Skins

Skins, also referred to as finishes, are a new feature in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, introduced in the Arms Deal update. They are weapons with different textures, and are completely cosmetic, holding no gameplay function. However, their different colours and textures can be used as a slight tactical advantage or disadvantage in some circumstances. Valve's Weapon Finishes Guide provides a basic starting point for creating your own weapon skins.

To acquire a skin, one must either: Also, some variants include a StatTrak™ device, a counter that shows the total amount of kills acquired with the weapon by the current owner. Holding the [F] key (default) will allow the player to 'inspect' the gun in greater detail and allow you to gain a better view of your StatTrak™ counter.
 * 1) Earn them through random drops by playing in online community and official servers.
 * 2) "Uncrate" them from opening weapon and promotional crates.
 * 3) Trading with other players. Buying skins from the Steam Market is considered a trade.

Access to the inventory is unavailable when you are alive and after the warm-up in Competitive game modes for tactical imbalance reasons.

Weapon Quality
Weapons skins come in different quality grades, generally signifying their rarity and value.
 * White (Common) - Consumer grade
 * Light blue (Uncommon) - Industrial grade
 * Darker blue (Rare) - Mil-spec
 * Purple (Mythical) - Restricted
 * Pinkish purple (Legendary) - Classified
 * Red (Ancient) - Covert
 * Gold (Exceedingly Rare) - ★ (Melee Weapons)
 * Light Brown (Discontinued) - Contraband

In the Steam Market and in-game inventory, all general skins have a white border around the preview icon, while knives are bordered with Purple, the StatTrak™ weapons with Orange , Souvenir weapons with Yellow , and self-made Prototype skins with Green.

Exterior Quality
A random exterior quality is chosen when a weapon skin is dropped, uncrated or received from a Trade Up Contract.

The exterior quality hierarchy is the following, from worst exterior to best:
 * 1) Battle-Scarred
 * 2) Well-Worn
 * 3) Field-Tested
 * 4) Minimal Wear
 * 5) Factory New

There is currently no way to refresh the exterior of a weapon.

Note also that a weapon will not degrade over time; a weapon skin will stay in that state forever.

Available skins
The series the randomly dropped weapon skins are not dependent on what map the player was playing. For example, playing on Train will not guarantee the player a skin from the Train collection.

Opening weapon crates will give the player one weapon from the weapon crate's series.

Trivia

 * "ERROR",  "USER" and "UNKNWN" (unknown) appears on StatTrak counters when any players other than the owner is holding the gun with it.
 * StatTrak™ counters on knives are represented as etchings into the blade.
 * It is unclear if the original Weapon Case 1 and skins from the initial collections are still available as drops, following the release of the Arms Deal Two Case.