The Asiimov is a design family rather than a single skin: a white and orange sci-fi look by the Workshop artist Coridium that Valve has put on five weapons since 2013. All five came from cases, four of them are Coverts, and two can never be cleaner than Field-Tested.
Coridium and the idea behind it
Coridium is Chris Brown, a Scottish artist who told Fragbite in November 2014 that he had worked in the games industry for about ten years, mostly in environment art. "The Asiimov collection was a tribute to Sci-Fi Books, Films and Games," he said. He traced the colour palette back to classic science fiction designers such as Syd Mead and Chris Foss, and to newer work like Homeworld and Mass Effect, and confirmed that the name was inspired by the writer Isaac Asimov.
He also said the money he made from the Workshop would help fund his first video game. Asked to pick a favourite, he leaned towards the P90 Asiimov, since the P90 is the most futuristic-looking gun of the set.
In the game, every Asiimov carries the same description: "custom painted with a sci-fi design". Four share the flavour text "Anyone can predict the future... a visionary shapes it", while the P250 version quotes Mikha Biton, a Phoenix sniper.
Five weapons, five cases
| Skin | Case | Released | Rarity | Float range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M4A4 Asiimov | Winter Offensive Weapon Case | Dec 18, 2013 | Covert | 0.18–1.00 |
| AWP Asiimov | Operation Phoenix Weapon Case | Feb 20, 2014 | Covert | 0.18–1.00 |
| P90 Asiimov | Operation Breakout Weapon Case | Jul 1, 2014 | Covert | 0.00–0.92 |
| P250 Asiimov | Chroma 3 Case | Apr 27, 2016 | Classified | 0.10–1.00 |
| AK-47 Asiimov | Danger Zone Case | Dec 6, 2018 | Covert | 0.05–0.70 |
The first two arrived at a turning point for cases. The Counter-Strike Wiki lists the Winter Offensive Weapon Case as the first case to feature community-made finishes, and the Operation Phoenix case, home of the AWP version, could only drop for pass owners until June 11, 2014, when Valve opened it to everyone. The Operation Breakout case followed the same pattern, going to coin holders first and to all players after the operation ended in October 2014. Our weapon case history covers that period.
Because every Asiimov came from a case, all five exist in StatTrak as well as normal quality.
The AK-47 that waited five years
The AK-47 Asiimov was not a late idea. Coridium uploaded it to the Steam Workshop on December 15, 2013, three days before the M4A4 version reached the game, describing it as the sixth weapon in his Asiimov series and "probably the most requested weapon from the Community". It finally shipped in the Danger Zone Case on December 6, 2018, almost exactly five years later.
Not every Workshop Asiimov made it. The Counter-Strike Wiki shows the full family as Coridium designed it, which also includes the M4A1-S, PP-Bizon, Tec-9, MAC-10 and SCAR-20. Coridium told Fragbite he had made the M4A1-S version partly as a tutorial and did not expect Valve to add it. As of October 2026, Valve's item files still contain only the five Asiimovs in the table.
Float caps: why there's no Factory New AWP Asiimov
Two of the five start well above zero. The AWP and M4A4 Asiimovs begin at 0.18, inside the Field-Tested band, so neither exists in Factory New or Minimal Wear. The P250 starts at 0.10, which rules out Factory New but leaves Minimal Wear. The P90 covers almost the whole scale, and the AK-47 runs from 0.05 to 0.70, so both come in every wear.
That makes the wear name a weak guide on its own. A Field-Tested AWP Asiimov at 0.18 is as clean as that skin can ever be, while a Field-Tested AK-47 Asiimov sits in the middle of its range. Our float guide uses the AWP Asiimov as its main example of a capped skin.
The Asiimovs and the 2025 trade-up change
On October 22, 2025 Valve let players trade five Covert skins for a knife or gloves from the collection of one of the inputs. Four Asiimovs qualify. The M4A4 and AWP versions point to the original five knives in their cases, the P90 to the Butterfly Knife from the Breakout case, and the AK-47 to the Navaja, Stiletto, Talon and Ursus knives in the Danger Zone Case. The P250 is Classified, so it can only be traded up the usual way, ten for one Covert.
The effect on the cheapest Covert Asiimov was immediate. Ars Technica reported on October 23, 2025 that the median Steam Community Market sale price of the P90 Asiimov had gone from $10 on the day of the update to well over $100. Our article on the update covers the rules and the wider reaction.
Buying an Asiimov
- Judge the float against the skin's own window. On the AWP and M4A4, anything close to 0.18 is the cleanest copy that exists.
- Check the quality. StatTrak and normal copies are separate items. Since May 2026 normal copies can also be converted into Souvenirs at the Souvenir-O-Matic, while StatTrak ones cannot.
- Inspect the actual copy. Valve places scratches and grime randomly on every item, so two copies with similar floats can wear in different spots. Check the copy in game rather than a render.
On CS2Sell, the weapon, wear, float range and StatTrak filters on Buy let you line up every Asiimov version side by side.
Sources
- Asiimov — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Asiimov-skaparen: Steam workshop has genuinely changed my life — Fragbite
- AK47-ASIIMOV — Steam Workshop
- Winter Offensive Weapon Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Operation Phoenix Weapon Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Danger Zone Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- items_game.txt — GameTracking-CS2 on GitHub
- CS2 item market loses nearly $2B in value overnight due to trade up update — Ars Technica
