Everything You Need to Know About CS:GO Cases
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular first-person shooter games on the market, and it’s easy to learn but hard to master. A key feature in CS:GO is the cases that hold all the available skins that you’ll see people have on their weapons. CS:GO cases are a huge market and can be tough to understand. I hope that this blog will inform you about everything you need to know to potentially open crates and acquire rare and expensive weapon skins.
Types of Weapon Cases and the Differences
There are 26 different cases currently available in CS:GO, but what makes them different from each other? Well, there are three types of cases in the market: black, esports, and yellow cases. The black cases are created by Valve, and they only require a CS:GO case key. The esports case is again a Valve-created weapon skin, but a portion of the proceeds are used to support the CS:GO esports gaming community. A special esports key is required to open the cases. Lastly, the yellow case is a community-created weapons skins case that requires unique keys, and portions of the sales go to support the creators of the skins.
The current drop only features six of the 26 available cases. These cases are Clutch, Spectrum, Spectrum 2, Gamma, Gamma 2, and Glove.
On rare occasions, though, you may receive one of the following cases:
- CS:GO Weapon
- CS:GO Weapon Case 2
- CS:GO Weapon Case 3
- Chroma
- Chroma 2
- Chroma 3
- eSports 2013
- eSports 2013 Winter
- eSports 2014 Summer
- Falchion
- Huntsman Weapon
- Operation Bravo
- Operation Breakout
- Operation Hydra
- Operation Phoenix
- Operation Vanguard
- Operation Wildfire
- Revolver
- Shadow
- Winter Offensive
How Do You Earn and Open Cases?
The way you can earn weapon cases on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is by simply playing the game. Players have a chance to receive cases as a drop after each completed game on a Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) secured server.
To open a weapons case, players must acquire a matching key. These keys can be bought in-game or from someone from the Steam marketplace. There are plenty of options on the community market to purchase keys, as they’ll be around $2.50 in price. The highest-priced case currently on the market is $2.61 for the clutch case. If you choose to purchase the keys in-game, they can be acquired by hitting the key icon on the home page. Case keys currently available on the in-game market are Operation Wildfire, Operation Breakout, Operation Hydra, Spectrum, Spectrum 2, Gamma, Gamma 2, Chroma, Chroma 2, Chroma 3, Revolver, Shadow, Falchion, Clutch, and Glove.
What’s in a Weapon Case?
When you decide to open a case, you will receive a weapons skin, but there are many factors that affect what makes a skin expensive. Two initial elements that make a skin expensive are the gun type it is used for and how it looks. If it’s a popular weapon and appealing to multiple people, it will gain a demand in the market, which will only help its price rise. Other factors that alter the price are the skin color grade, the wear and tear of the skin, and if the skin will keep track of stats.
The other deciding component on whether your new skin is worth a lot is the wear and tear on it. As with the skin color grade, it comes in five different levels: factory new, minimal wear, field-tested, well-worn, and battle-scarred. Factory new is the best option that you can receive, while battle-scarred is the worst.
The final influence on whether a skin is worth anything is if it’s a StatTrak skin. These skins will keep track of specific stats from gameplay, such as confirmed kills or MVPs.
Probability of Cases
The probability of the cases was unknown until September 11, 2017, when the Perfect World CS:GO team released information regarding the probability of cases. Perfect World, a Chinese online gaming company, was mandated to release their loot quality stats with loot box microtransactions due to a policy from the Ministry of Culture in China.
In their release, it showed that the relative probability of getting an item one grade higher than the current grade is 1:5. This means that Mil-Spec to Restricted is 1:5, Mil-Spec to Classified is 1:25, Mil-Spec to Covert is 1:125, Mil-Spec to Knife/Glove is 2:625, and getting a StatTrak item is 1:10.
In percentage form, the chance of acquiring a normal Mil-Spec skin is 79.92%, while Restricted is 15.98%, Classified is 3.20%, Covert is 0.64%, and Exceedingly Rare is 0.26%. If you hope to get a StatTrak item, you will have a chance of a tenth of the percentage to acquire it, so, for example, you only have a 7.99% chance of getting a StatTrak Mil-Spec weapon skin from a CS:GO case.
Most Expensive Cases and Skins in CS:GO
If you are in the market to purchase a case, then you won’t be breaking your bank account until you get to the higher-end cases. 21 cases are currently priced under a dollar, while five other cases are worth more. The most expensive case to purchase is the Operation Bravo case that goes for around $12 per case. The other cases that are more than a dollar are the eSports 2013 Case (~$8.60), CS:GO Weapon Case (~$7.09), Operation Hydra Case (~$2.26), and Winter Offensive Weapon Case (~$1.15).
Conclusion
In the end, when you are opening a case, it will always come down to luck on whether you will open an Exceedingly Rare item or a just another Mil-Spec item. I hope this blog will give you everything that you need to know to feel comfortable going into a case opening. It’s helpful when you’re opening cases to know your probability on what items you’ll receive and potentially make money off of.
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