Axie Infinity has revolutionised the online gaming industry by allowing users to own in-game items and monetize their activities. Moreover, it has become a source of riches for avid gamers and NFT enthusiasts who are always on the lookout for the next best opportunity to cash in their earnings.
Based on play and earn model, the game has taken the internet by storm and has turned into a major source of livelihood for the young generation. Axie runs on multi-token ecosystem and is yet to reach its full potential. Recently, it crossed over billion dollars in revenue.
With big gains comes bigger attention esp. from lawmakers. The concerning questions have started popping up among the players and the online community. Can Axie continue its winning streak or it has already reached the maturity stage? What is the future roadmap and how will it cope with the rising competition? Today, we will discuss everything you need to know about Axie Infinity, addressing questions surrounding it and its future plan of action. Let’s jump in and uncover Axie –
|
Table of Contents
3.2 Gameplay 3.2.1 What is Axie? 3.2.2 Axie Features 3.2.2a Health (HP) 3.2.2b Morale 3.2.2c Skill 3.2.2d Speed 3.2.3 Body Parts 3.2.4 Classes 3.2.5 Battle Mechanics 9.2 Play and Earn 9.3 Acquiring NFTs 9.4 Staking Rewards 9.5 Expanding Ecosystem 10.2 Not Completely Decentralized 10.3 Economy of Scale 10.4 Better Games |
What is Axie Infinity?
Axie Infinity is NFT based and blockchain-powered online video game developed by Sky Mavis studio based in Vietnam. The game is inspired by Nintendo’s famous Pokemon series. The core of the game is its fascinating creatures called Axies. Players have to collect these creatures as pets in order to participate in the gaming events.
Axie Infinity was founded in March 2018 by Trung Nguyen who is also the current CEO of the company. Apart from Trung, the other core team member includes Aleksander Leonard Larsen as COO and Anh Ho as CTO.
The company has a mission to develop and create an amazing gaming experience driven by the player-owned economy and the vision to make Axie Infinity a digital nation where people across the globe come together with their Axies to play, earn and live (remember the word earn).
Axie Infinity has 2 million daily active users
What is Axie Infinity Coin AXS?
Axie Infinity Coin or AXS is an ERC20 token created on the Ethereum blockchain to serve Axie Universe. AXS stands for Axie Infinity Shards and has a similar use case that of Sandbox Crypto SAND in its ecosystem. The key features include –
- Governance
- Staking
- Payments
Rewards are distributed to AXS holders for playing the game, staking tokens and participating in the key governance decisions. The rewards act as financial incentive that helps the platform attract more users and retain the existing one. Moreover, doing so decentralize the ownership and governance of Axie Universe.
Another treat for AXS holders is Community treasury. The treasury will receive the revenue generated by Axie Infinity and a portion of staking rewards. Of course, it will be governed by AXS stakers once the network becomes decentralized. The inflow includes 4.25% of NFT marketplace transactions and a portion of the breeding fee which will be discussed later in the post.
The 5 years distribution schedule of staking issuance is shared below –
Total supply of AXS token is capped at 270 million
Smooth Love Potions (SLP):
Smooth Love potions or SLP is yet another token of Axie Universe. Axie Infinity doesn’t issue or sell this token directly to the players. Players will have to participate and play the game in Adventure or Arena mode to earn SLP tokens. Players can sync earned $SLP to their wallets on this page. It is important to note that SLP tokens have an unlimited supply.
How Axie Infinity Game Works?
System Requirement:
Before entering the gameplay, it’s important to gain knowledge of the compatible operating systems and minimum hardware requirements of the game. Axie Infinity runs on Mac, iOS, Windows and Android devices. The relevant files can be downloaded from the Axie Infinity website.
When it comes to system requirements, the game can run on basic hardware i.e 2 GB RAM and 128 GB ROM with intel chipset. However, for a lag-free experience, it’s better to switch to 8 GB RAM and 500 GB ROM for desktop and a minimum of 4GB RAM for mobile devices.
Axie Infinity doesn’t have an Andriod or iOS app. Game files are available for download on the website
Gameplay:
Axie is a battle game where players can battle their Axie creatures to earn rewards. The first battle system was launched in Octobter 2018, from there the project has undergone multiple iterations that paved the way for 2 million daily active users. Here’s the basic know-how of the game that will help you get started –
What is Axie?
Axie is an in-game fantasy creature that players can purchase to battle, trade, collect and raise. Each Axie is unique and an ERC721 token (NFT) with different traits that determine their role in the battle.
Axie Features:
Each Axie has the following stats, based on which the comparison can be made –
- Health
- Morale
- Skill
- Speed
Health (HP):
Ever played mortal combat? The bar representing the health of the player indicates the hits the creature can take before being knocked out.
