Lock and Ban Skins for Better Trade Ups

Effective CS2 weapon trading means controlling which skins enter your contracts. Without rules, the simulator considers every possible skin — including ones you can't afford or don't wantn. The Skin Rules system gives you precise control over the search space.

Locking a skin guarantees it will be included in the contract. This is ideal for skins you already own and want to trade up. The simulator will find the best possible contract that includes your locked skins.

You can lock up to 9 skins (leaving at least 1 slot for the algorithm to optimize). The more skins you lock, the smaller the search space — which can be either beneficial (faster, more targeted) or limiting (fewer possible contracts).

Banning excludes a skin entirely from results. This is useful for filtering out items that are overpriced, illiquid, or that you simply want to avoid.

Common reasons to ban skins:

• The skin is listed far above its typical price
• Very few listings exist, making it hard to actually purchase
• You've tried buying it before and it sold before you could complete the purchase
• You want to explore contracts that don't rely on a specific collection

The most powerful strategy combines both: lock 3 skins from your inventory, ban 5 you don't want, and the algorithm optimizes the remaining slots around those constraints.

This is particularly effective when combined with the Market skin source — lock your inventory skins, ban overpriced ones, and let the simulator fill remaining slots with the best actual market listings.