After the great success of Axie Infinity, the market has higher expectations for this new Play-to-earn chain game.
Original title: “Encrypted Game Iluvium: Exploring the World of Mythical Beasts”
Written by: Blue Fox Notes
Axie is a catalyst for the development of crypto games
With the rise of Axie Infinity, encrypted games (chain games) and NFTs have attracted more and more attention. Compared with DeFi, the audience of the game is wider, which can also be seen from the rapid development of Axie game users. Blue Fox Notes also talked about this before, “The Breakthrough of Encrypted Games”, “Encrypted Games and NFT”.
The difference in launching power between DeFi and GameFi
From the perspective of the development path, we can see the important difference between DeFi and encrypted game (GameFi) launching power. Last year, DeFi was launched using liquid mining and farming models. Due to its high returns, it attracted early users to invest funds to support the development of the agreement, and provided liquidity for the development of DEX, lending, and derivatives.
The attraction of encrypted games lies in the Play-to-earn model. Through play-to-earn, life income has been brought to some players.
In these two modes, you can see a little difference in its core player base. For example, one of the core user groups of Axie are members of game guilds in the Philippines and other regions. These members can earn living income by playing games. It can be said that this is another form of PoHW (Proof of Human Work), which requires investment of time and effort, and is a proof of work. In DeFi, it is more similar to a certain form of PoS (Proof of Stake), which requires investment and is a proof of assets. Relatively speaking, DeFi’s early user funds are more abundant, while GamFi’s early user time is more abundant. Of course, this is not an absolute distinction. For example, the startup of encrypted games also requires liquidity, and there will also be a part of DeFi (liquidity, stake, etc.).
From the perspective of protocol revenue alone, although the value of GameFi single user contributions may not be as good as DeFi, if the user scale of encrypted games is large, the protocol revenue may reach a level that most DeFi protocols cannot reach. Judging from the following Axie protocol fees, with the exception of Ethereum, the entire encryption field (including Bitcoin) is currently unable to achieve this level of revenue. (Of course, the sustainability of a single game and the length of its life cycle cannot be finalized. Relatively speaking, the sustainability of the DeFi protocol will be stronger)
The revenue of Axie protocol exceeds that of DeFi protocol, TokenTerminal
In view of the importance of encrypted games in the future encryption field, Blue Fox Note will introduce some encrypted games to explore the development model of encrypted games. Today, I will introduce an RPG (role playing) combat game illuvium. It is currently under development and a beta version is planned to be launched at the end of 2021.
What game is illuvium
To put it simply, illuvium is an Ethereum-based RPG battle game that combines elements of traditional RPG collection games with Auto Battler type battle mechanisms. The background of the game takes place in a mysterious alien world.
The illuvium game takes place in an alien world, illuvium
A spaceship crashed in an alien world. The alien world has vast and diverse landscapes and vast oceans, which swallowed most of the land. On this land, a large number of alien creatures illuvials live. This article will take these Alien creatures are called divine beasts.
The players are the survivors on the interstellar spacecraft. In the process of exploring the alien world, players will encounter various mythical beasts, then fight with them, defeat and capture them. In the design of illuvium, there are more than 100 kinds of beasts, and the difficulty of capturing them varies. The beast that is difficult to capture is the more scarce NFT, which has a higher value in trading and has a greater use in the game. The following will introduce some of the beasts officially disclosed by illuvium. The beast captured by the player can be used to collect, trade, fight or earn rare game items.
The illuvium’s game soundtrack was completed by illuvium’s composer Tamás Borbély. To complement the adventure experience, Tamás Borbély hopes that the music designed by it can evoke people’s emotions and empathy, and has a fantasy color.
What illuvium gamers mainly play
Since the illuvium game is scheduled to come out for a test version later in the fourth quarter of this year, the specific gameplay and quality of the game cannot be intuitively felt at present. Based on the information disclosed by illuvium, I will briefly introduce what the game mainly plays, and it may change over time.
The core of illuvium lies in the capture of beasts and the battle of beasts.
Capture the beast
Catching the beast is one of the important scenes of the illuvium game. After encountering these beasts of illuvial, the player needs to defeat them, and then capture the beasts (illuvial) through “fragments”. In order to successfully capture, you need to consider the capture ability, because the illuvial also has power. In order to increase the chance of capturing rare beasts, some strong enough “fragments” are needed to successfully capture.
