Souvenir Nova | Rising Skull (Factory New)

Skin overview

Nova | Rising Skull is a shotgun finish in cream and tan, with dark brown sun rays fanning across the stock around a skull. In Factory New the cream base stays even and the thin ray lines keep sharp edges, so the rising-sun motif reads cleanly. The distressed brown edging on the receiver is part of the artwork, not wear.

Item type: shotgun. Restricted sits in the middle of the rarity scale: noticeably rarer than Mil-Spec, yet not truly rare.

Custom Paint Job: hand-painted across the whole body; this is the type where wear shows most, the artwork rubs down to metal.

Other qualities of this skin: Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred. The same quality also exists as the StatTrak™ version.

How the skin looks in Factory New

The receiver is painted cream with irregular dark brown edging that imitates hand-applied, weathered paint. The pump is covered with dense brown ribs over a tan base, while the barrel and magazine tube stay dark gunmetal.

The cream paint is uniform across the receiver, pump and stock. The ray lines on the stock are crisp and the skull outline is fully defined. Any dark patches on the receiver belong to the design. In game the light finish looks clean and bright against the dark barrel.

Factory New quality — float range 0–0.07

The float of Souvenir Nova | Rising Skull ranges from 0 to 0.5; the Factory New quality covers 0–0.07 — 14% of this skin’s scale. The lower the float within the range, the cleaner the surface looks and the higher a copy is usually priced.

Where the skin comes from: collection and case

Souvenir Nova | Rising Skull belongs to The Winter Offensive Collection, which holds 13 skins.

It drops from Winter Offensive Weapon Case (on sale since Dec 18, 2013).

Souvenir version

This is the Souvenir version: such copies dropped to tournament viewers in souvenir packages; the team stickers and signatures on them cannot be removed or chosen. Souvenir items never carry StatTrak™. There is also the regular version without tournament stickers.

Stickers and crafts

Warm tones work best: brown, gold, sepia or black-and-white stickers echo the cream and tan palette. Placing them on the receiver keeps the sun-ray stock and skull unobstructed.

What to check before buying

• Check where the float sits within the wear range, since the light cream paint shows scuffs more readily than darker finishes.
• Do not mistake the brown distressed edging on the receiver for wear, as it is part of the artwork.
• Look at the pump ribs and the receiver edges, which are the first areas to lose paint.
• Check applied stickers and any name tag, and whether the copy is StatTrak™ or Souvenir.

Who the Factory New quality suits

• Collectors who want the cream base and fine ray lines without a single mark.
• Sticker crafters who need a clean light background.
• The best choice if a spotless light finish matters to you.