Hyper Beast is a family of skins built around one idea: a big, brightly coloured creature spread across the gun. Valve added it to four weapons between 2015 and 2017, each time in a different case, and three of the four are Coverts, the top weapon grade.
Who made the Hyper Beast
The Hyper Beast designs were published on the Steam Workshop by a creator named Rene, who gathered them into a collection on March 8, 2015. The collection's description sets the tone: "The hyper beasts are big, scary creatures looking for some fresh meat." It also credits the illustrations: "All the artworks are made by the artist, Brock Hofer."
The M4A1-S submission, posted the same day, lists Rene and Baddrock as its creators. Its description notes that the artwork was drawn specially for that gun rather than reused from the first two Hyper Beast skins, and it points readers to Hofer's portfolio.
The Workshop collection holds seven designs: the AWP, P90, M4A1-S, Five-SeveN, Nova, USP-S and AK-47. Rene called the AK-47 the last one and asked fans to stop requesting other guns, writing that there would be no Desert Eagle, Glock or Scout version. Four of the seven made it into the game. The P90, USP-S and AK-47 versions remain Workshop submissions, and Valve's item files, as of October 2026, contain only the four Hyper Beasts in the table below.
In the game, all four share the description "custom painted with a beastly creature in psychedelic colors". The flavour text for the M4A1-S and AWP quotes a character named Rona Sabri: "You really want to impress me Booth? Make this black light sensitive". The Nova quotes another character, and the Five-SeveN simply says "We're all monsters".
Four guns, four cases
| Skin | Case | Released | Rarity | Float range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M4A1-S Hyper Beast | Chroma 2 Case | Apr 15, 2015 | Covert | 0.00–1.00 |
| AWP Hyper Beast | Falchion Case | May 26, 2015 | Covert | 0.00–1.00 |
| Nova Hyper Beast | Operation Wildfire Case | Feb 17, 2016 | Classified | 0.00–0.60 |
| Five-SeveN Hyper Beast | Operation Hydra Case | May 23, 2017 | Covert | 0.00–1.00 |
Three of the four cases were tied to operations. Valve's notes for Operation Bloodhound gave pass holders "exclusive access to the Falchion Case", which held 16 community-designed finishes and the new Falchion Knife. The Operation Wildfire Case, with 16 community-created finishes and the new Bowie Knife, was likewise offered to Wildfire pass holders. Operation Hydra handed out its case as a reward for operation stars, and its rare special items were gloves. Only the Chroma 2 Case, 15 community skins with the original five knives in Chroma finishes, was a regular case from the start.
All four came from cases, so each exists in StatTrak as well as normal quality. The M4A1-S, AWP and Five-SeveN cover the full float range, so every wear exists. The Nova stops at 0.60.
The 2019 wear fix
The AWP version has a small footnote in Valve's patch history. In the release notes for November 18, 2019, the same update that launched Operation Shattered Web, Valve listed "'AWP | Hyper Beast' and 'P90 | Nostalgia' updated to correct wear at Factory New". The notes did not explain what had been wrong, but it means screenshots of Factory New copies taken before that date may not show the current look.
Hyper Beasts in trade-ups
Since October 22, 2025, five Covert skins can be traded up for a knife or gloves from the collection of one of the inputs. Each Covert Hyper Beast points to a different pool:
- M4A1-S: the Chroma 2 Case's original five knives in Chroma finishes.
- AWP: the Falchion Knife.
- Five-SeveN: the Hydra Case's gloves. The StatTrak version of the contract only returns knives, so StatTrak Five-SeveN Hyper Beasts have no knife of their own to point to.
The Nova is Classified, so it takes part only in the classic contract, ten Classifieds for one Covert from the Wildfire Collection. Our trade-up guide explains the odds and the float formula, and the October 2025 update article covers the market reaction.
Where the family fits
The Hyper Beasts came out of the period, described in our weapon case history, when most new cases were built from community Workshop designs, and they show how one design could spread across several guns over the years. The Asiimov skins followed a similar path, and so, later, did the Printstream skins.
Buying a Hyper Beast
- Choose the wear on purpose. With a full float range, Hyper Beasts run from crisp Factory New to heavily worn Battle-Scarred, and the illustration wears straight through to the bare gun, as custom paint jobs do.
- Check the quality. StatTrak and normal copies are separate items. Since May 2026 normal copies can also be converted into Souvenirs with the Souvenir-O-Matic; StatTrak copies cannot.
- Inspect it yourself. Scratches and grime land in different places on every copy, so check the actual item in game.
On CS2Sell, the weapon, wear and StatTrak filters on Buy line up all four Hyper Beasts side by side.
Sources
- HYPER BEAST — Steam Workshop collection
- M4a1 | Hyper Beast — Steam Workshop
- Chroma 2 Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Release Notes for 5/26/2015 — Counter-Strike blog
- Operation Wildfire — Counter-Strike blog
- Operation Hydra — Counter-Strike
- items_game.txt — GameTracking-CS2 on GitHub
- Release Notes for 11/18/2019 — Counter-Strike blog
