What is Axie Infinity?
By Bahira Maisoon, Updated on: Apr 07 2023.
Axie Infinity is a non-fungible token (NFT) based play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain game that constitutes cartoon characters named Axies. This adventurous gaming platform works on its Ethereum-based governance token called Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and provides players to earn an in-game currency - Smooth Love Potion (SLP)- throughout the game. You can see a lot of Axies in Axie Infinity that are fierce and visually pleasing and you can purchase them to have fun with the game.
Have you ever recognised how effectively online games are growing? Everyone loves to play games and be a part of any games including both traditional and online gaming systems. We know that as time moves on, people are more tied to online games, especially play-to-earn ones with attractive cartoon characters. And, what if these online games are on a blockchain network?
In fact, the answer is, people, start spending their time more on P2E blockchain games. But why? The infusion of blockchain technology and P2E systems with online games paved way for earning cryptocurrencies and thereby real-life profit. Here is where Axie Infinity outshines in the blockchain gaming sector.
Although the era of blockchain games started in 2017 when video game industries developed several online games, the year 2021 witnessed massive growth in the blockchain gaming industry with several players earning huge incomes from the play-to-earn system. So, if you are fond of having fun and receiving income, then P2E games could be a an interesting option to explore.
Origin of Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity was launched in March 2018 with the aim to welcome players to experience an adventurous universe full of adorable axolotl-like creatures known as Axies. The gaming ecosystem is a player-owned economy with a strongly bonded community. You can collect axies, battle, and breed them to succeed through different levels of the game.
Team Behind Axie Infinity
CEO and co-founder of Axie Infinity, Nguyen Thanh Trung, and other team members Tu Doan, Jeffrey Zirlin, Aleksander Larsen, and Andy Ho began developing the game in 2017 and completely launched it in 2018.
The development team unveiled the first battle system of Axie Infinity in October 2018 and its alpha version in December 2019. As of now, there are nearly 2.8 million players on Axie Infinity.
Sky Mavis
Sky Mavis, a Vietnamese virtual game developing company, developed Axie Infinity in 2018. The company induced play-to-earn model games in blockchain technology, that started burgeoning in the past two years. So, how does Sky Mavis earn income? The team charges a 4.25% fee from players who purchase in-game products.
Features of Axie Infinity Gameplay
Now you may be curious to learn about how to start playing Axie Infinity. But, before that, let's take a look at the features of the game. Once you have an idea about what constitutes Axie Infinity, you will get to know how to play it effectively.
- Appearance: Axies have six body parts; horn, eyes, ears, back, and tail. They also have different body types and based on this, they are categorised into nine different classes namely, Beast, Aquatic, Plant, Bug, Bird, Reptile, Mech, Dawn, and Dusk.
- Abilities: Axies are classified into four different attributes based on their skills. These are Morale, Health, Skill, and Speed. Additionally, there are nearly 132 cards that determine the identity of each Axies. Each card signifies Axies' ability to defend, create damage, level up, use buffs, debuffs, etc.
- Adventure Mode: This mode initiates a player vs. environment (PvE) style of gaming, where players have to move through different stages of storyline chapters. Players can use their Axies to fight against waves of Chimera and earn rewards. Chimeraas are the monsters that drop resources and artifacts used to upgrade land and level up axies. They act as a block for collecting resources for the players.
- Arena Mode: This mode is a player vs. player or PvP model in Axie Infinity where players can fight with other players' axies. This mode is a little complicated as players will have to know more about their team of Axies, battle mechanism, and choosing appropriate Axies that should co-relate with each other in the battlefield.
How Does Axie Infinity Work?
As cited earlier, Axie Infinity works completely on blockchain technology, with a P2E gaming model. Axie Infinity uses the Ethereum blockchain and produces two tokens; Axie Infinity Shards and Smooth Love Potion with which players can generate income. Also, this game is a turn-based card game where each player has the chance/time to decide on breeding and battling with Axies. Interestingly, besides collecting Axies, you can also buy plots of land in Axie Infinity
Here is how the Axie Infinity gameplay works. Although there are nine classes of Axies, based on six classes such as Beast, Aquatic, Plant, Bug, Bird, and Reptile, these digital pets are classified according to their attributes/statistics. This includes Morale, Health, Skill, and Speed. These metrics determine the skills of each Axies.
