Introduction

Axie Infinity is a game universe filled with fascinating creatures, Axies, that players can collect as pets. Players aim to battle, breed, collect, raise, and build kingdoms for their Axies. The universe has a player-owned economy where players can truly own, buy, sell, and trade resources they earn in the game through skilled-gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem.

There are and will be many varied games experiences for Axies. Many of them will have players compete with each other using complex strategies and tactics to attain top rankings or be rewarded with coveted resources. Others will have them complete quests, defeat bosses, and unlock in-depth storylines.

There are countless unique Axies that players can collect with varying body parts and appearances. Body parts will unlock abilities for Axies that vary across games, they will have completely different values, benefits, and skills from one game to another. Body parts also have their own unique card art for players to collect.

Community & Economy

All art assets and Axie genetic data can be easily accessed by 3rd parties, allowing community developers to build their own tools and experiences in the Axie Infinity universe. While still in early access, Axie is ranked the #1 Ethereum game by daily, weekly, and monthly active users. Players have spent over 1M ETH (3B+ USD) so far to progress in the game.

While Axie is a fun game, it's also taken on characteristics of a social network and earning platform due to the strong community and opportunity to truly own resources earned within the games.

A key difference between Axie and a traditional game is that Blockchain economic design unlocks the ability to have complex player-owned economies and reward players who are able to reach advanced levels of skill. Players are able to have fun and work towards ambitious goals while simultaneously earning potential resources that will have real monetary value due to an open economic system and demand from other players - “Play-and-Earn”.

Currently, players can gain more resources to advance in the game by taking actions such as:

• Competing in Battles to win leaderboard prizes as well as Smooth Love Potions (SLP)

• Breeding Axies to produce new ones with particular Body Part combinations

• Collecting and speculating on rare Axies such as Mystics and Origins

Mission

Axie Infinity is here to create an ecosystem of amazing Axie gaming experiences with community and player-owned economies as foundational pillars. By doing this they will deliver property rights to all users of the internet, starting with gamers.

Axie is a digital nation where people globally come together play, work, and make lifelong connections.

When the creators started this journey 4 years they weren't sure where they would end up but they believed that if they asked the right questions they could build something with you that had never been seen before. The Develop,ent team asked:

• What if they built a game that could onboard the world to Web3?

• What if they could make crypto nostalgic, educational, and immersive

• What if a game could be built by developers and players working together through aligned incentives?

Gameplay

Axie Infinity is structured as an open-ended digital pet universe. Axie NFT assets can be seen as tickets that grant access to all current and future experiences build on top of the Axie IP. In this way, Axies serve as base layer for a world of infinite experiences.

The Axie core team will build functionality for the game assets associated with the Axie brand in concurrence with the community. The Axie universe must be fun above all else; only by having an immersive gaming experience can the ecosystem attract enough participants to accrue value to the network.

Battling

In October 2018, the Axie core team released the first battle system built on top of the Axie game assets. The battle system was structured as an "idle battle" system with inspiration from games like "Final Fantasy Tactics" and "Idle Heroes".

Classic, released in December 2019, grew the Axie community from a ragtag band of a few hundred missionaries to millions. The game is structured as a turn-based card battler where players create teams of Axies to duke it out in the arena. Axies draw cards based on the body parts they posses and you must play these cards at the optimal time and order to maximize your chance of victory. Classic was the first game ever to distribute in-game resources as ERC20 tokens.

On April 6th, 2022, Axie Infinity: Origin was released. Axie Infinity: Origin is an evolution of Axie's tactical card battler format. It introduces a real-time combat system, 3 free starter Axies, and vertical progression through Rune & Charm crafting. Origin was released in Early Access on April 6th, 2022.

Origin features:

• Free starter Axies. Let your friends and family fall in love with Axie before needing to touch crypto and NFTs!

• Upgraded Axie art makes each Axie more visually distinct and special.

• Sequential turns for a faster, more dynamic experience.

