If you want a Sawed-Off that reads instantly in inspect, the Kraken line is the octopus answer—not a flat recolor, but a custom hand-painted look where the whole gun is treated like illustration work rather than stacked industrial decals. The in-game blurb plays deep-sea mood (“the seal has been broken”); pop it open in your client once—the flavor lands harder than any thumbnail.

Release & pedigree
It shipped with the Winter Offensive update on 18 December 2013, the same day the Winter Offensive case and its drop loop went live. That date matters for collectors: this is a named point on the old case timeline, not a one-off event skin.

Workshop story
Workshop route, artist Zaphk, submission OctoPump. If you care about provenance, you’re buying a piece that survived Valve’s readability filter—not a template swap.

Where it drops (official)

• Winter Offensive Weapon Case
• Winter Offensive Collection

Both names lock to that 2013 window. For a specific float or pattern read, Steam Market and C5GAME listings are the practical path—compare wear tiers side by side before you commit.

Specs that affect shopping

• Rarity: ancient—worth treating as its own shelf item in the set.
• Collection: Winter Offensive Collection.
• Wear: 0.00–0.40 only. Factory New through Field-Tested are fair game; Battle-Scarred is out of range, so don’t hunt a “cheap BS Kraken” that doesn’t exist.
• Art: tentacles and edges live or die on the Sawed-Off’s small surfaces—spin inspect; don’t guess tentacle paths from memory.

What to look at in inspect

1. Theme clarity: name says kraken, art says octopus—check whether lines break awkwardly on bevels or stay crisp.
2. Wear budget: with a 0.40 cap, stretched wallets can focus on Minimal Wear or lower Field-Tested and watch whether highlights and outer edges erode first.
3. Liquidity: age plus the Winter Offensive case line means supply keeps moving on Market and C5GAME—good for patient buyers who want a display ancient, not a hype flip.

Shop verdict

Buy if you want a readable, workshop-backed octopus theme on a legacy 2013 case skin and you’ll inspect before paying. Target FN–FT inside 0.00–0.40, prioritize clean edges on the painted areas, and pull comps from Steam or C5GAME at your wear band. Pass if you need BS pricing, expect factory-fresh tentacles at bottom-barrel FT money, or you’re chasing weekly meta—this is a long-term showcase pick, not a trend trade.

Expert notes

Ancient old-timers like this punish lazy screenshots. Two listings at the same float name can look different once the octopus wraps the receiver—always reconcile listed float with in-game inspect. The 0.40 ceiling is a feature: you’re not gambling on wrecked BS, but you are competing for MW that still looks hand-painted. If the number feels fair for the era and the art survives inspect, it’s the kind of skin you log off wearing—not the one you re-list every patch cycle.