1. Shrapnel is an upcoming FPS game on AVAX.

2. Good looking, experienced team, strong partners

3. Snapshot for their token airdrop is beginning of May’23

4. The only requirement is to get an NFT with a floor price of ~0.1 ETH

Intro

Shrapnel is an upcoming Extraction FPS game.

Developed by a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning team, this one is looking decent enough to get our attention.

There was already a live testing phase, from which you can see some gameplay videos.

I didn’t participate, from the videos it looks like there are some strange mechanics with aiming, but also that the game has a natural flow and no big red flags.

NFT collections

     Main (characters) - https://opensea.io/collection/shrapnel-operators-collection

     SCU (AVAX) - https://opensea.io/collection/scu-avax

     SCU (ETH) - https://opensea.io/collection/scu-eth

Whitepaper - https://www.shrapnel.com/Shrapnel-White-Paper.pdf

Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4HFnJX5f9U&ab_channel=playSHRAPNEL

Gameplay

Gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4HFnJX5f9U&ab_channel=playSHRAPNEL

As an extraction game, your job is to extract, surprisingly.

You are going for resources and getting them back home (similar to CtF modes)

You can equip gear to your character, which is represented by NFTs, but you drop this gear once you die.

This mechanic is well known from web2 games like Diablo, in web3 we don’t see it much yet, since the price tag is usually pretty high for the NFTs.

Once you get some loot, either resource or other player loot, you need to run to one of the extraction locations to claim it.

Interesting mechanics, depending on the respawn times (if any). You can camp, waiting for people to die, before going out to collect some dead-man loot for yourself.

This might hurt the gameplay if people start camping most of the game, being extra cautious of their loot.

Classes

There are three Operator classes:

1. Assault

2. Survivalist

3. Infosec

Each with own skill-based progression tree (talents) and skills.

Operators Utility:

• Early access to video game

• Exclusive in-game assets

• Access to the future token and NFT airdrops based on rarity level (pre-requisite for current token airdrop)

• Access to future whitelists

• Digital Comic Book as NFT

Player creation

You can create tournaments inside the game (similar to what Splinterlands have).

You can also create items using Shrapnel’s Unreal Engine-based toolkit.

This is similar to DOTA skin creation and you can market your items on the Shrapnel’s market.

You will mix multiple item types together in this crafting process.

On top of that, you can also create maps and different experiences for the players, which is getting us closer to the “metaverse” creator model, unlocking the potential of the player community.

Reputation system

This is exciting, as you engage with Shrapnel’s ecosystem, you earn a reputation based on:

1. Play

   1. in-game skills, score, and sportsmanship

2. Creation

   1. Marketplace rankings by other players, sales, and contribution activity.

3. Community

   1. Contributions to the community and in general not being a …

With reputation, you can earn various perks like in-game boosts, or unlocking more modeling (crafting) abilities.

Even more, a higher reputation will make your content more discoverable on the maps or on the marketplace, helping you show your creations to more eyeballs.

Economy

4 different layers of Shrapnel’s economy:

1. Players

   1. You can buy gear, drop it or loot it inside the game, and trade on the marketplace

2. Creators

   1. Creating items and offering them for sale on the marketplace, creating experiences and maps, profiting from your creations

3. Curators

   1. Content discovery for the community - not sure how this will work

4. Landowners

   1. If you buy land, you get a cut

Token

ERC-20 Avax-based token. 3 billion supply.

Utility:

1. DAO votes

2. Voting on player-created content

3. Payment to validators

4. Staking on Validator nodes

5. Paying fees to mint player-created content (maps, skins, vanities, prefabs)

6. Marketplace currency

7. Content discovery participation

Generation:

1. Looting from game

2. Staking from validators

Airdrop

Tweet with info here: https://twitter.com/playSHRAPNEL/status/1649131682346291204

Requirements:

1. Register at https://www.shrapnel.com/

2. Get one of the Operators NFTs https://opensea.io/collection/shrapnel-operators-collection

3. Link your wallet (with Operator NFT) to your Shrapnel account

And you’re set to get the airdrop once the snapshot is taken beginning of May (1st - 3rd of May).

My thoughts

The gameplay is nice and the game mechanics are interesting, plus to some extent new in the space.

I am excited to see how people will strategize in every game to bring in the right gear, making sure not to lose it while securing others.

The reputation on top of it is a great concept that might backfire quickly, but if handled properly it will bring additional value to players in form of better collab and team play.

