Another fork and to no one’s surprise, this week’s Bitcoin Cash split was met with almost no interest from the markets. With everyone watching Bitcoin continue to hold above 16k USD, some altcoins are quietly gaining traction in the background. One of those projects continuing to go up in price since its release is an open-ended digital pet universe called Axie Infinity.
Introduction
Axie Infinity is a Pokémon-inspired universe where anyone can earn tokens through skilled gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem. Players can battle, collect, raise, and build a land-based kingdom for their pets. All art assets and Axie genetic data can be accessed by 3rd parties, allowing community developers to build their own tools and experiences in the Axie Infinity universe. Although Axie is still in early access, Axie is ranked the #1 Ethereum game by daily, weekly, and monthly active users. Generating over 6,400 ETH in revenue ($2M+ USD) so far. While Axie is a fun game, it’s also taken on characteristics of a social network and jobs platform due to the strong community and play to earn opportunities that have come from its early success. Where the Axie universe goal is to be fun, above all else. Only by having this immersive gaming experience can the ecosystem attract enough participants to add value in the network.
The Axie battle system is a turn-based card game where the goal is to use your 3 Axie to eliminate the enemy team with a minimum deck of 24 cards. Each turn, a player strategically plays cards that maximize their chance of victory. Axie’s stats are dependent on two variables: class and body parts. Each Axie has 6 distinct body parts. The horns, mouth, back, and tail determine which cards an Axie can use in battle. While the eyes and ears do not. Each body part also adds stats depending on Class. A Class is like “types” from Pokemon and are broken into six groups that are Plant, Aqua, Reptile, Beast, Bug, and Bird. When calculating damage, the card class of the attacking move is compared to the Axie class of the defender where extra or reduced damage is based on class affiliations. Also, when an Axie of a certain class uses a card from its own class it gets a 15% attack/shield bonus. For example, a Plant Axie playing a plant card will receive 15% extra attack/shield.
In battle each Axie has different traits which determine their role and stats separated into four categories: Health, Morale, Skill, and Speed. Health like most games is the amount of damage your Axie can take before being knocked out. Morale increases your Axie’s critical strike chance and also makes entering the last stand more likely while adding more last stand “ticks”. Skill adds damage when an Axie plays multiple cards at once (combo). The extra damage is calculated like this: (card attack * skill )/ 500. Speed determines turn order where faster Axie’s naturally attack first. Speed also decreases an Axie’s chance of being the victim of a critical strike. Where If two Axie’s have the same speed, the attacking order is determined by High speed > Low HP > High Skill > High Morale > Low Fighter ID.
Like real-world pets, Axie’s can be bred to create new offspring. These offspring can be used in battle, to breed more offspring, or can be sold in the marketplace. But, to manage the Axie population, breeding has certain resource…
