Float value is CS2's built-in grading system. Learn the five wear tiers, float caps and pattern IDs, and why two identical skins trade differently in 2026.A graded card slab next to a CS2 knife skin with a wear slider: float as a grading scaleA float value is a fixed number from 0.00 to 1.00 that Counter-Strike 2 assigns to a skin the moment it enters the game, and it works like a built-in grading score: the lower the float, the cleaner the finish looks and the more the skin is worth.Collectors know the ritual: send a card away, wait weeks, and a stranger returns it in plastic with a number that decides its price. CS2 runs that ceremony in a millisecond, free, on every drop. No submission fees, no regrade drama. Here is how that system works.What a float value actually isA float value is a number between 0.00 and 1.00 that CS2 stamps on a skin once, at the moment it drops or gets unboxed. It controls how much wear the texture shows: scuffs, scratches, faded paint. A 0.02 copy looks pristine. A 0.90 copy looks like it survived a war.Two things matter here. First, the number is permanent. Digital items do not age, so the float a skin is born with is the float it keeps. Second, float is condition, not rarity. It says nothing about how many copies exist, only how clean this particular copy is.The five wear tiers and where prices moveFive wear tiers of the same CS2 skin, from Factory New to Battle-ScarredCS2 sorts every float into one of five named wear tiers, from Factory New at the clean end to Battle-Scarred at the rough end.| Wear tier | Float range | What it looks like | |---|---|---| | Factory New | 0.00-0.07 | clean finish, minimal marks | | Minimal Wear | 0.07-0.15 | light scuffs at the edges | | Field-Tested | 0.15-0.38 | visible scratches, still presentable | | Well-Worn | 0.38-0.45 | heavy wear across the surface | | Battle-Scarred | 0.45-1.00 | faded paint, deep scratches |The market reads this table the way card buyers read grades: the cleaner the copy, the higher the premium, and the jump between tiers moves prices more than the same distance inside a tier. A 0.069 and a 0.071 copy look nearly identical, yet the label changes at the border, the way prices jump between a 9 and a 10.Card grading and skin floats: the same collector instinctCard collectors and skin collectors chase the same thing: the cleanest copy of an item everyone else also owns. The premium for condition and the hunt for a top-grade example transfer directly.The differences favor the digital side. A float is visible before you buy, on every listing, with no grading fee and no waiting. Nobody disputes it, because the game itself issued the number. And a grade can not slip: playing with the item does not damage it.Float caps and pattern IDs: the fine printEvery skin carries its own allowed float range, called a float cap, so some finishes simply never exist in Factory New or Battle-Scarred. A skin whose cap starts just under the Factory New border produces very few Factory New copies, which quietly creates the same scarcity dynamic as a short print run.There is a second number rolled alongside the float: the pattern ID. It decides where the texture sits on the item, independent of wear. Two knives with identical floats can place their colors in completely different spots, and knife collectors browsing all karambit cases quickly learn that a lucky pattern can matter more than a flawless float. Condition and centering, in other words, are separate rolls here too.How float works when skins change handsOn the secondary market, float is the first number a pricing engine reads before it values a skin. Modern CS2 skin trading runs largely on bot-trading platforms: automated inventories that quote a value for your items and complete the exchange in a single trade. On a platform like SkinsMonkey, the swap settles in under two minutes, and the quote already includes the spread, the gap between give and take, so the cost is visible upfront.For a collector, the takeaway is simple: the grade you can see is the price you will get. A clean float commands more trade value, a rough one less.FAQDoes a skin's float value change over time?No. A float value is assigned once, when the skin first drops or gets unboxed, and it does not move afterwards. A 0.03 float stays a 0.03 float after ten years and a thousand matches, so the number on a listing today is the number forever.Can two skins with the same float look different?Yes. The pattern ID, a separate number rolled with the skin, decides where the texture lands on the item. Two copies with an identical float can place scratches and color zones in different spots, the way two cards from the same print run can center differently.Is Factory New always worth the premium?Not always. On some skins the visual gap between Factory New and a clean Minimal Wear copy is hard to spot in game, while the price gap is real. Collectors who buy for display tend to pay for the grade; players who buy for use often take the lower tier and keep the difference.What float should a budget buyer target?A high Minimal Wear or low Field-Tested float is the usual sweet spot. Those copies sit close to the clean end of their tier, so they look sharper than their label suggests while pricing like mid-condition items. It is the same logic as buying a strong near-mint card instead of paying the graded-gem premium.
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