You’ve read the news: tens of thousands of players are earning big while simply playing Axie Infinity, a Pokemon-inspired blockchain game where you raise cute digital pets called Axies and have them battle it out with other players. Some players have even been reported to have Axie Infinity as their main source of income, and the game truly is raking in dollars and pesos for them.
Most readers unfamiliar with Axie Infinity and blockchain gaming may be wondering how such a high-earning potential in a game is even possible. What’s amazing about Axie Infinity is that there are multiple ways to earn money from the game, and that those ways are simultaneously profitable and fun.
Note: This article only serves as an informational guide to those who want to know more about Axie Infinity. Cryptocurrency is highly volatile and the money you will invest may go up/down depending on the market. Don’t spend money you can’t afford to lose.
What is a blockchain game?
Blockchain games like Axie Infinity make use of blockchain technology to decentralize the ownership of the game, so that all the players can own a small part of the game. This means that the items that you acquire within the game are no longer just pixels on the screen but now have a tangible value attached to them.
These games operate their very own blockchain economy among its players. These games issue their own tokens, while some use existing networks like Ethereum. Within the game’s marketplace, you can then buy and sell items or trade them, just like in a real-world market. The money that you earn from playing the game and dealing on the market can be converted to real-world money.
With Axie Infinity, there are several ways currently available to make a fortune from the game. Some of the most common ways are:
1. Harvesting Smooth Love Potions (SLP)
2. Breeding and selling Axies
3. Creating an Axie Scholarship program
4. Investing in Lunacia land plots
5. Staking your Axie Infinity Shards (AXSs)
Play-to-earn by farming SLP
The starting point for most beginner players to earn is by actually playing the game itself. While going through the gameplay by fighting battles and completing quests, you get rewarded with the in-game token called Smooth Love Potion (SLP).
These SLPs are a valuable resource and in high demand, because they are required when breeding Axies. When you gain SLPs, you can then sell or trade them on the Axie Marketplace. As of this writing, SLPs are currently trading at $0.074 (Php3.8) each.
There are different ways to earn Smooth Love Potions in the gameplay:
1. Win battles over computer-controlled monsters in Adventure Mode.
2. Win battles over other players in Arena Mode.
3. Complete the Daily Quest.
How much SLPs can I earn every day?
Adventure Mode rewards different amounts of SLP depending on the level you’re playing, with higher levels rewarding higher SLPs. The maximum amount you can accumulate in Adventure Mode is currently capped at 50 SLP per day.
Arena Mode also rewards different amounts of SLP depending on what arena bracket you belong to. If you’re a beginner to an intermediate player, you can earn anywhere from 1 up to 21 SLP per battle that you win. As a beginner with 20 Energy, this means you can earn up to 300 SLPs (or more for advanced players) per day.
Finally, completing the daily quest earns you an additional 25 SLP per day.
In total, a newbie player can start earning from 75 up to 300+ SLPs per day depending on the Axie team, energy, and player skill. On average, players usually earn around 150 to 200 SLP every day, and this number only goes higher as players advance and become more skilled throughout the game. When converted to peso, that’s around Php300 up to Php1,200+ per day.
More exciting features to be introduced are also on the horizon, which adds new opportunities to earn SLP within the game.
Breed and sell Axies
Aside from the in-game tokens like SLP, the Axies that you control carry value themselves as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They also have the power to breed, which brings forth a new Axie. When an offspring arises from two Axies breeding, this new Axie possesses a different set of stats, body parts, abilities, and genes, making it entirely unique from every other Axie.
Once you have successfully bred a new Axie, you can decide whether you want to keep it for your own use, or sell it on the marketplace. The price an Axie will sell for depends on the Axie’s quality, like whether it has well-balanced stats or a great synergy of abilities. The better the Axie’s stats, the higher its selling price. As of this writing, “floor” Axies, those with a poor set of stats and are the cheapest in the marketplace, are already sold at 0.05 to 0.06 ETH (around Php8,000 to Php10,000+).
Some users have mastered the breeding process and are bringing forth strong and beautiful Axie NFTs and selling them for a hefty price tag. The highest-selling Axie so far is a triple Mystic named Angel, which was sold for 300 ETH, which at the time of sale was around a whopping $120,000 (~Php6 million).
But even when you’re not getting heavyweight, $100,000-worth Axies just yet, breeding is a lucrative process that most users put a lot of effort into to create powerful Axies ready for the market. The demand for Axies only seems to rise as more and more people want to get in on Axie Infinity and are in need of furnishing their own Axie starter teams.
Create an Axie Scholarship program
If you’re not planning to put your extra Axies up for sale, one reason you may want to hold onto them is in order to establish your very own Axie Scholarship program. An Axie Scholarship is where you lend out some of your Axies to other players so they can also start playing for free, while you receive an agreed-upon cut of their earnings.
In Axie Infinity, you are only allowed to control one team of three Axies at a time, and creating multiple accounts is prohibited and grounds for banning. That’s why many people with a surplus of Axies on hand work their way around this limitation by creating Scholarship programs in order to put more of their Axies to good use.
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- Axie Infinity Guide: How much money do I need to start?
Everyone wins in an Axie Scholarship program: new players get an opportunity to immediately start playing the game without having to pay the upfront costs; and you, as Scholarship program Manager, create an easy way to earn passive income.
Scholarship programs are currently not an in-game feature of Axie Infinity and are instead transacted out of the game. As a Manager, you will have to decide on the terms and conditions of your Scholarship program, such as any quota you want your Scholars to reach, and how you will split your earnings (e.g. 50-50, 60-40, 70-30).
Invest in Lunacia land plots
With developers looking towards building up the in-game world of Lunacia, an up-and-coming feature in Axie Infinity is the ability to invest in the different land plot NFTs that populate the world. These land plots will act as homes or operational bases for the players’ Axies, which they can customize to their will.
Land-owners can customize their land plots to produce profitable resources for them, battle monsters in, host shops and other buildings, and become access points for different dungeons. Like real land, Lunacia land plots can also be rented out to other players or sold when it appreciates in value. Alliances with other players can also be made to combine your land plots, pool rare resources, and create guilds.
This new feature is still in its very early stages, with developers having a lot of exciting plans for the future. With the planned release of the Lunacia SDK in upcoming phases, independent developers and players can create games of their own and host these games on their land plots.
Stake your AXS tokens
The Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) is another one of Axie Infinity’s in-game tokens. Aside from being used as currency and as a governance token, the AXS can soon also be used by players for staking in order to claim rewards.
Simply put, staking means locking up your AXS tokens to support the operations of Axie Infinity’s blockchain network and receiving freshly issued AXS in return. With the recent boom in revenues by Axie Infinity in the past months and the value of AXS experiencing meteoric rises, staking your AXS tokens gets you a share of the success. AXS staking gives you another channel for passive income.
This list is by no means an exhaustive one, and there are so many more ways possible for players to earn a profit while playing Axie Infinity, whether actively or passively. With so many exciting developments set in the future, there will definitely be more ways for you to earn some money while having fun with your Axies.