- Morale helps Axies' chance for a critical strike and also increases the chance of entering the last stand. Here, the last stand means a temporary lifeline that withstands your Axie, even if it has zero health due to strikes from the opponent Axies. Beast Axies have the highest Morale, indicating a high chance for the last stand.
- Health signifies the strength of an Axie to hold any damage caused in battle. This attribute lasts in an Axie for some time, until it is defeated. Health stat is also called HP, meaning, the total hit points that an Axie can face until it is knocked out from the battle. The most HP-holding Axie is the Plant Axie.
- Skill is an attribute that gives an Axie the ability to attack opponents without missing their chance. Axies with this attribute miss their attacks very rarely.
- Speed-based Axies can attack other Axies first and very quickly. Axies with the highest speed can prevent attacks to a limit and can attack other Axies at the beginning of turns. Bird Axie has the highest speed among the six types of Axies.
Collecting Axies
Axies live on their own territory known as Terrarium. When you choose your Axies to build a team, ensure about their strength and how well they can combine with other teammates. Axie Infinity provides innumerable combinations of teammates. Even a powerful Axie needs teammates that go well with other Axies in a team.
A few examples of team build include Rage Build, Sustain Build, Damage Ramp Build, Poison/Bleed Build, Cure Build, and Backdoor Build. You can get your Axies from Axie Infinity Marketplace or through a scholarship.
Battling
Battlefield is the main stage of the game where Axies fight with each other using their unique attributes such as morale, skill, health, and speed. There are three Axies on one side and another three Axies on the opposite side, in a face-to-face manner. You can see Axie Ability Cards that direct the moves to attack your opponent Axies. Each Axie has six different cards that show the abilities of the Axies. Whenever your Axie attacks other Axies, your Axie will drain their health and lead the game.
We have already discussed about the Arena mode and its importance in the gameplay. This mode allows players to battle with other Axies and earn AXS and SLP throughout. In the adventure mode, as players succeed in completing each level, their Axies will be rewarded with experience points (EXP/XP) and rare treasures.
Breeding Axies
Your Axies can be bread to create new offsprings that possess unique identities. You can breed each of your axies only seven times. There are breeding costs that increase based on the number of times an Axie is bred. Each breeding]ng costs some amount of SLP. The newly bred Axies can be used for battles after
Land
Land in Axie Infinity is named Lunacia, which is divided into tokenised plots called Terra. This implies that you can not only own Axies and battle with them in the gameplay, but also own a piece of land, rent out, develop, and upgrade it using different resources. The plot of land you own can be served as a home for your Axies.
Axie Infinity's Token (AXS)
Axie Infinity Shards or AXS token is an ERC20 native governance token of Axie Infinity. Participants in this gaming universe can hold AXS, play the game and decide on the governance of the gameplay by voting for any updates to improve the ecosystem. Hence, the AXS token holds the Axie Infinity gaming community together.
Notably, you can lock up your AXS token and earn rewards through a method called staking. Stakers can get newly created AXS tokens and can vote and claim rewards in the game. By sending support for the Axie Infinity upgrade, the AXS stakers can maintain the usage of the Community Treasury. The Community Treasury is a pool of collected funds from the players who own AXS tokens. In short, AXS holders can govern the ecosystem, stake, and receive AXS payments by playing.
You can buy AXS from crypto exchanges such as Binance and Huobi Global, and decentralised exchanges including Uniswap and SushiSwap.
What is Ronin Sidechain?
Ronin is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchain built by Sky Mavis for game developers who create player-owned economies. Ronin sidechain is an Ethereum-based sidechain used in Axie Infinity for a smooth transaction. This sidechain was built as a remedy for avoiding congestion and high gas fee on the Ethereum blockchain. Ronin allows for quick transactions and low gas fees and acts as the best solution for scaling transactions.
What is Unique in Axie Infinity?
