The Kukri Knife is the first knife model made for CS2. Valve added it on February 6, 2024 as the rare special item of the Kilowatt Case, and Hotspawn's May 2026 guides still describe it as the newest knife type in the game. This guide covers where the Kukri comes from, its 13 versions and their float ranges, how it moves and how it can be traded up.
Was the Kukri Knife in CS:GO?
No. On March 23, 2023, shortly after the CS2 Limited Test began, Dexerto reported that dataminers had found a Kukri model in the new game's files, along with a second unreleased knife, the "Twinblade". The Counter-Strike Wiki confirms the model and its HUD image were in the files from the beta's launch.
It became an item with the "A Call to Arms" update. Valve's release notes introduced "the Kilowatt Case, featuring 17 community-designed weapon finishes, and the Kukri Knife with original finishes as a rare special item". Dot Esports called it the first new knife in Counter-Strike since Operation Shattered Web in 2019, and described it as "a slight cross between the Huntsman and the Navaja, with a thick blade and sharp point".
A real kukri is a large curved blade from Nepal, as Dexerto notes, and the wiki says the in-game model appears to be based on the Elite Tactical Kukri Machete. Valve's in-game description is less earnest: "Used in traditional rituals, such as weddings or stabbings." Like every cosmetic knife, it performs exactly like the default knife.
The two cases that drop it
| Case | Released | How players got it | Knife pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kilowatt Case | February 6, 2024 | Weekly drops, the Steam Community Market | Kukri Knife, 13 versions |
| Gallery Case | October 2, 2024 | The Armory, for 2 credits, until October 1, 2025 | The same 13 Kukris |
In the game's item files, both cases point to the same knife list, set_community_33_unusual, for normal and StatTrak copies alike, and the Counter-Strike Wiki labels the Gallery Case's knife finishes "Kilowatt". Our Kilowatt Case article covers the rest of the February 2024 update, and the Armory article covers the Gallery Case.
Valve removed the Gallery Case from the Armory on October 1, 2025. Dot Esports, in its guide as updated in December 2025, still described the Kilowatt Case as a weekly reward drop.
All 13 Kukri finishes and their float ranges
The Kukri comes only in what Valve's notes call "original finishes", the classic knife set, with Night Stripe in place of Night. Float ranges come from the game's item definitions:
| Finish | Float range | Wears that exist |
|---|---|---|
| Fade | 0.00 to 0.08 | Factory New, Minimal Wear |
| Slaughter | 0.01 to 0.26 | Factory New to Field-Tested |
| Case Hardened, Blue Steel, Stained | 0.00 to 1.00 | All five |
| Crimson Web, Night Stripe, Boreal Forest, Forest DDPAT, Safari Mesh, Scorched, Urban Masked | 0.06 to 0.80 | All five |
| Vanilla (no finish) | None | Not Painted |
Every version also exists in StatTrak. What the Kukri doesn't have is any Chroma or Gamma finish: no Doppler, Marble Fade, Tiger Tooth or Lore. Hotspawn's trade-up guide notes that Valve "has only ever released one set of finishes for it".
Fade and Case Hardened depend on the paint seed here as on any knife, so two copies with the same name and wear can look very different. Open the information panel when you inspect one: the Pattern Template is the seed.
Kukri animations
Hotspawn sums up the Kukri's draw and inspect as "exaggerated", adding: "In one word: flair." Its tier list puts the Kukri in B-tier, praising the curved design for standing out, but warning that the flamboyant animations may be a little over the top for some players.
Valve spent the first weeks polishing them. It fixed a bug in the inspect animation on February 7, 2024, added a catch sound to the draw animation on February 12 and fixed how the knife is held during the team intro on February 15. Later, the August 14, 2025 update improved the deploy and quick-inspect animations for all knives, and a September 8, 2025 update fixed viewmodel animations for the Kukri along with the Bowie, Bayonet, Nomad, Paracord and Skeleton knives.
Kukri trade-ups
Since October 22, 2025, five Covert skins can be traded up into a knife or gloves from the collection of one of them, and five StatTrak Coverts into a StatTrak knife. Four Coverts lead to the Kukri, as Hotspawn's trade-up guide lists and the item files confirm: the AK-47 | Inheritance and AWP | Chrome Cannon from the Kilowatt Case, and the Glock-18 | Gold Toof and M4A1-S | Vaporwave from the Gallery Case. Our Covert trade-up article explains the rules.
Where the Kukri sits on price
The Kukri's place in the market has moved since launch. Dexerto's knife table of July 2024 put its range at $220 to $2,000, seventh of the 19 models it listed. By September 2025, Hotspawn's list of knives under $100 included a Battle-Scarred Safari Mesh Kukri, and its tier list said a Kukri skin usually doesn't cost much. On the Steam Community Market on October 27, 2026, Kukri listings sat among the 40 cheapest knives, next to the Navaja, Shadow Daggers, Paracord and Survival. Our guide to the cheapest knife in CS2 tracks that bottom group.
On CS2Sell, Buy can filter Kukris by fade percentage, Case Hardened blue percentage, paint seed, float range and StatTrak.
Sources
- Release Notes for 2/6/2024 — Steam News
- All CS2 Kilowatt Case weapon and knife skins — Dot Esports
- New Counter-Strike 2 knives leaked that aren't in CSGO: Kukri and Twinblade — Dexerto
- Kukri Knife — Counter-Strike Wiki
- CS2 Knife Animations - All Knives Explained — Hotspawn
- Knife CS2 Trade-Up Guide: Which Skins Give Which Knives — Hotspawn
- Counter-Strike 2 Update, September 8, 2025 — Steam News
- items_game.txt — GameTracking-CS2 on GitHub
