Axie Infinity Explained
Axie Infinity is a turn-based card game built on the Ethereum network that allows players to breed, raise, battle and trade Axie creatures.
Axie Infinity describes itself as a Pokemon and Tamagotchi inspired game that utilizes Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to represent unique creatures, abilities, land plots and other in-game assets.
Players are able to earn two tokens, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Small Love Potions (SLP), by playing Axie Infinity in either Adventure or Arena modes. AXS serves as a governance token, allowing token holders to vote on the future development of the gaming experience. SLP is the in-game token used to breed Axies.
For regular updates from the Axie Infinity team you can bookmark their blog, which includes updates to the game. To play the game, you can access the Axie Infinity website to start breeding and battling your Axie.
Who Created Axie Infinity?
Axie Infinity was founded by Trung Nguyen, the current CEO of Sky Mavis, a Vietnamese gaming studio that is building the Axie Infinity game.
Sky Mavis has gone through several rounds of funding, receiving funds from several notable investors, including Blocktower Capital and Mark Cuban to further develop the Axie Infinity ecosystem.
How Does Axie Infinity Work?
Axie Infinity’s core gameplay focuses on battling and breeding Axies, the unique creatures at the heart of the Axie Infinity experience.
Axies are defined by a specific set of characteristics, such as class and body parts, used to both differentiate them from other Axies and to determine their level of rarity.
Gameplay
Like other turn based games, Axies are meant to battle and their effectiveness in combat is determined by four statistics:
Health determines the amount of damage an Axie can take before being knocked out.
Speed determines turn order, with the fastest Axies attacking first.
Skill adds damage when an Axie plays multiple ability cards at once in a combination.
Morale increases an Axie’s critical strike chance, which determines its ability to knock out an opponent.
Battles
Axie Infinity players face their Axies off against other players in battles of three versus three by using various tactics and strategy to position their Axie on the board. Central to this gameplay is the Axie’s Ability Cards, which determine the attack moves Axies can perform to drain the health of their competitors. Each Ability Card is unique to their respective Axie, as it depends on their individual body configuration and class.
Battling in arena matches and tournaments is the best way to level up Axies and earn Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Small Love Potion (SLP). But, players can also take a more adventure-based approach to their experience. By exploring the Axie Infinity world and battling the in-game non-player combatants called Chimera, players earn additional tokens and rare treasures that can be used to progress their characters.
Breeding
Just like their real world counterparts, Axies can create new offspring that have their own unique characteristics and capabilities. Axies can breed up to seven times, with each breeding event requiring more SLP.
After five days of development, new Axie offspring can be used for battle, further breeding with other partners, or put up for sale in the Axie Infinity Marketplace.
Land
Axie Infinity does not limit players to only being able to collect and trade creatures. It also allows players to purchase plots of land that serve as homes for Axies, called Lunacias. Developers will also be able to create unique games within these plots through the Lunacia software development kit.
Players will be able to upgrade the plots over time with the resources and crafted ingredients they find while on in-game adventures.
Axie Infinity Marketplace
The best place to find and access Axies that are available for sale is on the Axie Infinity Marketplace. Here, players can view the Axies that have been listed for sale or those sold to other players most recently. Players can also use the filters within the marketplace to narrow in on Axies that match their desired class, body parts, statistics, price and more.
Players can purchase Axies through their Ronin Wallet, the purpose-built cryptocurrency wallet Sky Mavis created for Axie Infinity. Players can fund their wallet with ETH that they can purchase from an exchange like Kraken.
Ronin Sidechain
Axie Infinity has found that their users’ experience can grind to a halt under high network congestion and gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain. In 2020, Sky Mavis announced they will begin developing their Ronin Ethereum sidechain in an effort to alleviate this issue.
Why Does AXS Coin Have Value?
Like many other cryptocurrencies, the supply of Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) is limited, meaning that the software’s rules ensure that there will only ever be 270 million AXS tokens.
AXS is an Ethereum governance token created for the Axie Infinity game. Though in-game purchases in the NFT marketplace are currently made using ether, Sky Mavis plans to make AXS the native currency of the Axie Infinity Marketplace.
Furthermore, players can stake their AXS tokens to participate in the platform’s governance mechanism to have a direct say in the future development of the game. Allowing users to stake their tokens creates an incentive to hold AXS tokens while earning rewards and allows for distributed ownership and governance of the Axie Infinity experience for all players.
Lastly, Sky Mavis intends to create a community treasury to help promote innovation of and development within the Axis Infinity game. The community treasury would receive revenues generated by purchase fees in Axie Infinity as well as a portion of staking rewards generated by players.
