CS2 Knives - Everything You Need To Know

A CS2 knife is without a doubt the most prestigious ingame item you can get your hands on. In this article, we’ll tell you all about how to get a knife in CS2, how rare they are, and why they cost so much.

If you’re interested in getting a CS2 knife for yourself, you can always check out our guide on how to get a free CS2 knife.

How Rare Is A CS2 Knife?

When opening a case with a knife as the rare special item, your odds of getting a knife are ~0.26%.

Knives can only be added to the game by means of unboxing; they cannot be found in care packages or by using a Trade Up Contract (where you exchange 10 skins of the same rarity for 1 random skin of the rarity tier above it). As such, knives are extremely rare; much more so than regular weapon skins, as players need to spend money on cases and case keys in order to even have a chance at getting a knife.

Opening A CS2 Knife

Know that getting a knife from a CS2 case is not guaranteed and the odds are against you. Each time you open a case, you have a 0.26% chance of getting a knife. This is true for every new case you open, and this percentage doesn’t ‘stack’. Opening 385 cases doesn’t give you a 100.1% chance of opening a knife. That’s simply not how odds work. You could open 1,000 cases and not get a single knife, whereas a friend might get one in their second case. It’s all based on luck.

Additionally, it’s good to know that the precise knife you get is random. If you open a case and hit a knife, you can get a $200 Gut Knife with a low tier finish or a $10,000 M9 with a rare gem finish. Some cases (like the Kilowatt Case) only have 1 knife type in them, but even then there’s a big price difference between low tier finishes and high tier finishes.

Once a knife is unboxed, its condition, pattern, float value, and finish is randomized. This is permanent, and none of these change when a knife gets used or traded.

Buying Or Trading A CS2 Knife

The most hassle-free way to get a knife in CS2 is by simply buying it. You can get one from the Steam Community Market or by purchasing one on a variety of third-party marketplaces such as CS.Money.

The Steam Community Market is Steam’s in-house marketplace, so it’s 100% safe and secure to use. Steam does take a rather large cut though, so prices on Steam are rather high. In addition to this, the filter options on Steam are also limited. Looking for a specific float value, for example, isn’t possible there.

Third-party marketplaces all have a variety of features to attract customers. This can range from very low fees to large selections of items, or even free giveaways for returning customers. Technically, these third-party websites are not 100% safe (since they’re not operated by Valve) but there are numerous marketplaces that have been operating for many years now, so it’s safe to say that Valve tolerates these kinds of websites.

If you know what you want and you have the money for it (never spend money you can’t afford to lose in in-game items) then simply buying a knife is the most recommended way of getting one. It can be tempting to think ‘if I open a couple of cases and get one I make a profit,’ but again: you’re not guaranteed to get a knife by opening cases.

Types Of CS2 Knives

CS2 currently has 20 different knife types. These are:

Navaja Knife
Gut Knife
Shadow Daggers
Bowie Knife
Falchion Knife
Paracord Knife
Survival Knife
Huntsman Knife
Ursus Knife
Flip Knife
Kukri Knife
Classic Knife
Stiletto Knife
Talon Knife
Nomad Knife
Skeleton Knife
Bayonet
M9 Bayonet
Karambit
Butterfly Knife

Every knife has its own set of animations. Some knives even have rare inspect/pullout animations that only show up every once in a while.

What Determines The Price Of CS2 Knives?

The price of a knife in CS2 is determined by multiple factors.

Knife Type

The most important factor is the knife type itself. Something like a Butterfly Knife is a lot more popular than a Navaja Knife, which drives up the price. How desirable a knife type is has less to do with its rarity and more to do with its standing within the community. According to CSFloat, there are around 4 times more Butterfly Knives in rotation than there are Classic Knives, yet a Butterfly Knife is a lot more expensive than a Classic Knife.

Hype and usage in the pro scene and overall community is the most important factor when it comes to determining the price of a CS2 knife.