What I’m worried about is that the economy is very complex, and additionally that people will only farm NFTs as they did in other games.

In this case, I can imagine running new accounts, trying to farm lower MMR tiers just to farm noobs and get their items.

But, I’m still excited to join, so I’m buying Operator NFT to participate in the airdrop, and I will consider buying land once possible.

My strategy:

1. Get common Operators - since I don’t see what’s the difference in airdrop between common and rare, but the price is ~4x higher, I stick with common

   1. If the price for rare drops below 0.3, I’ll get myself a rare

2. Once the land is out, do additional research and buy a land or two

3. Test the game asap since I enjoy FPS and want to have some fun.

4. LFM to form a small team of players to have fun and maybe some quick progress!

5. 
   

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FAQ: https://otherside.xyz/faq

What is the Otherside? https://www.metainvestor.gg/post/the-otherside

TL;DR

1. LOTM is a 2D standalone gaming experience powered by ApeCoin and Otherside.

2. Any Otherdeed holder (aka a Voyager) can participate in LOTM.

3. Each Voyager will be able to claim a Vessel NFT for each Otherdeed owned. (Airdrop 5th of April)

4. This vessel will grow into a little spirit called “Mara” (new NFT collection)

5. These are dynamic NFTs that can evolve into Kodamara

6. They will be required to play LOTM - early May we should defend the Otherside

7. Koda, Mara, and Kodamara collections will be key to unlocking the Otherdeed’s potential.

Vessels & Maras

Ok, Vessels?

1. Each Vessel will have one of three functions, assigned at random: Hunting, Farming, or Enchanting.

2. Every Vessel will have a specific incubation period before it will reveal a Mara.

3. The Maras that emerge will match their Vessel’s function (hunter, farmer, enchanter).

4. The claim period for Vessels will begin in early April.

So, Vessel >Mara >Kodamara >never Koda

Koda is above that, Koda can do all 3 functions (hunting, farming, or enchanting, but not simultaneously) and should be more powerful than simple Maras.

Functions:

1. Enchanter - grant buffs and bonuses, probably both to the production of farmers and fighting capabilities of hunters.

2. Farmer - harvest fragments from Otherdeeds. These are called Sediment fragments, which suggest a relation to the sediment tier of your land.

3. Hunters - fend off violent threats to Otherdeeds.

What is interesting is the hunting function. So far it doesn’t look like we should be engaging in PVP, so we are probably to expect some PVE - “starting in May, we prepare to defend Otherside”. And since Vessels can be corrupted, those might be dangerous. Or maybe not, we don’t know yet.

One thing to highlight, Kodas & Maras will start farming sediment fragments. That might even highlight the importance of the Sediment Tier discussed in the previous blog.

Farmers can harvest the sediment fragments and then you feed these fragments to your Mara. Kodamara traits are affected by the sediment fragments it ingested during the Mara phase.

Celestial Zodiac

The whole game, Legends of the Mara, should be driven by the Celestial Zodiac.

It has 4 seasons, that go:

1. Creation

2. Evolution

3. Afterlife

4. Abyss

Those seasons should help your Mara evolve. Also, it might suggest a time-limited period of the game where you ideally want to experience all parts.

Additionally, there are Seasonal Catalysts, that you feed your Mara to evolve.

When a Mara ingests a Seasonal Catalyst, it evolves into Kodamara and takes on some of the traits possessed by that Catalyst. These traits are based on the Season's constellations (Zodiac).

So, based on the season and Zodiac your Mara will get some unique traits, that will get updated inside the NFT - as all other Otherside’s dynamic NFTs.

This game part will go live in the summer, so we are yet to expect some information.

My strategy

First of all, I'm really excited to enjoy this journey and that's more than profit for me.

But also, buying more APE asap since LOTM should be already powered by ApeCoin.

Then, I want to get my hands on more land with decent sediment. But this depends on the price since it jumped by roughly 30% after the announcement.

The reason is, Maras will fight for you, farm for you, and buff you.

They evolve into Kodamara, which traits are defined by:

1. Sediment fragment he consumes

2. Celestial Zodiac and related Seasonal Catalyst

The latter we can’t influence now, but sediment fragments will be important to enhance your little spiritual workers.

Another angle —> there is crazy hype around the whole BAYC ecosystem, which you can always benefit from. That means Land will be priced higher before the airdrop (already 30% up), and Maras with the release.

