What to look for when buying NFTs to earn TLM?
Alien Worlds is a play-to-earn blockchain game using NFTs, that allows players to participate in a virtual economy and compete for the in-game currency, Trilium (TLM). TLM is a token that could be easily exchanged on multiple decentralized and centralized exchanges. Different from other games, you can get involved in game govervance by staking TLM and voting on the planet-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
In 2021, DeFi dapps proved yield farming to be the perfect user acquisition technique. By no surprise, Alien Worlds, which applied a similar approach, was picked up quickly. As a result it’s now the number 1 game in the blockchain space with more than 200,000 daily unique active wallets.
Although the game logic can be quite self-explanatory, NFTs might be difficult to evaluate. There are 6 different types of NFTs, each of them has different rarity and shininess levels. Technical elements such as Charge Time, TLM Mining Power or NFT Luck could be important attributes defining NFTs value.
Table of contents
- TLM and community strength
- Mining is the key activity now
- Rarity and shininess
- Land NFTs most valuable
- Tools most popular NFTs
- Importance of minions and weapons
- Closing words
TLM and community strength
Before digging deeper into the in-game NFTs, it is important to understand the key driver of game activities. Mining and staking TLM are the two activities available within the platform at this moment. That makes the TLM price extremely important not only to the game’s success but also to NFTs value, for example a recent price dip decreased player activity. The price drop was the result of the token launch on Binance, which opened up the TLM token to a wider audience across different blockchains. It basically allowed players to dump their earned TLM tokens.
Source: Santiment
The game’s popularity also depends on the strength of the community. Growing numbers suggest that Alien Worlds has a bright future in terms of both game success and NFTs value. Social and community elements like planet DAOs will give players a stronger role in the dapps ecosystem, shaping alliances, perhaps creating rivalries, but overall building community.
Mining is the key activity now
Gamers can start playing Alien World without investing any money. Accounts are made on the Wax blockchain, allowing anybody to create an account using a social media account or email address. After logging into the game, each gamer receives a Standard Avatar (male or female human) and a Standard Shovel, which is enough to start mining TLM.
Avatars are NFT game cards that can be utilized to play the game. There are a few types of Avatars that differ by rarity. For instance, a legendary avatar can be found on the marketplace for an average of $124, while the standard male and female humans, that are given for free, cost $0.09 and $0.1 respectively on the secondary market. The key element for valuing these avatars now is rarity, as true utility is still missing in the game.
The platform itself is heavily concentrated on mining activities now. According to Alien Worlds statistics, lifetime total miner faces exponential growth. They have now more than 1,000,000 registered accounts.
Source: Alienworlds.io
There are two types of NFTs that have a role in the mining activities: tools and lands. Alien Worlds offers more NFTs as well, like for example weapons, artifacts and minions. However, these aren’t required yet for the current gameplay options.
Rarity and shininess
Similarly to others in-game NFTs, there are 6 different types of rarity that is applicable for all NFTs within Alien Worlds: Abundant, Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary and Mythical. Different rarity NFTs could be purchased within packs or on the secondary market. Rarer NFTs generally have greater mining and fighting powers. That’s why rarity is one of the key elements to check before deciding to buy NFTs.
Abundant items don’t have a cap, and therefore there’s an infinite supply. This makes them very cheap. However, starting from Common items, there’s a maximum supply. Of course this number decreases when the items become more rare.
Shininess is another important element that adds uniqueness and strengthens NFTs technical capabilities. These NFTs cannot be found within the packs. In order to increase shininess, four NFTs cards and some TLM should be used. You can shine all type NFTs except lands.
The process of shining turns them from stone to gold, then stardust, then antimatter (Stone → Gold → Stardust → Antimatter). A shined item is more valuable. For example, on average Stone Tools could be for $8, while Stardust items are $380. Shininess is a key element for both Tools and Weapons NFTs to determine the value.
Land NFTs most valuable
Overall, there are six different types of NFTs: Land, tools, weapons, minions, avatars, and artifacts. The latter, don’t exist yet and are scheduled for release in the future. Currently, as mentioned, land and tools are the most valued NFTs within the game. In 2021, they have generated more than $3.6 million and $4.6 million in sales respectively.
There are 20 different types of land on the six planets within Alien Worlds. Land is needed for mining. If you own land, you can either mine it yourself or charge people who mine on your land. Landowners can set their fee themselves, but the standard fee is 20%. There are also lands that only ask 1~5%, probably attracting more players at the same time. Land is limited, and the land pre-sale already took place. As Alien Worlds grew in popularity, land prices have increased significantly.
