CS2 Doppler Phases Explained: Phase 1 to 4, Ruby, Sapphire, Black Pearl and Emerald

Doppler and Gamma Doppler are CS2 knife finishes. Doppler came with the Chroma Case on January 8, 2015, and Gamma Doppler with the Gamma Case on June 15, 2016. Each finish comes in phases with different colors: Doppler has Phase 1 to 4, Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl, and Gamma Doppler has Phase 1 to 4 and Emerald. On the same knife, the phase changes the price far more than the wear does. This guide shows what every phase looks like, how to tell them apart, which knives have each finish and how the phases compare in price, with SkinsMonkey prices checked on November 2, 2026. Our WIKI lists every phase of all knife skins as a separate item with its own price.

One example shows the scale. On November 2 a Factory New Karambit | Doppler Phase 3 cost $1,660.32 and a Karambit | Doppler Ruby cost $9,764.67, while the Minimal Wear copy of the same Phase 3 was less than two dollars cheaper. You can trade the skins you already own toward any of these phases on SkinsMonkey. If you are still choosing the knife model, start with our guide to the best CS2 knives.

What Doppler and Gamma Doppler Are, and Where the Phases Come From

The in-game description of the Karambit | Doppler and the Karambit | Gamma Doppler says the blade “has been painted with black and silver metallic paints using a marbleizing medium, then candy coated.” The result is a shiny blade where the colors flow into each other. The phase is the color set of that blade. It is decided when the knife drops, and it never changes, so a Phase 1 stays a Phase 1 for as long as the knife exists.

1. Jan 8, 2015 The Chroma Case adds Doppler on five knives.
2. Jun 15, 2016 The Gamma Case adds Gamma Doppler on the same five.
3. Mar 15, 2017 The Spectrum Case brings Doppler to five more knives, the Butterfly Knife among them.
4. Mar 13, 2019 The Prisma Case adds Doppler on the Talon and three more.
5. Sep 22, 2021 Operation Riptide adds Gamma Doppler on five more knives.

The first five knives were the Bayonet, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Karambit and M9 Bayonet. The Chroma 2 Case (April 15, 2015) and the Chroma 3 Case (April 27, 2016) repeat the same Doppler knives, and the Gamma 2 Case (August 18, 2016) repeats the Gamma Doppler ones. In 2025 the Fever Case added Doppler on the Nomad, Paracord, Skeleton and Survival knives. On November 2, 2026 our WIKI listed Doppler on 18 knife types and Gamma Doppler on 10. The full list is further down.

The three phases below show how far the price moves on one knife. All three are the same Karambit model in the same wear.

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How We Compare the Phases

All prices are Factory New prices from the SkinsMonkey WIKI on November 2, 2026, one price per phase and knife. Our WIKI lists every phase as its own item, so we compare like with like: a Karambit Phase 2 with a Butterfly Knife Phase 2, and a Ruby with a Ruby. Doppler and Gamma Doppler only exist in Factory New and Minimal Wear, and the two wears usually cost almost the same, so one Factory New price per phase is enough for a comparison.

Many of these knives have very few listings. On November 2 the Karambit Black Pearl had one listing and the Karambit Ruby had none, so a price with one listing or none is a reference price, not a price you can count on. StatTrak copies are not in the tables.

Jump to: Doppler phases · Gamma Doppler phases · Prices on eight knives · Which phase looks best · Wear and float · Which knives have Doppler · How to check the phase

Doppler Phase 1 to 4, Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl

The four numbered phases have the same base, a dark blade with pink, purple and blue, and they differ in which color covers most of it. Guides do not describe them in exactly the same words, and two copies of one phase can look a little different. Use the colors below to recognize a phase, and the item name on our WIKI to confirm it.

