MAC-10 Case Hardened: Blue Gem Seed Patterns
The Mac-10 is a versatile option available to the Terrorist side in Counter-Strike 2. This sub-machine gun is probably one of the most favored weapons for noob and elite players alike, especially on B-side rushes during eco rounds to overwhelm enemies with its high rate of fire and spray & pray qualities. The Mac-10 has a total of 45 different finishes in various cases, with some finishes such as the Neon Rider, Disco Tech and the more recently released Stalker being highly favored by fans. However, the Mac-10 skin that has quickly risen to be one of the most highly demanded is the Case Hardened skin for this SMG.
The Case Hardened finish for the Mac-10 was introduced during the ‘Operation Riptide’ release as part of the 2021 Dust 2 Collection. As with every other weapon which has a Case Hardened finish, the one for the Mac-10 also became popular in a short span of time, with players clamoring to unbox the elusive Blue Gem patterns, since this is the pattern that has the potential for the biggest short and long term gains in the CS2 economy.
Why are these Blue Gem patterns so talked about in the community, why do they get so expensive, and what is it about a Case Hardened finish that characterizes it as a Blue Gem? These are some of the points we will go through in this article to get your bases covered.
List Of Mac-10 Case Hardened Patterns By Tier
So this is where it gets interesting. All Case Hardened finishes come in one of a thousand variations, signified by a number referred to as a seed pattern. We have a comprehensive index below which lists all Blue Gem patterns for the Mac-10 Case Hardened finish in different tiers. Some of these patterns are more valuable than others, and we will tell you what to look out for whether you are searching the third-party marketplaces for a nice pattern, or own one and want to know its value. Before we do that, though, here is the index:
| Group | Pattern Seeds |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 667, 114, 406, 18, 546, 587, 222, 95, 239, 898, 315 |
| Tier 2 | 503, 959, 924, 29, 147, 414, 311, 195, 328, 652, 251, 570, 379, 964, 400, 598, 199, 807, 885, 788, 475, 899, 285, 889, 6, 972, 358, 381, 182, 345, 629, 292, 80, 144 |
| Tier 3 | 34, 831, 808, 346, 41, 295, 811, 208, 309, 644, 436, 933, 108, 464, 657, 58, 72, 705, 960, 528, 858, 376, 378, 561, 19, 119, 553, 944, 241, 801, 153, 76, 523, 501, 313, 566, 349, 871, 458, 214, 525, 880, 699, 602, 669, 369, 138, 748, 402, 390, 434, 835, 579, 633, 720, 111, 127, 604, 473, 156, 107, 658, 457, 8, 242, 10, 190, 707, 573, 185, 716, 502, 735, 117, 453, 255, 399, 751, 881, 424, 403 |
| Tier 4 | 203, 839, 867, 721, 141, 679, 280, 741, 430, 220, 507, 714, 866, 979, 88, 753, 306, 283, 440, 768, 293, 704, 793, 173, 586, 372, 877, 332, 316, 923, 990, 612, 164, 159, 22, 13, 356, 837, 103, 958, 206, 128, 24, 623, 709, 314, 577, 451, 442, 617, 615, 806, 819, 533, 500, 560, 513, 804, 518, 785, 445, 425, 897, 342, 398, 61, 273, 456, 931, 32, 116, 282, 176, 59, 299, 618, 764, 838, 630, 928, 829, 191, 531, 443, 613, 256, 264, 275, 250, 367, 253, 830, 180, 792, 421, 455, 429, 466, 163, 489, 715, 373, 56, 52, 847, 919, 27, 632, 279, 904, 441, 162, 894, 499, 362, 655, 78, 859, 269, 873, 672, 569, 198, 968, 746, 67, 7, 462, 703, 506, 640, 136, 922, 143, 995, 650, 118, 926, 982, 583, 747, 710, 917, 778, 749, 135, 371, 913 |
There are four different tiers in the index, numbered 1-4 in order of value, with 1 being the highest and 4 lowest. The numbers in the opposite column signify the seed patterns, which are basically a variation in the Case Hardened pattern transferred onto the weapon from a color sheet.
