ItemsOct 9, 20265 min readCS2Sell

M4A4 skins guide: Asiimov, Howl, X-Ray and the other notable CS2 finishes

The M4A4's notable skins from the 2013 Asiimov to the 2025 Full Throttle: which case or collection each came from, its rarity, float range and the versions that exist.

The M4A4 carried the first Asiimov, the only Contraband skin in the game and a long line of case Coverts since. This guide covers the finishes with the best-documented histories: where each one came from, its rarity and float range, and which versions you can find.

The rifle

The M4A4 is a Counter-Terrorist rifle. In Global Offensive it shared a loadout slot with the silenced M4A1-S, so you equipped one or the other. CS2's loadout, introduced in June 2023, gives each side five rifle slots, so you can now carry both. Valve has cut its price twice in CS2: from $3,100 to $3,000 in May 2024, and to $2,900 in January 2025. Our articles on the Fire Sale update and Premier Season Two cover those patches.

The M4A4 was also a favourite of the Asiimov's designer. Asked by Fragbite in 2014 which Asiimov he liked best, the artist Coridium said he had made more skins for the M4A4 than for any other gun because he liked its rugged look.

2013–2014: Asiimov, X-Ray and the Howl

Asiimov came in the Winter Offensive Weapon Case on December 18, 2013, which Valve described as "the first ever Community Case". It was the first finish in the Asiimov series. Its float range of 0.18 to 1.00 means there is no Factory New or Minimal Wear, only Field-Tested and below, so a copy near 0.18 is the cleanest possible.

X-Ray arrived the same day as the Covert of the eSports 2013 Winter Case, which replaced the first eSports case. Valve's description reads "a custom painted M4 showing its internals with an X-Ray". It runs from 0.00 to 0.30, so it exists only in Factory New, Minimal Wear and Field-Tested. The AK-47 got its own X-Ray in 2020.

Howl went into the Huntsman Weapon Case on May 1, 2014 as a Covert. In June 2014 Valve received a DMCA notice over the artwork, replaced the art on every copy, gave the item the new Contraband rarity and said it would "never be produced again". The full story is in our Howl article. Desert-Strike, a tan and black Covert, took its place in the revised case.

Bullet Rain completed the early run as the Covert of the eSports 2014 Summer Case in July 2014. It shows clouds raining bullets and has a narrow window of 0.02 to 0.46, so Battle-Scarred copies only exist in the sliver between 0.45 and 0.46.

The 2013 Asiimov and X-Ray, the Howl, and the Desert-Strike that replaced it in the Huntsman Case

Case Coverts since 2015

Finish	Case	Released	Float range
Royal Paladin	Revolver Case	Dec 2015	0.00–0.80
The Battlestar	Operation Wildfire Case	Feb 2016	0.00–0.64
Buzz Kill	Glove Case	Nov 2016	0.00–0.70
Neo-Noir	Clutch Case	Feb 2018	0.00–0.90
The Emperor	Prisma Case	Mar 2019	0.00–0.80
In Living Color	Snakebite Case	May 2021	0.00–0.79
Temukau	Revolution Case	Feb 2023	0.00–0.80
Full Throttle	Genesis Collection (Terminal)	Sep 2025	0.00–1.00

All of these exist in StatTrak versions. A few details from Valve's own descriptions explain their looks. Royal Paladin is "painstakingly etched and painted". The Emperor uses the Emperor tarot card as its inspiration, a counterpart to the AK-47's The Empress from the Spectrum 2 Case. Neo-Noir shows a stylised blue-magenta woman over a grey background; the same finish name also appears on the USP-S, AWP, Glock-18 and UMP-45.

Temukau is painted in the style of Japanese animation and shows a female CT agent holding off a T-side rush. Full Throttle, from the Genesis Collection, is a neon green design with made-up logos meant to evoke drift and tuning culture. Genesis items are sold through Genesis Uplink Terminals, which come as weekly drops.

Collection finishes without StatTrak

Skins from map and themed collections can't be StatTrak, but several have Souvenir versions.

Poseidon (Classified): the Gods and Monsters Collection from Operation Bloodhound, May 2015. It shows a battle between Pisces and Poseidon, and its range of 0.00 to 0.33 stops at Field-Tested.
Daybreak (Restricted): the Rising Sun Collection, also from Bloodhound, a sunrise in metallic paints.
The Coalition (Covert): the 2021 Train Collection from Operation Riptide, gold and black with interlocking triangles.
Eye of Horus (Covert): the Anubis Collection, which Valve released on April 24, 2023 as a collection you bought in-game. Anubis souvenir packages at Paris 2023, Copenhagen 2024, Shanghai 2024 and Austin 2025 produced Souvenir copies.
Hellish (Classified): the Train 2025 Collection, added to the Armory in March 2025. Train packages at the Austin and Budapest Majors in 2025 also drew from it.

M4A4 finishes from the Gods and Monsters, 2021 Train, Anubis and Train 2025 collections

Classified picks from cases

The Classified tier is worth a look if you want a distinctive M4A4 without a Covert. 龍王 (Dragon King) came in the Chroma Case in January 2015 and shows a red and blue dragon; its in-game name is written in Chinese characters. Desolate Space (Gamma Case, June 2016) has a space theme, Hellfire (Operation Hydra Case, May 2017) a devil-like creature among flames and chains with a range capped at 0.50, and Cyber Security came in the Operation Broken Fang Case in December 2020.

What to check before you trade

The float windows matter more on this rifle than most. An Asiimov at 0.18, an X-Ray under 0.07 or a Poseidon in Factory New sits at the clean end of what that finish allows. The float guide explains the tiers.

For a Howl, separate normal, StatTrak and the newer Souvenir crafts before comparing prices. For any Souvenir, the stickers tell you whether it came from a Major package or was made with the 2026 Souvenir-O-Matic. On CS2Sell, the StatTrak, Souvenir and float range filters on Buy narrow listings to the version you want.