You can just sell your Maras early or Land before the drop, then re-purchase back with a few weeks’ delay at a lower price and drive the hype wave.

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• Project page: http://zksync.io

• Add network: https://chainlist.org/?search=zksync+

• Bridge funds: http://bridge.zksync.io or https://portal.zksync.io/bridge

• Ecosystem (applications): http://ecosystem.zksync.io

• Docs: http://era.zksync.io

• Argent wallet (mobile friendly): https://argent.to/QDnAZu4Hy74DbCWw9

• Tweet with latest highlights: https://twitter.com/zksync/status/1592881058537648129?s=20&t=lU4YD5C9Ez0JtnI71Lc2lg

Intro

L2 (zero-knowledge, aka ZK) scaling solution developed by @matter Matter Labs (founded 2018) and Raised $458M at $2B valuation.

Development began in 2019, 1.0 (Lite) version was released in June 2020, and version 2.0 (zkSync Era, EVM compatible) in October 2022. That brings us to now, March 24 the mainnet Alpha is launched.

zkSync Lite (version 1.0) is still live, ranking just below Loopring (another ZK Rollup), but what we focus on is the zkSync Era (version 2.0), which is being released right now and where we want to secure the airdrop.

Token - Airdrop

Not just zkSync looks very promising in terms of the ETH scalability, but it is yet to release its token.

Thanks to $458M funding, evaluating the project on $2B, and promising that 2/3 of the token will go to the ecosystem, this one might be a juicy airdrop.

Getting started

You can either buy the tokens directly on zkSync, or you can bridge from the ETH chain.

Bridge your tokens

The easiest way to get you going is simply to bridge some of your ETH to zkSync.

You want to spend only what you can lose since this is still a new L2 and there is a huge risk associated with that.

But if you have the option, bridging > 0.1 ETH will put you right on top of ~75% of users, which will remain below 0.1 ETH.

You can use your MetaMask, here:

Add network: https://chainlist.org/?search=zksync+

Bridge: http://bridge.zksync.io or https://portal.zksync.io/bridge

Or you can create Argent wallet, which is a mobile & browser wallet supporting L2s, and there’s a very simple process to send your ETH directly from MetaMask (srsly, very nice UX!👏)

You can use my referral link, but not sure if any of us gets something.

Argent / ZigZag - Buy your tokens

https://trade.zigzag.exchange/?market=ETH-USDC&network=zksync

ZigZag let you trade on zkSync for 10 cents per trade, which is a very friendly price for a trade and you can generate a lot of activity by simply trading your ETH for USDC or whatever you like to do.

Argent allows you to trade popular tokens directly in the wallet (integration with ZigZag).

Careful, today both support only zkSync Lite (version 1.0), not Era (version 2.0 where we want airdrop). Not sure how the airdrop will be calculated, but I expect soon to see Era on both as well since they’re constantly announcing updates on Era.

So my suggestion is to bridge right now or wait for Era exchanges (see DefiLlama for exchanges you can trust).

SyncSwap - Swap your liquidity

On Era there are many options, which you can find at https://ecosystem.zksync.io/

I’m currently trying a few options, the best looks like https://syncswap.xyz/swap but not confident enough to recommend any, it’s still too early and risky.

I used it to swap 10+ transactions and get myself 1k+ volume. You pay only the gas fee and lose peanuts from your ETH.

You can get some ideas from DefiLlama and TVL. Below is a snapshot taken on the 1st of April.

Maximalize your airdrop

There are not many apps yet, but what is live is listed here: http://ecosystem.zksync.io

You can filter out “Live on Era” to see what is already switched to version 2.0.

To get the most out of the airdrop, you want to create some activity inside the ecosystem, at least 10 transactions, and a volume above $1,000.

You can do this by simply trading/swapping your tokens, or engaging in the early DeFi/NFT ecosystem.

Trade NFTs

https://mintsquare.io/zksync is a good place to start.

Not only you can buy the collections, but also you can mint here whatever you want.

Consider making a few transactions by either minting free collections or swapping the low-valued collections to make 10+ transactions.

Mint NFT collection

This one is a little advanced, but you can create your own collection directly on mintsquare and offer it to the public. If you create a decent volume with your collection, you have a high chance of a good airdrop for your project.

If you don’t have support and don’t expect people will trade some of your NFTs, then this might be a low-value activity.

Crew tasks

https://crew3.xyz/c/zksync offers some easy social tasks you can do to earn EXP for the project.