• Energy / cards are reset each turn to encourage aggressive play-styles.

• Card changes. We’ve kept most cards in line with their original spirit.

• Eye & Ear Cards. This is the first time that eyes & ears have ever had cards!

• Runes / Charms as power-ups. Our first glimpse of Axie progression and upgrading is here!

• Critical Hits have been replaced by a Rage mechanic.

Much like Pokemon has gone through numerous iterations and types of battle systems, the development team also expects Axie to have many variations of battles over the years to come.

Tournaments and Esports

Due to its skill-based, competitive nature, the Axie battle system is a good fit for competitive play and Esports. We believe this is a critical aspect for future growth and we have seen how engaged the players become when there is money on the line.

Axie players have already earned thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrency through numerous tournaments hosted by the core team or 3rd party sponsors.

Breeding and $SLP

Like real-world pets, Axies can be bred to create new offspring. To avoid hyperinflation of Axies there is a maximum amount of times an Axie can be bred before it is sterile.

Breeding an Axie costs AXS and some Smooth Love Potions depending on how many times the Axies have been bred. The AXS portion is variable and subject to adjustment based on a myriad of economic factors.

Axies cannot be bred with their children and Axies cannot breed with their siblings.

Axie Infinity does not sell $SLP to players directly. Smooth Love potions can be earned by playing the game in the PvP Arena. Once you earn them, you can sync them to your wallet.

Genetics

Each Axie has 6 body parts as well as a body shape. For each part, an Axie possesses 3 genes. A dominant (D), recessive (R1), and minor recessive gene (R2).

The dominant gene is what determines the body part that is physically present on the Axie. When breeding, each gene has a chance to be passed down to offspring:

• Dominant (D): 37.5% chance to pass this gene to offspring.

• Recessive (R1): 9.375% chance to pass this gene to offspring.

• Minor Recessive (R2): 3.125% chance to pass this gene to offspring.

While the Axie Infinity will not show recessive genes on they website yet, you can view them using this extension built by one of their community members, named Freak.

Axie Economy & Long-term Sustainability

Axie Principles

Axie is a new type of game that rewards players for the time and effort they spend both playing the game and growing the ecosystem.

Axie has a 100% player-owned, real money economy. Rather than selling game items or copies, the developers of the game focus on growing the player to player economy. Marketplace fees go into a Community Treasury whose usage will be guided by AXS holders. The developers monetize through their ownership of AXS tokens. Axies are created by players using in-game resources (SLP & AXS) and sold to new/other players. You can think of Axie as a nation with a real economy. The holders of the AXS token are the government that receives tax revenues. The inventors/builders of the game, Sky Mavis, hold ~20% of all AXS tokens.

Game resources and items are tokenized, meaning they can be sold to anyone, anywhere on open peer-to-peer markets.

Axie population growth is a major factor within the Axie ecosystem. At any given moment, there exists some ideal inflation rate that allows us to grow to our maximum potential. Too slow and Axie prices are too high for everyday people to join; especially competitive Axies. Too fast and you get unhealthy inflation. AXS / SLP tokens face similar economic forces that need to be managed.

Economic Sustainability

Long-term the economy will be sustained by adding:

• Additional valuable utility to Axies. New and improved experiences such as Land, Mini-games, and Battle updates will be introduced over time. New experiences outside of Battle will also add utility to Axies beyond their effectiveness in fleeting metas. Players will constantly have new goals to reach within the Axie universe. Ultimately, the demand for Axies will come from the intrinsic value they can provide to players in the form of competitive, social, and progression based fun and achievements.

• Vertical, rather than purely horizontal progression. Currently in order to progress the main path to progress in Battle is by expanding the size of one’s collection. This dynamic is not optimal long term. In the long run there will be upgrades to Axies, Land, and other assets that will require crafting ingredients. Axies themselves may be “released” to obtain these crafting ingredients or unlock upgrades. This creates a long term supply sink to the Axie population. Axie progression is coming in the future; and it promises to create a much stronger bond between trainers and the Axies they choose to upgrade.