• Phase 1: a dark blade, mostly black with purple and some blue and pink. Karambit $1,692.34, Gut Knife $164.03.
• Phase 2: the pink phase, with pink and purple over most of the blade. Karambit $2,351.05, Butterfly Knife $5,762.32.
• Phase 3: blue with green tones and dark areas, and very little pink. Karambit $1,660.32, Bayonet $514.48.
• Phase 4: mostly bright blue, with black and a little purple. Karambit $1,718.94, M9 Bayonet $1,367.35.
• Ruby: red over the whole blade, with darker areas. Karambit $9,764.67, Butterfly Knife $14,176.47.
• Sapphire: bright blue over the whole blade. Karambit $6,366.15, M9 Bayonet $5,651.97.
• Black Pearl: very dark, black with deep purple and blue that you see when light hits the blade. Karambit $17,157.91, Butterfly Knife $17,145.82.

Ruby, Sapphire and Black Pearl are much more expensive than the four numbered phases. On the eight knives in our table below, a Black Pearl cost from 3.8 times the cheapest numbered phase on the Talon Knife to 10.3 times on the Karambit. The two most expensive Doppler items on our WIKI on November 2 were both Black Pearls: the Karambit at $17,157.91 and the Butterfly Knife at $17,145.82, each with one listing.

Among the numbered phases, Phase 2 cost more than Phase 4 on 17 of the 18 Doppler knives. The Bowie Knife was the exception, with Phase 4 at $430.66 and Phase 2 at $401.41. The cheapest Doppler phase was Phase 1 or Phase 3 on every knife, and Phase 3 on 12 of them.

Gamma Doppler Phase 1 to 4 and Emerald

Gamma Doppler has the same marbled, candy coated look, but in green and teal instead of pink and purple. It has five items: Phase 1 to 4 and Emerald. There is no Ruby, Sapphire or Black Pearl in Gamma Doppler, and Emerald is its only single-color phase.

• Phase 1: green and teal on a dark base, with the widest mix of tones, including some blue and purple. Karambit $2,463.70, Gut Knife $201.01.
• Phase 2: the greenest of the four numbered phases. Karambit $3,022.29, Butterfly Knife $2,884.63.
• Phase 3: green and teal, with a clear change from one color to the other along the blade. Karambit $2,131.46, Flip Knife $508.92.
• Phase 4: teal and green with a smoother change between them. Karambit $2,125.78, Shadow Daggers $122.69.
• Emerald: solid green over the whole blade. Karambit $9,482.27, Butterfly Knife $9,686.14.

Emerald was the most expensive Gamma Doppler phase on all 10 knives, at 2.1 to 4.4 times the most expensive numbered phase of the same knife. Phase 2 was the most expensive numbered phase on 9 of them, and the Shadow Daggers were the exception. The cheapest phase of either finish on our WIKI that day, in Factory New, was the Shadow Daggers | Gamma Doppler Phase 4 at $122.69.

Doppler or Gamma Doppler, which costs more depends on the knife. On the five original knives (Bayonet, Flip, Gut, Karambit and M9 Bayonet), every numbered Gamma phase cost more than the same Doppler phase. On the Butterfly, Huntsman, Falchion, Bowie and Shadow Daggers, every numbered Gamma phase cost less.

Doppler Phase Prices on Eight Knives, Side by Side

Factory New price of each phase on eight popular knives, SkinsMonkey WIKI, November 2, 2026. The knives are the Karambit, Butterfly Knife, M9 Bayonet, Talon Knife, Bayonet, Flip Knife, Shadow Daggers and Gut Knife. Each knife name links to all skins of that knife.

On all eight knives the Black Pearl was the most expensive phase and the Ruby cost more than the Sapphire. The difference between knives is bigger than the difference between phases: a Gut Knife | Doppler Black Pearl at $1,016.49 cost less than a Karambit in Phase 3.

The Talon Knife has no Gamma Doppler, so the Gamma Doppler table below has seven knives.

Which Doppler Phase Looks Best, in Our Opinion

We think the single-color phases look best in the hand, because one color covers the whole blade and you see it in every inspect. Among the cheaper phases, Phase 4 comes closest to a Sapphire look and Phase 2 is the brightest. Phase 1 and Phase 3 are the darkest, and in a small picture the two can be hard to tell apart.

Wear and Float: Why Factory New and Minimal Wear Cost Almost the Same

Doppler and Gamma Doppler knives have a float range from 0.00 to 0.08, so every copy is Factory New or Minimal Wear. The wear adds a few marks to the blade. It does not change the colors, which come from the phase. Our CS2 wear levels guide explains how float maps to the wear names.