Tier 1 patterns have the highest amount of the Blue stain from the Case Hardened finish, and thus generate the highest amounts of overpay for the skin, sometimes several times over the average market value, due to their rarity and demand. The amount of the blue stain gradually decreases as you go down the tiers, and the least amount is present on patterns from Tier 4, which are equivalent in value to the average market value at which the skin sells for.
What Is The Case Hardened Finish?
The Case Hardened finish was released in 2013 as part of the ‘Arms Deal’ update in CS2, initially only for the AK-47 and five different knives. The skin was a huge success and became probably the most talked about in the community as people started to come across the Blue Gem patterns and how aesthetically appealing they looked in-game.
The Case Hardened skins are derived through a pre-formulated sheet which has varying swathes of colors embossed on a gray base. These colors range from brilliant blue, which happens to be the most favored, to a deeper blue, which is then outlined by flecks of purple, and finally, shades of gold in varying brightness, which is the least valued. A particular pattern is transferred onto the weapon in a cookie-cutter style which determines the amount of each color on the skin. In total, there are 1000 different variations of these patterns.
The Case Hardened finish comes in all wears, from Factory New (0.00) to Battle-Scarred (1.00), however, the wear condition has little impact on the overlook look of the skin, with higher floats only darkening the shades of the finish, but not influencing anything else like abrasions or scraping.
What Inspired The Case Hardened As a Weapon Finish In CS2?
During the times of the late 17th century, soldiers were faced with weapons that would often break down during skirmishes from impacts or general use. The situation was so extreme that it was communicated to the manufacturers, who were tasked with coming up with a solution at the earliest.
After extensive research was conducted, the brittleness of the steel being used in the manufacturing was determined to be the leading cause of breakdowns, which was attributed to the low amount of carbon present in the raw material. The manufacturers then had to come up with a way to add more carbon to the steel to strengthen it and finally came up with an ingenious idea of doing it through the use of biological matter. They gathered animal remains such as hooves, bones, leather, etc. and put it together with the steel in an airtight ‘case’ that was made of a hard material able to withstand high temperatures. The case was then heated to around 700°c which would cause the animal remains inside to vaporize and the resulting carbon to form a shell on top of the steel, ‘hardening’ and strengthening it. The hot steel was afterward quenched in water, and the steel would also develop mottled colors on the surface like the ones seen on Case Hardened skins in the game.
What Is a Blue Gem Case Hardened Skin?
A Blue Gem is the most expensive variant of the Case Hardened finish and is defined as a skin that has its playside covered in the highest amount of blue from the Case Hardened color palette. For most skins, the whole playside is covered in blue. There are some exceptions to this such as knives with large blades, or any of the guns which come in the Case Hardened finish. The reason for this is that large weapons cannot be covered entirely in blue by the pattern. However, there is then leniency given to compensate for this phenomenon, and a slightly different criterion is set from the norm.
Blue Gems with Tier 1 seed patterns generate huge amounts of overpay, whereas patterns in Tier 3 & 4, which have less amount of blue on the playside have their prices closer to the average market value.
How Valuable Are These Blue Gem Skins?
The value of Blue Gem skins has always tended to fluctuate over time and deviates on the basis of what weapon the Blue Gem finish is on. The one fact that remains constant is that Blue Gems usually are the most expensive finish for the weapon they are on. To explain this further, let’s compare the Gut Knife, which is a low-tier knife, with a Talon Knife, which is a high-tier knife. The Blue Gem on the Talon Knife is going to be substantially more expensive than the Blue Gem for a Gut Knife. For less desirable weapons, a Blue Gem may cost a few thousand dollars, while this figure may go into the tens of thousands of dollars for high-tier knives.
The primary reason for the high value associated with Blue Gems comes from their rarity factor. On average, it takes 3.7 million case unboxings to come across the best Blue Gem pattern of a weapon. This makes them rarer than any other finish in the game, including Doppler Rubies, Sapphires, and Emeralds.
