What the most expensive knife and AK-47 in CS:GO have in common? They’re both Case Hardened skins. Case Hardened is one of the most unusual weapon finishes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The pattern is so complex, people created special catalogs for unique patterns. Today, CS.MONEY Blog talks about all Case Hardened skins, what Blue Gem means, and how to get them. And hey, don’t think that Case Hardened skins are very expensive and only for the richest! Click on the links and see yourself: some of them are pretty down-to-earth in terms of prices.
Dragon Lore, Howl, Case Hardened and Blue Gems will always be the legendary Counter-Strike skins. And in CS2, too, where all the skins will become even better! Find out all the differences between Case Hardened CS:GO vs CS2 on our special landing page, as well as browse through skin price comparisons and reads about investmentns. Click here!
What does Case Hardened mean?
Valve’s development team drew inspiration from real life. Case Hardening is also called Surface Hardening, and it’s been there for a long time, hundreds of years. For example, people used to harden revolvers in the Wild West so they would look better and live longer. That was over 150 years ago!
Here’s how you get a Hardened skin: iron is placed in a substance with a concenrated liquid of carbohydrate. Then, the liquid is heated. As a result, you’ll get a thin layer of high-carbon steel on the iron! This is what gives us the blue gem colour. And depending on the elements and technologies used, the colour of Hardening can vary from blue to purple and even gold.
Mid-19th century, US Army made their main weapon, the legendary Colt Peacemaker, in the same way. As a result, the weapons were covered with multi-coloured spots, so they can be considered the first Case Hardened skins! Alas, there are no Case Hardened revolvers in CS yet.
First Case Hardened Skins
The first Case Hardened skins appeared along with the first case, the CS:GO Weapon Case: AK-47 Case Hardened and knives, including Karambit Case Hardened. Soon, Valve also introduced Five-SeveN Case Hardened. In September 2021, they also released the last one from the series, MAC-10 Case Hardened. By the way, Case Hardened pattern is available for all 19 knives in the game.
How Case Hardened patterns differ in CS:GO?
So, once again. Overall, in CS:GO there are 19 different knives, AK-47, Five-SeveN and MAC-10 with Case Hardened pattern. All of them are very popular, although each weapon has its own hits. Basically, what is a Case Hardened skin? It’s a square texture that is applied to the weapon model randomly. The texture’s location is determined by a number from 1 to 1000. These magic numbers are called Pattern Index.
Some skins in CS:GO won’t look differently with various Pattern Indexes. But with Case Hardened, it’s the opposite. Patterns decide everything and the price can jump ten times depending on the number. Expensive or cheap? Let the colours speak. The most expensive skins in this series are almost entirely blue or gold, they’re called Blue Gems and Gold Gems. Silver skins are also more expensive than usual ones.
You can always look at different Blue and Gold Gems in our 3D Viewer, where setting up any pattern is easy and fast. And also you can learn the prices right there! Or you can do it at CS.MONEY as well, browsing through numerous lots and offers.
What is a Blue Gem?
Blue Gem is the name for Case Hardened skins with the maximum amount of blue on them. These skins are considered very rare and super valuable among traders and players. The most famous Blue Gem skin is AK-47 Case Hardened with Pattern Index #661. It is considered the best and therefore costs a lot. For example, one such beauty recently was sold for around $400,000. But even more expensive is Karambit Case Hardened, as now it’s the most expensive knife and skin in CS and is valued at $1,500,000.
Why are Blue Gems so expensive?
There are three reasons why an AK-47 Blue Gem costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. First, it’s rare. Like, really rare. There are usually one or two patterns that are considered the best and about ten more being just nice. Approximately 1 Case Hardened out of 100 is a Blue Gem and 1/1000 is a good Blue Gem.
Let’s take AK-47 Case Hardened with pattern number 661 as an example. Overall, there are around 90.000 AK Case Hardened in the game. 123 of them are patterned #661. Of those 123, only nine are Factory New. Nine skins for all CS players! With such a rarity, it’s no wonder they cost a living.
Second, it looks dope. Bright blue patterns, especially in contrast with gold and other shades, make the skin gorgeous. It stands out even among other colourful or intricately designed CS skins.
Finally, the third reason is investment value. Skins look even cooler in Counter-Strike 2. Due to the fact that Case Hardened has a random pattern, all skins are already applied to the new weapon models. In addition, the game’s new lighting system makes Blue Gem skins even juicier. Skins from CS:GO will be available in Counter-Strike 2 and the demand for Case Hardened is unlikely to drop. So, they are of investment value. You can learn more about skins in CS2 here.
