For those who missed the Axie Infinity train, there may just be one more to right the “wrong”.
This time, the lens is on Illuvium and the team’s ambitious plans.
The Case of Axie Infinity
But first, a bit of background to understand how it all started.
Gaming is nothing new. It is global and not hijacked by a small team of gurus with jargon. Children can participate as there is everything for everyone. However, it importance was magnified during the global healthcare crisis of 2020. COVID-19 effects continue to be felt today, but contagion measures have been damped down for sanity. In those dreaded, frustrating, and scary few months, gaming was a vent. And with millions out of work and sometimes without savings, gaming turned out to be an alternative source of passive income.
Axie Infinity took off because of its blockchain-enabled play-to-earn, gamer-facing approach. The game has proven incredibly lucrative for gamers and flippers. By mid-January 2022, over $3.2 billion of assets had been traded on the platform’s in-house marketplace powered by over 2.8 million players across the world.
For context, the most valuable ever digital asset (NFT) sold in their internal marketplace stood at six figures—a whopping $820k. NFTs are one thing; Axie Infinity has an in-game fungible token, AXS. The game’s exemplary performance was traced by the soaring valuation of the AXS token. Throughout 2020 and last year, the token was one of the top-performing assets, gifting Axie Infinity a mammoth $4.9 billion by early January 2022.
Introducing Illuvium
Illuvium wants to replicate and even outperform Axie Infinity but presenting a top-notch, high quality 3D game with a P2E model.
The platform claims to be the world’s first play-to-earn (P2E) triple-A NFT Ethereum-based game that’s still in development but scheduled to launch at a tentative time in 2022. It fuses interesting role-playing (RPG) features enabled by the blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies.
Illuvium developers describe the game’s ecosystem as an open-world RPG capable of collecting digital monsters and battling on a decentralized base layer. Here, players are free to explore its vast digital territory and make money along the way.
The Illuvium metaverse is entirely 3D, features hundreds of illuvials spread out across different regions. Each creature is expertly crafted by some of the world’s leading digital artists, explaining why most gamers are attracted to the dApp’s top-notch graphics.
How it Works: illuvials and Flipping NFTs
Because it is an RPG game with a P2E model, players are central and flexible. This means they can create characters tailored to their needs while enjoying the benefit of earning rewards in real-time in a vast and thrilling digital universe.
Moreover, players can receive their rewards as NFTs—in-game items—and fungible digital tokens. Assets earned can be staked without incurring fees, a beneficial advantage for players who always want to reap maximum benefits while paying nominal fees.
They can also venture into the expansive digital world as they learn the cataclysm behind why the land remains barren. Meanwhile, players get a chance to hunt and capture deity-like creatures called illuvials. Hundreds of illuvials populate the alien world, each possessing different affinities, classes, and abilities. Captured illuvials will grow in strength as they participate in battle, fighting.
Interestingly, players can capture and breed them to access even more powerful attributes beneficial when playing Illuvium’s Auto Battler gameplay. All captured Illuvials (NFTs) are stored in shards—which are sleek crystal slivers that hold their essence.
In their journeys, gamers can build a team to conquer because of the game’s open-world exploration and PvP war game capabilities, allowing them to breed powerful alien digital creatures. Leaders can draft starters from the teams created and challenge and outsmart others to rise up the ranks. Because of the game’s design, players are rewarded with Illuvium’s ILV governance token for their participation.
Synergy is Key
Still, it should be noted that players need to register using their email addresses to gain access. Later, once the game is live, it will be downloaded and installed on desktop. A player would then subscribe to the free-to-play mode or gain premium access. Before then, the goal of Alluvium is flexibility, allowing players to customize and collect their illuvials which exist as NFTs within the game space.
A user who collects NFT items with the same affinity or class creates synergy, giving the player bonuses in battle, and most importantly, enabling them to be tactical—deciding which NFT to deploy. It is critical because Illuvium is all about strategy and counteracting other opponents. For this reason, choosing illuvials with the right synergy is paramount.
Also, if a player captures three similar illuvials, they can fuse to create a more powerful monster. Fusion can also happen when the illuvial has reached the highest possible level. The more powerful the illuvial is, the more it fetches in the secondary market. All exchanges are dominated in ILV—the system’s governance token.