The items in the illuvium game mainly include fragments, weapons, armors, injected items, etc. Among them, “shards” are mainly used to capture the beasts in the alien world. There are two ways to obtain these “fragments”: one is to obtain them during game play; the other is to purchase them from illuvium’s DEX exchange with ETH. The “fragments” themselves also have a degree of scarcity, and the scarce “fragments” are easier to capture the scarce beasts.
In addition, the player uses weapons to fight the beasts. Weapons also have levels, which can be upgraded by adding different gems. High-level gems will increase the aura of weapons. Weapons can also be purchased on illuvium’s DEX exchange.
The role of armor is protection. Players can use armor to protect them when fighting with beasts. When the armor is damaged to a certain extent, the player needs to wait for time to recover.
“Injecting items” can enhance the scarcity of the player’s collection of items, and can also be used to customize characters and weapons.
Mythical Beast Battle
In addition to exploring and capturing illuvial in the alien world, players can also use the captured illuvial to conduct automatic battles. The results of these battles will be displayed in the leaderboard. With the battle, the beast has practical value. Unlike other RPG games, illuvium is not turn-based. Every battle in illuvium is an automatic battle. Players play against other opponents by strategically selecting and combining their beasts.
According to illuvium’s current disclosure, after the battle starts, each beast will find an enemy target to attack, and by attacking and hurting the other side, the beast will gain energy. If they reach a certain threshold, they will release special abilities, which can strengthen themselves and cause damage to the enemy. When the opponent is completely defeated, the battle is over.
The beasts can fuse together to become a stronger beast. Players need to have three identical illuvials, each of which must reach the highest level, which can only be obtained through battle.
Every battle will increase the experience of the illuvial, which is helpful to upgrade the level. As the level increases, the power of the beast will increase. Therefore, it is best to put the beast in battle to increase its experience and upgrade its level. However, if defeated in battle, the beast will return to its “fragment” and it will take some time to recover. In addition, you can also pay for quick repairs.
Player fighting
In addition to capturing mythical beasts, players can also participate in battles. The player is wearing armor and holding a weapon. If gems and crystals are injected, the player’s armor and weapons will exude affinity and professional aura. These armors and gems can be mined and collected from the game environment, or can be purchased from the secondary market. Traveling in different areas, players can enter different areas through the obelisk. Each area has a unique landscape, rare resources, and different beasts.
From the above, we can see that the beast is the core role of the illuvium game, and understanding the beast is the key to playing this game. So, what exactly is the illuvial of illuvium?
The beast of illuvium
At the beginning, Blue Fox Notes translated the alien creature lluvial into beasts, but according to the official description of illuvium, these beasts from the alien world have certain magical alien characteristics. Therefore, Blue Fox Notes translates it into “sacred beast”, or “warcraft”, of course, there may be a better name. This article uniformly refers to alien creatures like illuvial as “sacred beasts”, giving you more room for imagination.
Illuvial has two basic attributes: affinity and occupation. Affinity is divided into: water, earth, fire, nature and air. The damage suffered by the beast depends on the affinity between itself and the enemy. There will be unique checks and balances between them. For example, “fire illuvial” can cause extra damage to “natural illuvial”, but “water illuvial” will cause more damage to it. Therefore, strategy is very important during the battle, and different battle strategies should be adjusted appropriately according to different opponents.
There are five basic professions in the game: warrior, guardian, thieves, psychic, and empathizer. This routine is similar to the traditional RPG part. The five professions have different synergies. For example, the guardian can withstand larger attacks, while the thieves have weak defense but sharp and rapid attacks.
On the basis of affinity and occupation, mythical beasts will be born with different scarcity. The scarcer the beast, the stronger the fighting power. In addition, more than 100 kinds of mythical beasts are not assembled in modules, and each is completely designed with individual characteristics. The cub of the beast can be upgraded from the first stage to the third stage of the gods. The images of several mythical beasts revealed by illuvium below:
Rypper beast
Rypper lives in inland waters and is extremely aggressive. It can enter land to fight. It has two rows of 4 spider legs. It is 3 feet tall and 8 feet long. Once threatened, its size can be doubled. Its tail has a 2-foot barb and spikes around it. Cause additional wounds….