• Accessibility improvements that help unlock sustainable value. There are various points of friction currently for players to be able to dive into Axie Infinity to compete, have fun, and socialize with the community. Improving onboarding and allowing players to enjoy the game with free Starter Axies for example would enable more players to fall in love with the Axie universe and want to engage in the economy long-term. The more sustained demand for Axies and associated assets, the more healthy the long-term economy will be.

In the beginning to maximize growth, by design the Axie economy will be dependent on new entrants. New players require Axies to get started and it is important to ensure there are enough Axies being bred to make obtaining them accessible. There needs to be careful consideration for exactly when additional Axie sinks are introduced as it could limit growth by causing prices to go too high. Over time, the outlined additions above will be rolled out to transition the economy towards growth and sustainability via demand from existing players, and reduce dependence on new entrants coming into the ecosystem.

Land

Lunacia, the Axie homeland, is divided into tokenized plots of land which act as homes and bases of operation for their Axies. Plots can be upgraded over time using a variety of resources and crafting ingredients that can be found when playing the game.

In addition, land-owners might find AXS tokens on their land plots, or use the Axies that occupy the land plot to explore resource nodes on the map. When interacting with resources nodes Axies can find AXS and potentially other resources.

Resource Gathering and Crafting

• Resources will spawn in nodes across Lunacia and be used to upgrade both land and Axies.

• Landholders will have first rights to any resources that spawn on their land.

Real-Time PvE Battles

Monsters called Chimera are terrorizing Lunacia. Players will be able to take on Chimera in real-time battles either alone or in groups. Chimera will drop an assortment of resources, items, and blueprints used to upgrade land and individual Axies.

The World

Lunacia consists of 90,601 plots of Land. These Land plots are represented as Non-Fungible Tokens and can be freely traded by players.

Land gameplay is still being actively developed and will be released in phases.

• Phase 1 of this experience will focus more upon simulation and land management (production, resource gathering, building, and trading).

• Phase 2 will build in additional management gameplay elements (such as skill trees, jobs, and social/cooperative activities).

• Phase 3 will focus more on group strategic gameplay (defend, battle, conquer). Throughout the continuous evolution of Lunacia, features will be added, and Axies will have an ever-expanding set of experiences they will encounter. However, between each event and game release phase, major events that affect all of Lunacia will occur, giving players a sense of progression at a world scale.

Axie Infinity Shards - $AXS

Axie Infinity Shards(AXS) are an ERC-20 governance token for the Axie Universe. AXS holders will be able to claim rewards if they stake their tokens, play the game, and participate in key governance votes. Players will also be able to earn $AXS when they play various games within the Axie Infinity Universe and through user-generated content initiatives.

The development team's goal with Axie Infinity Shards is to align the incentives between the players of the game and the developers in novel and exciting ways. The mechanisms described above have two main goals:

• To reward players for interacting with Axie Infinity while simultaneously incentivizing them to hold on to their tokens so they can claim additional rewards.

• To decentralize the ownership and governance of Axie Infinity.

They want Axie to become the first game truly owned and operated by the community that plays it. This opens up limitless possibilities but must be approached carefully. In the past, projects have been abandoned and become stagnant using the term “decentralization” as a ruse. The shift to a true Decentralized organization will occur gradually over time.

In early 2021, the Community Treasury did go live. The Community Treasury will began to receive revenues generated by Axie Infinity as well as a portion of staking rewards. This treasury became governed by AXS stakers.

The Treasury receives inflows from:

• 4.25% of all Axie NFT marketplace transactions.

• The AXS portion of the breeding fee.

In the early days of Axie Infinity, staking issuance will be high-- encouraging a high portion of staked AXS without requiring an additional source of funding.

However, as the issuance allocation drops over time, there will need to be another source of funding to encourage a high percentage of staked AXS. This is a potential use for the Community Treasury, which will have a sustainable source of funding from fees related to Axie infinity.