What is Axie Infinity? The Most Comprehensive Guide Ever

• Blockchain Council
• September 16, 2022

The year 2021 witnessed an exponential rise in the development of blockchain gaming. Axie Infinity spearheaded the way, demonstrating the tremendous opportunities and market growth fit for incorporating blockchain technology into games. The incorporation of blockchain into gaming has given rise to the concept of the gaming framework: play-and-earn.

Play-and-earn is a notion in which players may make money while playing games. The feat of gaming has always provided economic benefit, but only game developers were capable of extracting that worth. Gamers may only derive intangible benefits from playing games, such as entertainment, companionship, and a sense of accomplishment, among other things. However, after the integration of blockchain technology in the gaming sector, players can now get the responsibility and possession of their assets by storing in-game objects such as NFTs and cryptocurrencies. In contrast to existing games, where actual trading is often prohibited by the terms and conditions of the game, they may trade directly or transfer out of the game if they want to.

What is Axie Infinity?

Axie Infinity is a turn-based play-and-earn card game that involves non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual currencies. It’s most generally portrayed as a Pokemon-style game in which you engage with virtual pets named Axies rather than Pokemon. NFTs are Axies and in-game objects, whereas cryptocurrency tokens like SLP and AXS are in-game money. Individuals may freely trade their Axies and exchange the digital tokens they’ve acquired in exchange for their fiat money. Thus, this enables gamers to recover the monetary worth they’ve generated by enjoying the game.

Programmers often generate money in conventional games by selling in-game products or perks to users. The producers of Axie Infinity, for example, generate money by charging a charge for in-game activities like selling on the marketplace and breeding Axies. This generates increased incentives for both gamers and creators to work on creating the most innovative game possible and attract more players to the system. Over the last year, the gaming industry has earned over $1.3 billion in revenue, with the marketplace facilitating over $4 billion in trading volume.

In Adventure Mode, gamers may rank up their Axies by ascending a ladder and advancing through numerous stages. You can also choose Arena Mode, which puts you against other users of the site utilizing their Axies.

Axie Infinity Marketplace dashboards

As per the February 2022 reports, the game presently has almost 2.8 million unique IP addresses containing over 11.1 million Axies, with 97 percent of those addresses having at least three Axies, which is the minimum amount of Axies necessary to participate in in-game action. The percentage of addresses with 4+ Axies has steadily increased, from 8.18 percent of entries on August 20, 2021, to 16 percent today. This is most likely because of players being able to purchase additional Axies to form separate teams as Axie costs have decreased during the same period.

Axie holder dashboards‍

The game is established on the Ronin network, an Ethereum sidechain created by Sky Mavis. The chain holds all of the game’s assets, such as Smooth Love Potion (SLP) and Axie Infinity Shard (AXS), as well as in-game assets such as Axies and digital land, which are NFTs.

SLP is the equivalent to gold in World of Warcraft. It is the in-game money that players earn through gameplay. Apart from this, AXS acts more like business stocks. AXS gives its investors governance powers and allows them to decide on upcoming projects. Gamers may also win AXS in the game if they rank among the best 300,000 of all participants in the arena format (PVP).

Despite the fact that the Ronin system is one of the most active on the market today, it currently only supports Axie Infinity, proving the game’s appeal.

Who is the team behind the game?

Sky Mavis, led by Trung Nguyen, has developed and expanded the game into the powerhouse that it is today. Trung Nguyen (CEO), Aleksander Leonard Larsen (COO), Jeffrey Zirlin (Growth Lead), Tu Doan (Art Director & Game Designer), and Viet Anh Ho founded Sky Mavis in 2018 in Vietnam, and it has since grown to become one of the world’s biggest gaming companies (CTO). The developing team has a longstanding experience in gaming (both professional and recreational) and was among the first to play Cryptokitties, the first blockchain game ever developed.

How do you start playing Axie Infinity?

To begin with Axie Infinity, you must first create a wallet, then buy your first set of Axies, then create an in-game account, and then install the game. Sky Mavis has an excellent training page that walks you through the game process from beginning to end, and new players must begin their journey by browsing the training page first.

How to set up an account/wallet

The very first stage in connecting with any crypto program, including Axie Infinity, is to create a crypto wallet. To engage with the Axie Infinity marketplace, players must first create a Ronin wallet. A crypto wallet is an electronic wallet that stores your cryptocurrency, similar to how today’s digital wallets store your funds, including Cash App and Venmo.

Buying your first set of Axies

Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) is used to exchange Axies on the marketplace. Participants must transfer ETH into their Ronin wallets using an authorized gateway or buy it straight from the account using fiat cash via Ramp (only available in specific countries/states). If you already have ETH on a platform like Coinbase, you may transfer it to your MetaMask wallet and traverse it over the Ronin network while utilizing their official bridge.

A Binance profile is yet another option to obtain resources on the blockchain. In addition, Binance offers Ronin network integration, so consumers can buy AXS/SLP on Binance, transfer it to their Ronin wallets, and then exchange it for WETH on the Katana DEX (Ronin’s authorized DEX).

Creating an in-game account

After checking in with their Ronin account, individuals can build an authorized in-game account within their profile page on the marketplace. Gamers can explore the marketplace without setting up an account; however, they will require one in case they want to access the game.

Downloading the game (desktop/mobile)

The game is available through APK files on both PC and Android smartphones; however, the iOS version is already crammed. Users must visit the official webpage to download the files relevant to the game and sign in using their in-game account.

What does Axie Infinity offer to its players?

The game’s latest edition allows you to accomplish three things: adventure, arena, and breeding. But players must not forget that in order to participate in the adventure and arena game types, they must have a group of three Axies. Therefore, before beginning the game style, the player can pick the team of choice.

