Few items in Counter-Strike carry the mystique of a blue Karambit. On paper, it’s just another Case Hardened knife, but roll the right pattern index, and you’re holding one of the most coveted objects in the entire game: a curved blade drenched in blue that collectors will chase for years. Below is a full rundown of which seeds matter, ranked from the untouchable #387 down to the affordable Tier 4 entries.
How the Karambit’s Pattern System Works
On this knife, only the blade takes the hardened treatment, a random scatter of blue, violet, and yellow staining, while the handle stays bare. Each knife is assigned an index from 1 to 1000 at the moment it drops, and that number dictates the exact arrangement of color across the steel.
What’s interesting is value scales with how much clean, unbroken blue lands on the play side (the side facing outward when the knife is held). A blade that’s 50–70% blue is already a rarity; anything approaching full coverage enters serious collector territory. At the opposite end, gold-dominated blades, or ones where blue covers less than roughly a third of the surface, make up the bulk of the market and trade near base price.
The #387: The One Above All
Seed #387 stands in a category of its own. Its play side is completely blue from tip to ring, zero gold intrusion, a pure sheet of color. Every other ranked pattern shows at least some golden staining creeping in, which is exactly why #387 tops the hierarchy and why the drop-off in value from it to Tier 1 is so steep.
The #1 example is reportedly held by a Chinese collector known as 青い王 (“Blue King”), and it’s frequently cited among the most valuable knives in existence. When rare Case Hardened Karambits do surface for sale, offers routinely run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Tier 1
The elite group. These blades carry overwhelming blue with only minor golden accents:
73, 269, 442, 463, 510, 776, 809, 853, 888, 905
Any Karambit rolling one of these ten seeds instantly becomes a high-end collector piece, valued at many multiples of a standard example.
Tier 2
Strong blue presence, with gold becoming more noticeable but blue still clearly in charge:
34, 74, 82, 130, 150, 152, 236, 256, 262, 303, 321, 322, 346, 375, 377, 406, 413, 453, 494, 503, 507, 509, 541, 550, 601, 643, 661, 698, 727, 770, 811, 823, 828, 914, 955
Tier 3
A balanced mix where blue and gold share the blade, but the blue placement is still attractive enough to earn a premium:
9, 11, 20, 25, 30, 57, 59, 92, 112, 138, 139, 154, 179, 182, 216, 246, 265, 273, 282, 306, 310, 323, 330, 341, 366, 400, 426, 429, 450, 490, 499, 515, 530, 553, 575, 580, 631, 655, 664, 670, 711, 713, 721, 798, 838, 841, 844, 849, 852, 856, 891, 917, 965, 989
Tiers at this level spark plenty of debate; some traders point to seeds like #798 sitting a tier higher on rival lists. Tier charts are opinions with screenshots attached, so cross-reference more than one before committing money.
Tier 4
The entry point into blue gem territory, blades with meaningful blue patches that stand out against the average yellow Karambit:
38, 85, 106, 109, 122, 128, 146, 194, 244, 254, 259, 334, 335, 371, 381, 398, 405, 407, 420, 430, 455, 472, 485, 487, 488, 522, 539, 555, 563, 571, 595, 615, 616, 637, 638, 639, 644, 676, 694, 728, 766, 782, 796, 803, 810, 814, 822, 916, 919, 935, 942, 961, 970, 974
What About Wear?
Case Hardened spans the entire 0.00–1.00 float range, so the Karambit exists in every condition from Factory New to Battle-Scarred. You know what? Conventional wear marks never actually cut into the blade’s surface. Instead, as float climbs toward the top of the range, a dark patina settles over the steel and dulls the whole knife. That means a well-worn blue gem reads as murky and shadowed, while a pristine one glows, which is why low floats on ranked seeds command such aggressive markups.
Before You Trade
Inspect in-game or through a screenshot service and confirm the seed yourself rather than taking a seller’s word for it. Check both sides of the blade too, backside coverage varies wildly between seeds with identical play sides, and it can swing a deal. What’s interesting is, finally, keep in mind that no tier list is official; demand, hype, and individual screenshot quality all shape what a given knife actually fetches.
