Rare Special Item is the name CS2 uses for the knife or glove slot in a weapon case. When you open a case, the item list shows the regular skins by rarity, plus one gold entry called a Rare Special Item that stands in for every knife or glove finish that case can produce. Traders call this tier "gold" and call the result "unboxing a knife".
Valve's published odds give the Rare Special Item a 0.26% chance per case. That is about one in 385 openings. Once the game rolls a gold, it then rolls which knife or glove model, which finish, the float, and whether it is StatTrak.
What counts as a Rare Special Item?
Knives and gloves. Each case has its own set: older cases usually hold the classic knives such as the Karambit, Butterfly Knife, M9 Bayonet and Bayonet, while newer cases add newer models or glove sets instead of knives. A case never holds both knives and gloves at the same time; it is one or the other.
Can you get a Rare Special Item without opening cases?
Yes, in two ways. You can buy one from another player or a marketplace, which is what most owners do. Or, since an October 2025 update, you can put five Covert skins into a trade-up contract and receive a random knife or pair of gloves from the input collections. You cannot choose the model or finish, so the value of the result can range from cheap to very expensive.
Because a gold can be worth a lot or very little depending on the finish and float, the average value of a Rare Special Item is not the same as the price of the knife you hope for. Case odds calculators use the average across all possible golds, which is the honest number.