Karambit Fade 100% Tier List (2026)
A Factory New Karambit Fade at 80% and a Factory New Karambit Fade at a true 100% are the same SKU with the same float cap — and thousands of dollars apart. The only difference is how much of the gold-to-purple gradient the pattern seed pushed onto the blade. This is the tier list you check before you pay Fade money, sorted by fade percentage rather than by named seed, because on Fades the percentage is the grade. The mechanics behind why the seed drives it all live in the patterns, floats and wear pillar.
Unlike a Case Hardened blue gem or a Marble Fade Fire and Ice — where a specific seed number makes or breaks the price — a Fade grades on a continuous scale. Every inspect tool reads the seed and spits out a percentage. So the tier list here is percentage bands, and your job before buying is to confirm the number, not trust the listing title.
How Karambit Fade percentage works
The Fade finish paints a gradient across the blade: yellow-gold at one end, through orange and pink, into a deep magenta-purple at the other. The Karambit's blade is curved and short, so only part of that gradient fits on the playside at once. The seed decides which part.
A high-percentage seed slides the full spectrum onto the visible blade — you get the gold, the pink, and the rich purple all showing. A low-percentage seed leaves more of the pale, washed-out end on the playside and pushes the saturated purple off toward the spine or the back. The community grades this from roughly 80% (the floor) to 100% (full fade), and the number is what tools like CSFloat and tradeit report when you paste an inspect link.
Two things follow. First, "100%" from one grader can read as "99%" on another because sites round the seed-to-percent math slightly differently — don't treat a single decimal as gospel across platforms. Second, the percentage is baked in at drop and never moves. No float change, no wear, no sticker touches it. What you buy is what it is forever.
The tier list by percentage
Here's how the bands stack up on the Karambit Fade, with what each actually looks like and the rough Factory New premium over the 80% floor as of mid-2026.
| Tier | Fade % | What you see on the playside | FN premium vs 80% floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grail — true max | 100% | Full gold-through-purple, zero grey, saturated all the way to the tip | 3×–6×+ |
| Top | 96–99% | Full spectrum, deep purple, maybe a hair of the gold shortened | 1.6×–2.5× |
| High | 90–95% | All three colour zones present, purple slightly reduced | 1.3×–1.7× |
| Mid | 85–89% | Gold and pink strong, purple thinner, still a clean fade | 1.1×–1.3× |
| Floor | 80–84% | The washed end shows more, less purple depth — the cheapest genuine Fade | 1× (baseline) |
The jump that matters most is at the very top. A 90% Karambit Fade and a 96% look close in a thumbnail, and the price gap between them is real but not brutal. The gap between a 99% and a documented, verified true 100% with no grey anywhere is a different animal — those are grails that surface rarely and trade in private channels, and a genuine max can run into five figures while a 99% sits at a fraction of that.
Dollar ballparks (Factory New, mid-2026)
Percentages are the grade; here's what they translate to in money. Karambit Fade is a Covert knife finish and almost always ships Factory New, so these are FN numbers.
| Grade | What you're buying | Typical ballpark (FN, mid-2026) |
|---|---|---|
| True 100% full fade | The grail — verified full spectrum, no grey, rarely listed publicly | $12,000+ |
| 96–99% "fullest fade" | Reads as a full fade to the eye, top of the liquid market | $4,500–$8,000 |
| 90–95% | Clean, high fade, the sweet spot for most buyers | $2,500–$3,500 |
| 85–89% | Solid fade, mid-tier pricing | $1,900–$2,600 |
| 80–84% floor | Genuine Fade Karambit, cheapest entry | $1,500–$2,200 |
These move with the wider knife market, so treat them as bands, not quotes. But the shape is stable: the floor-to-90% climb is gradual, and then the curve goes near-vertical once you're chasing a verified 100%. If you want a Karambit Fade that looks great and doesn't cost a car, the 90–95% band is where the value sits — you get the full colour read for a fraction of grail money.
Why "100%" is slippery
Most listings that say "100% fade" are really 99% or high-98%, and that's not always a scam — it's the rounding. Different pattern databases use slightly different formulas to convert the seed into a percentage, so the same Karambit can show 99.6% on one and "100%" on another. A seller isn't lying if their grader rounded up.