Morale:
High morale increases the critical strike changes of the creature i.e special moves. (Finish him in mortal combat).
Skill:
Skill adds to the damage when an Axie plays a combo. Extra damage equals (card attack*skill/500).
Speed:
Speed gives the first attack advantage to the Axie. High-speed Axie will attack first and faster compared to the competitor.
These stats are dependent on two variables i.e body parts and class –
Body Parts:
Each Axie has the following body parts – eyes, ears, horn, mouth, back, and tail. Apart from eyes and ears, the remaining four determines which cards Axie can use in the battle. Each body part adds stats that is also dependent upon the class.
Classes:
Each Axie has a class or type. Each class is either weak or strong against the other class. Details can be checked on this page.
Battle Mechanics:
The battle is a turn-based card game with a goal to completely eliminate the enemy faced by your 3 Axie creatures. Strategically playing is must to win the battle, keeping the stats of each of your Axie in mind.
Most of the new players usually use the combination of 2 Attackers and 1 Defender. Refer to the leaderboard to get an idea of the type of Axie you should choose.
Minimum 3 Axies are required to participate in the game
Axie Breeding:
Axies are unique creatures and they can be bred to create new offspring with specific abilities based on the gene type. Breeding costs AXS and some Smooth Love Potion (SPL) depending upon how many times they have been bred. As shown in the table, with each bred the costing rise –
There’s a limit to how many times an Axie can be bred
Axie Genetics:
As explained earlier, each Axie has 6 body parts and shapes. For each body part, Axie possess 3 gene types –
- Dominant (D): 37.5% chance to pass this gene to the child
- Recessive (R1): 9.375% chance to pass this gene to the child
- Minor Recessive (R2): 3.125% chance to pass this gene to the child
Dominant genes represent the body part present on the Axie that has a higher chance of passing over to the offspring. Use this calculator to determine the possible outcome i.e near probability.
You can also receive high-quality Axies from BreederDAO
Axie Land:
From Decentraland to Solice Crypto everyone is eyeing the metaverse. Axie is all set to bring Lunacia, the Axie homeland to the metaverse. Lunacia contains non-fungible LAND plots that are limited in number and act as homes for Axies. It will be powered by LUNA, an ERC20 token.
LAND owners may get AXS tokens on their LAND plots and use Axies to explore resource nodes on the map. Though the idea is still under development, the LAND plots have already been purchased by players on a large scale. List shared below –
There will ever be 90,601 LAND plots
Lunacia SDK:
Lunacia SDK will allow the user to create games and arts using Axie Infinity assets. Once created it will be converted into an NFT and will be placed on the LAND plots where players can enter and play the game, a step towards UGC (User Generated Content).
Axie Infinity Marketplace:
The marketplace is an essential requirement for any blockchain-based NFT gaming platform. It is a place where users can buy, sell or exchange in-game items and assets in real-time. Axie Infinity has its own marketplace where you can trade the following –
- Axies
- LAND
- Items
- Bundles
Axie Infinity Technology:
Axie is currently working on integrating its own sidechain Ronin. It will replace the Loom sidechain and connect Ronin with the Ethereum network to provide better and faster service to the players. Ronin will be powered by the RON token which is not yet live at the time of writing the post. The architecture can be seen in the image shared below –
Axie Infinity ICO:
Axie Infinity launched public ICO in October 2020, through a lottery system on Binance Launchpad. The ICO was hard-capped at $2.97 million with a total supply of 29.7 million tokens which accounts for 11% of the total supply, indicating per token price at $0.10 each.
The maximum allocation per winning ticket was $200 in BNB. With AXS hitting well over $100 mark, the early investors must have bags full of cash by now. The token allocation is shared below
The respective token release schedule per category can be observed here –
Axie Infinity Benefits:
Multi Revenue Streams:
Axie Infinity is able to create multi revenue streams from LAND and Axie sales, followed by Marketplace and breeding fees. It has generated over 6000 ETH in sales that showcase the stability in its business model.
Play and Earn:
The gaming platform has become the source of livelihood for many households during the pandemic esp. Philippines. The ability to play and earn has attracted a lot of users to the platform that helped increase the revenue and created an income stream for the players.
Acquiring NFTs:
It is mandatory to purchase a minimum of 3 Axies to play the game. Though it attracts an initial cost, it is more like an NFT investment that can rise in value as newer players join the game. Moreover, purchasing LAND and in-game items can help increase player’s investment portfolio that can attract higher rewards in the long run.
Staking Rewards:
Axie Infinity is all set to bring staking rewards to its ecosystem. AXS holders can stake their tokens to earn more AXS tokens and rewards that hold monetary value. The APY can go beyond 100% attracting higher gains.
