CS contracts have long fallen out of favour due to their randomness and inconsistent skin quality. Fortunately, there are alternative services, such as skin upgrades available on case-opening sites, offering a more reliable method for improving your skins.
How does this process work? Read on to learn about CS2 skin upgrades and try upgrading to your improve your skins.
What is a skin upgrader?
A skin upgrader is an online service provided by case-opening sites that allows you to exchange items from your inventory for other desired items. The catch is that when you upgrade your skins, their total value must match the price of the item you’re aiming to receive.
If not, the likelihood of a successful upgrade decreases. However, aiming for a 100% upgrade isn't always necessary, as you can reduce your items’ prices for potential profit. We’ll guide you on how to do that later on.
How does a skin upgrader work?
When you use a skin upgrader, the only items you can receive are CS2 skins. You can fuel an upgrade with different sources, including up to six CS2 skins, money, or the site’s bonus currency (such as bullets on Farmskins).
You can mix these sources to achieve the desired total value. Once your total value matches the cost of the desired skin, you can proceed with the upgrade, and the item will be added to your site’s inventory.
You can leave it there for further manipulations, such as upgrading, trading, or selling, or you can transfer it to your Steam account.
Step-by-step guide on upgrading skins
Even if you’re completely new to case-opening sites, you can upgrade a skin by following these steps:
- Pick a reliable case-opening site with an upgrade feature.
- Conduct basic research to find such sites. Ensure the site is reliable by checking reviews and user ratings.
- Sign in through Steam.
- All case-opening sites are connected to Steam, allowing you to log in with your Steam profile by clicking the “Sign In” button. Log into your Steam account and verify it.
- Meet upgrade conditions.
- Most sites require you to deposit funds to unlock the upgrade feature. Additionally, your account must have some balance before you can upgrade.
- Proceed to the skin upgrade page.
- You’ll often find this in the upper or left section of the site’s interface.
- Choose a desired item.
- Browse through the site’s items and select one for the upgrade. Use the search bar to speed up this step.
- Match the desired item with your resources.
- Use your money, skins, and bonus currency to gather a value that matches the desired item’s cost.
- Evaluate your odds and roll.
The site will present you with the chance of a successful upgrade. If you accept the odds, proceed with the upgrade. If not, you can add more value to your skins to improve the chances.
If your upgrade is successful, you can withdraw your loot into your Steam profile via a trading bot by sending a request from your site’s inventory. If an upgrade fails, you lose your items without a reward.
However, some sites offer compensation. For instance, Farmskins returns 3% of your items’ value in bullets (local bonus currency) if the sum of your upgraded items is $1 or more.
How should you use skin upgrades?
Getting rid of irrelevant skins: The most obvious use for a skin upgrade is to get rid of skins you no longer need. Simply stack these irrelevant items into an upgrade and roll for a matching item. Whether you should take risks depends on the value of your irrelevant skins and the amount of risk involved.
Item fishing: If a case-opening site has an item you can’t trade or buy from markets, such as the StatTrak™ M4A4 | Howl (Factory New), a skin upgrade can help you obtain it. Match the desired item’s price with your skins and upgrade. We recommend avoiding low-chance upgrades for rare items to prevent wasting significant amounts of money.
Upgrading for profit: Upgrading skins for profit involves taking calculated risks. The key is to upgrade items that are 10-15% cheaper than the desired pick. This strategy can generate profit without excessive risk, regardless of which skins you are upgrading.
By following these tips and strategies, you can make the most of skin upgrades and enhance your CS2 inventory efficiently and profitably.
