Hello all and welcome!
You're in for an informative and hopefully worthwhile read because I've put together a few words about 3 of the best f2p blockchain games that I've come across, ranked from worst to best.
If you want to skip the technical stuff and just get to the reviews, you can read the 'My Experience' sections of each writeup. And just keep in mind that some of this my personal opinion and experience; not everyone will have the same experiences as me!
Let's do this!
#3: ChainZ Arena
Up first on our list of free to play blockchain games is none other than ChainZ Arena.
What is ChainZ Arena?
ChainZ Arena is an idle game which rewards you for being away, for up to 24 hours. Essentially, you can hire heroes that you can level up using the resources earned while you were away. Once you have some heroes, you can jump right into the gameplay.
Game Modes and How to Earn
Within ChainZ arena, there are several game modes including both PvP and PvE. Daily challenges can be unlocked once you reach certain levels and complete a certain 'storyline' expedition. Beating storyline levels are the primary way that you can get more resources while you're idle. Miracle Jungle level 1 (1-1), for example, gives you 72 gold per minute, 14.4 spirit per minute, and 24 exp per minute, while Dragon Ruins 10-15 will give you 105.6 gold/m, 21.12 spirit/m, and 37.2 exp/m.
Heroes are pretty easy to obtain and level up as a f2p player, but you can't expect to be getting the best ones. You can only obtain 4 star purple quality heroes, so 5 star orange and red quality heroes are left for people who would like to buy them. Heroes can be evolved, and purple heroes can be evolved up to 6 stars, so you do have a little bit of room to grow as a f2p with your heroes.
PvE modes include the Arena, Crystal Orb Arena, Cryptogon, and Soul Royale, but as a f2p you can only really play Arena and Crystal Orb Arena.
Arena is pretty straightforward; you simply set up a team of 6 heroes and duke it out vs other players. You're given a small selection of opponents to choose from with varying power levels and trophy amounts. The better the opponent you beat, the more trophies you'll gain for yourself, and vice versa. Once the 'season' for Arena ends, you'll get rewarded based on your rank. Only the top 200 players each season will get rewarded with SOUL tokens, which are this game's native cryptocurrency, though rewards in other resources are distributed all the way out to the top 1000 players.
Crystal Orb Arena is very similar to Arena, except that this time it's a best of three between you and your opponent, and you have to set up 3 different teams of 6 unique heroes each. This time, rewards at the end of the season are distributed based on which 'tier' you end up in. Tiers range from Bronze to Champion, and each tier is split into subsets like Bronze III or Champion IV. In order to get rewarded in SOUL tokens, you have to reach Platinum I, which is the 4th tier, or the 11th subset (from Bronze I to Platinum I). All players get rewarded with in-game resources in this game mode.
What to do with SOUL?
If you do end up earning or buying SOUL, there are several ways to use it. Firstly, you can stake it for a currently rather chunky APR in-game. A portion of the SOUL used to buy or trade in the game goes to the current reward pool which is available for claim every 24 hours, and another portion goes to the total reward pool. A portion of the total reward pool is released into the current reward pool every day to ensure that there will always be at least some reward to distribute every day and to even the distribution out from day to day.
You can use SOUL to hire powerful heroes, to make gaining resources while idle faster, and to wager custom teams of maxed out heroes against other players who have put together their own maxed teams in the Cryptogon game mode. You can also easily swap back and forth between your cryptocurrencies of choice and SOUL for easy withdrawal. Just keep in mind that once you select one of the options for withdrawal (TRX, ETH, BNB, BTC, EOS, and CRO are some to name a few), you won't be able to withdraw other types of crypto in the future.
My Experience
As you can see from my ratings, I really haven't had a great experience with this game. Don't get me wrong; it's really not a terrible game; it just doesn't fit my bill, especially when compared to other crypto games in this blog.
As a f2p player, you can essentially expect to wait half a year or more before you finally start making your first few cents playing; I've been playing this game for about 3 months and still have yet to claim my first bit of SOUL. As I said, SOUL is rewarded for the top 200 in the Arena, and the Platinum I rank in Crystal Orb Arena. I've gotten top 400 in Arena and Gold I in COA, 4 sub-ranks away from Platinum I, just to give you some reference. So while it is theoretically possible for an f2p player to also be p2e, it's certainly not easy, and will definitely take some time.
The gameplay itself is not very intriguing to me. I like games that require full-on immersion and require not only a deep understanding of the game but also a great amount of skill. I do like games that allow you to own your in-game items, but as a f2p I'm just not ever going to own any heroes, at least not in the near future.
Finally, I have had a very bad experience with this game's community, though the only two real opportunities I've had to interact were via support and the in-game chat. Maybe I shouldn't judge based on the in-game chat XD. Either way, support is the only thing that earned this game any points in terms of its community, and even then it fell short.
#2: Thetan Arena
My #2 on this list is the battle-royale style game, Thetan Arena.
What is Thetan Arena?