Expanding Ecosystem:
The platform is not just limited to gaming, it has integrated some key features that makes it at par with other crypto projects. Features like decentralized exchange (Katana), metaverse (Lunacia), project launchpad (Mavis Hub) and more are set to bring value to its ecosystem and may help drive the price of Axie tokens.
Axie Infinity Drawbacks:
Regulations:
Cryptocurrency is not yet a legal tender in the Asian countries where the game is popular and has majority of the user base. High revenue and increased earnings are concerning the lawmakers. They are working to impose strict tax laws in order to regulate or even ban the industry. Some consider it a threat to the national economy. Weird it may seem, the activity has the power to bring down Axie gaming universe.
Not Completely Decentralized:
The Ronin sidechain that connects with Ethereum is controlled and operated by Axie Infinity, making the ecosystem somewhat centralized. This is similar to Socios sidechain on Chiliz Coin which is a permissioned blockchain.
Economy of Scale:
The value of Axies and the gaming rewards are directly proportional to the number of new players onboarding every year. The price of Axie will only increase if there’re new buyers in the market. The same goes for LAND parcels and other in-game items. Though the project is in the growth phase. It may not be able to sustain revenue growth if the user onboarding stagnates.
Better Games:
Axie has a league of its own. However, new games with better & easy to understand gameplay are threats to Axie Infinity’s dominance. Burger Runner game by SipnPlay gaming company is one such game that has one of the easiest gameplay & rewards BUSD stablecoin to the winners every day. Games like these will have higher adoption rate compared to complex NFT-based blockchain games.
Axie Infinity Coin Price:
Please check the latest Axie Infinity Coin price, shared below –
Axie Infinity Price Prediction:
If you ever wondered how a moon coin moves like, look no further than AXS, the coin has the time of life in 2021. Starting at just around the $4 range in July 2021, it managed to hit beyond $150 mark by November 2021, within 5 months.
The winning streak is powered by Facebook rebranding news to Meta that added fuel to fire and rose the price of AXS coin, since it is about to launch its own metaverse. The LAND sale is already over and has got a hugely positive response.
The project is already known as the number 1 gaming platform on the Ethereum blockchain. With the increased application and use case of the AXS token, it is pretty much clear that the coin is about to attain new highs in the upcoming bull run.
At the time of writing, the token price is ranging around $97. It has successfully pulled back to the value range and look forward to make the next higher high. I won’t be surprised if it surpasses the previous high and targets $200 mark in the next bull cycle, considering everything else remains stable from lawmakers to industry regulators.
Where to Buy Axie Infinity Coin?
AXS is trading on the leading exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. It can also be bought on Poloniex and Wazirx. Moreover, users can purchase the coin on popular DEX like Uniswap exchange.
Remember, DEX is the fastest and sometimes the cheapest option to trade cryptocurrencies. It doesn’t ask for KYC documents to initiate the trade.
Is Axie Infinity Coin worth Investing?
From its inception in 2018 as a battle gaming platform to the metaverse, the project has come a long way. It has a daily inflow of 2 million daily active users with revenue surpassing billion dollars mark.
Clearly, the play and earn model has revolutionized the gaming industry, serving as a source of income for many households. The platform is in the growth stage and has a lot of room to grow. If this wasn’t enough, you have metaverse (Lunacia) coming up with more in-game features and Katana, the own DEX of Axie Infinity.
The vision of the core team members has expanded beyond the NFT gaming and shaped into a concrete ecosystem that is self-sustainable. With an add-on feature of staking rewards and community treasury, it is bound to onboard more users which will increase the use-case of Axie tokens. Hence, price appreciation.
Though everything looks promising, there’re key concerns surrounding the project, especially from the external factors. The most common are lawmakers who are keeping an eye on the project and have directed the team to follow a set of instructions in order to avoid ban or scrutiny.
The threat looms around the crypto industry but blockchain gaming is here to stay. If you’re a gaming enthusiast and an investor, I suggest you explore and play games to get hold of the platform, which in turn will help you make an effective investment decision. For now, I am positive about Axie Infinity growth. What’s your take?
This completes my review of Axie Infinity project. In the next post, I will talk about Helium Crypto and Star Atlas game. If you’re a fan of blockchain technology then please do share this post on your social handles and educate everyone around you. Do remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more informative content, released every week.
DISCLAIMER:
Cryptocurrency is a highly volatile market. All the information shared in the post is for knowledge purpose only. By no means, it’s financial or investment advice. Readers are responsible for their own investment decisions and should only invest in cryptocurrency after proper research.
[post_grid id=”6111″]
Paras is a blockchain writer & video creator at Katoch Tubes. In his free time, he loves watching space exploration documentaries & Hollywood movies.