With Counter-Strike Source 2 (CS2) just around the corner people are pouring back into CSGO to try to get chosen to participate in the active beta for the upcoming game. Players old and new are flocking to the game, and there are in excess of a million active players per day at the time of writing. If you’ve been playing some CSGO but have been jealous of all the fancy knives you’ve seen players running around with, you might have been tempted to pick up one of these prestigious status symbols. If that’s the case and you’re prepared to drop some stacks on one of these stabbing beauties you’ve come to the right place! Read on for a breakdown of the all the knives in CSGO tier list-style to determine which knife is best for you!
How Do All The Knives in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Compare to Each Other?
S Tier
Butterfly Knife
The Butterfly Knife is hands-down one of the best knives in the game. It’s the favorite of many players, which is reflected in the price they go for! It’s got a unique style unlike anything else in the game; the animations are incredibly satisfying when both pulling out the knife and whipping it around to inspect it. Plus, almost every single skin looks amazing on a Butterfly Knife, so the only downside is their incredibly expensive entry price. Expect to pay well over $800 for a skin with low wear and a nice finish.
Karambit Knife
The Karambit is another one of those knives that is just special. It looks amazing and has top-notch animations for pulling it out, inspecting it, and using it. Pretty much any skin you buy for it looks great. This knife is always in high demand, which makes it a lock for a favorite of many players, especially amongst CSGO Youtubers and CSGO pros.
Skeleton Knife
This is an awesome knife with a really unique look among all of the knives available in CSGO thanks to the hole right in the middle of the tang. When you inspect the Skeleton Knife, you put your finger in the hole and flip it around to different angles as you inspect it. There is a standard animation when you pull it out, but there is also a rare animation that spins it around your thumb while taking it out, which looks awesome. There are only a handful of skins to use with this knife, but most work pretty well.
M9 Bayonet Knife
One of the best looking knives in the game. It’s got a really clean animation when you pull it out, a standard inspect animation, and not many extra features. The look of the knife is what carries it into the S tier, with a black handle that goes with any skin finish, all of which look fantastic on this double-sided blade.
A Tier
Bayonet Knife
The Bayonet is a classic, and one of the best looking knives in the game. It has an amazing, clean pull out animation that sees the knife flip out into your hand. The animation looks particularly good when swapping from something like an AWP shot. The handle color is what brings it down compared to the M9 Bayonet, with the muted green contrasting poorly with a lot of the popular finishes, while only a handful of skins alter the handle to make it suit better.
Classic Knife
This one pays homage to the Counter-Strike 1.6 days, with the Classic Knife being a modern recreation of the knife from that earlier game. It’s really pleasing to see a piece of Counter-Strike history brought in amidst all of the knives in CSGO, but it’s a nice looking knife even without that. There’s no guarantee you’ll like the pattern built into the blade, which shows even when fully covered by a skin. This can make the Classic Knife look a bit strange in certain finishes. Some people actually prefer to go for more worn conditions so that the pattern remains on the bottom with the skin only covering the top section of the knife, and this can look fantastic.
It’s got decent pull-out and inspect animations, but one thing that is unique to the Classic Knife is an idle animation. No other blade in the game has an animation that just happens every now and then. As you walk along with your knife out, your character will occasionally grab the end of the knife and feel it, which is a fun touch.
Nomad Knife
The Nomad Knife has a cool pull-out animation where you take it out with your left hand and swap into your right hand. Sometimes you even get a rare animation for it where you cut yourself doing it and your character shakes their hand in pain. It also just looks pretty damn good, with a handle that goes with anything and a solid variety of skins it looks great in.
Talon Knife
This one is really just the budget version of the Karambit. It has a very similar look and feel but with some additional animations that let you spin the knife around and a rare inspect that will spin it around your finger for quite a while. Like many of the other knives, the handle color lets this one down, with only a handful of skins altering the color of the handle to create better skin color schemes. Overall it’s a good knife and a cheaper alternative to the Karambit with some good skins available.
Stiletto Knife
This is such an underrated knife. It’s unique, with a great animation when you pull it out where the blade flicks up. It also has a great inspect animation where you hold it by a couple of fingers and twist it around. Despite being on the smaller end, it looks slick and doesn’t suffer from being too small like the Navaja Knife further down this list. It has a dull brown handle, but because it’s a smaller knife your hand actually covers it most of the time anyway so it’s not as noticeable. Overall it’s a very cool knife that gives mafia vibes and feels great to use in-game.
