CS2 Glossary

The CS2 skin and trading terms you will see on a VSkin showcase and across the wider scene, explained in plain English: from float, paint seed and exterior to the cosmetic item types and the trading vocabulary like trade lock, buyout and liquidity.

Trade lock: After a trade or a Steam Community Market purchase, a CS2 item is temporarily locked: it cannot be traded or sold again for about a week. The exact unlock date and time is shown on the item itself. A locked item still belongs to you and stays in your inventory.
Float: Also called the float value or wear value, this is a hidden decimal between 0 and 1 that records how worn a skin looks. Lower values look cleaner, higher values look more battle-scarred. The float determines the exterior shown on the item.
Exterior: The visible condition tier derived from the float, from cleanest to most worn: Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred (often shortened to FN, MW, FT, WW and BS).
Paint seed: An integer assigned when a skin is created that decides how its texture is positioned on the weapon. Two copies of the same skin with different paint seeds can look very different, which is why some seeds are far more valuable than others.
Pattern index: Another name for the paint seed, the integer that decides how a skin's texture is positioned on the weapon. Pattern index, pattern ID and paint seed all refer to the same value.
Pattern: The specific arrangement of a skin's texture, driven by its paint seed. Clean, centred or otherwise rare patterns trade at a premium over ordinary ones.
Pattern tier: A community ranking of how desirable a paint seed is on a pattern-driven finish, usually written Tier 1 to Tier 4, with Tier 1 the most sought after. Tiers are conventions set by traders, not values published by Valve.
BTA: Short for better than average. A paint seed that produces a clearly nicer pattern than a typical copy of the same skin, without reaching a numbered tier. Priced above an ordinary seed and below a top tier example.
Fake pattern: A genuine skin whose paint seed makes it resemble a rarer variant, such as a Doppler Phase 1 that looks like a Black Pearl. The item is authentic; the label warns that it should be priced as what it is, not as the variant it imitates.
Playside: The face of a weapon or knife shown when it is held in game, as opposed to the backside. Pattern rankings often depend on which side carries the desirable colour, so both are checked before pricing.
Fade: A finish that blends colours across the weapon in a gradient. A fade percentage measures how complete that gradient is; higher percentages are generally more sought after.
Fade percentage: How complete the gradient is on a Fade finish, written as a percentage. Higher is generally worth more, and true Fades are commonly quoted between 80 and 100 percent.
Marble Fade: A finish with a swirling, marbled blend of colours. Specific colour placements have community names and big premiums, the best known being 'Fire and Ice'.
Fire and Ice: The most valued colour arrangement on a Marble Fade: a playside showing only red and blue, with no yellow at all. Traders rank examples from the first max downwards. Once yellow appears on that face the pattern is a fake, the best of those being a Max Fake, with FFI, short for Fake Fire and Ice, below it.
Blue gem: A community nickname for rare Case Hardened paint seeds that show an unusually large amount of blue. The most famous example is the AK-47 pattern 661, which sells for far more than a typical Case Hardened.
Gold gem: A Case Hardened paint seed that shows an unusually large amount of gold rather than blue. It has its own following and is priced separately from the blue gem scale.
Doppler phase: Doppler and Gamma Doppler skins come in phases (Phase 1 to 4, plus the rarer Ruby, Sapphire, Black Pearl and Emerald) that change the dominant colour. The phase strongly affects a skin's value.
Gamma Doppler: A finish distinct from Doppler, built on greens and teals rather than pinks and blues. It has its own Phase 1 to Phase 4 and produces Emerald as its rare variant.
Max Blue: A label for a paint seed that pushes a phase's best colour as far as it goes, most often used on Doppler. Max Pink is the equivalent for pink phases. It describes colour coverage, not a tier.
Ruby: A rare Doppler variant in deep red, far scarcer than any numbered phase and priced at a large multiple. Produced by the Doppler finish, alongside Sapphire and Black Pearl.
Sapphire: A rare Doppler variant in deep blue, far scarcer than any numbered phase. A Phase 4 with heavy blue coverage can resemble one, which is why such seeds are labelled fake Sapphire.
Black Pearl: A rare Doppler variant with a dark, shell like finish. A very dark Phase 1 can resemble it, so those seeds are labelled fake Black Pearl and should be priced as the phase they actually are.
Emerald: The rare variant of the Gamma Doppler finish, in deep green. It is to Gamma Doppler what Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl are to Doppler, and trades at a large multiple over the numbered phases.
StatTrak: An optional counter built into some items that tracks confirmed kills, or trades in the case of knives. StatTrak versions are rarer and usually worth more than their plain counterparts.
Souvenir: A special version of a skin dropped during official CS2 tournaments and decorated with tournament stickers. Each Souvenir item is tied to a specific match and is generally rarer than the standard version.
Sticker: A decorative decal applied to a weapon. Stickers can be scraped to wear them down, and rare or old tournament stickers can add significant value to a skin.
Capsule: A container of stickers, the sticker equivalent of a case. Tournament sticker capsules are tied to specific events, and their contents can appreciate once the capsule stops dropping.
Charm: A small dangling accessory, also called a keychain, attached to a weapon. Like stickers, charms are cosmetic and rare ones carry their own market value.
Rarity: The colour-coded grade of an item, from Consumer (white) up through Mil-Spec (blue), Restricted (purple), Classified (pink), Covert (red) and the discontinued Contraband (orange).
Trade-up contract: A crafting feature that turns ten skins of the same rarity into one skin of the next rarity up. The result depends on the floats of the inputs, which makes it both a gamble and a way to target specific skins.
Case: A sealed container that, opened with a paid key, gives one random skin from its collection, with a small chance at a rare knife or pair of gloves. Discontinued cases can themselves gain value over time.
Agent: A playable character skin for the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist side. Agents are a separate item class from weapon skins, with their own rarities and prices.
Music kit: A cosmetic that replaces the in-game music with an artist's pack. Music kits come in normal and StatTrak versions, the latter tracking your MVP stars.
Inspect link: A shareable link that opens an item in CS2's in-game inspect view, showing its exact float, pattern, stickers and charms in 3D. VSkin exposes the inspect link on each item.
3D preview: VSkin's in-browser 3D skin viewer. Supported weapons, knives and gloves can be rotated and inspected at their real float value and paint seed, with the item's real stickers and charms, without opening CS2. Unlike an in-game inspect, it also works for trade-locked skins you do not own, on showcases their owner syncs with the VSkin extension.
Liquidity: How easily an item sells close to its market price. Popular mid-priced skins are highly liquid and sell quickly; rare patterns and high-tier items are illiquid and can take longer to move.
Buyout: The fixed price at which an owner will sell an item immediately, rather than waiting for offers. Often abbreviated 'B/O'.
Overpay: Paying above an item's usual market value, common for rare patterns, very low floats, or thin-supply collectibles. The opposite of buying at market price.

See these attributes on real skins

Browse public CS2 inventories on VSkin to see float, paint seed, stickers and more on real skins, including the trade-locked ones on showcases their owner syncs with the VSkin extension.

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Trade lock

Float

Exterior

Paint seed

Pattern index

Pattern

Pattern tier

BTA

Fake pattern

Playside

Fade

Fade percentage

Marble Fade

Fire and Ice

Blue gem

Gold gem

Doppler phase

Gamma Doppler

Max Blue

Ruby

Sapphire

Black Pearl

Emerald

StatTrak

Souvenir

Sticker

Capsule

Charm

Rarity

Trade-up contract

Case

Agent

Music kit

Inspect link

3D preview

Liquidity

Buyout

Overpay

See these attributes on real skins

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