Play-to-earn isn’t just buying game items, nor buying characters low and selling high. In this situation we are still acting as an investor/trader who buys something, holds it and resells for more.
The Play-to-Earn model is when we can obtain objects, items, loot only by playing the game — interacting with the game ecosystem and then we are in power to sell this loot via the open market (outside the mother game). For me, Ethereum = Money. So, if I’m able to trade my loot easily for ETH it means I am clearly in the ‘play-to-earn’ mode structure.
Axie Infinity is a game where you can breed (create new) and battle with your own army of cute Internet Monsters called Axies. Last month (Dec. 2019), they introduced their new Community Alpha version of the game, that can be played on any device and system. It’s available for iOS, Android, PC & Mac. With the game app, they present us the Small Love Potions ($SLP) and this is when the simple play-to-earn model was born.
Small Love Potions (SLP) is a ERC-20 token that is fully tradable. I was the first person who created an exchange for SLP on Uniswap.
After the first few days, the Small Love Potion pool expanded and has been constantly growing from that time.
The first statistics about the SLP pool after 1 day from creation.
If you are interested in a deeper look at the Small Love Potion Uniswap pool, pools.fyi is a great place to start.
Small Love Potion contract address on Etherscan.
This article isn’t an Axie Infinity guide, I just want to show you how easy you can start testing the Play-to-earn model.
Here is the link to the Community Alpha Guide, made by Axie team, where you can smoothly find basic but necessary information about the game like Stats, Body Parts, Classes, Battle System Mechanics, Breeding, Earning opportunities, and also tips that will help you construct your first team. Read that before you start playing the game. This will save you some ETH and time.
Semi-good teams with one Tank (defensive) Axie, with at least 2 defensive moves on it, and two DPS (attackers, dmg dealers) ones the cost will range about 15–20 DAI (0.09–0.12 ETH). Floor price Axies starting from about 3 DAI (0.02 ETH), so you can be lucky and pay less than what I have shared above.
Steps to test the Play-to-Earn model in Axie Infinity
1. Log-in with your Metamask at https://axieinfinity.com/community-alpha and create a new account with your email address. This will allow combining your on-chain Metamask account with in-app progress (EXP on Axies, Small Love Potion in the inventory)
To be able to take part in Community Alpha, you need to have at least three Axies in your Metamask wallet.
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2. After collecting at least 3 Axies, just download the app and log-in with your email and password you just set.
3. Create your first team by clicking “Teams” and “New team”.
4. Tanks need to go first, to take as much damage as possible on themselves. Two DPS at the back. Set them out in a similar way to the picture below.
5. Now you are ready to grind some Small Love Potions. Click Adventure Mode (PVE).
6. Fight against Chimeras on Ruins. For each win, you will get 1–20 SLP.
7. Ok, so you grind your SLP hard and you have 1,000 of them. What now? How to turn them into money (Ethereum)? Firstly you need to sync your in-game Inventory with your on-chain wallet. To do this go to your profile page on Axie Infinity site and click “Sync Love Potion” button.
Secondly, go to the https://uniswap.exchange/swap, log-in your Metamask and type Small Love Potion contract address into the search bar like this: “0x37236CD05b34Cc79d3715AF2383E96dd7443dCF1”
8. Type how many SLP you wanna sell and click the pink Swap button, confirm the transaction in your wallet and happily wait for the ETH coming into your pocket.
9. Congratulations you just earned ETH (money) by playing one of the best games on the blockchain.
I personally have the best time/SLP ratio on Ruins 15 and 19 where after each win I get about 7–16 SLP every time.
Each Axie has its own level. By playing Ruins, you gain EXP. Every level makes your Axie stronger — higher damage for DPS and more defense for Tank. There is a chance that you will need to play the same levels over and over again before you will be able to win and go to higher levels of Ruins.
Once again, my personal stats in SLP grinding gave me 50–80 SLP per hour. Current ETH/SLP price is 0,0008 ETH (0,012 DAI) for 1 SLP on Uniswap. It gives 1,000 SLP values of 0.07 ETH (11.9 DAI) that you can grind in about 14 hours. For some, this rate under a dollar per hour can be enough for others it could be more like “this is not even enough to buy a snack”.
Remember that the goal here isn’t to earn a lot, but to create real money (ETH) by playing a fun and interesting game. There are more paths in Axie Infinity that can bring you even more money and better ROI. This article is, once again, intended to just spark the flame of interest and get you curious.
If you invested more than 0.07 ETH on your first team you need more than 1000 SLP until you break even. Still, in my personal opinion, it is worth trying. In countries like Venezuela, that kind of money can change your life. If you are lucky and live in a country without such inflation problems you can still show this game to your friends and family as a social experiment.
There are other games where you can farm some creatures and sometimes you can take some loot from them. In the Axie game, it’s more clear. You just need to play Ruins (PVE mode). Every win will give you some Small Love Potions. You can sync them and later sell them on Uniswap at any time. For me, it’s a simple play-to-earn model where the investment entry threshold is very low because it is under 20 DAI and you can easily make up for this ‘investment’ after about 22–24 hours of play. Everything beyond that will be pure profit.
Let’s make some money!
This is the second part of this series. You can read the first part here – What is DeFi and how can I save money with it?, the third part of this series – What is the rTrees Charity project and how to help the planet without spending any money? and you should stay tuned for the last part of this series that will come soon.