Since there should be a reward associated with Discord roles, and Crew tasks are giving you Discord roles, it won’t hurt to complete them. Plus it’s a good exercise to understand more about the zkSync. Who knows, maybe we can get some tokens for EXP once launched.

DeFi

Most of the big DeFi protocols are already live on Lite. Balancer, Aave, Lide, 1inch, Sushiswap, … You can get active on the protocols with both Metamask and Argent.

With Era it’s harder and the applications are rather limited right now.

But, as mentioned before, simple swapping for some transactions & volume gives you a good start. I do it in multiple days.

Also, if you want, you can multiply your chances with additional wallets.

So once you find a way that suits you, it’s worth a thought if you can do this with more than just 1 wallet.

My strategy:

1st I bridge ETH to both Metamask and Argent.

On Argent I do Lido staking for the daily rewards on Lite - this should flag me every day with activity. That's all I do on Lite.

Then I’m doing 10+ swaps/trades on https://syncswap.xyz/swap to get the transactions on Era. Also, it gives me a volume of $1k+, that’s usually the baseline for any airdrop you want to get.

I do this with 3 wallets, no need to overcomplicate things.

From the DeFi space, I’m providing some ETH/USDC liquidity as this pair is giving roughly 50% APY today, not bad, we’ll see how this turns once we get higher volumes. I use SyncSwap - https://syncswap.xyz/pool

Also, once there is a staking protocol live on Era, I’ll stake some pure ETH into it. Today there is none.

Re. NFTs, I bought NFT for 0,08 ETH in pre-sale, who knows, maybe that will be the next hidden gem. I don’t really plan to hold this NFT, but might do a few trades, depending on how the collection will perform.

I completed the Crew tasks (https://crew3.xyz/c/zksync/questboard).

I’m about to launch my collection and do some mints on top of that, just for the fun and experience with zkSync.

Good luck guys!

Matt.

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1. Links:

   1. News: https://news.yuga.com/

   2. Site: https://otherside.xyz/

   3. FAQ: https://otherside.xyz/faq

   4. Land collection: https://opensea.io/collection/otherdeed

2. Passive income: Probably, not confirmed

3. Potential Airdrop: YES - Land, Obelisk, Mara

4. Blockchain: ETH

5. Token: ApeCoin (APE)

6. NFTs

   1. Dynamic - you evolve your land as you progress

   2. 100.000 land distributed

   3. 100.000 to be distributed

   4. Kodas, artifact, Maras coming in Q2’23

7. Release status: 2 journeys done, new 2D game starts in April’23. Full release Q3’23

8. Highlights

   1. The project is done by Yuga Labs, a $4B brand

   2. New technology (M2) allows thousands of players in the same place

   3. There were 2 trips into the Metaverse, both interactive guided gameplay

   4. 2D game coming in April with airdrop to land owners

   5. Landowners can access those trips, plus invite a guest to join them

   6. Activision Blizzard’s President, Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs

   7. Spencer Tucker Yuga’s Chief Gaming Officer

Intro

Yuga Labs raised $450 million at a $4B valuation to fund creation of the metaverse and is developing the experience in partnership with GameFi giant Animoca Brands and metaverse creators Improbable.

Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca is actually on the board of ApeCoin - just how close collab there is between these two.

Animoca is creating the Sandbox, so we might expect some level of interoperability between these 2 words.

What’s different is, that team is piloting an M2 technology that allows thousands of players at the same location. We had a chance to experience this during both runs and it was very smooth - I never saw so many people in one place, especially playing together.

Potential airdrop

Land

Since only half of the land is distributed, we can expect at least part of the second half (100.000) to be airdropped. Various sources suggest part will be airdropped to early adopters of Otherside, which means Voyagers (land owners), that are interacting with the Otherside space.

Maybe only Voyagers that complete the full Obelisk will be eligible, see below.

Obelisk

Lands in Otherside are dynamic NFTs, whose metadata is being updated as you progress. One of the updates is Obelisk pieces Voyagers gather by entering the Metaverse.

This is being propagated to Opensea as well and you can check if the land you are owning/about to buy has the required pieces.

Currently, only 1st piece is attached to the land and all Voyagers entering either on the First or Second trip got this piece.

The reward is unknown, there will be some for sure and my best guess is those who complete the full Obelisk will receive another Land from the next batch.

Maras

See more at LOTM edition here.

