# Gods Unchained: Gaming NFTs, $GODS and $IMX explained By [Time](https://paragraph.com/@time-2) · 2022-04-22 --- Not that long ago I was among the majority of mainstream NFT skeptics. I had barely skimmed the surface and understood on a very basic level blockchain, but wrote off NFTs as a speculative craze similar to the [Dutch Tulip Bulb Mania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania) of the 1600s. I made the decision very early on that it was a whole lot of nothing, the same decision that I think many people have made in regards to the space and likely a big part of the reason NFTs have struggled to gain mainstream adoption. So I paid little attention to the apes on the surface masking a $2 Trillion and growing industry. That was until I saw a reference to the video game [Gods Unchained](https://www.godsunchained.com/) on a website one day and decided to check it out. I’ve played trading card games on and off for most of my life, so the premise for this game resonated with me. I really disliked other online card games where I would purchase packs and receive digital cards, but had no way of selling or trading those cards short of selling the entire account, which for most games is strongly frowned on. What Gods Unchained offered was the ability to mint digital cards as NFTs on the blockchain, so your cards belonged to you and can be bought/sold on an open marketplace. [![]({{DOMAIN}}/editor/youtube/play.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2PtC76k4b0) I downloaded and tried the game and it was actually fun to play! It reminded me much of Hearthstone or Magic the Gathering in tempo and playstyle, and more importantly started me down this Web 3.0 rabbit hole of learning that I’m very grateful for. I’ve since learned that there are thousands of Web 3.0 projects reinventing everything from games to music to video streaming to social media to blogging (looking at you, [mirror.xyz](https://mirror.xyz/)!) in a way that decentralizes ownership and monetization. Every project is different in how it works, what it seeks to accomplish, how it’s governed, and the value the open market has placed on it. For the past two months I’ve done a deep dive on Gods Unchained and its L2 partner, Immutable X, so the focus of this article will be on those two platforms. Gods Unchained Play 2 Earn and $GODS Token ------------------------------------------ The game can be played 100% free and potentially paying you to play. As of the time of this writing the earnings are not gigantic - maybe $10-$20 a week for the average player - but I can appreciate a game that rewards me for my time invested. Every game played earns you account experience, and each level gained earns you core packs, which contain “plain” quality cards. Find two of the same plain card and you can “fuse” these together with an in-game currency called “flux” which you earn for every win, and a small amount of the $GODS crypto token. This will mint a new NFT to the blockchain that is yours to keep, sell, or trade on the open market using websites like [TokenTrove](https://tokentrove.com/). The game will also reward you $GODS to save you from having to purchase on a crypto exchange, and the amount of $GODS you earn is based on your placement in the weekend ranked event. Weekend ranked also rewards a selection of packs, some of which contain tradable NFTs and even a chance at shiny cards! Daily rewards is currently under development and visible in client. ![Daily ranked in client](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/75494a3bb47f5d179ade65f38a32a5c286b24dff624639d7feaf569f8d7d2014.png) Daily ranked in client It is challenging to get started down the P2E path, as you will no doubt eventually hit a wall against players who have simply been playing longer. If you have .01 ETH to spend you can greatly boost your progress by purchasing cards on the marketplace. I myself did P2E until I stopped climbing ranked and then caved and bought some cards. I do like a challenge though and will be starting a second account just to try a P2E challenge to see how far I can go and what kind of weekly earnings I can receive without any up front investment or outside assistance. I’ll be sure to write about that here on this blog. ### The 1 of 1 Mythic card Gods Unchained just released a new set “Mortal Judgement” this week, and each set has printed a 1 of 1 Mythic rarity card. It usually has some major game altering mechanic but can be played in ranked or sold on the marketplace for an obscene amount. There have only been a handful of sets printed and I’ve read an owner was once offered $400,000 for his mythic, while another mythic sits dormant in a dead wallet! We are two days into the release of the Mortal Judgement set and as of this writing the current mythic has yet to be found. ![Omox, The Mad](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/14292dbe7270273f3230a774d5fb4301ca3057e5933c45452c708f3bc6dbacab.png) Omox, The Mad ### $GODS Token Utility The $GODS token has a number of uses. As mentioned above, $GODS is a requirement if you wish to “fuse” cards to mint NFTs. The token can also be used to purchase card packs from the in-game store, or it can be used on the marketplace to purchase individual cards from other players. It is a crypto coin that can be bought and sold on a number of crypto exchanges, so there is monetary value to the coin itself. There are rumored to be future plans to add “staking” or investing the token to earn a return of profits from the company, as well as potentially voting on game proposals using your $GODS balance. ### Shine Future State A base NFT is considered “meteorite” quality, but you can find cards of higher shines including shadow, gold, and diamond quality from opening packs or on the marketplace. Higher shines currently have no utility outside of an increased rarity, but in the future having higher shine cards in the decks you play will increase your daily rewards earned. The development team also plans to improve the fusing process to allow fusing of higher shines. This means if you collect (or create) five meteorite copies of a card, you can fuse those together to make a shadow, five shadows to make a gold, and five golds to make a diamond. This introduces a really interesting economic situation for limited supply sets, as the process of fusing is putting downward pressure on supply, which should increase prices. I’ve focused much of my investment into the game here. Immutable X and $IMX Token -------------------------- Gods Unchained utilizes the [Immutable