where the entire surface is a single painted color – show almost no visual change across the full float range. The surface texture of the underlying metal model remains constant regardless of whether the float is 0.01 or 0.80. The wear condition label changes; the appearance does not change meaningfully.

Anodized and metallic finishes behave similarly. The finish is applied at the material level rather than as a painted layer, which means surface scratches affect the finish less than they would a paint-based design. A metallic skin at 0.35 reads comparably to the same skin at 0.10 in most lighting conditions.

Custom Paint Job finishes – the category that includes illustrated skins like AWP | Hyper Beast or AWP | Dragon Lore – work differently. These skins apply detailed artwork over the weapon model as a painted layer. As float increases, the paint layer degrades and the artwork detail underneath becomes obscured by surface wear texture. At high CS2 float value ranges, specific elements of the illustration – fine line work, color gradients, character detail – become partially or substantially obscured. A Custom Paint Job skin at 0.35 can read as significantly more worn than an Anodized skin at the same float, because the finish type determines how wear manifests visually.

The practical consequence is direct: checking finish type before interpreting a float value produces a more accurate picture of what a skin actually looks like than the float number alone.

Float Cap: Why Not Every Skin Can Be Factory New

Every CS2 skin has a minimum and maximum possible float, set by Valve at the time the skin was created. That range – the float cap – determines which wear conditions are physically possible for that skin. A skin with a minimum float of 0.06 cannot be Factory New regardless of how many times it drops, because 0.06 falls into Minimal Wear territory. A skin with a maximum float of 0.08 cannot appear in Field-Tested, Well-Worn, or Battle-Scarred.

The CS2 float cap changes the pricing structure for affected skins in a direct way. When Factory New is unavailable for a specific skin, Minimal Wear becomes the cleanest possible version – and prices for that skin's Minimal Wear copies reflect Factory New-level demand rather than standard Minimal Wear pricing. Gamma Doppler is a documented example: its float cap restricts it to Factory New and Minimal Wear only, which means Field-Tested Gamma Doppler copies do not exist. That restriction limits total supply across both available grades and keeps prices elevated relative to skins with the full float spectrum available.

Understanding a skin's CS2 float cap before comparing prices across wear grades prevents the incorrect assumption that a missing wear grade reflects low demand – it may simply not exist for that skin.

How Float Affects Price

Three distinct pricing scenarios exist in the CS2 skin market depending on which type of skin is being evaluated. The standard model applies to most skins, but pattern-dependent and extreme-float cases follow different logic entirely.

The standard scenario is straightforward: lower float CS2 produces higher price. Factory New trades above Minimal Wear, Minimal Wear above Field-Tested, and so on down the wear scale. The price gap between grades varies by skin – on some skins the difference between Factory New and Minimal Wear is 20%, on others it exceeds 200%. The gap reflects how visible the wear difference is at in-game distances for that specific finish type, combined with the relative supply of copies in each grade.

Pattern-dependent skins break the standard model. For Case Hardened and Crimson Web finishes, the pattern index assigned at unboxing determines color distribution or web placement on the blade or skin surface. A copy with a favorable pattern – high blue coverage on Case Hardened, centered web on Crimson Web – can trade above a copy with an unfavorable pattern at a lower float. A CS2 float value of 0.35 on a top-tier Case Hardened Blue Gem index trades above a 0.01 float on a standard index. Float adjusts price within a pattern tier but does not override the pattern as the primary variable.

Extreme float values create a third scenario. Copies with floats at the very bottom of the Factory New range – 0.0001 or below – and copies at the very top of Battle-Scarred – 0.999 or above – attract collector interest beyond what standard wear-grade pricing accounts for. The rarity of generating such extreme values at either end of the scale is the driver: the probability of landing a float below 0.001 or above 0.998 is low enough that confirmed examples carry a premium. That premium exists independently of the visual quality of the skin – a near-perfect float CS2 copy of a common skin trades above a standard Factory New copy of the same skin purely on the float value's rarity.

The Cases section on GudDrop shows the float value of every drop immediately after opening – checking it before transferring to Steam is the practical first step for any skin you receive.

How to Check Float Value in CS2

The Steam inventory displays basic item information when a skin is inspected, including wear condition – but the exact float number is not shown in the standard inventory view. To see the precise CS2 float value, a third-party float checker tool is required.

Float checker tools work by reading the item's inspect link – a URL generated from the Steam inventory – and returning the exact float value alongside additional data such as pattern index. These tools are built and maintained by the CS2 community and are widely used before trades, purchases, or contract decisions. The inspect link for any skin in the Steam inventory can be copied directly from the item's context menu.

Checking the CS GO float table position of a skin before any transaction matters for two reasons. First, two copies at the same wear grade can differ significantly in float position within that grade – and that difference affects price. A buyer paying Field-Tested price for a 0.16 float copy and one paying the same for a 0.36 float copy are not getting the same item in visual terms. Second, for pattern-dependent skins, float checkers also return the pattern index, which is the primary pricing variable for Case Hardened and similar finishes.

Open Cases on GudDrop and Check Your Float

Every skin that drops from a case on GudDrop receives its CS2 float value at the moment of opening – the same generation mechanic that applies to all CS2 case openings. The float is assigned automatically and is visible in your GudDrop inventory immediately after the drop, before any transfer decision is made.

To open cases on the platform, log in via Steam, add balance to your account, and select a case from the open cases section. The drop appears in your GudDrop inventory with its wear condition and float value displayed. From there, skins can be transferred to Steam using the Trade URL configured in your account settings, or handled through other platform mechanics such as upgrades or contracts.

GudDrop carries both standard CS2 cases and platform-exclusive cases, each with a fixed content pool visible before opening. The float range a skin can receive depends on that skin's individual float cap – GudDrop does not modify the float generation mechanics that apply to each skin in the pool.

The Cases section on GudDrop is the starting point for opening cases and receiving skins with their float values assigned at drop.