The Spectrum Case and Spectrum 2 Case did one big thing for knife collectors: they brought the six Chroma finishes, including Doppler and Marble Fade, to the knife models added after 2013. Both cases share that pool and add 17 guns each. Here is what they contain and where they stand in CS2 as of October 2026.
Two cases, six months apart
The Spectrum Case arrived on March 15, 2017, in the update that released Canals, a new map set in a historic Italian city, along with a visual upgrade to the Phoenix terrorist model. Valve's post described its rare special item as "the second generation of knives in Chroma finishes."
The Spectrum 2 Case followed on September 14, 2017, with the same wording. It shipped the day CS:GO launched in mainland China through Perfect World, whose players got a free launch-month gift of Perfect World stickers and graffiti that Valve said would go on sale worldwide in October, and the same release notes changed the Glock and P250 and cut aimpunch against unarmoured players. Each case opens with its own key.
The knife pool
The "second generation" means five models, each with its own origin:
- Huntsman Knife: from the Huntsman Weapon Case, May 2014
- Butterfly Knife: from Operation Breakout, July 2014
- Falchion Knife: from the Falchion Case, May 2015
- Shadow Daggers: from the Shadow Case, September 2015
- Bowie Knife: from Operation Wildfire, 2016
Until then, all five had appeared only in their original finishes; our articles on the Winter Offensive and Huntsman cases and the Falchion and Shadow cases cover three of them. Here each model comes in the six Chroma finishes, Doppler, Marble Fade, Tiger Tooth, Damascus Steel, Rust Coat and Ultraviolet, for 30 knives and no plain versions. The game files point both cases at the same list, so either case can drop any of the 30.
In the item file, every knife Doppler, Marble Fade and Tiger Tooth kit runs from 0.00 to 0.08, so those knives only exist in Factory New and Minimal Wear, and every knife Damascus Steel kit stops at 0.50. Doppler again splits into Phase 1 to 4, Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl; the Doppler phase guide explains how to check which one you are looking at. The original five knives got the same finishes earlier, in the Chroma cases.
What each case contains
The grades come from the game's loot lists, which match the wiki.
| Grade | Spectrum Case | Spectrum 2 Case |
|---|---|---|
| Covert | AK-47 Bloodsport, USP-S Neo-Noir | AK-47 The Empress, P250 See Ya Later |
| Classified | AWP Fever Dream, CZ75-Auto Xiangliu, M4A1-S Decimator | PP-Bizon High Roller, M4A1-S Leaded Glass, R8 Revolver Llama Cannon |
| Restricted | Galil AR Crimson Tsunami, M249 Emerald Poison Dart, MAC-10 Last Dive, UMP-45 Scaffold, XM1014 Seasons | MP9 Goo, SG 553 Phantom, CZ75-Auto Tacticat, UMP-45 Exposure, XM1014 Ziggy |
| Mil-Spec | PP-Bizon Jungle Slipstream, SCAR-20 Blueprint, Desert Eagle Oxide Blaze, Five-SeveN Capillary, MP7 Akoben, P250 Ripple, Sawed-Off Zander | Sawed-Off Morris, AUG Triqua, G3SG1 Hunter, Glock-18 Off World, MAC-10 Oceanic, Tec-9 Cracked Opal, SCAR-20 Jungle Slipstream |
Skins worth knowing
AK-47 | Bloodsport. Capped at 0.45, it stops right at the Battle-Scarred line, so there are no Battle-Scarred copies.
USP-S | Neo-Noir. The Spectrum Case's other Covert, capped at 0.70.
AWP | Fever Dream. Capped at 0.55. The other two Classifieds, the CZ75-Auto | Xiangliu and M4A1-S | Decimator, stop at 0.56 and 0.85.
AK-47 | The Empress. Spectrum 2's AK uses the full 0.00 to 1.00 range, as does the PP-Bizon | High Roller. The M4A1-S | Leaded Glass is capped at 0.70.
R8 Revolver | Llama Cannon. Its range starts at 0.03, so even the cleanest copies sit a little above zero.
Sawed-Off | Zander. A Mil-Spec whose range starts at 0.05.
StatTrak and where the cases stand
Every gun and knife has a StatTrak version, and the game files list a StatTrak copy of the shared knife pool.
Neither case is in the current weekly drop pool. Community drop trackers have recorded no rare-pool drops since December 2025, as Hotspawn reported that month, and Valve hasn't commented, so the supply of both cases now only shrinks.
Since October 22, 2025, five Covert skins can be traded up into a knife from the collection of one of them. Hotspawn's trade-up guide uses this pool as its example: an AK-47 | Bloodsport in the contract puts you in line for a Butterfly Knife | Doppler, but also for the Bowie, Falchion, Huntsman and Shadow Daggers in every Chroma finish. All four Spectrum Coverts work the same way, and five StatTrak Coverts return a StatTrak knife.
If you would rather pick the exact knife, the Doppler phase filter on Buy narrows a search to a single phase on any of these five models.
Sources
- Take a trip to the Canals — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- Release Notes for 9/14/2017 — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- Spectrum Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Spectrum 2 Case — Counter-Strike Wiki
- items_game.txt — GameTracking-CS2 on GitHub
- Knife CS2 Trade-Up Guide: Which Skins Give Which Knives — Hotspawn
- Counter-Strike 2 patches/October 22, 2025 — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Is CS2 removing cases? Rumors explained — Hotspawn
