How To Get A Knife Skin In CS2
It should come as no surprise to CS2 players that knives are some of the most priciest items that you can get in the shooter. While weapon skins for any gun in CS2 can be obtained rather easily through opening cases and from in-game drops, getting a knife in the game isn’t as simple.
It goes without saying that a decent knife skin can make any ordinary inventory shine through its presence. However, they are generally extremely costly, which is why many CS2 players often wonder how they can get a knife skin in their inventory.
If you’re an avid CS2 player and looking for ways to get a knife skin in CS2, we have you covered. In this article, we’re gonna take a look at all the ways that you can adopt to get yourself a fancy knife skin in CS2.
Before we go any deeper into the topic, it’s important to mention that there are plenty of ways to get a knife skin in CS2 and you’re free to pursue any method that you prefer. However, we’ll be listing out some of the best ways to get a CS2 knife while also specifying which method we think is the best out of them.
Buying a Knife Directly From the Steam Market
Purchasing a CS2 knife directly from the Steam Market is, without a doubt, the simplest and easiest method to get a knife in the game that most players use to avoid any hassle. It’s also arguably the fastest way to get a knife in the game as it takes no more than a couple of seconds to get the knife you desire. However, is this the ideal way to get a knife skin?
While buying a knife from the Steam Market is as simple as topping up your Steam Wallet and checking out your dream knife, it might not be the smartest decision. As many of you may already know, the Steam Community Market charges its users a 15% transaction fee per item sale made on the platform. To compensate for this hefty fee, sellers usually put up their items for high prices, which is why items on the Steam Market are generally overpriced when compared to other various third-party marketplaces. So, let’s take a look at other available markets next.
Buying a Knife From Third-Party Marketplaces
There are plenty of third-party marketplaces on the internet that allow users to buy and sell skins from CS2 and other games. These websites generally have much lower sale fees than that of the Steam Community Market, which is why item prices on third-party markets are usually much lower than on Steam Market. You can expect an average discount of around 30% compared to Steam Market prices.
However, users must tread carefully when selecting which website to buy and sell skins from. With the rising number of scams in the CS2 community, the number of phishing/scamming websites is also increasing rapidly on the internet. If you want to check out a list of trusted marketplaces to buy and sell CS2 skins, you can check out our curated list of trusted CS2 markets.
Getting a Knife by Trading Up
Trading up to a knife is a tedious and slow process, but it is perhaps the cheapest way to get a knife in CS2. For those who are not sure about how trading up works, it is essentially when a Steam user purchases a skin and trades it with another user for a skin of more value. While trading up from a low-value skin to a knife is an extremely difficult process, there are plenty of guides available on the internet that can help you achieve it. Renowned CS2 YouTuber ‘Clicky Crisp’ has recorded his journey of trading up ‘from nothing to a knife’ which you can check out here.
Getting a Knife by Opening Cases
Opening cases is one of the many ways of obtaining a knife in CS2. Generally considered to be a very risky way to get knives, opening cases can also be extremely profitable at times if you manage to unbox a knife with a rare pattern. However, do note that you’ll likely be losing money on the majority of case unboxings as getting a knife in itself is quite rare and most of the skins that you unbox won’t cost much more than a few dollars at best.
To be specific, there’s a 0.26% chance of you obtaining a knife every time you open a case in CS2, which is 1 knife for every 385 cases. This means that if you decide to unbox 10,000 cases, you’ll get about 26 knives in total. If you want to know more about the odds of unboxing a knife and making a profit off cases, you can check out our detailed article here.
Getting a Knife From In-Game Drops
While this may sound far-fetched at first, it is possible to get a knife in CS2 from in-game drops alone without spending a dime (as long as you have the Prime status). However, it is an extremely tedious process that will likely take you a while to achieve.
Every week, you can get a total of two case drops just by playing CS2. While the first case usually takes only a few games to drop, you may have to play for several hours to receive the next drop. On average, these case drops will net you around 50 cents, and this number will vary depending on the active drop pool. For instance, when Valve introduces a new case to the game, getting your hands on one early can easily get you about $10.
Now let’s take a look at the price of the cheapest knife in CS2 - about $60 at the time of writing. This means that you can get your first CS2 knife in around a year if you decide to buy it by selling the in-game drops that you receive while playing the game.
Something worth mentioning here is that there’s also a chance for you to receive a case from the ‘rare drop pool’ every time you get a case drop in CS2, and these ‘rare’ drops can potentially be sold for as much as $50. Specifically, there’s about a 1% chance for you to receive a ‘rare’ drop each time you get a case as a drop in-game.
You can learn more about the case drops in CS2 and how the weekly drop system works here.
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
These were some of the best and most popular ways to obtain a knife in CS2. Once you read through all the methods listed above, you can take your time and determine which method fits you best. However, keep these points in mind:
- Opening cases will likely result in a loss, but can also net you huge profits if you get really lucky.
- Items on the Steam Market are generally overpriced, and it might be a better choice to seek out the knife you want on third-party marketplaces.
- Once you learn the basics, trading up can also be pretty profitable if you’re looking to get a knife or upgrade one you already have.
- You can place buy orders for the knives that you want on the Steam Community Market to get them at a discounted price.
- Be on the lookout for market crashes and grab the opportunity to get yourself a CS2 knife at a cheaper price.
To summarize, if you’re looking to get the most value out of your money, your best bet might be to use a third-party marketplace to directly buy the knife that you want. That way, you can usually get a 30% discount compared to the Steam market. However, if you’re looking to get a knife from the Steam Community Market, you should always place a buy order and wait till a user sells their knife at your listed price. Placing buy orders instead of directly buying at sale prices can easily save you 10-15% on your knife.
You should also consider taking the time to learn skin-trading in CS2, as it can help you upgrade your knife to better alternatives later.