Finish

There are a lot of knife finishes in CS2, ranging from realistic-looking camo patterns all the way to red knives with black spiderwebs on them. The knife finish is extremely important when it comes to the value of a knife. Generally speaking, the more realistic and ‘plain looking’ skins are worth less than flashy and shiny alternatives.

Pattern

Some knives can have different patterns within their finish (see CS2 Pattern ID Explained) which can greatly influence the price. The most (in)famous example of this is the Case Hardened finish. The amount of blue that you’ll find on the blade is random, and the more blue there is, the rarer the pattern is. Some high tier Case Hardened items with a ton of blue on them (called ‘Blue Gems’) can sell for over $1,000,000.

Wear / Float Value

The Float Value of a knife is also a big factor when it comes to price. Factory New knives are almost always the most expensive, but within those Factory New knives the price can greatly vary as well. An M9 Doppler with a float value of 0.0004 will sell for a lot more than an M9 Doppler with a regular float value of 0.03, for example.

CS Knife Tiers

This is a topic of great debate and is -obviously- extremely subjective, but we can generally divide the current selection of CS2 knives into three tiers: high tier, mid tier, and low tier. Some knives float between two tiers (such as the Talon Knife, which can be either high tier or mid tier depending on who you’re asking) so don’t treat this list as hard science: it’s more of a general guideline.

High Tier

These knives appear near the top of pretty much everyone’s tier list. They are used frequently in the pro scene and by the game’s most influential players and, as a consequence, cost the most. These knives are extremely desirable and very easy to trade/sell. The high tier knives in CS2 are:

Butterfly Knife
Karambit
M9 Bayonet

Mid Tier

Mid tier knives can range all the way from ‘very cool’ to ‘meh’ depending on who you’re asking, but most people won’t have a problem with any of these knives. Most knives in the game fall into this category. These are knives that are generally considered to be nice, but not top tier in the community. Trading/selling these knives shouldn’t be too hard, provided you’re not trying to get rid of an undesirable finish in a bad condition. The mid tier knives are:

Talon Knife
Skeleton Knife
Bayonet
Stiletto Knife
Flip Knife
Nomad Knife
Classic Knife
Huntsman Knife
Ursus Knife
Falchion Knife
Paracord Knife
Survival Knife
Bowie Knife

Low Tier

These knives are considered to be ‘beginner knives’ and aren’t very popular. Trading/selling these knives can take quite some time due to the fact that they’re not very desirable, but as a consequence of that they’re also among the cheapest knives in the game.

Navaja Knife
Shadow Daggers
Gut Knife
Kukri Knife

Are CS2 Knives A Good Investment?

CS2 is not a regulated market, so investing in CS2 skins comes with considerable risk. With that said: knives are historically known to be pretty stable CS2 cosmetics. Especially the higher tier knives tend to rise and fall with the market in general, meaning that there (usually) aren’t any big unexpected price drops or rises. As such, CS2 knives aren’t a good investment for people who want to make money fast, but if you’re looking for a play skin that isn’t known to be too erratic when it comes to price, a CS2 knife can be a good investment.

We want to stress this again, though: only spend money you can afford to lose. Nothing is guaranteed in the CS2 market, so never use funds that you need to survive on ingame cosmetics.

Do CS2 Knives Wear Down?

No. Just like with gun skins, the condition, pattern, float, … of a CS2 knife never changes. You can trade or use a CS2 knife as many times as you want: it’ll still look exactly the same.

Why Are CS2 Knives So Expensive?

Knives in CS2 are as expensive as they are due to the laws of supply and demand.

CS2 is played by well over a million people every day and has over 25 million unique players every month. If we use CSFloat’s database, there are (roughly estimated) 4 million knives in existence at this point. Even if these numbers are unreliable and you add a million or two, the fact still stands that there are way more players than there are knives. Given the fact that a knife is something that almost every CS2 player wants, it’s thus no surprise that they are this expensive.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you now know everything you need to know about CS2 knives. If you have any questions, feel free to let us know in the comments and we’ll do our best to help you out!