Why the Bayonet has a price floor
Knives don't have a "cheap" tier the way rifles or pistols do. The Bayonet only drops from the rare knife slot when a case is opened, and that scarcity sets a hard floor under every finish. Even the plainest camo Bayonet costs far more than a Covert rifle skin. If you ever see a listing well below the going rate, treat it as a fake, a scam, or a bot-trade with hidden fees — not a bargain. Browse the live floor on our cheapest knives list.
Entry tier — camo and plain finishes
The cheapest Bayonets are the camouflage and solid finishes. These read as working knives rather than showpieces, which is exactly the appeal for players who want the prestige of an original knife without the collector premium.
Default pick: Safari Mesh in Well-Worn or Battle-Scarred — the classic tan tactical camo and the cheapest way into the Bayonet. Close alternatives are Boreal Forest (cool green camo), Forest DDPAT (digital woodland) and Scorched (desert spatter). Urban Masked gives you a grey urban pattern in the same band.
For a darker, plainer look, Night and Stained are near the bottom of the market, and Blue Steel is the cheapest of the cleaner gun-metal finishes — a blued-steel gradient that looks far more expensive than it is. See how the wear tiers affect these on our exteriors page.
Mid tier — coated and patterned finishes
Step up and the finish quality jumps noticeably. This band is where you get a distinctive coated blade without the headline-pattern price.
Default pick: Damascus Steel — a rippled forged-steel pattern that catches the light beautifully in the inspect animation and costs a fraction of the chase finishes. Strong alternatives are Ultraviolet (a deep matte purple-black that reads clean in any wear) and Rust Coat (an intentionally aged, oxidised-iron aesthetic that looks great even in Battle-Scarred). Browse more dark-tone picks via our purple skins filter.
High tier — the chase patterns
At the top sit the finishes that drive the whole knife market. These are collector pieces, and float, pattern index and phase all swing the price hard.
Tiger Tooth is the easiest entry to the high tier — a solid black-and-gold blade that only spawns in Factory New and Minimal Wear, so there are no float worries. Marble Fade swirls red, blue and yellow together, with "Fire & Ice" pattern layouts commanding the top prices. A high-percentage Fade gives you a clean pink-to-yellow gradient and is one of the most recognisable looks in the game.
Doppler and Gamma Doppler are phase-graded: the blue and pink phases, plus the rare Sapphire, Ruby, Black Pearl and Emerald variants, sit at the very top. We break the phases down in our Doppler phases guide. For the deep-red gothic look, Crimson Web is pattern-graded on web placement and stays rare in clean wears.
The two flagship art finishes are Lore (ornate gold filigree over black) and Autotronic (a sci-fi circuit motif) — both originally Covert finishes with pattern variance that makes clean copies scarce. And at the absolute peak, Case Hardened Blue Gem patterns — the rare deep-blue case-hardened layouts — trade as their own market in private deals. Our Blue Gem patterns guide explains how the pattern index drives those valuations.
What to check before you buy
A few checks separate a good Bayonet buy from an overpay:
- Wear and float. Gradient and coated finishes show wear quickly — for Fade, Marble Fade and Doppler, Factory New or Minimal Wear is the norm. Camo finishes hide wear, so a cheaper Battle-Scarred copy looks almost identical to a clean one.
- Pattern index. For Case Hardened, Marble Fade and Crimson Web the pattern number matters more than the wear. A Blue Gem layout or a Fire & Ice Marble Fade is worth a large multiple of a plain roll of the same finish.
- Phase. Doppler and Gamma Doppler are priced by phase. Confirm the exact phase from the inspect link before you pay — a Phase 2 and a Sapphire can look superficially similar but differ wildly in value.
- The going rate. Sanity-check any listing against a live price grid. Our valuation runs on an in-house algorithm across a multi-market grid of 41 marketplaces, so you can see whether a price is fair for that specific finish, wear and pattern.
Bayonet vs M9 Bayonet
The Bayonet and the M9 Bayonet are siblings from the original knife set and share every finish. The plain Bayonet has a slimmer, more classic blade and a tighter inspect animation; the M9's heavier blade shows more surface, so patterns like Case Hardened and Marble Fade read larger on it — and it usually carries a small premium for the same finish. If you prefer the chunkier silhouette, see our M9 Bayonet buying guide. For a curved-blade alternative entirely, our Karambit guide covers the other icon of the set.
Verdict — which Bayonet to buy
For the cheapest genuine knife slot, go Safari Mesh or Boreal Forest in Battle-Scarred. For a clean mid-tier statement, Damascus Steel or Ultraviolet give you the most look for the money. For the collector tier, Tiger Tooth is the safe all-rounder, while Doppler, Marble Fade and a high-percentage Fade are the headline buys — and Case Hardened Blue Gems sit in a price class of their own. Whatever you choose, confirm the wear, pattern and phase against the live grid first. For the full vocabulary, see our CS2 skins glossary.
Browse every knife finish in the knives category and compare current floors on our cheapest knives list.