Slaughter Patterns Explained

By the P2Trades editorial teamLast updated September 6, 2026prices refresh daily

Slaughter is a polished red metal finish with darker streaks, and the streaks form shapes. Which shapes, and where, is decided by the pattern index. Most copies show random smears. A minority show a recognisable figure on the playside, and the community has named the figures: diamonds, hearts, angels, and a few rarer ones. Slaughter is the friendliest pattern finish to learn, because the shapes are obvious once pointed out, and the least forgiving to buy blind, because a seller who has looked and you who have not are not trading the same item.

The shapes

Shape	What to look for	Price effect
Diamond	A clear four-sided figure in the streaks, usually near the middle of the blade	The most sought-after shape; the top tier on most models
Heart	Two lobes meeting at a point; smaller and less common than diamonds	Strong premium, occasionally above a diamond on models where it is rare
Angel	A winged figure, a body with two symmetrical wings	Premium; more subjective, so the range is wider
Zebra	Evenly spaced parallel streaks across the blade	Small premium; valued for the clean look rather than a figure
No shape	Random streaks with no recognisable figure	The baseline copy

Quality inside a shape matters as much as the shape itself. A large, symmetrical diamond dead centre on the playside is a different item from a small, lopsided one near the handle, and the market prices the difference. The community lists for each model rank the seeds within a shape for this reason.

The float cap changes everything

Slaughter cannot roll above 0.26. In practice the finish exists only in Factory New, Minimal Wear and the lower part of Field-Tested. Two things follow that trip up people used to other finishes.

First, the wear tier tells you little. A "Field-Tested" Slaughter sits between 0.15 and 0.26, looks clean by the standards of most skins, and is not a bargain because of its tier name. Second, a Factory New copy is common rather than rare, since a large share of the range falls under 0.07. The Factory New premium on Slaughter is therefore smaller than on finishes where Factory New is scarce, and the pattern is what creates scarcity instead. Every Slaughter skin page shows the cap and the wear spread for that model.

Model matters

Shapes appear on every model, but not equally. Larger, flatter blades (M9 Bayonet, Bayonet, Bowie) give the streaks room and produce more complete diamonds and hearts. The Karambit's curve cuts through figures, which makes a clean diamond on a Karambit both rarer and more valuable. Small blades (Gut, Navaja, Shadow Daggers) rarely fit a full shape, so pattern premiums there are modest. Slaughter also appears on gloves (Hand Wraps) where the streaks are a texture rather than a figure and pattern grading does not apply.

Checking a Slaughter before you trade

Get the inspect link and view the playside at the angle the knife is held. Shapes are about what the owner sees, not what the inventory icon shows. Our inspect link guide covers the routine.
Decide whether you see the shape without being told. If a seller has to outline the diamond for you, it is a weak diamond. The premium tiers are for shapes that are obvious.
Check the seed against the model's community list for a second opinion on quality within the shape.
Then check the float, remembering that everything is under 0.26 and that within the range lower simply means shinier.

Current Slaughter prices

Every Slaughter item in our catalogue, most to least expensive, using the family's best normal price. The figures are for an ordinary pattern; a clean diamond or heart on the playside trades above them.

CS2 Hand Wraps Slaughter — Slaughter — current market prices

CS2 Butterfly Knife Slaughter — Slaughter — current market prices

Where the value is

Slaughter is one of the cheaper ways to own a knife with a pattern story, because the baseline copies are affordable on most models and the shape premiums are real but not extreme. A clean Minimal Wear copy with a visible, centred diamond on a mid-tier model is the sweet spot: it looks the way the finish is meant to look, it will sell, and it did not require a collector's budget. The mistake to avoid is paying a shape premium for a shape you cannot see yourself. If it takes an explanation, let someone else pay for it.