After reading the basic concepts of Axie Infinity, what do you see unique in it? or What makes the gameplay unique? Obviously, the play-to-earn mechanism combined with community-oriented revenue generation is the pivotal feature of Axie Infinity. Another unique part is the Community Treasury which consists of a percentage of income gained by players using AXS token staking and revenue generated by Axie Infinity. Apart from all these features, the appearance, skills, and performance of each Axies are unique and versatile, attracting several numbers of P2E enthusiasts.
Axie Infinity Marketplace
If you want to purchase Axies, then the Axie Infinity marketplace is open for you. You can get different types of Axies, lands, accessories, items, etc on the marketplace.
You can purchase Axies and other items using a Ronin wallet. The marketplace shows a list of axies that are ready for sale and also those recently sold, and all other basic statuses of Axies.
How Many Axie Infinity Shards Are There?
Currently, there are nearly 300 million Axie Infinity Shards in circulation with a supply of 80 million units. As of 29th January 2023, AXS ranks 45th among the list of cryptocurrencies by market cap.
How to Get Started With Axie Infinity
There had been some speculations arising from the less-knowledged people about Axie Infinity that this gameplay does not require any money to join. But, that is not the case. You need to buy Axie Infinity Tokens, which can be used in the gameplay to generate revenue, as you pass through different levels.
So, how to begin your journey with Axie Infinity? Initially, set up a digital wallet, for instance, create a Ronin Wallet, buy Axies with fiat currencies, create an account, download Axie Infinity and, then start playing. These are the basic and simple steps to follow before you enter the Axie Infinity universe. Now, let's discuss each of these steps one by one.
Ronin Wallet
Ronin Wallet is the storage wallet for Axie Infinity players to store their AXS tokens and SLP coins. This wallet is derived from the Ronin network linked to Ethereum, made to defeat congestion and high gas fee in the Ethereum network.
How to Get Axies
To start playing, players should buy three Axies using Ethereum. There are two recommended ways to buy Axies. You can get Axies on the official Axie Infinity marketplace. To do this, you have to deposit Ethereum on Ronin and get Axies from the marketplace.
Another method is through scholarship. Do you wonder how? You can apply for a scholarship under the scholar and manager scheme. This is a special scheme that allows new players to get axies from Managers, who are experienced and wealthier people holding AXS tokens. You can play with the tokens lent by Managers, and in turn, give a portion of rewards/income that you earn through the game.
How to Create Axie Infinity Account
After you get Axies, set up an account on the Axie Infinity marketplace. This account can also be used to log into the Mavis Hub game launcher. Use your email and create a password to create your game account.
Download Axie Infinity
The final step to get into the gameplay is by downloading Axie Infinity: Origins. You can download the app via desktop or mobile phone using Android (APK), Google Play, or App Store.
What are Axie Infinity Scholarship Schemes?
If you are a new joiner to Axie Infinity and you don't have the required money to start playing, forget it and cheer up for a unique scholarship scheme known as scholar and manager.
Scholars
So, scholars are the new joiners who wish to play Axie Infinity but have no money to buy AXS tokens and Axies. These participants rely on managers who are rich to help the scholars
Managers
Managers are usually experienced, early players and wealthy participants who lend their Axies to scholars in turn for some portion of what scholars earn. The scholars can give a percentage of income generated through their SLP coins to the managers.
Are There Any Age Restrictions to Play Axie Infinity?
Although there is no age verification process, Axie Infinity is intended for players of age 18 and above. However, while you create a digital wallet for earning an income out of the game, the MetaMask wallet, which is the recommended wallet by Axie Infinity along with Ronin, will not present an issue with age due do it's decentralised and anonymous characteristics.
How To Earn Money With Axie Infinity?
As we have learned, there are two in-game coins in Axie infinity; Axie Infinity Shards and Smooth Love Potion. Through these coins, you can generate income, especially in the Arena mode of the game. Initially, Axi Infinity allowed players to earn rewards through SLP in Adventure mode, but, later after its upgrade to season 20, players cannot earn yields through SLP in Adventure mode. SLP tokens are now available only in Arena mode and players can use them to breed Axies and exchange it for fiat currencies.
