There are hundreds of skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and they’re all very different. Greek and Egyptian mythology, Tarot cards, space horror — a real embarrassment of riches. Today, however, we’re going to talk about different skins that are actually the same.
There are repeating patterns in the game too. For example, the Asiimov pattern can be seen on the following guns: AK-47, P90, AWP, M4A4, and P250. Still, we can barely call them identical. These skins only share key elements and the color scheme.
CS.MONEY s going to focus on those identical patterns that are the basis of different (at times, drastically different) skins. Furthermore, all these patterns belong to the latest skins. Here we go!
Targets
Skins: USP-S Target Acquired, SSG 08 Threat Detected и AUG Surveillance
All three skins come from the new The Control collection, which entered the game along with the tenth operation. The pattern depicts a city layout with targets marked by intelligence. The drawing contains numerous small details and markings.
The skins differ in color. The USP has a purple-red scheme, the AUG a gray-green scheme, and the SSG 08 a golden yellow scheme. Despite the skins sharing the pattern, they look quite different, and you can barely notice the similarity without closer scrutiny.
Numbers
Skins: FAMAS Prime Conspiracy, P2000 Dispatch, and Dual Berettas Switch Board
Three more skins from The Control collection. To hide that the same pattern was used, the color scheme of the skin was changed again. This time, it consists of blue, white, and green. The numbers drawing is also chock-full of elements, so you wouldn’t really notice the skins have the same pattern.
The use of weapons with different geometry in both cases was definitely a smart move on the part of Valve. Thanks to this design decision, the pistols look like they have a sort of digital camouflage, and in the case of FAMAS, the focus seems to be on the numbers.
Phoenix
Skins: Galil AR Phoenix Blacklight, R8 Revolver Phoenix Marker, Negev Phoenix Stencil, and Tec-9 Phoenix Chalk
Another new collection: this time, The Havoc. Every fifth skin in this collection has the graffiti pattern which consists of “Phoenix” inscriptions in a number of styles and an image of a phoenix enveloped in flames.
All the skins differ in color saturation. It’s a cool example of how Valve categorizes skins based on their quality. These four skins share the same pattern, but the higher the quality of the skin, the brighter it looks.
Ancient
Skins: USP-S Ancient Visions, G3SG1 Ancient Ritual, P90 Ancient Earth
The pattern for this skin is based on the reliefs that can be found on the ruins of ancient Indian buildings. Apart from the obvious connection with the new map, these three skins and the pattern are also interesting in that they confirm the rule above.
Fun fact: because of the large number of contrasting details, the similarity between the pattern on the silencers of USP-S and G3SG1 doesn’t really catch the eye. The odds that you’d accidentally notice the resemblance are negligibly small.
Houndstooth
Skins: UMP-45 Houndstooth, Hand Wraps Desert Shamagh, Sport Gloves Scarlet Shamagh
Unlike the previous skins, with this trio, it’s easy to recognize the identical pattern. It’s a simple angular pattern that looks equally good on the gloves and the UMP. What’s surprising is that this pattern hasn’t yet been used for any knife skins!
Do you recall any other skins that look similar but use a different pattern? Tell us about those in the comments.