The most highly valued Blue Gem in the history of CS2 has to be a Karambit in Factory New condition with seed pattern #387, in possession of a Chinese skin collector who has valued it at USD 1.5m. The knife remains unsold at this price, and until it does, we will likely not be able to gauge how much a Blue Gem truly has the ability to fetch.
How Much Is a Blue Gem Mac-10 Worth?
Some of the top Tier 1 seed patterns for the Mac-10 may be valued anywhere between USD 1.5-2k.
How Can I Get a Blue Gem Mac-10?
If you want to be the proud owner of a Blue Gem and earn some flex points from the community, getting a Mac-10 Case Hardened with a Tier 1 pattern could be the right place to start. There are various ways you can go about it, with varying levels of difficulty.
Perhaps the easiest out of these is to reach out to members of the CS2 community in forums and state your demand. A seller with a good Tier 1 or 2 pattern might be inclined towards a trade.
Alternatively, you can search the various third-party marketplaces as well as the Steam Community Market for their listings to find the seed pattern you’re looking for. If you have the cash to spare, you could look into purchasing the following packages to have a chance at unboxing one:
- Antwerp 2022 Dust II Souvenir Package
- Rio 2022 Dust II Souvenir Package
- Stockholm 2021 Dust II Souvenir Package
However, it would be wise not to take this route, for multiple reasons. Each of the Souvenir Packages mentioned above dropped during their respective Majors, and unlike cases, do not drop anymore. As such, there are limited numbers available, and the ones that are, have already shot up in value enough to deter anyone but the biggest investors to undertake this task.
The last method at your disposal then is a Trade-up Contract. These are present in your inventory and allow you to trade 10 skins of the same grade for 1 skin from the next higher grade. For instance, if you trade up 10 Galil Amber Fades of any wear, which are Mil-spec Grade, you have a 33% chance of trading up to a Mac-10 Case Hardened of similar wear, with the rest of the odds going to the other Restricted Grade skins in the collection. The chances of getting a Mac-10 with a Tier 1 pattern may be very limited, but it is possible, as one of the top-tier patterns was acquired this way.
The Mac-10: Case Hardened
The Mac-10 Case Hardened has quite a few different Tier 1 patterns, but there is no consensus that has been reached among the community as to which among these is the #1 seed pattern. In large part, this comes as a result of how the skins are usually transferred onto the Mac-10. The gun has three separate parts where the finish has to transfer, which are the top receiver, the bottom part of the receiver, and the rear end.
For example, pattern #239, which is a Tier 1 Blue Gem, has a completely blue top part on the receiver, but gold on the bottom and rear part of the receiver. Tier 1 pattern #222, has the rear half of both the top and bottom in blue, but the front top and bottom half are gold. And pattern #667 has a large part of the top receiver and some of the bottom parts in blue, while the rest of the gun has gray, gold, and purple blemishes.
Most of these Tier 1 patterns for the Mac-10 don’t look as impressive in-game as those on the AK-47 and the Five-Seven. Besides this, a Mac-10 is rarely ever used at the professional level and mostly just as an eco-round option for desperate rushes at the lower ranks. It is for these reasons that the price of a Mac 10 Case Hardened, even with a Tier 1 pattern, remains relatively low compared to other Blue Gems. It’s a more affordable option for anyone looking to make it a part of their collection. If you find yourself in this category, check out the listings below to find the pattern that you like:
Concluding Remarks
In conclusion, Blue Gem Case Hardened patterns are one of the rarest in CS2 which makes them some of the most expensive skins on the market. They look great as well, which is why many of the top players are seen carrying a knife with a Blue Gem pattern in a Major, which adds to their exclusivity and elite status. Although the price of Tier 1 patterns for the Mac-10 may not be at a very high level currently, it would still be a viable option for long-term investing since these can only be acquired from the Souvenir Packages that were released with Majors, and their dwindling numbers mean that with each passing day, the chances of unboxing a Mac-10 Case Hardened lessens, driving up its price. It would come as no surprise if the price of its Tier 1 patterns significantly shoots up over the next couple of years, and the best time to invest in this skin was yesterday.
