On July 25, Illuvium hit Mainnet, launching three interconnected game modes: Illuvium Zero, Arena, and Overworld.
48 hours before launch, in an AMA with Polemos resident Ranger Cavan “Caveman” Roe, Illuvium CEO Kieran Warwick teased the enriched narrative that would come with the Mainnet release:
“No one, in four years, has picked up what Illuvium is and how the universe works.”
Kieran went on to confirm something palpably absent pre-launch: a proper storyline, introduced through an establishing cinematic incorporated into the tutorial.
Prior to launch, Illuvium had already delivered vibrant artwork, satisfying items, distinctive animated characters, and an original taxonomy of fictional creatures. Nuggets of lore continue to deepen the story throughout the game, but the opening scenes set up the plot. The robotic and witty voice of G4UD1 makes the story-integrated tutorial more charming, evoking memories of Portal’s iconic GLaDOS.
These additions do the heavy lifting to elevate what was always beautiful but previously felt a little hollow. For those of us who’ve seen our share of Illuvium in early beta, the parts that are already familiar seem more special in the new light of launch.
Whether what Illuvium has delivered is enough to find lasting success in the still-emerging intersection of gaming and web3 remains to be seen, but the potential is apparent to players. Caveman, an established Ranger, described how it feels to finally play the real game.
“Capturing real NFTs feels amazing!
They feel like your own little pets in a way.”
Caveman
This feeling is essential to Illuvium’s appeal. Successful franchises from Tamagotchi to Neopets to Pokémon have done it before. To at least one Ranger, Illuvium has succeeded in this regard.
Are Illuvials valuable (yet)?
Kieran has pointed to the prospect of capturing rare and valuable Illuvials as a driving factor for adoption. A network effect applies to all collectible systems, but particularly when introducing new IP, there is a critical mass of adoption that dictates whether a collection will be valuable. When enough people enjoy and participate in the ecosystem to begin driving the value, the value draws more people into the ecosystem.
To capture an Illuvial is to mint an NFT, and when listing one for sale, players set their own prices. Although several are listed for millions of dollars, the most expensive Illuvial sold so far was a Phosphorus, which sold for 0.424 ETH, or around $1285, on August 2, a week after it was minted.
Players are currently capturing Illuvials from the first ever set on Mainnet. After the next set releases, there is potential that we will never again see Set 1 Illuvials in the wild. Like other physical and digital first editions, any value ascribed remains particularly speculative while more of the same kind are still being minted. Regardless of how rare these Illuvials are after Set 1 concludes, the overall popularity of Illuvium will have the greatest impact on their value.
Mainnet still has fewer players
Polemos has been closely tracking Illuvium’s player activity through airdrop season and launch, to tell us whether the growth seen in the early phase of the airdrop will carry into Mainnet, where aspects of the game cost real money.
On the Testnet version of Overworld, the number of unique wallets owning Illuvials grew throughout the Airdrop that began in June. (This ongoing airdrop has spanned multiple phases, from preseasons on the Testnet through this crossover into Mainnet, and it will continue for an additional five months.) Mainnet’s number of unique wallets has not yet reached Testnet’s peak, but we are still observing growth each day.
A recently controversial airdrop reward might attribute some portion of Illuvium’s growth to attracting more wallets, without necessarily meaning more players.
Illuvium costs real money now
Blockchain games that incorporate tradable assets in gameplay use a Testnet to allow players to test and experience the unfinished game. Up until the July 25 launch, players earned Airdrop points by playing on the Testnet version of Overworld— without needing to spend real money. The Airdrop points they earn, however, correspond to their portion of a very real 210,000 ILV prize pool. As of now, 1 ILV is valued at approximately $51.65.
Before Mainnet, players relied on faucets that supply test tokens and tutorials like ‘how to play Illuvium like a whale’ to test the game and hunt rare Illuvials at all tiers and stages for free.
In Mainnet, there is no unlimited money faucet, and the only whales are the players willing to pay the price for real tokens. Although Tier Zero of Overworld and other aspects of the game are free, the full experience requires spending some money in the ecosystem.
In an excerpt from a Kieran Warwick AMA on the Illuvium+ YouTube channel, the Illuvium CEO estimated players would spend roughly 30 dollars per month for a good experience. Kieran also highlighted a broad spectrum of appeal that works for whales and “free-to-play” rangers alike, from players who might rely on free decks all the way up to those willing to pay more to collect the rarest Illuvials.
The interests of invested players and free-to-play rangers are already at odds.
The Million Point Exploit
Only a few days into Mainnet, Illuvium encountered a balancing issue with its airdrop. The problem pertained to a specific reward. Beating Survival Arena up to Wave 40 rewarded rangers with a surging one million airdrop points. This relatively massive reward which dwarves other achievements implies that this was intended to be an extremely difficult challenge.
Illuvium YouTuber Web3 Gaming posted a video completing Survival Arena through to Wave 40, demonstrating the need to change the reward. Survival Arena is an auto battle against the computer. This enabled players to easily replicate the successful battle from the video and unlock the million point reward en masse. Further, because it was a fixed reward and not a multiplier (and because it could be replicated for free) players were able to create additional accounts to claim a larger share of airdrop points, spread across those accounts.
180,000 ILV of the total 210,000 ILV airdrop season are reserved for Mainnet, so the stakes are high.
Opinions in the Illuvium Discord are mostly divided into two groups. Those who consider both the copying and the duplicate accounts to be an exploit believe the million-point reward should be adjusted or reversed. Those who are better off with an easy million points (or more, if they have multiple accounts) want to keep their points. Airdrop points dictate proportionally how much of the total prize pool a player receives. Players who were eager to keep spending to enhance their airdrop rewards are far less willing to invest further when free-to-play Rangers can gain immensely simply by copying a winning strategy.
Folks in the Illuvium community are currently pushing proposals forward to the councils that appear more than likely to nullify all airdrop points gained through these exploitable missions. Some find it frustrating that the council and Labs failed to foresee the pitfalls of this reward, especially after the conflict over Illuvium’s recipe changes during the preseason airdrop.
Despite these challenges, the next few months will be critical in determining whether Illuvium can initiate the large capital raise they’ll need to polish their games enough for mass adoption.
In particular, Illuvium’s NFTs need competitive utility. Gauntlet mode is live, but it’s free to play and owned assets have no benefit. Leviathan Gauntlet, once implemented, will support NFTs that add stats to the Illuvials. Ascendant mode is also live, and it does support NFTs; however, the rewards are minimal and the player base is small.
With a capital raise the game could see major improvements—fostering wide adoption and increasing NFT appeal—to result in higher revenue. Once developed and refined, these late-game modes can drive player engagement and economic growth for the Illuvium ecosystem.
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