Price History of Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity token hit an all-time high of $166.20 in November 2021, when all the major coins including Bitcoin reached their highest price value. As the global crypto market started melting in 2022, Axie Infinity also faced serious dips reaching a low of $4.23 in November 2022. As of this writing, AXS trades at $11.35, with a $1.14 billion market cap.
Pros and Cons
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From our discussions so far, you might have received some idea about the Axie Infinity ecosystem and how it generates both fun and income for the players. Before you get into play Axie Infinity, know some key advantages and disadvantages of this blockchain game.
Pros of Axie Infinity
Generates Income
Since Axie Infinity is a play-to-earn game, you can earn profit through different means. Basically, you can earn AXS tokens and SLP coins by playing your role in the game. Another way to earn a profit is by staking your AXS token. Like how you earn staking rewards using other cryptocurrencies, AXS also allows each participant to lock up their tokens in a staking pool and receive rewards. Moreover, you can earn income via trading SLP coins (convert to fiat currency) that are used to breed the Axies.
Supports Scholar and Manager Scheme
As explained earlier, not all people are wealthy enough to buy three axies to start playing the game. Therefore, managers, who are better off and early adopters of Axie Infinity help the scholars or players by lending them axies. In return, the managers will get a percentage of the profit of players' SLP. In this way, any interested players who cannot afford to buy Axies can depend on the scholar and manager scheme.
Adventurous Gameplay Universe
Axie Infinity is a completely adventurous and fun-based battlefield with several types of Axies. These adorable creatures are available in different styles and classes as explained earlier. You can move from adventure mode to arena mode, collect Axies, succeed in battling with other Axies, own plots of land, and earn rewards through AXS tokens and SLP coins. Interestingly, as the game relies on blockchain technology and the P2E model, players are more fascinated to enter the gaming ecosystem.
Frequent Developments
Since the advent of Axie Infinity in 2018, the gaming platform underwent several developments that supported more fun for players. In 2019, the project team released Alpha land gameplay that allows players to own and improve lands by farming and collecting resources on it. Besides the current adventurous features of Axie Infinity, the team behind the game may bring new changes that will hook more people to the platform.
Cons of Axie Infinity
Price Fluctuation Causes Unstable Profits
As the crypto market is volatile in different contexts, the price of AXS tokens and SLP may vary from time to time. This can badly impact the profits that players earn. For instance, 2022 saw a massive crypto crash, making the entire crypto market fall. This crash affected the value o the two in-game tokens and players could make only less profit out of them.
Insecure Job
For some of us, play-to-earn games are a good source of income especially if there is so much fun in them. So, think about the Axie Infinity game with a lot of adventures and fun! Obviously, people love to play Axie Infinity due to those mentioned reasons. Axie Infinity is more accepted in countries that have developing economies like the Philippines. During Covid, several Filipino game players stuck to Axie Infinity and earned sizeable earnings out of it.
However, as the price of SLP tumbled in February 2022 and hackers stole nearly $620 million worth of Ethereum from Axie Infinity's Ronin network, the growth of the players declined in the Philippines.
Scholar and Manager Model May Turn Unpleasant
Among the pros of Axie Infinity, we read about the benefits of the scholar and manager scheme, especially for newly joined players. However, managers may play their role against your expectations that they may request scholars to give half of the earnings they receive through the game, making the new players earn less than the minimum wage. In such cases, these scholars will be vulnerable to managers' decisions.
Scammers and Hackers on Track
Although Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based gaming, hackers may intrude to steal the earnings of players. In March 2022, Lazarus Group, a hacking team of the North Korean government breached Axie Infinity's Ronin network and stole over $620 million in Ethereum. This has gradually declined the number of players on Axie Infinity, along with the entire crypto market crash.
Future of Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity has undergone several changes since its launch in 2018. The platform launched its Alpha version- Axie Infinity: Homeland- in 2019 and updated to Season 20, bringing more adventures to the gaming ecosystem. Also, Axie Infinity Scholarship is one of the key progressing features of Axie Infinity that helps new players. With all these features already in house, let's hope for something great that would make Axie Infinity more enhancing and adventurous for users.
