Introduction
We have been witnessing gaming take the crypto world by storm. The latest game that has become the darling of the dance is DeFi Kingdoms. DFK is the most popular example of a happy marriage between the sectors of DeFi and Crypto Gaming.
Without going too far into detail, DeFi Kingdoms is a 2D game that allows players to earn NFTs and fungible tokens through completing different quests. What’s impressive is that since its launch, DFK has been absolutely killing it – it is currently sitting at a market cap of approx $1.2B with a fully diluted market cap of $10B.
To add to the shock, DeFi Kingdoms is built on top of the Harmony One protocol. Not many could have predicted the momentum that we’re currently seeing from DFK on this rather niche L1. But enough about DFK, let’s talk about what we’re really here for. With the rising – and so far sustained – success of DFK, everyone is looking around for the next GameFi project with the same potential.
Today, I’d like to present to you all a game that I think could potentially rise to the occasion. Allow me to introduce to you, Crypto Raiders.
What Is Crypto Raiders?
Crypto Raiders is a pixel dungeon crawler game, RPG, & ecosystem with gamified DeFi elements utilizing tokens & NFTs. The inspiration for the game was drawn from Zed.Run and World Of Warcraft. Crypto Raiders is built on the Polygon Network.
Players have the ability to:
Raid dungeons to increase character power (EXP/Equipment)
Increase character power with EXP & Equipment
Embark on quests to earn crafting materials
Own Mobs in dungeons to steal players currency/items
Participate Defi elements to earn currencies to support them in game - Keys
Mint New Raiders on Generation Event Days using Aurum
What Makes This Game So Interesting?
What’s interesting about Crypto Raiders is that it has a permadeath feature – meaning that if your character dies in the game, it’s permanent. If this sounds a bit extreme, don’t worry.
Beginner dungeons have a 0% chance at death, and the first few intermediate dungeons will only have a 1% - 5% chance of death. Also, players will know the chance of death percentage before entering a dungeon.
The best way to increase your chance of survival is to upgrade your character’s gear. The better the gear, the better the survival rate.
Also, the team has a unique solution to prevent the permadeath mechanic from sabotaging the growth of the game.
Dungeons are released on a weekly basis. There are evergreen dungeons that players can raid continuously, and limited time dungeons that players can only raid for a limited amount of time.
This month (Jan 19th), the team is releasing a new mode called Endless Dungeons.
The two tokens that power the game are RAIDER and AURUM:
$RAIDER
RAIDER powers the entire Crypto Raiders economy.
Players can stake their RAIDER tokens to earn AURUM.
Staking rewards are received on a daily basis based on in-game activity.
Staked tokens are locked for three to twelve months for various reward rates.
RAIDER can either be purchased on the market or earned by staking $AURUM-MATIC and $RAIDER-MATIC Sushi LP Tokens.
RAIDER is gaining more utility in the future (governance voting, special access).
The supply of the RAIDER token will be fixed at 100,000,000.
$AURUM
AURUM is the in-game token that is used for the marketplace, recruiting/breeding characters, running dungeons, and other future activities.
Players earn AURUM by completing quests and dungeon raids.
The awarded amount of AURUM will be based on the level of difficulty of the quest or dungeon.
Holders that don’t wish to participate in looting dungeons will need to obtain AURUM through either staking or purchasing from other players.
The initial supply of AURUM is 1,000,000,000. However, the team reserves the right to mint and burn tokens as needed.
The key to building a successful game is creating an addicting gameplay loop. A gameplay loop is the term used to describe the cycle of actions that a player repeats when playing a game.
The gameplay loop is what keeps players engaged. Crypto Raiders has two interesting gameplay loops:
Crawl Dungeons > Level Up & Earn Items > Increase Character Stats > Crawl Harder Dungeon
Quest > Earn Materials & Experience > Craft
Crypto Raiders Assets
Let’s talk about the NFT assets that are in the game. There are currently three NFT classes.
All character stats are created through weapons, gear, and potions acquired during dungeon raids.
There are 12,500 Mobs and 14 different types.
Mounts will be used to help speed up quests and farming speeds.
Mounts were airdropped to RAIDER stakers. Other mounts can be purchased on the open market.
Conclusion
Though Crypto Raiders is fairly new, it’s growing at a rapid pace. If we take a look at some of the stats, we can see that there is plenty of activity occurring everyday (keep in mind that this screenshot was taken at 9:34 AM EST this morning).
Now that we’ve covered the details surrounding Crypto Raiders and the potential it has, I’d like to conclude this Deep Dive a little differently.
I’d like to take a moment to give a massive shoutout to the newest EllioTrades team member and current Lead Of Research in Neo Tokyo, Tharebear, for providing me with the initial TLDR on Crypto Raiders.
A few risks and opportunities that Tharebear sees with Crypto Raiders are:
Risks
Current overall market conditions are uncertain.
The project is up over 398% already.
Opportunities
This project has been showing user growth in a down market.
Committed team that consistently ships features.
Liquidity Pool APYs + Bonus Raider Yield
Also one of the ways that he – and I as well – will be taking advantage of the Crypto Raiders opportunity is by purchasing mounts. This is because:
They have lower supply than Raiders.
Character holders will want them to speed up their Questing/Yield.
Please give Tharebear a warm welcome, and show him some love for the alpha by giving his Twitter account a follow.