This guide aims to analyze every detail of the visuals presented on each weapon skin that came with the new Anubis map in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Along with looking at the visuals at face value, any symbolism is explained to help understand the connection between these visuals and Egyptian history. These skins were inspired both by the actual environment of Egypt as well as the recently released Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map seemingly set in Egypt, which is titled Anubis. While different versions of Anubis were available for Scrimmage and Competitive play in 2020 and 2021, they were removed and then it was updated and re-added to the Competitive map pool at the end of 2022 for the 10-year anniversary of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
M4A4 | Eye of Horus
Description: “It has been custom painted with a white base, gold accents, and the Egyptian falcon god Horus.” Flavor text: “Rise above the rest”
M4A4 Eye of Horus with Anubis in the background.
It is painted white and beige with gold accents and has blue, teal, red, and brown painted detailing. The painted detailing depicts the Egyptian falcon God Horus, with a feathered pattern spread across the gun. It is painted with a Gunsmith finish, which combines the Patina and Custom Paint Job styles. Guns in a Patina style tend to look relatively new even when battle-scarred but come in a darker shade the more worn they are. This Patina pattern varies a small amount gun-to-gun, but different wears can vary a large amount depending on the gun. However, with the Gunsmith finish, the wear on the Custom Paint Job is noticeable at Field-Tested, although the Patina sections only darken with additional wear.
Classified Grade Skins
FAMAS | Waters of Nephthys
Description: “The blues on this custom painted FAMAS shift as lighting conditions change.” Flavor text: “Water always wins”.
FAMAS Waters of Nephthys with Anubis in the background.
This weapon skin is applied with a Custom Paint Job, The paint darkens slightly with more wear, and the chipped paint remains largely just on the edges on both FT and WW. While the BS is noticeably more chipped, the paint is remarkably intact for this level of wear. The accent colors of the gun (trigger, magazine, barrel, and charging handle) are painted a beige and gray color with the same splotchy water pattern as the rest of the gun.
Nephthys is an interesting choice for a namesake, as she was not associated with water or the sea. She is the ancient Egyptian goddess of air and is also associated with death and protecting the dead. Statues and engravings of Nephthys are often found near tombs, coffins, and burial sites. Her role as a protector could explain why her name was given to a Counter-Terrorist specific weapon.
This is the tomb of Tutankhamun, which is protected on each side by a different ancient Egyptian goddess. From left to right, these depict Neith, Nephthys, Isis, and Serqet.
P250 | Apep’s Curse
Description: “It has been custom painted using Egyptian patterns and materials as inspiration.” Flavor text: “In opposition of Ra”
P250 Apep’s Curse with Anubis in the background.
This is a Gunsmith weapon skin, with a mostly Patina body and an accent Custom Paint Job. The paint details a red and green snake next to the trigger. This snake is Apep, or Apophis, the serpent god of chaos. Above the snake are red and green alternating stripes that extend onto the slide mechanism. There is a red accent mark that resembles a jewel in-lay inside of the safety, resting above the trigger. The snake’s body extends onto the handle of the pistol in the style of a Patina engraving. A mummy’s wraps are engraved around the barrel end of the pistol, with an engraved beetle in the center. This beetle resembles a winged scarab beetle that is holding a circle. This, of course, represents Khepri, the scarab beetle God that was believed to carry the sun across the sky every day.
There are symbols resembling Egyptian hieroglyphics etched onto the slide mechanism and on the handle as well. This gun is a very bright gold Patina, and the heavier wear darkens it into a more bronze shade. The Custom Paint Job also darkens, but the only noticeable chipping and wear lie on the edges of the gun and magazine. These changes are only noticeable with battle-scarred wear, the only major change among the various wears is the shade. Minimal wear and factory new are nearly identical, and so are field tested and well worn.
This section of the Book of the Dead of Imenemsauf depicts Khepri and Thoth defeating Apep. The snake underneath the barque they are riding on is Apep.
Restricted Grade Skins
Glock-18 | Ramese’s Reach
Description: “The Nile river has been custom painted on the slide and the grip depicts Ramesses I, the founding pharaoh of ancient Egypt’s 19th Dynasty.” Flavor text: “My people reach for their Gods, and I am here to connect them”
Glock-18 Ramese’s Reach with Anubis in the background.
The frame is a stone color, with a stone texture along the trigger guard. The eye of Ra rests on the grip, just to the side of the trigger. A red eye or circle traditionally represents Ra, the sun god. Above and below the eye of Ra, many skeleton hands are reaching out with a mummy’s wrappings falling off of their wrists. Below these depict a painting of “Ramese”, or Ramesses I, next to three candles.