Illuvium Extras
Besides gameplay, Illuvium is distinguished from others because of:
- An in-built decentralized exchange called IlluviDEX for swapping NFT assets (illuvials) will be soon be launched. Each sale attracts a five percent commission which is rewarded to ILV stakers.
- Layer-2 integration with Immutable X allows players to mint Illuvials and trade them for free while concurrently enjoying the security of Ethereum. Holders of Immutable X’s IMX tokens are guaranteed full custody of their illuvials and other valuable assets.
- There is a three-year yield farming program for players or investors who supply liquidity to the IlluviDEX. During this time, the team plans to distribute three million ILV as farming rewards to liquidity providers.
Illuvium Team and Partners
The development team comprises over 75 members and advisors.
The most prominent is the game’s developers–Kieran and Aaron Warwick. Their brother, Kain Warwick, co-founded one of DeFi’s top projects, Synthetix.
Aaron, a graduate of the University of Wollongong in Australia, is the chief game designer and story supervisor. Danny Wilson is in charge of partnerships; Nate Wells is the game producer, while Basil Gorin is the CTO.
The project has partnered with other high-profile crypto projects and venture capitals like Delphi Digital, Chainlink, Blocksync Ventures, Bitscale Capital, and more.
Illuvium (ILV) Tokenomics and Market Performance
The ILV ERC-20 governance token is core to the NFT blockchain game.
ILV tokens are for:
- Rewarding gamers
- Staking at Illuvium Vaults
- Governance via the Illuvium DAO
Out of ILV, a synthetic, sILV, has been derived. While ILV serves core roles and is for rewarding players, ILV tokens are vested for one year. As a way around this, the sILV was created for immediate use in the game. They are permanently fixed to the game and cannot be transferred.
There will be a maximum of 7 million ILV and sILV tokens to ever circulate. Another 3 million will be distributed as staking rewards, for a total of 10 million coins.
Token distribution is as follows:
- Pre-Seed—500k ILV tokens each $1
- Seed Round—1.5 million ILV tokens at $3 each
- Team—1.5 million ILV tokens
- Treasury–1.5 million ILV tokens
- Launchpad–1 million ILV tokens
- Yield Farming—3 million ILV tokens
- In-game rewards—1 million ILV tokens
As of mid-January 2022, there are 642,891.97 ILV in circulation, with each trading for $866, translating for a $556 million market cap.
It should be observed that the ILV token listed for around $68, representing a near 15X at spot rates and over 30X when it peaked at $1.9k in early December 2021. Meanwhile, those who participated in the seed round are up 866X and 1900X at peaks, respectively.
The ILV token is traded in many centralized exchanges, including Binance and KuCoin, paired with USDT, BNB, and BTC. There are over 35 unique markets for ILV, making it one of the most liquid blockchain gaming tokens.
Illuvium (ILV) Catalysts
- The Illuvium team brings out a 3D, Triple-A version of Axie Infinity, explaining the high interest from gamers and investors.
- ILV tokens are of low token supply; investors who got in early are 866X in ROI, pointing at the project’s superb quality.
- Illuvium has direct support and beneficial partnerships with many crypto venture capital firms and other blockchain protocols, including Stake DAO, Blocksync Ventures, Delphi Digital, and more.
- The association with Kain Warwick, who built a successful DeFi project in Synthetix, gives Illuvium credibility. This alone is why the project attracts the best talents like its CTO, Basil Gorin, who has over 15 years of software experience.
- The existence of the IlluviDEX will allow players to easily swap their assets at low cost, cheaply within the platform leading to even more convenience.
- Illuvium is actively being built ahead of its game launch scheduled for 2022. The anticipation ahead of this massive announcement would positively affect the already scarce ILV prices.
- The incorporation of Immutable X enhances the general user experience, saving players the otherwise high fees they would have racked on-chain in Ethereum.
- The ongoing yield farming program that concludes after three years is drawing demand for ILV tokens. Although rewards would be locked for one more year, the limited supply of the governance token anchors investors’ confidence.
- The merger of NFTs is timely. The game would likely expand with the rising NFT and metaverse tide, a net positive, especially when considering the high-quality, 3D environment in Illuvium.
- Illuvium allows staking where rewards are distributed in ILV or sILV. Over $1.2 billion of ILV tokens are locked, removed from circulation, propping prices due to the high demand for ILV.
- Illuvium’s smart contracts are safe, secured by Quantstamp.