Best Case Hardened Skins: Scarred AK, Blue Barrel, and 50/50
AK-47 has the most variations of Case Hardened, over ten unique community-named patterns! They can be divided into three categories: Blue, Gold and Mixed.
AK-47 Blue Gems
The Blue is the most expensive. It includes The Scar, Blue Top+Bottom, 50/50, Blue Mag, and Blue Barell. Some of them are specific and single pattern indexes, others can allow several different ones.
The coolest Case Hardened skins are The Scars. The name comes from a small patch of golden colour in the form of a strip on the receiver, while the sides of the body of the weapon and its back are blue. Pattern numbers: #661, #321 and #670. And #661 is considered the best (and most expensive).
The Blue Barrel and Blue Mag speak for themselves. Patterns #587 and #502 have the best blue magazines. The Blue Barrel has a few patterns, like #151 or #856, but they are not very highly valued. By the way, all colours and patterns are available for inspection at our 3D Builder, where you can manually select a pattern and anything you want.
Blue Top+Bottom and 50/50 are skins with the corresponding blue patch placement. They’re also not that rare since it could be a whole variety of Pattern Indexes (up to ten numbers). For example #092. Indeed, the price can be very different, especially if the blue covers the back of the weapon.
AK-47 Gold Gems
Gold Gems are lot easier. It’s just a Case Hardened skin with the maximum amount of gold on it. The Patterns are #219 and #784. Both are almost completely gold, with only occasional splashes of other colors.
And we’re left with Mixed Case Hardened skins. See, on the Case Hardened texture, all blue spots are framed in purple. And skins with many such spots, literally painted in purple, silver, blue and gold, are called Rainbow or Galaxy. Although they are not as expensive as the patterns above, they are still more expensive than regular items.
All other patterns do not have specific names and, therefore, any additional cost. But even without that, Case Hardened are very cool skins that can spruce up any inventory.
All Case Hardened Nnives
Knives have fewer special patterns, but they still can be devided into two groups. In CS, all Case Hardened knives have two sides: the one you see (front) and the one you don’t (back) when you play. So, the colors on the front side are much more valuable than those on the back. Blade color ratios are measured in percents. The higher the percentage, the rarer and more expensive the skin.
All Case Hardened knife skins can be divided into five categories:
- all gold, aka Gold Gem, Ursus Knife #120
- little blue, up to ~20% of the blade area, Bayonet M9 #211
- half blue, ~50% area, Bowie Knife #27
- blue blade, Bayonet #74
- completely blue, aka Blue Gem, Karambit #387
All ratios are calculated based on the knife’s front side, the color on the back can be just a small bonus.
Blue Case Hardened knives are the most expensive knives. Karambit Case Hardened with an all blue blade and in good condition was sold a few years ago for $120,000. This is one of the biggest deals in the skins market.
Case Hardened Five-SeveN
Five-SeveN is similar to Case Hardened knives category-wise. They also have Colour Ratios calculated, and the cost is determined based on them. The most expensive, of course, are Blue Gem skins. Pattern numbers: #278, #690 and #868. As for the rest, the more blue, the higher the price tag.
As with knives, gold Five-SeveNs are not worth the price. Gold Gem patterns almost do not stand out in value, and the appearance is too similar to Five-SeveN | Copper Galaxy.
Still, Five-SeveN has a lot of different blue variations. You can find a list of all rare patterns for Case Hardened skins on our Wiki. We have a special list of rare patterns for each Case Hardened to help you evaluate skins faster.
How to get a Case Hardened skin?
You can get a Case Hardened skin in two ways. First, simply loof for offers, inspect the skins, measure the percentage of blue (or gold), and then search for a guarantor when buying for cash or bargaining for skins. Needless to say, this option is long, boring and takes a lot of time. However, you can also open cases or do a Trade Contract. Fun, huh?
Option number two is to use our special advanced CS.MONEY filter. You can tweak it by clicking on the button below the main filters. Choose whatever pattern you want and apply it! You can also search for any other skins here. There’s no need to look for any third-party services to protect you from scams when you’re using CS.MONEY.
And don’t forget that CS2 comes out pretty soon! Check our special landing page with all the explanations, skins comparison, old and new prices, and also a bit about investments.