Is Axie Infinity (AXS) a good Investment?
The most important aspect of a cryptocurrency or token in order for its value to appreciate is to have:
- A solid use case
- Scalable potential
- Constant and growing demand
Without these 3 things, a token will simply drop in value and go eventually to 0 as we've seen so many times in the cryptocurrency markets.
In the case of Axie infinity, its price suffered a major drop since it's launch, but not due to a lack of interest but rather simply because of general market conditions, overall the blockchain game industry is booming and coming up with new and interesting proposals constantly.
Axie so far showed a great deal of adoption and excitment from its community while making headlines all over the world. While we can't tell you what to buy or sell, we can definitely tell you that Axie Infity (AXS) is definitely meeting the requirements to be considered a high potential growth currency.
As of January 29th 2:10pm Axie Infinity (AXS) is trading at $11.62 per coin, that's roughly a $155 distance from its all time high during booming market conditions. If the blockchain-based gaming sector continues to develop and Axie comes up with interesting proposals that make them stay ahead from their competition, AXS can definitely be an interesting coing to have in our portfolios.
Conclusion
There are several gaming projects that use cryptocurrencies and the play-to-earn model. Many gaming companies are still creating new innovative games for blockchain enthusiasts that widely implement the P2E model. Developers know the fruitful future of the blockchain gaming industry and so do the players. Axie Infinity had performed its role in the P2E blockchain gaming industry, welcoming millions of users, especially from developing economies like the Phillippines.
Notably, during the Covid pandemic, many players in the Philippines earned a huge income by playing Axie Infinity. This indicates that within a short period after its launch, Axie Infinity outperformed and bloomed in the blockchain gaming market, generating a high income for the company and also for its users.
The gaming ecosystem with its adventurous universe and adorable Axies has invited thousands of millions of players to explore each stage and earn income. Participants can gain profit by using two in-game coins; Axie Infinity Shards governance token and Smooth Love Potion. AXS tokens are available in the Axie Infinity Marketplace or players can get them from Managers through Axie Infinity Scholarship.
The gameplay allows players to own different classes of Axies based on attributes namely Morale, Skill, Health, and Speed. All these attributes determine the quality of different Axies and help them to defeat opponent Axies if the players play appropriately. Players can also breed these digital pets to get new offspring with unique traits. These new Axies can be used in the battlefield five days after their birth.
With these said, Axie Infinity showcases a community-based and economy-focused ecosystem for players. However, this blockchain game also possesses some serious threats such as unstable income due to the volatile crypto market. Instability in income can also happen when Managers ask for half of what scholars earn, under the scholarship scheme. Axie Infinity has also undergone serious hacking when its Ronin sidechain was breached by hackers and stole over $620 million in ETH. Excluding these issues, Axie Infinity still persists and grows among the vast number of blockchain game lovers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Buy Axie Infinity Coins (AXS)?
You can purchase Axie Infinity Tokens either from Axie Infinity's official marketplace or through a scholarship. Any players who are buying Axies through scholarship can get them from experienced and rich Managers, who lend their Axies, and in turn, gets a portion of what the scholars earn. These Managers are also early adopters of Axie Infinity.
Additionally, AXS (Axie infinity coin) can be bought in Binance cryptocurrency exchange and UniSwap (the decentralised ethereum-based exchange).
To buy AXS simply fund your cryptocurrency wallet and go to any of the above choices to purchase your AXS coins.
What is Axie Breeding and How Does It Work?
Breeding in Axie Infinity is the process of producing new offspring or Axies out of two Axies. This feature allows players to come up with Axies with different traits that can be used in battle. Axies are allowed to breed to a limit of seven times. You can select the Axies to be bred and click "Breed". The new offspring will reach maturity only after five days of development.
What is the Price of AXS Token?
The price of Axie Infinity Shards or AXS Tokens varies depending on macroeconomic conditions and the entire crypto market trend. Also, the token price fluctuates when new projects or developments happen inside the Axie Infinity ecosystem. At the time of writing this guide, AXS trades at $11.35.