Gods Unchained is a trading card strategy game incorporating NFTs to create a play-to-earn system.
The primary reason why NFTs continue to find widespread adoption is that players always own gaming assets.
Gods Unchained uses a P2E to reward players. This approach is already paying off, considering the number of positive reviews the game has received over the past few years.
Trading Cards and NFTs
Although cards are digital—thus not tangible—the security of the underlying blockchain–enabling provenance of every asset minted–offers massive advantages for gamers.
As you would expect, Gods Unchained is free to play, bearing a resemblance to Magic: The Gathering Arena, Hearthstone, and The Elder Scrolls: Legends. Therefore, it makes for a quick transition for those familiar with the above game, albeit the crypto edge.
The difference with other trading cards is that players earn when they play, thanks to NFTs and the game’s native currency. It is also a welcomed divergence from legacy approaches where gamers have to acquire the game and its assets without a window of reselling them for a profit/loss in a decentralized marketplace.
Why Gods Unchained
The advantage of playing Gods Unchained is growth—an opportunity to make more money. By climbing up the rank, the quality of your cards also increases—becoming more valuable.
But it isn’t always about money. The game is also fun.
The Gods Unchained creators merge a lucrative economic model and a thrilling game that pays to play. All trading cards exist on Ethereum as NFTs. Accordingly, cards can be flipped for profit depending on their rarity levels—which also affect value.
Still, it should be known that the Gods Unchained turn-based game isn’t on Ethereum. Because trading cards must be unique, they are deployed on the blockchain as NFTs. Each card is tradable and can be tracked on the transparent blockchain for provenance. Since cards are NFTs, the player retains ownership.
As you would expect, digital cards are rare and sometimes very valuable. Players can buy and sell individual cards. In 2019, one of the game’s rare “Mythic” cards sold for $62k—a record.
Free Cards and Competitive Gods’ Battles
The game is streamlined, incorporating competitive combat. Interested players can easily transition and climb up the ranks in Gods Unchained. At first, they start with 70 free cards allowing them to access the various decks in the game.
A gamer begins with a 30-card deck fitting the theme of one of the six gods to enter a battle. The amount of mana earned or the god’s capabilities would give the gamer an edge, allowing them to progress.
Even so, progress can’t be rapid because of the mana lock designed purposefully to slow down your tally after the first five successful turns. For this, a player has to add more effort before having a chance to scoop top-tier cards.
Gamers can receive even more cards from the expansion packs. However, there is an opportunity to earn more cards as you rank up and accumulate more playtime. At the same time, you can decide to spend your money to buy additional card parks and diversify your card rarity collection.
Trading Card NFTs: Rarity Levels
Players willing to purchase card packs can choose from the Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Shiny-Legendary—with pack prices increasing in value depending on rarity levels. Each collection has five cards. These are available from the Gods Unchained’s website.
However, players can navigate to Immutable X—a dedicated layer-2 solution for NFTs—to buy chests. Each chest contains six-packs available in Rare and Legendary. There are a few advantages of buying Chests. Unlike buying individual cards, card chests can be held and flipped for more in the secondary market.
Gods Unchained Marketplace
Still, this doesn’t mean individual cards lack a well-developed market. If anything, cards can be swapped via Gods Unchained’s internal marketplace.
A player can survey their portfolio and acquire individual cards to improve their deck, offload duplicate cards, or make money by selling rare cards.
Trading is straightforward. All that’s needed is a compatible Ethereum wallet. The most common one is MetaMask—used by over 10 million users every month and is secure. It is also free and can be switched quickly between networks.
First, you will need ETH to make purchases and store Gods Unchained’s trading cards and other items in the non-custodial wallet—while also interacting with the game.
If you don’t have access to ETH, you can use Gods Unchained’s Wyre plug-in to acquire your first items.
Gods Unchained Team and Partners
James and Robbie Ferguson are the two brothers behind Gods Unchained.
The team hired former developers of Google and Riot Games.
Notably, Chris Clay—the game’s director—used to work for Magic: The Gathering Arena. He has over 20 years of experience working in various game development capacities in multiple firms.
Gods Unchained partners include Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Naspers, and others.
Gods Unchained (GODS) Tokenomics
GODS is an ERC-20 governance token and the ecosystem’s in-game currency by the Gods Unchained Corporation.
On Gods Unchained’s marketplace, cards are sold for GODS and swapped thereafter for other liquid tokens. GODS are also used to create NFTs and gain rewards.
GODS also represent voting power, allowing the community to participate in governance. Holders who participate in governance while actively staking also receive GODS.
There are 500 million GODS in total supply, distributed as follows:
- 34 percent for play-to-earn rewards
- 25 percent to Gods Unchained Reserves
- 5 percent to the Community and Ecosystem Fund
- Seven percent to the Community
- Seven percent to the Public Sale
- 5 percent to the Foundation
The team raised $4.272 million from distributing 17 million GODS in two ICOs on Coinlist. The first saw each GODS sold for $0.24—raising $4 million, and the other $0.336 raising $672k from two million GODS tokens. The ICO was beside the $15 million Serie A funding in 2018.
In all, ICO investors have a 7X ROI, on average. At peaks, this stood at a 31X ROI.
There are 23.6 million GODS on circulation, each trading at $2.28 for a $54 million market cap.
GODS is available for trading on various exchanges, including OKEx, KuCoin, Huobi, and other top-tier cryptocurrency exchanges.
Gods Unchained (GODS) Catalysts
- Gods Unchained is relatively liquid, receiving support from leading cryptocurrency exchanges. It makes it easier for gamers to acquire in-game assets and rise up the ranks higher.
- The game is popular with thousands of followers on social media channels like Twitter alone.
- GODS is native to Ethereum, making it easier for gamers due to the blockchain’s brand.
- Gods Unchained staking program allows GODS holders to earn more GODS as they actively participate in governance.
- Gods Unchained exists independent off-chain, but the deployment of trading cards as NFTs makes the game more attractive.
- Despite the Ethereum brand name, Gods Unchained’s trading cards are minted on a layer-2, Immutable X. It translates to lower fees and faster minting, boosting the user experience of NFT traders.
- The game is fun, retaining high production values of graphics from the game to the website.
- Players can easily transit into the game because of its smooth onboarding process. On connecting using their MetaMask, they receive 70 cards under the Welcome Set.
- Gods Unchained has done a tidy work in balancing its cards. New trading cards are pushed through a balancing phase within a two to three month monitoring stage. During this phase, game developers can tweak the card’s properties if they are unbalanced. Afterward, cards are unlocked for trading and can’t be changed. Besides, there are mana locks to slow down accumulation after five turns.
- The customization in Gods Unchained also goes towards increasing one’s GODS stash. Duplicate cards can be fused to make them more valuable. Meanwhile, a gamer can customize their board side with trinkets and other attractive backgrounds. Gods also have their lores.
- The development team is experienced with support from Immutable. A notable inclusion in the Gods Unchained team is Chris Clay—who used to work for Magic: The Gathering Arena.
- The team has raised roughly $20 million since launch is a pointer to their quality and interest. Thus far, ICO investors are up roughly 7X at spot rates and 31X when GODS peaked at around $8.
- Gods Unchained is backed by leading crypto venture capitals, including Coinbase Ventures, Naspers, Digital Capital, and more.