Below this painting is an engraving of three symbols. The first represents Anubis. The second is an eye inside of a pyramid, but it is not detailed enough to indicate whether or not it depicts Ra, Horus, or Thoth. Next to this is a hawk, most likely representing Horus, the hawk god of the sky. The slide of the Glock is painted to show the Nile, with the Great Pyramids in the distance. A square house sits on the far left, hidden in some trees. On the frame just below the slide is an engraving of a scorpion and a beetle.
To the right of these sits an engraving of a sarcophagus. Keep in mind that these engravings are applied with the Custom Paint Job, so any depth is an illusion from the paint. Additionally, they can potentially be worn off with certain wears, as opposed to Patina engravings, which show more depth and cannot be worn away like paint. While the chipping is only remarkably bad on the battle-scarred version, it is obviously most appealing as factory new or minimal wear, as a chipped painting is quite noticeable and the base color is much darker than the paint.
Nova | Sobek’s Bite
Description: “This custom paint job features gold and black Egyptian inspired designs.” Flavor Text: “From the water comes chaos”
Nova Sobek’s Bite with Anubis in the background.
This shotgun skin is applied as a Gunsmith, which is a combination of Patina and a Custom Paint Job. Like the Apep’s Curse, most of the skin is Patina with a small amount of red and teal detailing. The frame is black with a large amount of gold Patina detailing. Similar to the Apep’s curse, only a small amount of wear is visible even when battle-scarred. The Patina and Custom Paint Job darken similarly, with very little chipping noticeable. Very little wear is present in the black sections, with scratches only noticeable in the battle-scarred version.
A painted statue of Sobek in his crocodile form, dated 1991-1802 BCE.
Just above the trigger in black and gold is the eye of Horus, and to the left of this is a gold symbol of a crocodile with hair and a crown. This is Sobek, the Egyptian god who is both a crocodile and a man. As the god of the crocodiles and creator of the Nile River, it is understandable why this symbolism was used for a weapon with such a large close-range bite. The gold detailing covers the body, grip, and stock. The pump and barrel are mostly black with a small amount of gold detailing on the grip of the pump. A small amount of gold detailing is also present on the muzzle and magazine.
P90 | ScaraB Rush
Description: “It has been custom painted with scarabs and Egyptian inspired designs.” Flavor text: “Resurrection requires death, and death requires rushing”
P90 ScaraB Rush with Anubis in the background.
This skin is applied with a Custom Paint Job, but it has much less wear and paint chipping than most Custom Paint Job skins. The frame resembles a dark brown stone texture, with a large amount of gold and marble detailing. Most of the marble is located on the butt, with small amounts around the optical sight, behind the charging handle, just behind the muzzle, and on the trigger. There are engravings all over this weapon on the gold sections, with too many engravings to analyze. There is a gold scarab beetle inlaid between the muzzle and the magazine. The magazine is painted gold on the sides and white on top.
Along the marble that extends from the butt to just below the sight is a section of alternating turquoise and gold. The alternating colors resemble inlaid jewels, much like the Apep’s Curse. Above these alternating bars sits a similarly colored engraving of a gold turquoise bullet, just below the magazine. Inside the marble stock appears to be embossed scarab beetles, which unsettlingly appear to be trapped under a thin layer of marble, stretched like skin. On the bottom of the stock, there are a collection of sandstone hieroglyphic engravings, which are colored just a bit differently than the gold hieroglyphs. Along the edges and butt of the stock lie more gold detailing, which complements the marble beautifully.
Mil-Spec Grade Skins
AWP | Black Nile
Description: “The lines of this custom paint job resemble grooves on a topographical map.” Flavor text: ”Bleed between the lines”
AWP Black Nile with Anubis in the background.
This skin is fairly simple, but it is becoming a very popular budget AWP. Most AWP skins start at a higher price in the market, and this one is very affordable only weeks after the initial release. This skin is applied with the Gunsmith option, combining Patina and Custom Paint Job. This results in a beautiful silvery metal Patina finish, and the paint helps accentuate the depth. With heavier wear, the bright silver dulls and darkens slightly. Battle-scarred wear gives it more of a dark copper tone.
A topographic map of the Nile River and Sinai Peninsula, from the Pergamon World Atlas (1962).
AK-47 | Steel Delta
Description: The lines of this custom paint job resemble grooves on a topographical map.
Flavor Text: Bleed between the lines
AK-47 Steel Delta with Anubis in the background.
