The gaming sector is one of the world's most lucrative and dynamic industries. Every year, major gaming studios create new games, improve on old ones, and collaborate to stand a chance in this highly competitive market. However, the gaming market is quickly changing.
The introduction of blockchain technology into gaming birthed the GameFi subsector. An amalgamation of Game and Finance, GameFi describes a gaming ecosystem where people can earn and trade in-game cryptocurrency by playing games or scaling certain tasks, monetizing their time while having fun.
Today, many games run on blockchain technology and operate through the play-to-earn (P2E) model. One of the most highly-anticipated examples is Illuvium.
What is Illuvium?
Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Illuvium combines decentralized finance and an open-world role-playing adventure game. Players in the vast open-world can explore the universe to hunt and collect beasts called Illuvials. Each player goes through the game assembling these creatures and adding them to teams for battles against other players. Illuvium offers players an immersive experience leading to a discovery of the disaster that destroyed the game's open world.
Illuvium Classes
Illuvium has five different classes: Fighter, Guardian, Empath, Rogue, and Psion. Although detailed descriptions of each class are not yet available, players must take note of these class specifications while gaming. Generally, classes affect gameplay, as they inform the strengths and weaknesses of each player's Illuvial and the overall team. Players can also merge classes to create a hybrid for better skills and a higher chance of success.
How Does Illuvium Work?
Interested players must begin by providing an email address to register on Illuvium.io. Upon registration, players can run the game as a desktop app, play a free mode, or opt for a premium subscription.
Players must capture Illuvials in shards. Since Illuvials have varying strength levels, the shard used to catch an Illuvial must match the creature's strength, or the capture would be impossible. Shards also heal injured Illuvials over some time. Nonetheless, players can pay to speed up the healing process or use other collected items, such as an Illuvium NFT, to restore the Illuvial's health.
Illuvium Affinities
Apart from classes, there are five affinities in Illuvium: Air, Nature, Fire, Water, and Earth. Like classes, Illuvials have specific behavioral patterns, strengths, and weaknesses, based on their affinities. For instance, a Fire Illuvial would be no match for an Earth Illuvial. However, a Water Illuvial could do considerable damage to Fire. In a similar fashion to classes, players can combine affinities to create more powerful creatures, referred to as Ascended Illuvials. Examples include Frost from a combination of Water and Air, and Dust by mixing Earth and Air.
In addition to classes and affinities, Illuvials may display other attributes that help create stronger teams and increase each player's chance of success. For example, attributes may affect the Illuvilal's strength, speed, or health, and players can improve these attributes by purchasing or collecting in-game components. Furthermore, Illuvials generally become stronger with each fight they win.
Playing Illuvium
There are three modes on Illuvium, offering players a wide range of possibilities and gameplay control. The modes include:
- Story Mode
- Ascendant Arena
- Arena Leviathan
Players in the story mode can journey through the open-world searching for Illuvials to create newer and more robust teams. In this mode, players can use appropriate shards to capture Illuvials in preparation for battle arenas that become active during the story mode gameplay. Arenas allow players to battle out and earn rankings based on successes and losses.
The Ascendant Arena is open to players competing with others based on their combat skills. Generally, there is some restricted access to the Ascendant Arena.
The Arena Leviathan is open to a wide array of player activities. Here, players can flaunt their Illuvial collections and compete with other players. Competitors can lose or earn tokens based on the battles, bets, and performances during the arranged fights. The Arena Leviathan also allows players to remain as onlookers at the competitions, with the possibility to wager on the battles.
The Illuvium World
Illuvium sets itself apart from other similar offerings in the GameFi sector with its unique offerings and range of possibilities. Firstly, Illuvial strength is flexible, primarily affected by classes, affinities, and other attributes. In addition, players can "create" several new Illuvials with unique strengths from combining the affinities and classes. Furthermore, the offering runs on Illuvium (ILV) tokens, available outside of the game's ecosystem.
What is the Illuvium (ILV) Token?
The Illuvium coin is an ERC-20 token that powers the game and provides utility for players. Holders can receive in-game rewards as Illuvium tokens for conquering levels, performing tasks, and other performance accomplishments. Secondly, Illuvium crypto holders can stake their assets within the Illuvium Vault to receive more Illuvium token rewards. In addition, the ILV cryptocurrency is usable for game governance through the Illuvium DAO.
There's also the sILV token available in the ecosystem. The major difference is that while holders can vest ILV rewards for a year, sILV is immediately usable to play the game. However, players should note that both tokens have a combined maximum limit of 10 million.
How to Buy Illuvium (ILV)
The Illuvium token is available for purchase on several major exchange platforms, including Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, KuCoin, SushiSwap, and Komodo Wallet. With the exception of Coinbase, ILV tokens don't have fiat trading pairs, so it's necessary to purchase a cryptocurrency like BNB, BUSD, USDT, or BTC first.
How to Stake Illuvium (ILV)
Holders with ILV tokens in their Trezor, MetaMask, Coinbase, Torus, WalletConnect, or Portis wallets can stake Illuvium by connecting the wallet at staking.illuvium.io. Each person can then visit the Core Pools page and click "Stake" for the appropriate pool.
Holders can choose the Locked or Flexible modes and specify the number of tokens to stake. People who choose the Flexible mode can unstake their tokens at any time; however, this mode has a smaller Annual Percentage Yield (APY). On the other hand, holders can choose the Locked mode for a higher APY, with tokens locked for up to a year. Participants can receive staking rewards in ILV or sILV tokens.
The Illuvium Ecosystem in 2023
With unique gameplay and an in-depth storyline, Illuvium's gaming universe will give some of the other top P2E games a run for their money when it launches publicly. With staking already live and users already buying up ILV tokens, the possibilities within the game are almost endless. With more than 150 Illuvials across the open world, Illuvium could carve out a space for itself as one of the go-to P2E games.
ILV Available on Komodo Wallet
Komodo Wallet is a non-custodial wallet, crypto bridge, and peer-to-peer (P2P) decentralized exchange that provides native support for Illuvium (ILV).
Users can HODL and trade ILV on Komodo Wallet along with other popular cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, DOGE, MATIC, and much more.