X](https://www.immutable.com/) Layer 2 solution to allow for gas-free transactions. Since there are so many cards moving around, it would be impossible for this to work on a Layer 1 due to the associated gas fees. IMX has been interesting to learn about. They seem to be heavily focused on the intersection of gaming and NFTs, with a [$100 million Gamestop partnership](https://gamestopnft.typeform.com/immutable) focused on seeding early NFT game startups. They’re also investing in their own ecosystem through $IMX community grants to develop improved tools and marketplaces. ![The GameStop NFT Marketplace](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/010a5f4b3aeb31f13a695c86f282395e2ee34806ceccc08d2df0cc99aac9692e.png) The GameStop NFT Marketplace ### $IMX Token Utility Currently the $IMX token can be used to purchase Gods Unchained packs, and there may be other game uses that I’m unaware of as there are a handful of games partnered with IMX that I haven’t tried. Community grant proposals can be voted on using $IMX tokens and quadratic voting, and staking is planned for this quarter. I’ve picked up some tokens on the market to stash away and am taking us the current crypto winter to add to my holdings. ### Integrations and Partnerships This area has been very difficult to explore as it starts to get quite technical. There are a number of Layer 2 solutions and NFT marketplaces being developed with varying technologies and backers. You will often see news of the various platforms integrating with one another but it’s not always clear how the parts work together, like the modules of the International Space Station. The best I can give you is that it’s the wild west right now and we’re very early in the evolution of this technology. Immutable for its part seems focused on helping bring games to market and that seems like a winning situation for everyone. My experience in the industry tells me that game development is something that just takes _time_. So for now I’m accumulating tokens and enjoying learning the Gods Unchained weekly meta. How Blockchain Changes Things ----------------------------- I had my beginnings in Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering, two very well known card games that I’ve spent many hours in. While Gods Unchained is similar in playstyle, being on the blockchain makes for some really useful new tech. As stated earlier the most important selling point for me is that I own and can sell my digital cards. I also mentioned shine fusing above, a mechanic which can completely shift the supply of cards in circulation. Here are some other really cool things I’ve found I can do with this game using blockchain technology. ### Copy and Paste Decks Because the game runs on the blockchain literally every game is recorded and transparent, including every deck played. You can track using sites like [Gudecks](https://gudecks.com/) and there is even a “copy deck code” button that you can paste into the game client and it will tell you if you’re missing any of the cards. So if you run into a deck you find interesting or challenging, you’re just a few clicks away from trying it out yourself, assuming you have all the cards! ### Tracking the Meta As a result of the above, the meta in this game moves really fast. Between when weekend ranked begins on Friday and ends on Sunday the makeup of the best performing decks will shift, and you’ll begin to see a lot more experimentation and counter-meta decks as the weekend rolls on. Blockchain enables sites like Gudecks to provide stats and charts for understanding the very latest meta. ### Organization & Value Compared to an offline card collection, which can be disorganized and sprawling between binders and boxes, storing cards digitally is so much easier. Furthermore in just a few clicks on TokenTrove I can see the entire value of my account based off the latest sales prices, and quickly filter my entire collection by set, rarity, cost, name, card mechanic, or any number of other filters. The Drawbacks ------------- Since discovering this two months ago I’ve grown to be a big fan of the game and its potential, to the point where I’ve started buying tokens in the underlying companies, but to be fair I felt I should list out some of the drawbacks that have been highlighted by the community of Gods Unchained. For all the good the blockchain brings, it can also be used against you as some opponents will try to get an edge by peaking at your recently played decks. Rotating cards in and out between games can help somewhat, but you can expect if your opponents are trying really hard, they have a rough idea of what you’re running. Likewise if you come up with an amazing, game-breaking deck idea with an 80% win rate, you can be assured within a few days many will have already copied your deck, and you’ll even start to run into mirror matches. It’s hard to keep a good deck secret for long, and the meta moves fast! Given that the game is still technically in “beta” there are still bugs being worked out. I would say overall the game is much more polished than in weeks past but the bugs need to be brought as close to zero as possible before full release. ![A newly introduced bug where a 0/0 remains on the board.](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/74ff82d51990eb5307122aba7252e0973bdba9bbfa94084b6a93defffa92066e.png) A newly introduced bug where a 0/0 remains on the board. There have been complaints on going first vs. second, which is a problem every card game has to deal with. Gods Unchained seeks to balance this by giving the person going second an extra mulligan and two extra crystal unlocks. The current meta definitely favors going first as board control is vital, but I feel like I’ve done fine going second by adjusting my mulligan and mana curve strategy. I would be interested to see my own stats going 1st vs 2nd but for me it hasn’t felt like an issue. Card animations that impact the board will animate one at a time, which on very large boards can eat up a few seconds of play. I’ve been “roped” a few times waiting for an animation to complete. Gods Unchained is Here to Stay ------------------------------ Overall I’m having fun with the game and really believe it has long term staying power. If you haven’t tried it yet and enjoy card games, head over to [GodsUnchained.com](https://godsunchained.com) and give it a download. The onboarding process is simple and you’ll be up and running in just a few minutes time. --- *Originally published on [Time](https://paragraph.com/@time-2/gods-unchained-gaming-nfts-gods-and-imx-explained)*