CS2 Float Values & Wear (FN, MW, FT, WW, BS)

Float value is one of the most important numbers attached to any CS2 skin, yet it is invisible until you know where to look. It controls how worn a skin appears, which of the five wear categories it lands in, and often how much it is worth. This guide explains what float is in CS2, the exact float ranges for each wear bucket, why two skins with the same name can look completely different, how float affects price, and how to check the float of any skin before you buy, sell, or trade it into your Steam inventory.

What Is Float in CS2?

Float is a hidden decimal value between 0.00 and 1.00 assigned to every skin the moment it is created. A float of 0.00 is pristine and a float of 1.00 is maximally worn. Counter-Strike translates that number into a visible wear name and a level of scratches, fading, and scuffing on the weapon model. The lower the float, the cleaner the skin looks; the higher the float, the more battle damage shows. Because the value is continuous, no two floats are ever quite identical, which is why a particular low-float copy of a skin can be sought after.

The Five Wear Buckets and Their Float Ranges

CS2 groups the continuous 0-to-1 float scale into five named wear categories. These cut-offs are fixed across all skins, so a Field-Tested skin always sits in the same float window regardless of the weapon.

Factory New and Minimal Wear occupy narrow windows near the clean end of the scale, while Battle-Scarred covers the entire top half from 0.45 to 1.00. That wide Battle-Scarred band is why two Battle-Scarred copies of the same skin can look noticeably different — one at 0.46 may still show much of its design, while one at 0.90 is heavily faded.

Why Two Same-Name Skins Look Different

Each skin finish has its own texture and base wear map, so the same float value produces different visual results across different skins. A 0.20 Field-Tested on one rifle might still look almost clean, while a 0.20 on another shows obvious scratches. This is why experienced buyers do not rely on the wear name alone — they check the actual float and, ideally, look at the model. Some finishes also reveal their underlying colour or pattern more dramatically as wear increases, which interacts with concepts like Fade percentage and pattern-based value.

How Float Affects Price

As a general rule, lower float means higher price, because cleaner skins are more desirable and Factory New copies are scarcer for many finishes. The price gap between wear levels can be large for popular skins and small for cheaper ones. There are also sub-markets within a wear bucket: collectors pay premiums for the lowest-possible floats (for example a 0.00x Factory New) or for borderline floats that look better than their category suggests. A low-float Field-Tested that sits just above the Minimal Wear line can be a smart buy because it looks close to MW at an FT price.

Float interacts with rarity and pattern too. A skin's rarity tier sets its colour grade, but within that grade the float fine-tunes the price. On finishes like Case Hardened, float and pattern combine — a clean float with a rare blue pattern is the premium combination, as covered in the blue gem guide.

Capped Float Ranges: Why Some Skins Can't Reach Factory New

Not every skin can span the full 0.00 to 1.00 range. Each finish is assigned a minimum and maximum float by its creator. Some skins have a capped minimum above 0.07, meaning they can never appear as Factory New — the best you can find is Minimal Wear. Others have a capped maximum below 1.00, so even their most worn copies stop short of full Battle-Scarred damage.

This has practical consequences. If a skin's float is capped at, say, a minimum of 0.18, then it only exists in Field-Tested and worse, and the cleanest available copy is whatever sits closest to that 0.18 floor. Always check a skin's actual float caps before chasing a Factory New that may not exist for that finish. These caps also matter when planning trade-ups; our trade-up calculator accounts for input and output float so you can predict the result.

Float Caps and Extremes

Because outputs of trade-up contracts and the cleanest factory drops cluster at the edges of a skin's allowed range, the true extreme floats — the very lowest and very highest possible for a finish — are scarce. Collectors track these extremes, and a verified lowest-float copy of a sought-after skin can carry a significant premium over an ordinary Factory New. The same applies at the top: the highest-float Battle-Scarred copies are also rare and occasionally collected as curiosities.

How to Check a Skin's Float

You have two reliable ways to see a skin's exact float:

• Inspect link: Every skin listing on the Steam Community Market and in trades carries an inspect link. Opening it in-game shows the weapon, and third-party tools can read the precise float from that link.
• Float checker sites: Paste an inspect link into a float-checking website and it returns the exact decimal float, the pattern seed, and the wear category. This is the standard way buyers verify a listing before purchasing.

Before buying any skin, especially a higher-value one, check the float and pattern with one of these tools so you know exactly what you are getting rather than trusting the wear name alone.

FAQ

What is float in CS2?

Float is a hidden value between 0.00 and 1.00 assigned to every skin that determines how worn it looks and which of the five wear categories — Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn, or Battle-Scarred — it falls into.

What is a good float in CS2?

It depends on your goal. A lower float looks cleaner and usually costs more. A "good" float for value is often one near the bottom of its wear bucket — for example a Field-Tested just above 0.15 — because it looks close to the next-cleaner grade at a lower price.

What is the lowest float in CS2?

The theoretical minimum is 0.00, but most skins have a capped minimum set by the finish, so the practical lowest float varies per skin. Verified extreme-low-float copies of popular skins can sell for large premiums over ordinary Factory New examples.

Why can't some skins be Factory New?

Each finish has a minimum float cap. If that cap is above 0.07, the skin can never reach the Factory New range, and the cleanest version available is Minimal Wear or worse.