The AK-47 | Fire Serpent was one of the first skins Valve ever put in an operation case. It arrived with Operation Bravo in September 2013 and has never been added to another container, so every copy traces back to the Operation Bravo Case or to a trade-up contract built from its collection.
Operation Bravo and the first operation case
Operation Bravo went live on September 19, 2013. Valve's announcement described a pass that gave access to a map group of eight top-voted Workshop maps, Agency, Ali, Cache, Chinatown, Gwalior, Ruins, Siege and a returning Seaside, and, for the first time in an operation, weapon finishes: 31 of them, split across two new collections.
One collection, later called Alpha, dropped only to pass holders. The other was the Bravo Collection, which came inside the Operation Bravo Case. Anyone could receive the case as a timed drop while the operation ran, and pass holders got a much better chance at it on top of their regular drops. The operation was meant to end on January 20, 2014 and, according to the Counter-Strike Wiki, was extended to February 5 because of its popularity. Since then the case has dropped only rarely.
The case held 15 Valve-made skins and, as rare special items, the five original knives: the Bayonet, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Karambit and M9 Bayonet. Our operations history covers what later operations added.
A memento from Ruins
The in-game description reads: "This memento from Ruins has been painted with a fire serpent motif." Ruins was one of the Bravo maps, and Valve's operation page described it as two bombsites "separated by a dangerous sightline in a Mayan temple". The flavour text adds a line of attitude: "If you want to survive in the streets, learn to spit fire."
Valve's item files list the finish as a custom paint job. Valve's Weapon Finishes Guide describes that style as a full-colour image applied along the gun's own texture layout, one that wears straight through to the bare gun as the float rises rather than fading to a base coat first. The Wiki also notes that Operation Bravo's title image showed the Fire Serpent next to the Nova | Tempest, so the rifle was on the operation's promotional art from the start.
The Bravo Collection by rarity
The Fire Serpent is a Covert, the top weapon grade, and shares that tier with the Desert Eagle | Golden Koi. Here is the full collection, from Valve's item definitions:
| Rarity | Skins |
|---|---|
| Covert | AK-47 Fire Serpent, Desert Eagle Golden Koi |
| Classified | AWP Graphite, P2000 Ocean Foam, P90 Emerald Dragon |
| Restricted | M4A1-S Bright Water, M4A4 Zirka, MAC-10 Graven, USP-S Overgrowth |
| Mil-Spec | Dual Berettas Black Limba, G3SG1 Demeter, Galil AR Shattered, Nova Tempest, SG 553 Wave Spray, UMP-45 Bone Pile |
Floats, StatTrak and Souvenir
The Fire Serpent's float runs from 0.06 to 0.76. No copy can be cleaner than 0.06, and since Factory New ends at 0.07, every Factory New Fire Serpent sits inside a band one hundredth wide. At the other end, the 0.76 cap keeps even the most worn copies short of the heaviest wear a full-range skin can show. The float guide explains why a skin's own window matters more than the raw number.
Like other case skins, it can roll as StatTrak, with a counter that tracks the owner's kills. Until 2026 there was no Souvenir version. That changed in a narrow way in May 2026, when the Souvenir-O-Matic introduced for the IEM Cologne 2026 Major let players convert a skin they own into a Souvenir with four gold stickers from a completed match. StatTrak skins are not eligible, so a Souvenir Fire Serpent is always a converted normal one. Our guide to StatTrak and Souvenir explains both labels.
Where new copies come from
New Fire Serpents can still be created in two ways.
Opening an Operation Bravo Case. Every unopened case is still a chance at one, as either a normal or a StatTrak copy.
Trade-up contracts. Ten Classified skins return one Covert from the collection of one of the inputs, so ten Bravo Classifieds can only become a Fire Serpent or a Golden Koi. A Factory New result needs inputs at the very bottom of their float ranges, and our trade-up guide explains the formula. In July 2020 Dexerto covered YouTuber Sparkles chasing exactly that in StatTrak. His ten low-float Classified inputs included six AWP | Graphites and three P2000 | Ocean Foams, the result was a StatTrak Factory New Fire Serpent at 0.067, and he estimated the inputs had cost him up to $15,000.
Since October 22, 2025 the rifle can also be traded away. Valve's update lets five Covert skins be exchanged for a knife or gloves from a collection of one of the inputs, so five Fire Serpents, or a mix with Golden Kois, can become one of the Bravo Case's knives. Each contract like that removes Fire Serpents from the game for good. The October 2025 update article covers the rules and the market reaction.
Checking a Fire Serpent before you buy
- Read the float against its window. Anything near 0.06 is as clean as this rifle gets, and anything just under 0.07 is Factory New by the narrowest margin.
- Check the version. Normal, StatTrak and converted Souvenir copies are separate items. On a Souvenir, the gold stickers name a 2026 Cologne match, not a 2013 event.
- Price stickers separately. Stickers on an old copy are part of what you pay for, so check which ones they are and how scraped they look.
- Inspect it yourself. Look at the actual item in game rather than a render.
On CS2Sell, the wear, float range and StatTrak filters on Buy narrow Fire Serpent listings to the copies you want.
Sources
- 9/19 Update: Operation Bravo is LIVE — Counter-Strike blog
- Operation Bravo — Counter-Strike
- Operation Bravo — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Operation Bravo Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- items_game.txt — GameTracking-CS2 on GitHub
- YouTuber Sparkles spends $15k on CSGO in pursuit of ultra rare skin — Dexerto
- Counter-Strike 2 patches/October 22, 2025 — Counter-Strike Wiki
- How to Use the CS2 Souvenir-O-Matic — Dot Esports
