What is Axie Infinity?
In this digital 21st century world, having money does not equate to having cash in one’s hands anymore. With the changes happening in the modern society, various industries have also started going with the flow, wherein even investments can be made using cryptocurrency
Which now leads us to the game that has been sweeping the news in the country as of late, the Axie Infinity. It is one of the latest additions to the market with all the crypto craze going around, with the aim to have the players earn money while also enjoying themselves with the gameplay itself.
It is a blockchain game developed by SkyMavis which is a technology-focused studio founded in 2018. Its whole gameplay involves trading and breeding digital round-shaped creatures called as Axies which you can use to battle others. They have different types such as Beast, Plant, Bug, Mech, Dusk, Aquatic, Bird, Reptile and Dawn; and have different abilities ranging from Tanking to Damaging. Yes, just like Pokemon.
Can you earn money playing Axie Infinity?
As Axie Infinity is advertised as a type of cryptocurrency investment, yes, you can earn money by playing the game. Just like other conventional investments, starting money is needed, along with effort and lots of hours. Their new model is focused on “play-to-earn” and has attracted players who are looking for a new source of income. Some people are still trying to get bitcoin in the Philippines while others are already aware of XUM crypto scams or even the Xian Gaza Coin (XNC) scam.
Once you have signed up, you get access to several games you can download and play to earn. The rewards are not the highest, but it can be a fun way to earn in the Philippines. In addition to the games, you can also take occasional surveys, watch videos, and take offers. In the documentary Play-to-Earn: NFT Gaming in the Philippines, which came out in May, produced by YGG, Mr. Lapina explained that with the cute, in-game pets he bought, called Axies, he could.
Players can earn by:
- Competing in PVP battles to win leaderboard prizes.
- Breeding Axies and selling them on the marketplace.
- Collecting and speculating on rare Axies such as Mystics and Origins.
- Farming for the love potions that are needed to breed Axies. These can be sold on exchanges such as Uniswap and Binance.
- Starting in 2021 players can earn a governance token, AXS, which represents a real slice of the game universe as it has governance rights and fee sharing built into it. Since players can earn this token by playing, a Ready Player one type quest emerges where players can actually earn part of the universe. However, these quests are not winner takes all and rewards each player based on their effort and skill.
Guide on How to Play Axie Infinity
In the game, the player will earn SLP (Smooth Love Potions) through battling in two game modes. First is the PvE (Player vs Environment) which is similar to an Adventure mode. The Axies that the player has to battle against are computer generated, and will get stronger as more levels are passed through. To be able to successfully defeat these Axies, the player has to collect, or in a gamer’s term, grind, different materials to make their own Axies stronger. SLPs will be rewarded at each accomplished level.
The second mode, on the other hand, lets the player battle against other players (PvP) in a rank-based manner. At first, the player would usually be put up against other players who have invested a similar amount of money, to make it fair. However, as the player keeps on winning, the ranking goes up and therefore, making it more difficult to win a battle and maintain the ranking. This mode rewards more SLPs per battle.
Acquired SLPs can then be used to breed more Axies, or sold to other traders. With how SLPs can also be cashed in for cryptocurrency, it is the main material to be grinded in game. However, there is a limit on how much SLPs can be earned per day—100 SLPs through PvE and PvP modes, and another 50 can then be collected by doing the daily quests. Aside from SLP, players can also get Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), which can be used to buy and sell game assets.
How do you download and start playing Axie Infinity?
As appealing as it is, one cannot start the game without first buying three Axies to breed and battle with. These pets can be bought in www.marketplace.axieinfinity.com, thus starting the investment.
If you are interested in purchasing Axies so you can start your “play-to-earn” journey, you can visit the Axie Infinity website www.axieinfinity.com. However, you first have to create and complete your account set up before you can interact with the market. To be able to actually buy Axies you’ll need to have some of the digital currency, Ether (ETH), which is the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum–a decentralized open-source blockchain.
With the latest boom of the game in many countries, the lowest price of Axies available amounts to $200 – $230 (PHP9,000 – PHP11,000) as of today, and are still continuing to rise. The more money you invest, the stronger the Axies that you can purchase and breed.
What is the Axie Infinity Marketplace?
The Axie Infinity Marketplace is basically a place wherein all transactions can happen. Characters, items and bundled packages from the game can be purchased through it. The simple design layout is easy to navigate. If you visit the website, www.marketplace.axieinfinity.com, you can see the prices of different types of Axies, lands you can farm, and package bundles. It also lists the different gas prices that a buyer has to take note of, which are the Rapid, Fast, Standard and Slow.
Related: Pi Coin, is it a scam?
What is Metamask?
While many other NFT Marketplaces allow the use of PayPal or credit card for purchasing NFTs, the Axie Infinity Marketplace does not. To be able to buy Ether for any kind of Marketplace transactions, it is recommended to use Metamask, which is a software cryptocurrency wallet made by ConsenSys Software Inc. It allows users to store and manage account keys, broadcast transactions, send and receive Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies and tokens, and securely connect to decentralized applications through a compatible web browser or the mobile app’s built-in browser. Or in simpler words, this is where you can buy ETH which you can use to buy Axies. You can visit https://metamask.io/ to download the application.
Is Axie Infinity safe?
The answer is—yes. But like all investments, trusting the game takes as much risk as other conventional investments. This one not only relies on the rise and fall of cryptocurrency, but also on the capability of the player to invest not just money, but a whole lot of time too.