This skin does in fact have an identical in-game description and flavor text to the Black Nile, and they do seem to be a pair. While they do both resemble a topographical map, the Steel Delta is significantly darker and has smaller and tighter grooves. The metal parts are engraved with this topographical map, excluding the magazine, muzzle, and barrel. The wooden parts are a darker, desaturated version of the usual wood finish, with horizontal grains. While the AK-47 does have more budget options than the AWP, this is a very solid option. However, the AK-47 does have a number of dark engraved skins already.
Tec-9 | Mummy’s Rot
Description: “It has been custom painted to resemble a mummy. A cobra with green eyes has been painted beneath the rear sight.” Flavor text: “Keep this under wraps”
Tec-9 Mummy’s Rot with Anubis in the background.
Back to the symbolism! This skin is applied with a Custom Paint Job, with a mummy’s wraps painted all over. There is a silhouette of a hand with circles in the palm. This is a bit unusual, as these small circles could be representing a blurry eye of Horus, Ra, or Thoth, but this actually more closely resembles a Native American healing hand symbol. Above the grip is a symbol of the eye of Ra, centered in a pyramid. This is surrounded by blurry hieroglyphs, and a symbol of Khepri sits just above the magazine.
On the magazine itself are four engravings. The first is Anubis, the god of death often depicted as a jackal, or jackal human. Below this is a cobra, which is most likely depicting Wadjet, the cobra goddess. Below Wadjet is another snake, but in an S-shape, more closely resembling a regular serpent. This is most likely Apep, the previously mentioned god of chaos which takes the form of a gigantic snake. The eye of Horus is the final engraving on the magazine. There is a green jewel inlaid in the charging handle, resembling an emerald. A cobra with green eyes is below the iron sight, facing the player holding the weapon, possibly depicting Wadjet as well.
MAG-7 | Copper Coated
Description: “It has been custom painted to look like it was held under a stream of liquid copper.” Flavor text: “This was an accident, not a mistake…”
MAG-7 Copper Coated with Anubis in the background.
This is a Gunsmith skin, combining the Patina and Custom Paint Job. The top of the gun is covered in liquid copper, with copper geometric symbols under the liquid copper detailing. These shapes seem to resemble alchemical symbols. Egyptians created the concept of alchemy and believed they had the power to turn base metals into gold. These vaguely alchemical symbols and the liquid copper presumably tell a story about a failed experiment. Symbolism aside, these wears are very similar, only getting a bit darker and duller with more wear.
Industrial Grade Skins
M4A1-S | Mud-Spec
Description: “A custom black and brown camouflage has been applied.” Flavor text: “Backup has arrived”
M4A1-S Mud-Spec with Anubis in the background.
It is a bit surprising that this skin is a Gunsmith skin, as it looks like it could simply be a Custom Paint Job. However, this detail means that the camo pattern darkens and becomes a dark orange shade with heavy wear. Very little chipping is present, and the camouflage pattern seems to be consistent with very few changes.
USP-S | Desert Tactical
Description: “It has been custom painted with an olive-colored tactical camouflage.” Flavor text: “Base models don’t have to be boring”
USP-S Desert Tactical with Anubis in the background.
This is a Gunsmith skin, with an unremarkable desert camo covering most of the gun. The trigger itself is a clay red color, which sticks out from the rest of the skin. Despite the flavor text, this is actually quite boring. The red on the trigger is quite out of place. The firing end of the silencer is painted with the desert camo and the other half is still default greyish black. In a small white text, “AC” and “21-1337CLTCH” are printed above the safety.
MAC-10 | Echoing Sands
Description: “It has been custom painted using desert camouflage and environments as inspiration. A scarab has been painted under the wire form butt.” Flavor text: “WE’VE BEEN SET UP! THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!”
MAC-10 Echoing Sands with Anubis in the background.
Despite the convincing shiny metal colors and accents, this skin is applied with only a Custom Paint Job. The base of the gun is a gray paint job, with thin lines covering the gun resembling sand. Almost all of the details and accent marks are a sandy bronze color. The hanging cloth strap on the front of the gun is painted solid black, which complements the shiny metal colors well. Surprisingly, very little paint is chipped with additional wear. While the skin does darken, very few chips or scratches appear even when battle-scarred.
SSG 08 | Azure Glyph
Description: “It has been custom painted with blue water, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and finished with wood running the length of the weapon.” Flavor text: “Flood warning”
SSG 08 Azure Glyph with Anubis in the background.
This is a Gunsmith skin, and it has a variety of colors, patterns, and textures. Dark wood with grey tones covers the entire gun, with turquoise water spread across the gun. Most of the water sections are etched with a large variety of hieroglyphs, and the color of the etching resembles the wood finish. With additional wear, most of the damage resides on the wooden sections. The sections of water only darken slightly, with the wood darkening a bit more. Most noticeably, there are many scuffs and scratches along the edges of the weapon.