B Tier
Falchion Knife
This knife has a pull-out animation where your character raises the knife and pulls the blade out, which doesn’t look as cool as most other knives. It does, however, have a really sleek inspect animation where you spin the knife around and hold it in place with an ‘ok’ gesture style grip, which shows off the knife detail well.
In addition to this inspect animation it also has a rare animation where your character puts the knife in the palm of their hand and balances it on its end. It also has a rather unique handle in that the handle takes on the same full pattern as the knife for certain finishes. For example, the Marble Fade skin results in a full marble fade across the entire knife which looks pretty awesome.
Huntsman Knife
This knife simply looks awesome. It’s big and dangerous looking, with a really cool pull-out animation that has your character spinning and catching it. It’s got a great blade and handle combo that looks excellent with pretty much every skin. It’s not a standout, but it’s a solid knife that you can’t go wrong with.
Paracord Knife
This knife has a pretty simple pull-out animation but a cool inspect animation that’s better than the default and a rare inspect animation where you toss it around in your hand. It has a unique handle with a rope-like wrap that looks pretty cool, and it also has a variety of skins it looks great in.
Survival Knife
Alongside the standard pull-out animation, this knife has a brilliant, rare pull-out animation where you flip the knife and swipe it out of the air to catch it. It has a very average inspect animation too. There is also a lot going on with the design of this knife. It almost looks like a hybrid between a Gut Knife and a Paracord Knife. Overall, it’s a good knife with some pleasing skins options available.
Ursus Knife
The Ursus knife has pretty standard pull-out and inspect animations, but it also has a rare animation for each. The inspect causes you to spin the knife through your fingers, which looks badass. The rare pull-out animation looks top notch too, having you throw it into the air spinning and then catch it. Once again, it has one of those unfortunate colored handles that doesn’t look great, which is a shame because the blade does look good. Your mileage on how good skins look will certainly vary, with many just not looking great when matched with the dull handle.
C Tier
Bowie Knife
While this knife looks really good with its intimidating shape, it has one major drawback that throws off many people: your character won’t have their left hand out, as is the case with all of the other knives in CSGO. If you’ve played a fair bit of the game, this can be incredibly distracting and just look plain wrong.
If that visual change doesn’t bother you, the good news is that the Bowie Knife has a cool pull-out animation and a unique inspect animation where you flip the knife around so that it’s pointing at yourself while you inspect it. Like the Bayonet, it has a colored handle, but it’s a darker green that pairs well with orange and gold finishes like a Tiger Tooth skin, for example.
Flip Knife
The Flip Knife isn’t bad. It’s just got pretty basic pull-out and inspect animations. The knife looks decent in a variety of skins, although it does again have the issue of an off-color handle that only gets changed with a couple of skins.
Gut Knife
The Gut Knife has a really cool pull-out animation with your character spinning and catching it when you pull it out. However, it’s got a pretty standard inspect animation. The thing that really lets the knife down, though, is its chunky handle and color. The knife looks too bulky, and the obnoxious handle means it doesn’t look good with many skins. Certain skins that change up the knife (like the Lore and Autotronic skins) do look amazing though. If using those skins, I’d say this knife basically goes up a tier.
D Tier
Navaja Knife
This knife has an animation when you pull it out where you flick out the blade, which is kind of cool but that’s where ‘cool’ ends for this one. The tiny blade makes it hard to appreciate any skins at all, plus the brown patterned handle stands out too much and clashes with most skins. It’s really not great and looks like you’ve brought a butter knife to a knife fight.
Shadow Daggers
While these are unique among all the knives included in CSGO in that you get two small daggers instead of a knife and an animation where you attack left and right with them, they look kind of lame. Lovingly referred to throughout the CSGO community as the ‘butt plugs,’ they cop a lot of flak for the way they look. They have some cool skin finishes and a great little inspect animation where you flip them around to view them, but it’s very much a love them or hate them kind of deal.
That wraps it up for the rankings of all the knives currently available in CSGO! There are rumors that more knives may be on the way with a new case that could be released before CS2, but that has yet to be confirmed. Use this tier list to help you choose wisely, as if you change your mind about the knife you buy, you’ll have to deal with the time it takes to sell the knife back plus you’ll lose out on a chunk thanks to fees!
