I. Introduction
The Play-to-Earn gaming space has seen huge growth in the last couple of years, and few games have had quite the impact of Alien Worlds. In it, players mine ‘trilium’ on distant planets and participate in its metaverse.
What is Play-to-Earn?
In short, the Play-to-Earn business model allows players to gain tradable digital assets of real value by playing a videogame. The term is synonymous with blockchain, and games that use this model often have fully-featured economies, including native tokens, systems of governance, and even associated NFTs.
Many Play-to-Earn games (including Alien Worlds) are also Free-to-Play, meaning there are no upfront costs or subscription fees to enter the game world.
II. Context
1. How Did Play-To-Earn Start?
The first blockchain game was CryptoKitties, built on Ethereum and first available in 2017. Unsurprisingly for the internet, the basis of this game was cute cats, depicted in cartoon form and tradable as NFTs. The game allows players to collect and breed these virtual pets, thereby creating new NFTs.
The popularity of this game actually drew attention to problems with the Ethereum network relating to scalability. As many as 30% of all Ethereum transactions were related to CryptoKitties, and this caused congestion and increased gas fees across the chain.
2. What Is Alien Worlds?
Alien Worlds, one of the top blockchain games on the WAX platform, is a decentralized metaverse in which players can own and ‘mine’ land on a variety of planets, complete missions, participate in DAO-based governance (on a planetary level), and earn tokens and NFTs in the process. It also features its own lore and story and an ever-growing community of participants.
Alien Worlds is unique in that it is cross-chain, and functions on the WAX, Ethereum, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchains.
Below we will show how you can get started exploring and mining for yourself.
III. Step-by-Step
Alien Worlds can be played using WAX, Ethereum, or BSC. For the purposes of this guide, we will be using WAX.
The first thing you will need to do is set up a WAX Cloud Wallet. Once you have done so and logged in to your account, navigate to ‘dApps’ on the dashboard. You should now see Alien Worlds near the top of the list, but if you don’t, you can type it into the search bar. Click on the Alien Worlds logo, and your browser will open it in a new tab. Click ‘Play & Earn’ to open the game, and then click ‘Start Now’ to get going.
You will now see a ‘Transaction Request’ dialog. This is asking if you give permission for Alien Worlds to use your WAX account. If you would like to automatically login in future, then tick the box that reads: ‘Automatically login to play.alienworlds.io’. Click ‘Approve’ once you are ready.
You will now see the Alien Worlds welcome screen. From here you can choose a username and an avatar (male or female). You can also join the community on Telegram or Discord.
Take care to read the Terms & Conditions by clicking the link, and tick the boxes to confirm you agree to them and that you are over 18 years of age. Once you are happy with all selections, click ‘I’m ready’.
You can now choose which planet to start mining! (Don’t worry, this choice isn’t permanent, and you can always choose other planets to mine later). Click on each of the options to see a short description of the planet at the bottom of the screen. Once you are happy with your selection click ‘Mine [planet name]’.
This will take you to the ‘Choose Land to Mine’ screen, which shows a list of land on which you can mine trilium, as well as a set of filters to specify the parameters of land you are shown. Each piece of land you can mine will offer a different ‘fill rate’ (the speed of yield) and ‘mining pot’ (the total number of tokens available), as well as varying multipliers. If you’d like to learn more about the different types of land, this guide contains helpful advice.
Click on the land you would like to mine, and you’ll get another WAX Transaction Request to approve the necessary smart contracts.
Click ‘Approve’, and you are now mining your first piece of land!
The mining process will yield trillium and if you’re lucky you may unearth an NFT. NFTs in Alien Worlds have various associated functions and benefits, such as increased mining rates or assistance in detecting trilium. Some NFTs even represent land ownership, meaning you’ll get a cut of all mining yields from that piece of land!
If you don’t want to wait to happen upon an NFT while mining, you can always simply buy them on the AtomicHub marketplace.
IV. Planet DAOs
Much like staking on WAX, trilium can be staked on planets. Each planet in Alien Worlds functions as its own DAO, meaning players who stake their trillium can participate in governance, voting in weekly elections for council candidates and on treasury allocation. Players can even submit themselves for council candidacy, entering the world of intergalactic politics!
IV. Missions
Alien Worlds also features missions for players to join and earn trilium and NFT rewards. To take part in missions you will need a Metamask wallet connected to the Binance Smart Chain. This means they are outside the scope of WAX and this guide, but if you’d like to learn more we suggest checking out this walkthrough. Trilium can also be freely ‘teleported’ between chains using Metamask.
V. Community
The Alien Worlds metaverse is home to a thriving and friendly community. If you’d like to get involved in discussions or seek further help and advice on the many features of the game, join the Telegram, Twitter, Discord, or Reddit channels. You can even watch others play on Twitch or Youtube to gain a better understanding of the game mechanics.
There are also many unofficial ‘Explorer Communities’ spanning a number of regions and languages. Some of these communities host regular mining events which can be found listed in the Alien Worlds Community Calendar.
VI. Similar P2E Games
If mining planets is wearing you out, why not try one of the many other P2E games on the WAX blockchain? Here are a few to get you started:
i. Blockchain Brawlers
Blockchain Brawlers is a wrestling metaverse that lets you pit cute, tokenized fighters against one another to win $BRWL tokens and NFT rewards. The game is being rapidly improved, with new features announced on a weekly basis driving an ever-growing economy.
ii. Farmers World
If you’d rather farm earth than mine alien planets, then Farmers World is the game for you! This tokenized farming experience lets you farm $GOLD tokens and NFTs, as well as breed animals and craft your own tools.
iii. Koloboks
Speaking of breeding, Koloboks lets you breed the titular 8-bit creatures to produce new NFTs. You can also participate in adventures in the colorful fantasy world, and pit your Koloboks against others in brawls.
iv. Train of the Century
If farming, breeding, and brawling aren’t enough for you, how about some trains? Train of the Century allows players to participate in a tokenized train experience. Build your train, hire a conductor, buy fuel, and get started completing rail runs in this charming simulation.
VI. Summary
With Alien Worlds, not only can you take part in a fun and engaging metaverse, but you can earn tokens on a fully-functioning decentralized economy. Play-to-Earn opens all kinds of possibilities for gamers, and Alien Worlds is right at the forefront. We hope you enjoy your time exploring space. Live long and prosper.