Any Fade skin is painted in a gradient consisting of several bright colors – purple (blue), pink (red) and yellow (gold). Gray is also found, but it essentially represents the absence of color. The higher the gray percentage, the less the skin will be valued.
Percent Fade
One of the important characteristics of the Fade pattern is the percentage of coverage. The most common rates are in the range of 80 to 100%. One hundred percent skin is also called FullFade.
But even here it's not that simple: there is a knife that has up to 110% coverage. It's Falchion. The thing is, his pattern covers more than just the blade. but also some of the pen. Because of this, many believe that the maximum Fade value here can reach 110%.
Karambit and Talon knives are also described slightly differently. They don't specify the total percentage of gradient on the surface, but the percentage of each color. For example, if some variant of «carambit» is characterized as 70/29/1, it means that most of the blade is pink, 29% is purple, and only 1% is yellow.
Pattern Index
Another characteristic to look at is the pattern
index
. With each subject it can vary between 1 and 1000, thus giving 1001 variations of the pattern location. In the case of Fade, the indicatordetermines in what proportion the different colors will be present. At the same time, many skins with different pattern indices look identical or almost identical.In particular, FullFade may look similar to a skin with 99% Fade and a different pattern index. That said, the second option is cheaper, because it is not perfect. Because of this, it is important to check the pattern index when buying to avoid being fooled into buying «a fake» knife instead of «a 100%» knife for a large sum.
Influence of Float
Thus, the main factors that determine the price of skins of the Fade series in CS:GO become float and pattern-index. At the same time, their Float value can vary within a very limited range: from 0 to 0.08, which means that skins of the fade type are found only in the states «Right from the factory» and «Slightly worn», and the first of them falls out more often.
Often, when determining the price of a skin, not only the float value is taken into account, but also how exactly the scuffs are located on the blade. For example, if the degree of wear is low, but the marks on «carambit» are noticeable on the edges of the blade and near the hilt, such a knife will be valued less than a variant with a higher float, but with scratches in less noticeable places.
Although Fade is talked about primarily in application to knives, the pattern is also used for firearms. Its pattern-index affects the appearance and price not so much, but it is still worth paying attention to it, for example, if you want to collect an inventory that will have a common color scheme.