The land price differs by technical attributes such as charge time, TLM mining power and NFT luck. The rarity level also plays an important role. Each player decides on a strategy, whether they want to collect more TLM or have a better chance to find NFTs. Another important thing to decide, is how often the player wants to interact with the game. The charge time is important here, because it influences the waiting time between mining periods.
For instance, an Active Volcano land possesses the highest TLM Mining Power. Compared with a Sandy Coastline land, its charge time is more than 3 times higher. This means that regardless of high TLM Mining Power, players can mine double TLM on Sandy Coastline than on Active Volcano land in the same period of time. Where someone mines depends on their in-game activity, their tools, and of course the fee set by the landowner.
While looking into Sandy Coastline land, it has 3 strong elements: Charge time, TLM Mining Power and NFT Luck. As a result, Sandy Coastline is the second most valued land type.
The passive income for landowners makes land an interesting NFT investment. This general interest in land can be underlined by some of the top sales. All sales above $20,000 came from land NFTs, and a Geothermal Springs rare land parcel claims the top spot. This type of land is among the most valuable NFTs by average sales too.
To conclude, if you want to invest in land, take a look at all technical and rarity elements. Although it is the most expensive NFTs on the platform now, it has potential to grow even more. The reasoning behind that, is that land is very limited in supply and allows continuous passive income. On the other side of the spectrum, selecting a certain land should be part of the player strategy to decide on whether they mine in short or long sessions, or aim to dig for TLM or are searching for better chances finding NFTs.
Tools most popular NFTs
Tool NFTs are important within Alien Worlds, because these enable mining. In 2021, this category generated more than 429,000 sales. Together with lands these are among these most popular NFTs in Alien Worlds right now. Tools are a lot cheaper than lands, and there’s a lot more of it. In total there are more than 100 different tools, each with different technical characteristics, rarity and shininess.
Similarly as within the land NFTs, players can purchase tools that carry lower Charge time or higher TLM Mining power. At the same time the NFT Luck element could be a way more important element for other players. Again, which ones a player picks will influence their strategy. Comparing the Standard Shovel (which is received for free) and the Standard Drill, which is the most purchased tool, the latter has way better characteristics. Which means that the second Tool might deliver twice as much TLM than compared to Standard Shovel. And the luck to find NFTs increases from 0.5% to 0.7%.
Source: Alien Worlds Technical Blueprint – NFT Attributes
Looking into the price range, the average price of Standard Drill is more than 5 times higher than Standard Shovel. The average sales price is $0.24 and $0.04 respectively. Technical parameters increase within different levels of rarity and shininess. The better the performance of a tool, the more valuable it becomes.
Obviously there are a lot more tools available. The Standard Drill and Standard Capacitor are the very basic ones. Players can find common and rare items that offer more mining power or more NFT luck. Stronger items often increase the charge time as well, decreasing the necessity to mine very actively and increasing the amount of TLM mined per session. However, it all comes down to combining items and making it match your activity. Those who use low level items, can still generate a decent amount of TLM based on their tactics and activity.
Importance of minions and weapons
As the key activity within Aliens Worlds is mining right now, both minions and weapons are not the most valued NFTs. This is due to the fact that both NFTs are part of the Thunderdome battle mode. Alien Worlds has announced this mode, but has not provided a release date yet.
Minions are essentially the crew someone can use in battles. They have 5 main attributes beyond the standard Alien Worlds NFT attribute. There are twelve minions at the moment of writing and many more will be released in subsequent sets as Alien Worlds will extend the battling framework.
According to average sales, the most commonly met Abundant NFTs are worth around $0.14. And the most exclusive cost more than $387. Each of the rarity poses specific battlefield elements. The more rare a minion is, the more attributes it holds.
Weapons will serve in a PVP battle mode as well. Weapons have both an attack rating and a defensive rating. However, considering that these don’t have any utility right now, the most important element while valuing weapons would be their rarity.
We expect the value of Minions and Weapons to increase once the Thunderdome commences. As per Alien Worlds roadmap, the battle functionality will be launched soon.
Closing words
Aliens Worlds is still in the development stage. Without a doubt, this early stage has an effect on the value of the game’s NFTs. Gameplay is very oriented around mining, and therefore the affected NFTs have seen the most trading activity and volume.
Alien Worlds has huge plans moving forward. Firstly, there will be PVP battles, new mining activities, special events, missions, and new functionality for landowners that might attract new users. Each new development will influence the value of NFTs in the Alien Worlds ecosystem.
