The Prisma and Prisma 2 cases are a pair. They came out a year apart, in March 2019 and March 2020, and share exactly the same knife pool: the four Horizon knives in Chroma finishes such as Doppler and Marble Fade. Their gun skins are different, so this guide takes the knives once and then each case's 17 finishes in turn.
The knives both cases share
The Navaja, Stiletto, Talon and Ursus knives first appeared in August 2018 in the Horizon Case, then again in the Danger Zone Case, both times in the classic finishes such as Fade and Case Hardened. Valve's notes for the Prisma Case announced "the Horizon Knives in Chroma finishes as rare special items", and Dexerto counted six new finishes for the set.
Those six are the same Chroma finishes the original five knives received in the 2015 Chroma Case:
- Doppler, which comes in seven variants: Phase 1 to 4 plus the rarer Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl.
- Marble Fade and Tiger Tooth, the other two bright finishes of the set.
- Damascus Steel, Rust Coat and Ultraviolet, the darker and plainer ones.
The Prisma 2 Case reused this pool without changes, so a Stiletto Knife | Marble Fade from either case is the same item. Our guide to Doppler phases explains how the phases differ and how to spot each one.
Every knife in the pool, and every gun skin in both cases, can also come as StatTrak.
Prisma Case (March 13, 2019)
The first case shipped with the update Valve called "Seeing the Light". Most players remember that patch for other reasons: the AUG went back to its original $3,300 after months at a discount, and the round loss bonus was reworked so that a win reduced the loss counter by one instead of resetting it. The M4A1-S dropped to 25 rounds per magazine, the Nova, Sawed-Off and MAG-7 got cheaper, and flashbang assists and a loadout shuffle option arrived the same day.
Valve's post gave the case one sentence: "17 new community-designed weapon finishes and the Horizon Knives in Chroma finishes". Like its sequel, it opens with its own key.
| Rarity | Count | Skins |
|---|---|---|
| Covert (red) | 2 | M4A4 The Emperor, Five-SeveN Angry Mob |
| Classified (pink) | 3 | AUG Momentum, R8 Revolver Skull Crusher, XM1014 Incinegator |
| Restricted (purple) | 5 | AWP Atheris, Desert Eagle Light Rail, MP5-SD Gauss, Tec-9 Bamboozle, UMP-45 Moonrise |
| Mil-Spec (blue) | 7 | AK-47 Uncharted, FAMAS Crypsis, Galil AR Akoben, MAC-10 Whitefish, MP7 Mischief, P250 Verdigris, P90 Off World |
M4A4 | The Emperor is the case's signature skin. According to the Counter-Strike Wiki it launched as plain "Emperor" and was renamed later so that it would pair with the AK-47 | The Empress on the other side. AWP | Atheris puts an AWP in the Restricted tier.
The Prisma Case also has several tight float caps. The R8 Revolver | Skull Crusher runs only from 0.25 to 0.80, so it exists in Field-Tested, Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred and never in Factory New or Minimal Wear. The XM1014 | Incinegator (0.14 to 0.65) and MP7 | Mischief (0.10 to 1.00) have no Factory New version, while the UMP-45 | Moonrise stops at 0.40 and never reaches Battle-Scarred. Our float guide shows where each tier starts.
Prisma 2 Case (March 31, 2020)
The sequel arrived on the day Operation Shattered Web ended. Valve's post said players had completed more than 136 million missions during the operation, and owners of an operation coin received inscriptions on it recording their missions and stars. The same update took Breach and Studio out of official matchmaking and added Anubis and Chlorine, two finalists from Mapcore's 2019 Exotic Places map contest, to Casual, Deathmatch and Scrimmage.
Valve described the new collection as "lightly based on Anime/Manga themes".
| Rarity | Count | Skins |
|---|---|---|
| Covert (red) | 2 | M4A1-S Player Two, Glock-18 Bullet Queen |
| Classified (pink) | 3 | AK-47 Phantom Disruptor, MAC-10 Disco Tech, MAG-7 Justice |
| Restricted (purple) | 5 | P2000 Acid Etched, Sawed-Off Apocalypto, SCAR-20 Enforcer, SG 553 Darkwing, SSG 08 Fever Dream |
| Mil-Spec (blue) | 7 | AUG Tom Cat, AWP Capillary, CZ75-Auto Distressed, Desert Eagle Blue Ply, MP5-SD Desert Strike, Negev Prototype, R8 Revolver Bone Forged |
The two Coverts went to the M4A1-S and the Glock-18, so this time the AK sits one tier lower with the Classified Phantom Disruptor. Valve's own Dreams & Nightmares contest page credits the SSG 08 | Fever Dream to the Workshop artist Apel ∞, using it as one of its examples of community work. The Mil-Spec AWP | Capillary starts at 0.05, so no copy is cleaner than that.
Where the two cases stand in 2026
Neither case drops any more. Both had already left the active rotation, and Hotspawn reported that the rare drop pool, which used to hand out a few older cases each week, went silent in December 2025 without any announcement from Valve. As of October 2026, community drop trackers list both as discontinued, so their unopened supply only shrinks. Our guide to weekly drops and drop pools covers how the current pool works.
If you are comparing the knives rather than the cases, the Doppler phase and finish filters on Buy let you narrow down to a single phase on a single model.
Sources
- Seeing the Light — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- Clearing Out the Cobwebs — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- Release Notes for 3/31/2020 — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- March 13 CS:GO update finally nerfs AUG and makes major changes to round loss bonuses — Dexerto
- Prisma Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Dreams & Nightmares contest page — Counter-Strike (Valve)
- CSGO-API item data from the game files — GitHub
- Is CS2 removing cases? Rumors explained — Hotspawn