Consumer Grade Skins
XM1014 | Hieroglyph
Description: “It has been custom painted with Egyptian hieroglyphs and ornaments.” Flavor text: “The moral of the story”
XM1014 Hieroglyph with Anubis in the background.
While there is a small amount of color, it blends very well with the sand color that covers the majority of this weapon. With the color and texture along with the hieroglyphs, it resembles the side of a pyramid. This skin has a tan base with a blue, black, and orange pattern along the barrel and the stock. There are blue dashes along the underside of the gearbox, right above the trigger.
In this gearbox section, there are over 25 different ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic etchings, hence this weapon’s name. With additional wear, paint is chipped primarily around the edges but with the potential for chipping in most zones. The difference between field-tested or well-worn and battle-scarred is large when it comes to overall wear on the skin. This is unsurprising as it is a Custom Paint Job type skin, but the wear is still relatively minor compared to many skins of this type.
MP7 | Sunbaked
Description: “The lines of this custom paint job resemble grooves on a topographical map.” Flavor text: “Bleed between the lines”
MP7 Sunbaked with Anubis in the background.
Here is another topographical map-style skin, but this one is far less recognizable as a map when compared to the Black Nile. The color is dark silver and it gets significantly darker with wear, but that is the only major difference. The pattern is on most of the gun, with small sections in black. The butt of the stock, the iron sights, the rails, and the magazine are all black. The muzzle resembles carbon fiber. This is a very nice and appealing dark skin that will only cost a few cents, but it does not have any remarkable symbolism or etchings, just a nice subtle pattern offered in a variety of shades.
M249 | Submerged
Description: “It has been custom painted using teal-colored desert camouflage and environments as inspiration.” Flavor text: “WE’VE BEEN SET UP! THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!”
M249 Submerged with Anubis in the background.
The obligatory trash skin of the bunch, the skin that will likely never be worth more than a few cents and you probably will never use even if you equip it, because this weapon has almost no place in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s competitive metagame and sees very little use by anybody. However, this skin does look very nice and has some appealing neutral colors. The teal sections have faint lines that give the impression of water rippling.
The accent color sections have a copper tone that complements the teal well. While this does not have any symbolism or historic references, it does aesthetically fit into a desert theme with splotches of color that are consistent with the overall theme of the collection. When worn down, the teal sections seem to be impacted more by scratching and wear than the copper “metal” sections, as you might expect. However, this weapon is just a Custom Paint Job, meaning the metal sections also have the potential to be worn and chipped to reveal the base color. The weapon does not darken very much with wear, only noticeably darker at a BS grade.
R8 Revolver | Inlay
Description: “It has been custom painted to resemble acanthus engravings and a marble grip.” Flavor text: “Opulence in the palm of your hand”
R8 Revolver Inlay with Anubis in the background.
While at first glance this skin does seem a bit out of theme, it does in fact have small references that try to place it geographically thereabouts. While the flowery metal engravings are quite elegant, the snakeskin pattern engraving makes it feel like a desert weapon. The marble grip is very appealing but also resembles ivory, which looks very clean and gives it the impression of a treasure/trophy hunter’s hand cannon that you might expect to find in Egypt.
AUG | Snake Pit
Description: “A custom pattern of snakes and amphibians has been applied.” Flavor text: “Acting on ill intentions”
AUG Snake Pit with Anubis in the background.
This is a very crazy-looking skin, with a pattern that is applied randomly to each weapon. There are 5 completely different-looking animals with 2 additional similar copies, making this full of very unique imagery that will vary with each weapon. See how many different species you can name in this weapon’s skin texture, it is detailed.
The repeating pattern of the Snake Pit skin.
The Snake Pit is definitely one of the best skins in the 10-cent or less category. The AUG is fortunate enough to have a wide variety of detailed skins covered in art, but unfortunately, many players rarely use the AUG. Despite that, there are many amazing AUG skins that start at $50+, but now there is finally a fantastic budget option.
While only one Covert tier skin was added, many of these skins will certainly remain popular in the community. The budget skins in this collection are very appealing as well, offering affordable options for many different guns. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a history of using mythological imagery in its most valuable and sought-after weapon skins, and the Anubis Collection invites the Egyptian pantheon to the party. Regardless of whether or not the Eye of Horus reaches the same heights as the Howl in terms of economic value or reputation due to rarity, it is certainly just as eye-catching and boldly beautiful.