On most phases the two wears cost almost the same. A Karambit Phase 2 was $2,351.05 in Factory New and $2,348.71 in Minimal Wear on November 2. The difference was bigger on a few of the expensive phases: the M9 Bayonet Sapphire cost $5,651.97 against $4,704.59, and the Butterfly Knife Emerald $9,686.14 against $9,198.60. Several Black Pearls, the Karambit one included, had no Minimal Wear price at all.

Which Knives Have Doppler and Gamma Doppler

Our WIKI listed Doppler on 18 knife types and Gamma Doppler on 10 on November 2, 2026. Grouped by the cases they drop from:

• Bayonet, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Karambit and M9 Bayonet: Doppler from the Chroma, Chroma 2 and Chroma 3 cases, Gamma Doppler from the Gamma and Gamma 2 cases.
• Butterfly Knife, Huntsman Knife, Falchion Knife, Shadow Daggers and Bowie Knife: Doppler from the Spectrum and Spectrum 2 cases, Gamma Doppler from the Operation Riptide and Dreams & Nightmares cases.
• Navaja Knife, Stiletto Knife, Talon Knife and Ursus Knife: Doppler only, from the Prisma and Prisma 2 cases.
• Nomad Knife, Paracord Knife, Skeleton Knife and Survival Knife: Doppler only, from the Fever Case.
• The Classic Knife and the Kukri Knife have neither finish on our WIKI.

One gun has the finish too. The Glock-18 | Gamma Doppler came with Operation Riptide on September 22, 2021, but not in a case: it belongs to the 2021 Train Collection. It has the same five phases as the knives, and on November 2 Phase 1 started at $101.28 and the Emerald at $239.45 on SkinsMonkey.

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How to Check the Phase Before You Trade

Steam does not put the phase in the item name. Every Doppler phase of a knife has the same Steam name, for example “★ Karambit | Doppler (Factory New)”, and every Gamma Doppler phase is just “Gamma Doppler”. That name is what you see in your inventory, on the Steam Community Market and in a trade offer, so the name alone does not tell you whether a knife is a Phase 3 or a Ruby. Check three things:

1. Inspect it in game. Open the inspect from your inventory or from the listing and look at both sides of the blade. Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald are one color from tip to guard, and a Black Pearl is almost black. For a numbered phase, compare the main color with the lists above.
2. Check the item on SkinsMonkey. Our WIKI has a separate page for each phase, for example Karambit | Doppler Phase 4 and Karambit | Doppler Sapphire, each with its own price. Make sure the price you compare belongs to the phase in front of you.
3. Read the trade offer. The offer shows the Steam name without the phase. Inspect the knife from the offer before you accept, and decline it if the colors do not match the phase you agreed on.

A Phase 4 with a lot of blue can look like a Sapphire in a small picture, but it still has black and some purple on the blade. On the Karambit that difference was $1,718.94 against $6,366.15 on November 2, so it is worth the ten seconds in the inspect.

The Steam Community Market charges about 15% on every sale, a 5% Steam fee plus a 10% CS2 fee, which adds up fast on a knife worth thousands. Check what your skins are worth with our free CS2 Inventory Value Checker, then trade them toward the phase you want on SkinsMonkey, where trades with our bots go through instantly. SkinsMonkey does not pay out cash. If you want to sell a skin for money, our sister service SkinCashier does that. For the most expensive Karambits beyond Doppler, see our most expensive Karambit skins list.

One phase in each price range

AC

Bottom line

Choose the phase by its colors and price, and confirm it in the inspect, never by the Steam name.

For a colorful knife for less money, Phase 2 is the pink phase and Phase 4 the blue one. On the Karambit they cost $2,351.05 and $1,718.94 on November 2, against $9,764.67 for a Ruby and $6,366.15 for a Sapphire.

Factory New and Minimal Wear cost almost the same, so pay for the phase, not the float. Steam shows every phase under one name, so inspect the exact knife before you accept a trade and compare it with the phase page on our WIKI.

Compare knife pricesEvery knife and phase, current prices on SkinsMonkey

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