Rypper beast, illuvium
Rhamphyre
Rhamphyre has luminous wings, 20 feet wide, and its skin is like a flame. Its ultimate skill is to use a fire storm to pour down on the enemy, causing burns to the enemy, and then it will use its beak to cause incendiary physical damage to the enemy.
Rhamphyre, illuvium
Dash beast
The Dash animal lives in the “scarlet wasteland” with blood red hot sand dunes. In the illuvium game design, the Dash monster has supernatural agility, can move fast in battle, and is difficult to target. It has sapphire eyes, mysterious liquid antenna protrusions, and a light blue tail. Its ultimate skill is Ghost Strike. Dash can be decomposed into water vapor during battle. It cannot be selected temporarily. The enemy launched a surprise attack.
Dash beast, illuvium
Atlas Mythical Beast
The Atlas beast has large watery garnet eyes, and its expression always looks a bit like staring seriously. When it fights, it swells up and raises its hind legs. It has a supernatural ability to manipulate water particles. These water particles can form a liquid barrier, making the enemy’s attack slow. It is not the fastest, but it can bite with strong teeth.
In addition, the ends of the seeds are sharp nails, which can slam the enemy to protect themselves. Its ultimate skill is a water shield. By shaking its head vigorously, a luminous water shield can be formed around its face, which can restore the vitality of Atlas and resist enemy attacks.
Atlas beast, illuvium
Archeleon
The outer shell of Archeleon looked like a speckled red mushroom cap with a slight bulge in the middle. It shines with green light as a whole, and comes out from various gaps. Purple seaweed-like tendrils grow from all corners. It can sense danger, and can also deliver healing or nourishing energy when activated. Its ultimate skill is Rejuvenation. It emits a flickering green halo, and plant life tendrils emerge from the ground under its feet. It also guides this natural energy upwards through its webbed feet, and transforms it into external through its mysterious body. Elemental energy field, its transformation is mainly related to its shell, it has a main energy storage and converter. Its halo radiates to the surroundings and can heal allies and strike enemies.
Acheleon beast, illuvium
illuvium scalability solution
If illuvium is based on Ethereum layer1, its user experience will be terrible. In order to increase speed and reduce costs, illuvium currently uses immutalbe X’s Layer 2 scalability solution.
illuvium is also a DAO game
In the short term, the illuvium team played a leading role in the initial startup. As the game develops, it will conduct community governance through ilv tokens, and ultimately govern in the form of DAO. Users can make proposals through ilv tokens. All decisions about game content and upgrades depend on the decision of ilv holders. DAO form of governance has been widely practiced in DeFi. Although it is still immature today, it has been developing.
The introduction of DAO governance in encrypted games also borrows from the DeFi model. With the deepening of DAO governance, a completely different game format may be born, and players or the community will eventually lead the direction of game iteration. Of course, there is still a long way to go to the game governance of this DAO, and there will be various discomforts in this process, but if it goes well, this may be an important trend in the development of encrypted games in the future.
illuvium is also a play-to-earn game
Players can capture different types and rarities of mythical beasts in the illuvium game. With better weapons, armors, injections and fragments, players have the opportunity to capture more rare beasts. More rare beasts are easy to win in battle. Rare beasts also have higher value. These mythical beasts are NFTs. After the player captures the mythical beasts, they can be used for battle or sold for profit (play-to-earn).
Players can invest time and energy to capture mythical beasts. Of course, game guilds can also help players lower the barrier to entry and improve their capture capabilities. The captured beasts can be sold in the secondary market for profit. Whether illuvium can successfully achieve a cold start in the future, game guilds may be the key.
Can illuvium succeed?
Only time will tell us the answer to this question.
The founders of illuvium are Kieran Warwick and Aaron Warwick. One of the most important reasons why the two founders are noticed in the crypto circle is that they are the brothers of Synthetix founder Kain Warwick. For illuvium, the success of Synthetix can arouse people’s attention when the game is launched.
But in the long run, the success of Illuvium mainly depends on two aspects. One is the playability of the game itself, whether the quality of the game can attract real players, and whether the concept can be transformed into a high-quality landing. It will be verified in the future. The second is the design of its economic mechanism. Whether its token usage can support the continuous development of Play-to-earn is one of the keys to the sustainability of encrypted games.
