CS2 Case Hardened Guide

Which weapons come in Case Hardened?

Case Hardened is on one rifle, one pistol, one SMG, every knife model and one pair of gloves. The ByMykel item dataset, which reads the game's item files, lists it on the AK-47, Five-SeveN, MAC-10, all 20 knife models and the Hydra Gloves.

Source: CSRated price snapshot, 2 October 2026 (lowest cash listing across five markets). Case contents from our case data.

Two more skins use the same treatment under a different name. The game describes the Desert Eagle Heat Treated (an Armory Limited Edition item) and the Five-SeveN Heat Treated with the exact same line as Case Hardened: "color case-hardened through the application of wood charcoal at high temperatures" (item text in the ByMykel dataset). They are separate skins with their own markets.

Case Hardened has no float cap on the AK-47 and the knives: the float runs from 0 to 1, so every wear exists. The Hydra Gloves run from 0.06 to 0.80. The float checker shows the range for any skin.

What makes a Case Hardened a blue gem?

Valve's Weapon Finishes guide files case hardening under the patina style, and explains that every paint gets random offsets and rotations within set ranges when it is applied. That random placement is stored as the pattern index, also called the paint seed. On Case Hardened, it decides where the blue, purple and gold land.

A blue gem is a copy where blue covers most of the side you see while playing. Our pattern index guide explains the mechanism in full; this guide focuses on the weapons, the lists and the prices.

Two points matter before you look at any list:

• Lists are per weapon. The same seed lands differently on each model. A famous AK-47 seed is not a famous Karambit seed.
• Lists are community opinion. Valve does not rank patterns. Marketplaces and collectors publish tier lists, and they do not always agree.

Which AK-47 Case Hardened patterns are blue gems?

The AK-47 holds the most famous Case Hardened sale. In June 2024, TheGamer reported that a StatTrak Factory New AK-47 with pattern 661 sold for over $1 million. The exact figure was not made public. The same article mentioned a Case Hardened AK-47 that sold for $400,000 the year before.

For the wider list, SkinsMonkey's AK-47 tier list (March 2026) places 12 seeds in its top tier: 151, 168, 179, 321, 387, 555, 592, 661, 670, 760, 809 and 955. It lists 55 seeds in tier 2 and 29 in tier 3. Treat it as one marketplace's view. Check at least one other list before paying a premium.

A rough sense of rarity: 12 top-tier seeds out of 1,001 possible patterns is about 1.2%. That assumes every seed is equally likely, which Valve has not stated. Then add wear, StatTrak and float, and a top-tier Factory New StatTrak becomes a one-off item.

Which Five-SeveN patterns are blue gems?

The Five-SeveN is the cheapest way into Case Hardened, and it has its own gem list. Skinport's Five-SeveN guide (May 2025) ranks patterns 278 and 690 as the top tier, with 868 just behind.

The ordinary gun is cheap. A Field-Tested Five-SeveN Case Hardened listed at $9.99, and a Battle-Scarred one at $8.94 (CSRated price snapshot, 2 October 2026). That makes it a cheap way to learn how Case Hardened patterns look, without $200 on the line.

What about Karambit and other knife blue gems?

Knife gems have even less public price data than the AK-47. TheGamer's 2024 article mentions a blue gem Karambit valued at $1.5 million whose owner refused to sell. A valuation is not a sale, so read it as an asking level, not a price.

We did not find a knife tier list from a source we would cite with confidence for every model, so we do not list knife seeds here. If you are buying a knife gem, use the knife's own inspect screenshots, check several community databases for that exact knife model, and ask for the inspect link (see the checks below).

What is a gold gem?

A gold gem is the opposite look: a copy where gold covers most of the visible side. Skinport describes gold gems as a smaller collector niche that does not reach blue gem prices (Five-SeveN guide).

Community lists exist for them too. A Steam Community guide to gold gems lists seeds per weapon, for example 784, 219, 473 and 538 on the AK-47, and 896, 231, 939 and 388 on the Karambit. The premium is smaller and the buyer pool thinner, so price them with care.

What does an ordinary Case Hardened cost?

Most Case Hardened copies are not gems, and they trade like normal skins. Here is the AK-47 by wear, with Skinport's sale medians and the nine-day move in our price history.

Source: CSRated price snapshot and daily history, 24 September to 2 October 2026; Skinport sales for the 30 days to 2 October 2026.

Three things stand out:

• Sales sit close to the floor. The Field-Tested median sale was only about 4% above the lowest listing. Most buyers pay the ordinary price, not a pattern premium.
• Wear matters less than usual. Battle-Scarred listed above Well-Worn. On most skins the worse wear is cheaper. Here the gap between worn copies is small, a sign that buyers weigh the pattern as well as the wear.
• Steam costs more. The Field-Tested AK-47 listed at $275.05 on the Steam Market, paid in Steam Wallet money, against $203.03 on the cheapest cash market.

Knives look similar. A Field-Tested Karambit Case Hardened listed at $741.51, and its 90-day Skinport median was $693.65 over 16 sales, so ordinary copies sold close to the floor there too.

Which Case Hardened knife is the cheapest?

Every one of the 20 knife models has a Case Hardened version, so the spread is wide. Here is the lowest Field-Tested listing for each, cheapest first.

Source: CSRated price snapshot, 2 October 2026.

The model sets the floor. A Field-Tested Karambit costs over eleven times a Field-Tested Navaja in the same finish. StatTrak adds less on knives than on the AK-47: a StatTrak Field-Tested Karambit Case Hardened listed at $833.71, about 1.12 times the normal one. Our StatTrak guide shows the same pattern across all knives.

If you want to learn how Case Hardened patterns look on a knife without a big outlay, a cheaper model lets you compare seeds and screenshots for under $100. The CS2 knives page lists every knife with live prices.

How do you check a Case Hardened pattern before buying?

The Steam Market shows the name and wear, not the pattern. Use the inspect link.

1. Get the inspect link. On a listing or in a trade offer, copy the "Inspect in Game" link.
2. Read the seed. Paste the link into an inspect tool. Our guide on how to inspect CS2 skins walks through it.
3. Look up that exact weapon. Compare the seed with at least two tier lists for the same model.
4. Check the playside. Inspect the item in the game and look at the side you see while holding it. Blue on the back does not make a blue gem.
5. Confirm the item, not a screenshot. A screenshot can be from a different copy. The inspect link is tied to the actual item.

Should you buy Case Hardened hoping for a blue gem?

Buy a Case Hardened because you like the look of the copy in front of you. Treat any gem as a bonus.

• Buying an ordinary copy: pay close to the floor. The sales data shows that is what most buyers pay.
• Buying a "nice" pattern: check that the seed appears on more than one list for that weapon, and inspect the playside yourself.
• Opening cases or trading up for a gem: the pattern is random each time, and the trade-up calculator cannot price the gem chance. Opening the CS:GO Weapon Case for an AK-47 gem stacks a Classified drop on top of a tiny pattern chance. If you open cases, set a budget first; see our responsible gaming page.
• Selling a gem: the buyer pool is small. Market listings are grouped by name and wear, so buyers only find the pattern if you show it. Expect a slow sale and price it against other copies of the same seed, not the floor.

For the short definitions, see Case Hardened and blue gem in the glossary. To see how pattern, wear and StatTrak combine into one price, read how CS2 skin prices work.