Every CS2 skin has a pattern index. The pattern index is a number between 0 and 1000. It determines where the texture is applied to the skin and is therefore the most influential factor in how the skin looks.
What is a pattern index?
Let's start at the beginning: What is a pattern index anyway? A pattern index is a number between 0 and 1000 that is randomly assigned to each new Counter Strike skin.
This number then determines how the texture is displayed on the weapon. We are not talking about the wear of the skin, but about the position of the texture on the skin.
To give a small example: If you Case Hardened Skins you may also know that there are differences in how much blue a particular skin has. This is due to the influence of the pattern index.
How does the pattern index work?
To understand how the pattern index works, you first need to know how a texture is applied to a weapon in the first place. There are different methods in Counter Strike, we will only explain the easiest to understand method here, because this is enough to understand how the pattern index works.
How is a texture applied to a Counter Strike item?
The texture is a square, as you can see in the following image. The item that is now to receive the skin is now placed on this texture and thus receives the part of the texture on which the item lies.
Now it is only a small step to understand how the pattern index works. The pattern index simply determines the position at which the weapon is placed on the texture. This means that the pattern index determines which part of the texture will be visible on the skin.
So if you now have two identical skins that have a different pattern index, they may look different. However, if you have two identical skins that have the same pattern index, the texture will be in the same place on both skins.
The condition does not play a role in the position of the texture. The skin with the worse condition simply has a higher degree of wear, but the position of the texture is identical with the same pattern index regardless of the condition.
For which skins is the pattern index most important?
Most people know the word pattern index from very specific skins, so here is a list of the skins for which the pattern index is most important and can have a major influence on the value of the skin:
Are there also skins without a pattern index?
There is no skin in Counter Strike that does not have a pattern index, each skin is assigned a pattern index between 0 and 1000.
However, there are skins where the pattern index has no influence on the appearance of the skin. The texture of these skins always looks the same regardless of the pattern index.
An example of this is the Glock-18 Water Elemental, regardless of the pattern index, the skin always looks the same, only the The degree of wear of the weapon can be influenced by the float value.
How do I find out the pattern index of my skin?
You can first read the pattern index of your skin in the game. To do this, you must inspect your weapon with the skin and then hover over the "I" at the bottom of the screen. You can now read the pattern index at the position (third position in the list) with the attribute Pattern Template, depending on whether your game is set to German or English.
If you have a lot of skins that you want to know the pattern index of, it is sometimes easier to download a browser extension that automatically shows you the pattern index of the skin in the Steam inventory. You can find such an add-on for Google Chrome, for example herebut these add-ons are also available for all other popular browsers.
Special patterns for various skins (rare patterns)
Finally, we will briefly look at all the skins for which the pattern index is particularly important and explain why it is particularly important for these skins.
With the following skins, the position of the texture can have an enormous influence on the market value of these skins due to the pattern index.
Case Hardened Patterns
The pattern index is particularly important for case-hardened skins, as it determines how a lot of blue can be seen. Every Counter Strike player has probably heard of Blue Gems, but getting a Blue Gem is very unlikely, as there are only very few pattern indices that turn the skin into a Blue Gem.
Fade Patterns
The most expensive and rarest Fade skins are the so-called "full fades", with these special skins the color gradient can be seen on 100% of the skin. With fades, the pattern index determines what percentage of the skin the gradient is visible on and how much is just one color.
Slaugther Patterns
Various symbols can be recognized on the Slaughter texture and it is particularly desirable to be able to recognize these symbols on the weapon. The influence of the pattern index is therefore also particularly important here.
Crimson Web Patterns
With Crimson Web Skins, the pattern determines how many webs can be recognized and where they are positioned. The more webs the better and the further in the middle of the weapon the better.
Doppler Patterns
The Doppler skins are divided into four different phases. The pattern index determines which phase the skin is assigned.
Marble Fade Patterns
The same principle applies to a marble fade as to a fade skin. A particularly famous marble fade pattern is the "Ice and Fire" pattern, for example.
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