How To Get Started With Axie
Infinity : Guide For Beginners

If you’re new to Axie Infinity, this guide will help get you started. We’ll cover the basics of the game, how to get started playing, and some tips to help you along the way. So, keep reading to find out about this immersive game.

popularity-of-Axie-Infinity-NFT

What Is Axie Infinity?

Axie Infinity is a digital pet game where players can collect, breed, and battle cute creatures called Axies. These creatures have different classes, body features, and abilities. We’ll cover more of that in a while. The gameplay involves breeding Axies and participating in quests, battle competitions, and other tournaments. Players get rewarded when they complete these quests and tournaments. The game is developed on the Ethereum blockchain and employs play-to-earn features to let players earn real-world money.

Who Developed Axie Infinity?

Sky Mavis, a well-reputed technology studio based in the Vietnamese city Hojimin, developed Axie Infinity back in 2018. The company took inspiration from successful games like Pokemon Go and Gotcha but wanted to make something more fun and meaningful. The developers wanted to introduce something that could provide a fun way to learn Blockchain Technology. And they also wanted the players to have some incentive, so they included NFTs and play-to-earn features so that the players would want to spend time learning the game.

Soon after launching the beta version, Axie Infinity raised $7.5 million in a first seed funding and then $150 million in the second round. Moreover, they also partnered with world leaders like Samsung and UBISOFT. Axie Infinity’s huge success is also backed by Angel Investor Aleksander Leonard Larsen, the game’s co-founder and COO. He is a former DotA and Warcraft 3 national e-sports player and a top management executive at the Blockchain Game Alliance.

What’s The Axie Infinity In-Game Currency?

There are two currencies used in the Axie Infinity’s system. Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) powers the game’s whole system as it allows its owners to vote in favor of or against any policy or gameplay changes in the platform. These tokens are capped at 270,000,000 units only. Owners can also stake these units to get high returns.

axie-yellow-screen-NFT

SLP or Smooth Love Potion is the other currency earned by completing daily tasks or winning fights. SLP is used in combination with AXS to breed Axie. Now, let’s get to the basics of the game.

What is an Axie?

Axies are fictional digital creatures that are actually NFTs. These cute creatures are bred and used for fighting with other Axies in the game. Each Axie has four specific characteristics that are used in a battle.

  • Health (HP) is a number showing your Axie’s life energy, which is a representation of how much attack an Axie can withstand. The higher the HP, the longer your Axie lasts in a fight.
  • Morale represents the probability of a critical strike and also adds a temporary life extension when Health (HP) dies.
  • Skill of an Axie is used when numerous cards are played at once. Higher skill makes sure that Axie inflicts maximum damage to other cards.
  • Speed represents the order of turns among an Axie team. The Axie with higher speeds attacks by taking turns first. If two Axies have equal speeds, the one with more Health takes a turn first. Higher speed also reduces the chances of getting hit in an attack.

What Are Different Classes Of Axie?

Axies come in different shapes and classes, including the following:

  • Plant
  • Beast
  • Bird
  • Aquatic
  • Bug
  • Reptile
  • Mech
  • Dawn
  • Dusk

Axies have six body features: eyes, ears, mouth, horn, back, and tail. The horn, mouth, back, and tail are the features to look out for when buying Axies because these features determine your battle Axie cards.

How Can You Get An Axie?

Well, you can either buy or breed Axies. Here’s how both work:

Should-You-Play-Axie-Infinity-NFT

Buying:

Players buy Axies on the Axie Infinity Marketplace. However, Axies are highly-priced, so you should think carefully before buying any Axies. Ideally, you should be aiming for the ones that can get you the maximum SLP tokens as rewards.

Axies with a 0 breed count are always recommended when looking to buy a new Axie. This will help you breed more Axies in the future, which you can engage in gameplay or sell for profit.