Reaching the SLP limit per day would require the player a minimum of 3-5 hours per day, which is a lot of time if the player has a full-time job, or other responsibilities to take care of. The gameplay demands a lot of grinding through battles and farming.
Thankfully, there is another function that can help with this. Once you have purchased the three minimum Axies, the SLPs you gain in game can be used to breed more Axies. If the player has a surplus of Axies in their disposal, they can choose scholars who will be allowed to borrow their Axies and grind on their behalf. This is more commonly used as of late due to the price of starting Axies being very high, and this function allows other players to still be able to enjoy the game.
With the way the game has been making noise in the country, it is indeed a surefire way to earn some extra money while having fun. In the future, the company has plans to develop more games with the same category, and to be able to establish cross-platform gameplay.
Do you have extensive knowledge or opinions about Axie Infinity and crypto in general? Write for us today.
© Provided by BusinessWorldBy Brontë H. Lacsamana
WITH the rise of the play-to-earn phenomenon, NFT (non-fungible token) gaming guilds and associations have cropped up around the world to educate people and help them join in.
One of these is Manila-based Yield Guild Games (YGG), founded by Gabriel “Gabby” Dizon and Beryl C. Li. The guild invests in NFTs in games and organizes a player community that can earn income from playing. In mid-June, they reported 1,000 scholars around the world playing a Pokemon-inspired game called Axie Infinity, who have earned more than 14 million in-game tokens known as Small Love Potions (SLPs) — equivalent to about $1.9 million.
YGG’s $4-million Series A investment, completed this June, will expand this network by purchasing and lending out even more NFT assets.
The investment is led by BITKRAFT Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on gaming, e-sports, and interactive media. In a statement, one of its founding partners, Jens Hilgers, lauded YGG’s efforts as a catalyst for the transition towards player-owned economies.
Aside from investing in Axie Infinity, YGG has also partnered with Splinterlands, a blockchain-based trading card game, with which guild members have been granted early, priority access. The game is one of many who see great potential in the play-to-earn model.
Play Games And Earn Money Philippines Online
“At its core, YGG is a community of play-to-earn gamers,” said Mr. Dizon in a statement on their recently completed investment. “Think of it as a massively multiplayer online (MMO) guild, for example, but operating across several games, investing in yield-generating NFTs within those games, and lending those in-game assets and inventory out to our player base.”
“Games and virtual worlds are increasingly becoming hosts of real economic activity, enabled and accelerated at scale through blockchain technology,” he said.
WHAT IS NFT GAMING?
The “play-to-earn” movement is an emerging phenomenon in gaming, wherein players NFT games collect rewards within the game that can later be converted to real cash. Though this form of cryptocurrency has been around for a few years, it reached new heights during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with ensuing lockdowns rendering millions jobless and open to earning money through gaming.In the Philippines, where the unemployment rate continues to fluctuate, the NFT game Axie Infinity has enjoyed massive popularity. Its Vietnamese developer, Sky Mavis, reported that 29,000 of the 70,000 downloads of the game in April this year came from the Philippines.
“At first, I wasn’t convinced that this game (can let you) earn by playing, but I tried it. Out of my curiosity, I bought three Axies for about $4 to $5,” said Arthur “Art Art” C. Lapina, one of the first players of the game in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, where an active community now copes with joblessness by getting income from the game.
In the documentary Play-to-Earn: NFT Gaming in the Philippines, which came out in May, produced by YGG, Mr. Lapina explained that with the cute, in-game pets he bought, called Axies, he could battle other players to earn SLPs, which he would then swap for cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and convert them to pesos via Coins.ph.
UNDERSTANDING THE NFT GAMING MOVEMENT
NFTs are digital properties that can take many forms, from memes and animated GIFs to in-game assets. Using blockchain, an NFT’s record of ownership is stored in a digital ledger, so that players — and not game developers — own their in-game collectibles. This means NFT items in blockchain-based games can be moved off the platform and sold or traded in any open market, which is what Mr. Lapina does to turn his SLP into cash.When Mr. Lapina first tried his hand at Axie Infinity in April 2020, his first cash-out after 15 days of playing amounted to just P1,000, according to his interview with BitPinas. When the value of SLPs increased in July 2020, the pay reached the ballpark of P14,000 and beyond, after which the movement rapidly spread via word-of-mouth in Cabanatuan City.
However, because of Axie Infinity’s popularity, starting out in the game has now become difficult and expensive. A team of three Axies, which cost just $5 almost a year ago, now fetches steep prices of about $1,000.
“Our main focus at the moment is to provide scholarships, (where) we offer players Axie teams (so they can) play and actually earn for themselves,” said John Emmanuel “Pot” Dela Peña in the documentary. He is one of the three entrepreneurs who came up with the Axie University (AxU) program to address the problem of cost.
The scholarship system involves managers who rent out Axies to those that can’t invest money upfront. To earn their income, these “scholars” train and use the NFTs to win tokens. Earnings are split among the scholar, the NFT owner, and the community manager.
One scholar who takes the game very seriously is 22-year-old Howard A. Garancho, a college graduate unable to find work. The Play-to-Earn documentary showed a glimpse of his computer set-up, with sticky notes on the wall containing game-related reminders. “I treat it as work because if you want to earn in that game, you have to commit in that game. You have to play it daily, to play hard,” said Mr. Garancho.