Where it does matter: a genuine max-fade Karambit — the top handful of seeds that show the complete gradient with not a speck of pale steel — is a documented, tracked item, and it's worth multiples of a "99% that a tool rounded to 100." If someone's asking grail money, make them show the exact percentage from a named tool and a flat-angle inspect screenshot. If they can only say "100%, trust me," treat it as a high-90s and price it accordingly.
Float on a Karambit Fade
Float barely moves the needle here, and the reason is the clip. The Karambit Fade ships clipped to roughly 0.00–0.08, which is FN-only with a thin sliver of Minimal Wear at the top. Every copy is essentially pristine, so a 0.01 FN and a 0.06 FN of the same fade percentage look nearly identical and price within a few percent of each other. The float value is a tiebreaker, not a tier.
The one time float earns a premium is on a top-band fade, where a collector chasing a 98%+ also wants the lowest float copy of that seed for the rank. On anything from the floor to the mid tier, buy the percentage first and let the float sort out which specific copy you take. The full clipping mechanics — why Fades are FN-locked while other skins span the whole range — are in the pillar's float clipping section.
How to check a Karambit's fade %
The flow is the same one you'd use to read any pattern off a skin. Right-click the Karambit Fade in the Steam inventory (or grab the inspect link off the listing), and paste it into a float-and-pattern inspector. The tool reads the seed and returns the fade percentage directly — you don't compute it yourself the way you'd cross-reference a Case Hardened seed against a tier grid. The step-by-step, with screenshots of the inspect-link flow, is in how to check a skin's float in CS2.
Two rules save money. Never pay a fade-percentage premium on a listing title alone — the title is a claim, the inspector is the fact. And never pay a thumbnail premium either, because Steam's render shows a generic Fade, not your specific copy's percentage. The only number that counts is the one the tool reads off the seed.
FAQ
What is a 100% fade Karambit? A Karambit Fade whose pattern seed pushes the entire gold-to-purple gradient onto the playside with no grey or washed-out steel showing. It's the top of the fade scale and the rarest grade. In practice, most knives listed as "100%" are really 99% or high-98% after rounding — a verified true 100% is a documented, tracked item worth multiples of a rounded-up 99%.
How much is a 100% fade Karambit worth? A verified true 100% full fade in Factory New starts around $12,000 and climbs from there in mid-2026, because genuine maxes rarely surface. A "fullest fade" in the 96–99% band runs roughly $4,500–$8,000, a clean 90–95% sits around $2,500–$3,500, and the 80% floor is $1,500–$2,200. The curve is gradual up to 95% and near-vertical at a verified 100%.
What's the minimum fade percentage on a Karambit? About 80%. The Karambit Fade doesn't drop below the low-80s — that's the floor of the scale, where the pale end of the gradient shows most and the purple is thinnest. An 80% is still a genuine, good-looking Fade; it's just the cheapest grade.
Does float matter on a Karambit Fade? Very little. The Fade clip is roughly 0.00–0.08, so every copy is Factory New or a thin sliver of Minimal Wear, and the surface looks clean regardless. Two copies of the same fade percentage at 0.01 and 0.06 price within a few percent. Float only earns a premium as a tiebreaker on top-band fades where collectors want the lowest-float copy of a high-percentage seed.
How do I check my Karambit Fade percentage? Copy the inspect link from your Steam inventory and paste it into a float-and-pattern inspector like CSFloat or tradeit. It reads the seed and reports the fade percentage directly. Don't trust the listing title or the thumbnail — only the tool's reading off the actual seed is reliable.
Is a 90% fade Karambit worth buying? Yes — it's arguably the best value on the finish. A 90–95% Karambit Fade shows all three colour zones (gold, pink, purple) and reads as a full fade to almost anyone, but it costs a fraction of a verified 100%. If you want the look without grail money, the 90–95% band is the sweet spot.
Chasing a Fade? Value your inventory first so you know your budget. Then compare it against the Glock-18 Fade tier list and the AWP Fade tier list — the same percentage logic, different weapons and price floors — or read the Marble Fade Fire and Ice tier list for the knife finish where a seed, not a percentage, rewrites the value. The full pattern framework is in the patterns, floats and wear pillar.