Breeding:

Those who can’t buy Axies choose to breed their own and sell them for profit on the Axie Infinity Marketplace. One Axie egg takes five days to grow into an adult, which can further breed more Axies. You would need 3 unique Axies to make a continuous breeding chain of Axies.

Breeding Axies might sound easy, but there is a whole science and technique involved. Here’s a little brief on that: One Axie can typically breed 7 times, and breeding one Axie takes two adult Axies, 4 AXS, and a certain number of SLP tokens. You would need to install the Freak’s Axie Extension to find out your Axies’ genetics, ultimately getting an idea of the offspring. Here is what the data will tell you.

Dominant (D) : 37.5% chance of passing this gene to offspring.
Recessive (R1) : 9.375% chance of passing this gene to offspring.
Minor Recessive (R2) : 3.125% chance of passing this gene to offspring.

play-to-earn-NFT

Alternatively, you can use one of the games’ manual calculators to figure out the probabilities. However, developers are now introducing “mutations” that do not follow any patterns.

How To Start Playing The Game?

You will need the following things to start playing Axie Infinity:

  • A MetaMask or ERC-20 wallet containing some ETH.
  • A Ronin wallet with ETH from your MetaMask account.
  • Buy at least three Axies to build a team.
  • Download the game and start playing.

However, low-budget players might find buying Axies and starting the game expensive. That is why the developers introduced a “Scholarship” system to facilitate financially weak players. If you secure an Axie Scholarship, you can play on an investor’s behalf and earn some percentage from the earnings.

If you are interested to know more about this, we suggest you join GuildFi. What’s that? It’s an organization or community for investors, gamers, and managers that act as facilitating intermediaries and buy in-game NFT  items to rent out to others who can’t afford to buy them.

What Is The Gameplay Like?

Axie Infinity’s gameplay is somewhat of a mixture of Pokémon and Hearthstone. The gameplay follows a turn-based strategy that lets you instruct your cards (Axies) to perform certain actions when it’s their turn. Every team features a minimum of four pre-program cards for the battle, meaning you don’t get to choose which card goes first. Also, your card will randomly attack anyone from the opponent team and won’t let you hit particular targets. So, the battles in the game are mostly like a simulation where you just watch. But it’s in selecting your team that you use strategy to form a strong team.

Some common and well-balanced team formations might look like this:

  • Aqua, Aqua, Plant
  • Beast, Bird, Plant
  • Beast, Aqua, Plant

Similarly, you would choose a strong team and let it fight the battle. You’ll get Matchmaking ratings and a couple of SLP tokens if you win. Moreover, the gameplay also includes completing daily quests and winning rewards consequently. Here’s a detailed look at different game modes.

What Are Different Game Modes?

So, the game offers two modes as of now:

Adventure Mode

The adventure mode features PvE (Player-versus-Environment) based gameplay that allows players to get familiar with the in-game universe, complete quests, and level up their rankings and rewards.

Arena Mode

This is a PvP (Player-versus-Player) mode where two opponents engage in a battle using their respective team of Axies. The one who wins the combat gets the higher rank and SLPs.

How Can You Earn Money From The Game?

When it comes to the Play-to-Earn aspect, the game offers a couple of opportunities to earn money. Here’s how:

  1. Combating and defeating your opponents to earn AXS & SLP tokens
  2. Completing daily quests to earn ASX & SLP tokens
  3. Selling your Axie NFTs in the Axie Marketplace

AXS and SLP tokens can be exchanged for real-life money (crypto or fiat). However, breeding Axies from scratch and selling them is one of the most profitable methods to earn money from the game.

How Can You Earn Money From The Game?

If you have the time and money to start, we highly recommend you play the game. If you can’t afford to buy three Axies to start the game, you can always go for the Scholarship option. You will find plenty of Scholarship guides online to learn how to play the game and start earning SLPs without buying a team. This is an economical way to determine if you like the gameplay and would like to give it more time or not. So, do your research and find out how you can start playing without breaking your bank. Or, who knows, maybe we’ll publish a guide soon.