CS2 Fade Skins

Fade is an anodized colour gradient that runs from yellow through orange and pink into purple. The fade percentage describes how much of that full spread is rendered on the visible surface, and for most items it ranges from roughly 80% up to 100%. A higher number means the complete yellow-to-purple range sits on the gun or blade instead of being clipped at one end. The value is fixed by the paint seed when the item is created and does not change with use.

Every Fade item rolls a paint seed, also called the pattern index, between 0 and 1000 at drop. That seed shifts where the gradient texture lands on the model, so two identical-looking weapons can show very different colour coverage. A fade calculator pulls the seed from the item's inspect link and looks it up against a per-item table to return the percentage. The tables differ by item because each model's geometry and texture mapping place the gradient differently, so the same seed number does not give the same percentage on a Glock-18 and a Karambit.

On guns, Fade appears on the Glock-18, the Nova, and the MAC-10. The much larger group is knives: Karambit, Bayonet, M9 Bayonet, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Falchion, Huntsman, Bowie, Butterfly, Shadow Daggers and most of the later knife models all have a Fade variant. The Glock-18 Fade and Nova Fade are the cheapest entry points, while a Karambit or Butterfly Knife Fade sits among the most expensive knives in the game.

Buyers pay a premium for high-percentage fades because the full colour transition is only visible near the top of the range. A 100% fade shows the entire yellow, orange, pink and purple sweep with nothing cut off, making it the headline collectible variant for each item. Demand concentrates at 90% and above, and 100% examples are scarce relative to mid-range seeds, so the price gap over an 80-something fade can be large even at the same wear.

Percentage is not the only seed-driven trait. The direction of the gradient and the balance between warm yellows and cooler pinks and purples shift from seed to seed, so two 95% fades can look noticeably different. On the Glock-18 the sweep runs along the slide, on the Nova it wraps the body, and on a knife it travels down the blade. Some collectors specifically hunt colour placements, such as a blade tip that lands on deep purple rather than pink.

Fade is a solid anodized coat, so wear only adds scratches and edge wear and never alters the gradient or the percentage. Most Fade items use a restricted low wear range, which is why the Glock-18 Fade and similar skins appear only in Factory New and Minimal Wear. Because float and fade percentage are independent, two Factory New copies can differ only in seed-set coverage, and that coverage is what drives the price between them.