Blockchain is making waves across multiple industries and gaming is where its effects are most notable. With the introduction of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse, it seems blockchain technology will alter the gaming ecosystem as we currently know it. An upcoming blockchain-based role-playing game Illuvium is one of the pioneers in this endeavor.
Built on the Ethereum blockchain by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called Illuvium DAO, Illuvium is a 3D open world where players can explore and perform various activities.
These include searching for and capturing strange beasts called Illuvials. Players can use the gathered Illuvials for fighting against other players’ creatures. Under the game’s play-to-earn model, winners of these battles are rewarded for their success.
The game relies on the Unreal Engine 4 technology which supports heavily detailed environments, characters, and other items.
Explore the rich world and catch peculiar monsters
Illuvium starts in the free-to-play mode in the Tier 0 world areas, where players can familiarize themselves with the gameplay. However, to start collecting Illuvium NFTs from higher-tiered regions, the player has to opt for the paid version.
The game places the player in the aftermath of a spaceship crash on an alien world with extreme and erratic weather, diverse scenery, and odd creatures. To survive, the player has to explore this world, capture creatures, and uncover obelisks that speed up their travel across the map. The protagonist character can be customized to the player’s taste.
There are more than 100 Illuvials roaming the vast world of Illuvium for the players to catch and they’re categorized into several classes with different affinities and abilities. Some of the fighting beasts can match up to complement each other during the battle for better odds of success. Three fully-leveled Illuvials can also be fused into a single, mightier unit.
The five classes are Guardian, Fighter, Rogue, Psion, and Empath. There are also five affinities: Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and Nature (e.g. Earth Psion). Up to two affinities can be stacked and combined. A caught Illuvium NFT is stored in players’ crypto wallets, while their in-game form is kept in an item called a shard. The shards differ in strength so they can support Illuvials that differ in power and as they level up.
Illuvium battles take place in the Ranked Arena and the Leviathan Arena. The player can enter a matchmaking queue in the former after capturing an Illuvial they want to use. In the latter, players can challenge each other and spectators can bet on the winner.
Fighting takes place in an auto-battler mode, which means that the player can’t manually control the Illuvial as it fights. They can only select the character, its weapons, and armor before the battle starts and this is the only way to try and affect the success of the battle.
Besides the Illuvium game, players will be able to join Illuvium: Zero, where they can build their own industrial complex and have it interact with the base Illuvium game. To create this complex, the players will need to farm resources on their land.
NFTs and ERC-20s powering the game
The Illuvium game features two ERC-20 tokens:
- ILV (Illuvium) allows players to engage in yield farming, staking, and Illuvium DAO governance.
- sILV helps run the game and can only be spent on in-game purchases.
Rewards can be received in either ILV or sILV. If ILV is chosen for rewards, then there’s a one-year lock-up period involved to ensure high liquidity of trading pairs between ILV and other coins. If the player chooses to receive their rewards in sILV, they will receive them immediately.
At the moment of writing, the price of the ILV token stood at a very high $716.06, which represents a 10% drop in the previous 30 days, but is a 24.2% advance over 14 days and 14.2% increase compared to seven days ago.
Illuvials and other in-game items (weapons, armor, etc.) are represented as Illuvium NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain and hold real-world value. The more powerful an Illuvial is, the more ILV it is worth. Minted by the Illuvium DAO, the game also features a collection of promotional and cosmetic NFTs that include the Cosplay and Genesis Promo sets, to mark the beginning of Illuvium’s journey.
What the future holds for Illuvium
As the first AAA blockchain-based video game, expectations for Illuvium are high. Judging by its road map, the team is hard at work and has already completed several important steps. These include the prototype development, Unreal Engine transition, token smart contract creation, first cinematic trailer, and V1 of yield farm contracts.
At the time of writing, players were able to register for a chance to become part of the limited Illuvium Autobattler Private Beta 1 that focuses on Survival Mode. Other areas currently in development include V2 of yield farm contracts, private beta, and Illuvium: Zero land sale ratification.
The full game is expected to roll out sometime in early 2022. After the official launch, the Illuvium game studio plans to release a mobile app in 2022 and another major Illuvium title in 2023.
With this endeavor, the Illuvium game creators hope to appeal to two previously divergent audiences – DeFi and mainstream gamers – and deliver a hybrid crypto-gamer category. We’ll be watching to see how their plan unfolds.
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