Adventure 

Adventure is the user versus environment (PvE) mode in Axie Infinity. The game style enables users to become acquainted with their Axie’s and the relevant skill sets. Participants may get experience points and upgrade their Axies in this phase. However, their Axies’ level cannot be taken to the arena level and is exclusively for adventuring.

Arena

The arena is the game’s main emphasis, and it styles the player against player (PvP) action. Gamers are paired against one another based on their match-making score (MMR). The victory raises the gamer’s MMR while losing lowers that as well. Arena awards SLP coins to the champion, and those who make it into the top 300,000 of all participants after every season earn mAXS tokens (1000 mAXS = 1 AXS). The top of the leaderboard for the current season, season 20, will receive 203.147 AXS (approximately $12.1K). ‍

Breeding

Unlike typical games, where gaming companies make and sell in-game objects to participants, Axies are developed by the gamers and exchanged between themselves. Axies are generated by breeding two Axies along with the appropriate number of AXS and SLP tokens. Each Axie can be raised a total of seven times and cannot be bred with another Axie from the same hierarchy. The quality of the parents determines the offspring’s fate, and gamers may analyse the chance of a specific result using third-party breeding algorithms like Axie Zone.

As of September 24, 2021, there were 99K Axies bred and 5.3k unique Axie owners. However, that number has since dropped to around 6.5K Axies every day, with 100-200 new Axies joining every day. This is partly due to the gamer base and meta-stabilization, resulting in a lower need for new sorts of Axies and a lower demand for fresh supplies.

What appearance do Axies exhibit?

The back, ears, eyes, horns, mouth, and tail are the six body components of an Axie. Each physical component provides four stats to the total, which are split between HP, Speed, Skill, and Morale. If a body component fits an Axie’s class, it can achieve its maximum stat distribution. Combining body parts, classes, qualities, and abilities/cards in Axie Infinity may produce surprising and fantastic combinations because it is a skill and strategy game.

What abilities does Axies exhibit?

There are over 132 cards in the Axie Infinity Universe. Each card has its own set of abilities that do significant damage, defend, set up, and apply buffs and debuffs, and a few of which functions more efficiently when combined with the other cards.

A strong Axie should have a diverse collection of skills that permit it to carry out its responsibilities efficiently. Therefore, an Ability Card will disclose the following stats:

Shield: The amount of damage you can take.

Energy: The amount of power needed to win a game. You start with three energy and acquire two every turn.

Attack: The amount of damage a card can cause.

Gamers must be acquainted with these card numbers, their effects, and arrangements in order to achieve a high success rate in the Arena Phase. Each power replenishes your deck with two cards. Each team is made up of three Axies and four abilities. This means that every Axie has eight cards in a deck, for a possible of 24 cards. Aqua Cards, for instance, have an advantage against Bug, Beast, and Mech and yet are vulnerable to Plant, Dusk, and Reptile, while Bird and Beast cards are often powerful damage dealers.

How do games and gamers make money?

The system generates money by charging 4.25 percent commission to players who purchase and sell Axie NFTs on its marketplace, as well as collecting fees for breeding Axies to create new ones. The fees are paid with Axie Infinite Shards (AXS) and silky love potions (SLP). Although AXS is the governance currency, SLP is a utility coin that may be used to construct new axes. Both currencies can be redeemed for fiat money or other cryptocurrencies. Enthusiasts in the Philippines, Venezuela, and developing countries make money by participating in the play-to-earn industry.

Axie will soon add staking, enabling coin holders to tie up their currencies for revenue. Staking Axie tokens, on the other hand, is related to the owner’s active participation. When deciding whether to buy Axie, consider whether or not you plan to play the game.

Can you take part without spending money?

After heading this far, you may be willing to try out the games but don’t want or cannot justify the price of purchasing a team of three Axies to get going. You aren’t alone in this regard, and the Axie group has devised a method for users to enjoy the sport without spending any money in advance.

Scholarships are a short-term solution in these situations. They are community-run programs that provide a crew of Axies to a player in exchange for a share of the person’s in-game revenues. Gamers wanting to apply for scholarships could visit the Axie Infinity discord channel or simply apply to prestigious programs. Yield Guild Games and Loot Squad are two examples of credible scholarship programs.

In the coming years (Origin update), newcomers will be offered starting groups to check out the games before incurring any spending obligations.

Future of Axie Infinity

The V3 upgrade, popularly called Axie Infinity: Origin, is the next significant update that everybody has been anticipating. The Origin update will rebuild a substantial chunk of the gameplay, including revamped visuals and gaming mechanics, among other features. The company intends to have Axie Infinity available on both the Android and iOS app stores, allowing more users to play on the move.

Land gameplay, which is due later this year, will add additional gaming options to Axie Infinity. It enables real-world PvE battles and strategic team interactions with the hopes of making games more engaging. Participants will soon be able to construct their own varied experiences on top of their property, resulting in fresh and unique experiences for many others.

Sky Mavis, in typical Web3 flair, has launched a developers program to support public developers wanting to create Axie-related initiatives and mini-games. This allows the community to contribute to the development and expansion of Axie Infinity, as well as the creation of new game types for other users to enjoy. Axie WarKart is an instance of a mini-game in the works.

Conclusion

Axie Infinity is the market leader in blockchain gaming, with a large and enthusiastic fan base. Sky Mavis is constantly expanding and providing unique experiences for its gamers. Future upgrades will enable additional mechanisms and enable the users to create more interactive experiences in addition to the team. This modification validates players to become collaborators and elevates the game. Stretching the game’s horizon also permits it to transition away from its present play-to-earn focus and toward a play-and-earn paradigm. We’re merely touching the edge of what’s achievable, and Axie Infinity’s future development will be led and controlled by its members.