Land

Collection: https://opensea.io/collection/otherdeed Map: https://otherside.xyz/explore Total lands: 200.000 Available: 100.000      55.000 sale; 45.000 airdropped to BAYC holders, employees, partners

There is only half of the land NFTs currently available. The 2nd half will be available later, with most likely airdropping some of the lands to current landowners and early testers of the Otherside.

Yuga Labs set the cost of each Otherdeed at a flat 305 APE ($6,100) and Otherdeeds were limited to 2 per wallet to maximize distribution.

While each Otherdeed cost around $6,100 at launch, the sale was so popular the Ethereum network became congested and gas jumped to over 1 ETH ($2,750 at the time).

There are various traits on the lands in Otherside. Each will influence the price of the land and with currently limited information, it’s not so easy to estimate the real value.

Sediment (5)

1st trait you should consider is the sediment quality.

This looks like the only thing you can’t influence in the game - since other factors you should be able to upgrade in the metaverse by spending ApeCoins.

Sediment types:

1. Infinite Expanse (Tier 1 - lowest)

2. Cosmic Dream

3. Rainbow Atmos

4. Chemical Goo

5. Biogenic Swamp (Tier 5 - highest)

Biogenic Swamp was dropped to BAYC holders and Chemical Goo to MAYC holders. These 2 lands are the closest to the middle of the map, so it’s not just the sediment type, but also the location of the land.

In Otherside location might not be as important as in other metaverses since people won’t be always dropped to the middle, but rather experience the map as a whole. However, location is still a crucial component of your land as you want to have it as close to the action as possible. Just knowing where the action will be is more difficult - some people prefer to buy the land on an island with higher tiers expecting there will be something faster. Others, like me, prefer closer to the center with more land around.

Tier (5)

Tier is showing the level of the particular land. It is basically the level of your land and the visual NFT is adjusting as well.

Information is again limited, but it looks like a higher tier will give you more options in general and increase the limits of what you can do with your land.

Category (8)

There is a rarity component to this perk, but so far there is no difference and it looks like the least important factor.

1. Decay (the least rare)

2. Harsh

3. Spirit

4. Volcanic

5. Mineral

6. Growth

7. Psychedelic

8. Chaos (the rarest category)

Environment (28) is similar to Category, just with 28 different options.

Both perks are still a question mark and I’ll update this post once resolved.

Resources (4)

Each land in Otherside has up to four replenishing resources. Players will be able to harvest these resources and use them in the game.

Resources are important for crafting anything inside the Otherside.

They should be sold in a custom marketplace developed by Yuga Labs.

Some are rarer than others. They include anima (research), ore (metal), shard (stone), and root (wood).

Resources have their tiers as well, 1-3 with 3 being the highest (3 stars).

Right now we are not sure what the tier means, probably faster recovery of the resource, better quality, or higher amount.

Artifacts & Kodas

“Meet the Kodas, the primal beings that have ushered us into the Otherside. We don’t know why they’ve brought us here, or what their affinity to this land is. If you are lucky enough to meet a Koda, tread cautiously.”

Well, that covers it just fine.

Kodas will for sure play a crucial role in the whole Otherside. What exactly will they do, is hard to guess, but soon as part of the LOTM (Legends of the Mara) we will know much more.

The important for this section is, you can actually find Kodas on your land. They are one of the rarest perks and land with Koda starts around 12 ETH.

Artifacts are items you can also find on your land. You will be able to detach both Koda and Artifact from your land, sell it, trade it, or do whatever you want to do with it.

You can see the Opensea numbers and % for artifacts, some are very rare and the price goes above 10 ETH, and some feel a little rubbish, but we still don’t know exactly what utility they’ll bring and how much of a real value they might have.

Intellectual Property rights

The surprising thing is the IP rights related to the assets. Yuga is known for providing IP rights to their NFT holders, but as per Otherside NFT Purchase Agreement, the collector owns all personal rights to that NFT, but collectors do not receive the rights to the image or IP at all.

The licensing agreement prevents any NFT owner from making profits from other creators’ NFTs. As of now, the Otherdeeds serve only personal and non-commercial utility. Meaning? You can sell your NFTs as you want, and you will get airdrops, but renting them might be tricky.

ApeCoin (APE)

The Otherside ecosystem uses ApeCoin, an ERC-20 governance and utility token controlled by and built on by the ApeCoin DAO community. ApeCoin DAO membership is open to all ApeCoin holders, and the token is available on major exchanges. You can learn more at apecoin.com.

See you on the Otherside!

Matt.

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