Illustration: a gloved hand holds a pink and purple Doppler Karambit while red, blue and purple Doppler Karambits stand in a crate behind it

CS2 Doppler phases explained

Doppler and Gamma Doppler are knife finishes that come in phases: colour versions of the same finish. Here is every phase side by side, how to tell them apart, which knives have them and what each phase sells for today.

What Doppler and Gamma Doppler are

Doppler is a finish of smoky colour swirls on a polished blade. It comes in four numbered phases, Phase 1 to Phase 4, and three gem phases: Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl. Gamma Doppler is the green version, with Phase 1 to Phase 4 and one gem, Emerald.

The phase is fixed for each knife and never changes. The Steam market name leaves it out, though: every Karambit Doppler in Factory New is listed as ★ Karambit | Doppler (Factory New), whatever its phase. So you tell the phase from the blade itself, or from the paint index in the item data.

Every phase on one knife

The catalog art for each phase on the Karambit. Select one to turn it in the 3D viewer.

Doppler

Gamma Doppler

How to tell them apart

Look at the whole blade. The numbered phases are swirls of two or three colours, while the gems are close to one solid colour. When the colour leaves you unsure, the paint index settles it.

Phase	What to look for
Phase 1	Mostly dark, with blue and purple streaks.
Phase 2	Pink and purple take over the blade.
Phase 3	Dark blue and black, with a green tint.
Phase 4	Bright blue, with small purple accents.
Ruby	Solid red across the blade.
Sapphire	Solid bright blue across the blade.
Black Pearl	Dark purple and black, close to solid.
Gamma Phase 1 to 4	Green and teal swirls over black. The four are close, so compare the art above.
Gamma Emerald	Solid green across the blade.

Each phase is its own paint index

In the CS2 item data a phase is not a variant of one finish: each phase is a separate finish with its own paint index. Most knives share the same numbers, and a few use their own.

Phase	Paint index	Exceptions
Doppler Phase 1	418	Talon Knife 852
Doppler Phase 2	419	Butterfly Knife 618, Shadow Daggers 618, Talon Knife 853
Doppler Phase 3	420	Talon Knife 854
Doppler Phase 4	421	Talon Knife 855
Doppler Black Pearl	417	Butterfly Knife 617, Shadow Daggers 617
Doppler Ruby	415	None
Doppler Sapphire	416	Butterfly Knife 619, Shadow Daggers 619
Gamma Doppler Phase 1	569	Glock-18 1120
Gamma Doppler Phase 2	570	Glock-18 1121
Gamma Doppler Phase 3	571	Glock-18 1122
Gamma Doppler Phase 4	572	Glock-18 1123
Gamma Doppler Emerald	568	Glock-18 1119

That is why a gen command or an inspect link names the phase exactly: it carries the paint index, so a Phase 2 Karambit is paint 419, never just "Doppler".

The pattern seed inside a phase

Two knives of the same phase still look different. The pattern seed, a number from 0 to 1000, decides where the colours sit on the blade and how much of each shows, so one Phase 2 can be mostly pink and another carry more purple. The seed never changes the phase: no seed turns a Phase 3 into a Sapphire.

Open any phase in the 3D viewer and change the seed to watch the swirls shift. The seed works the same way on Case Hardened, where it decides how much blue shows: see Case Hardened patterns and blue gems.

Price by phase

Each phase is priced as its own item, so two knives with the same market name can sit far apart. These are the current Factory New prices for each phase on three popular knives. Select a phase name to open it in 3D with its price for every wear.

Karambit Factory New price by phase, Aggregated market price in USD
Phase	Bar	Price
Doppler
Phase 1		$1,161.88
Phase 2		$1,651.58
Phase 3		$1,142.61
Phase 4		$1,214.07
Black Pearl		$9,593.10
Ruby		$7,102.85
Sapphire		$4,104.79
Gamma Doppler
Phase 1		$1,752.98
Phase 2		$2,156.79
Phase 3		$1,497.84
Phase 4		$1,405.78
Emerald		$9,929.70

Aggregated market price in USD, updated 5 Oct, 00:17 UTC. Karambit, Factory New, no StatTrak. Prices move; open a phase for every wear and StatTrak.

Which knives come in Doppler

Every knife with Doppler has all seven of its phases. Gamma Doppler, with its five phases, is on fewer knives, and the Glock-18 is the one gun that carries it.

Weapon	Doppler	Gamma Doppler
Bayonet	Yes	Yes
Bowie Knife	Yes	Yes
Butterfly Knife	Yes	Yes
Falchion Knife	Yes	Yes
Flip Knife	Yes	Yes
Glock-18	No	Yes
Gut Knife	Yes	Yes
Huntsman Knife	Yes	Yes
Karambit	Yes	Yes
M9 Bayonet	Yes	Yes
Navaja Knife	Yes	No
Nomad Knife	Yes	No
Paracord Knife	Yes	No
Shadow Daggers	Yes	Yes
Skeleton Knife	Yes	No
Stiletto Knife	Yes	No
Survival Knife	Yes	No
Talon Knife	Yes	No
Ursus Knife	Yes	No

Float range and wear

Doppler on knives: float 0.00 to 0.08, so Factory New and Minimal Wear.
Gamma Doppler on knives: float 0.00 to 0.08, so Factory New and Minimal Wear.
Gamma Doppler on Glock-18: float 0.00 to 0.50, so Factory New, Minimal Wear, Field-Tested, Well-Worn, and Battle-Scarred.

A Doppler knife is almost always Factory New: Minimal Wear starts at 0.07, so on a knife it only covers the thin slice from 0.07 to 0.08.

Open the Karambit Doppler Phase 2 in 3D