Thetan Arena is an application-based battle-royale style game. Game modes include solo, duo, and team battles with dozens of heroes and hero powers to choose from. Players are all given the same 3 heroes to start out with for free, but are given the option of upgrading heroes and/or buying heroes from the marketplace, which is based on the Binance Smart Chain.How to Play and Earn?
If you want to mess around in this game with no strings attached, it does give you an option to play as a guest once you download it. For each new game mode that you try out, you'll be given a quick demo so that you can get your bearings. To be quite frank, that's about all there is to this game. Just jump in and play some games!
Once you start to get a feel for your hero of choice, you'll start to climb the ranks, which is the main way to earn from this game for free. For each rank you climb, you are awarded with power points (to level up your heroes) and THC (to exchange for more heroes or withdraw). At the moment, however, you have attain at least the Bronze I rank before you can withdraw your plunders in THC.
My Experience
After playing this game lightly for about a month total, I can definitely say that it has potential. For a free to play game, it can pay out, which is always a plus. I haven't attempted to withdraw any of my winnings yet, so I can't report on that unfortunately.
The only reason that I gave this game such a low rating on its enjoyability is because it's so similar to Brawl Stars. If you're unfamiliar with Brawl Stars, it's a mobile game made by Supercell, and to be quite frank, I just find it to be a better game all around (admittedly it has been out much longer). That being said, having played both Brawl Stars and Thetan Arena, I see big potential in Thetan Arena as it's still only in its infancy.
Additionally, I think that Thetan Arena's community is fairly strong. As with any newer game in the crypto space, the people running the show are going to be quite overwhelmed with bugs, complaints, and millions of questions. Thetan Arena's Discord is a great place to hang out, meet people, and get the latest news. If yall want to play some doubles with me sometime feel free to @ me in the discord or comment below and we can set a time up!
#1: Gods Unchained
At the top of this list is easily my favorite blockchain game: Gods Unchained.
How to Play and the Basics
Gods Unchained is an application-based card game which utilizes Ethereum's blockchain. If the fact that this game is on the Ethereum blockchain immediately raises a red flag for you, don't fret; any trading done in this game is done primarily via Immutable X, one of the biggest NFT trading platforms out there. This means that all of your trades will be free of gas fees, faster than Super Grover, and carbon neutral to top it all.
Once you've installed the game, and linked your wallet (if you want to claim tradeable NFTs and the native $GODS currency), you'll have to go through a quick tutorial. At this point, you'll find that you have cards (the welcome set) and some pre-made decks. There are 6 'gods' in this game, and each have unique abilities and cards that are special to them. Choose the one that you want to play, but if you want to dive straight in and be competitive as a beginner, I'd recommend going with War or Nature.
Each game you play will have you playing with your deck of 30 cards. You are welcome to modify that deck or create an entirely different deck with any combination of cards, so long as you have no more than two of any one card in the deck, or one of any legendary card, and so long as the cards in your deck match your chosen god's denomination or are 'neutral'. Neutral cards can be used in a deck associated with any god. This graphic will help you identify the key components of a card in Gods Unchained, courtesy of @cbizz:
How can you Earn?
As you have seen in the picture above, there several different 'qualities' of a card, ranging from plain to diamond. You can collect cards by playing the game, gaining experience, and leveling up. You get a core legendary pack ever 25 levels, a core epic pack every 10 levels, and a core rare pack every level up that isn't on an interval of 10 or 25 levels. If you get more than one copy of a card this way, you can 'forge' it into a higher quality card (i.e. plain => Meteorite) using two currencies: flux and $GODS . Flux is a resource that can be earned by winning up to 3 games per day with each god, and is only available for use and collection in the game. $GODS, on the other hand, is an ERC-20 token that has value outside of the game and can currently be obtained by participating in the Blessings of the Gods event. While there isn't any difference between cards of higher or lower quality as of right now, the GU team plans to implement a play to earn function that utilizes card quality to reward $GODS to players.
Aside from the Blessings of the Gods event, Gods Unchained also runs a Weekend Ranked event that you can earn packs from the Divine Order expansion set. If you manage to pick some of these packs up, you'll find that they contain cards that are already meteorite quality or higher. This means that you can trade them fresh out of the pack for $ETH or $GODS! From there, you can either build up a pile of tokens and withdraw, or buy cards of your choice already on the market.
Help and Troubleshooting
If you do decide to dive into this game, you may be lucky enough to get by without any troubles. Should you need help, from transferring funds to finding out why you haven't received your rewards yet, there are a few good resources to be aware of:
My Experience
I've been playing this game on and off for about a year now, maybe a little less. As any game does, Gods Unchained has its upsides and downsides. Players purposely losing matches to get rewards more easily, thousands of bot accounts in ranked matchmaking, constantly delayed rewards, and a hacked discord are just a few of the mishaps that have occurred during my time here, but the GU team has always come through.
As of now, I've earned hundreds of dollars' worth of $GODS and cards combined, and have invested most of it back into the game. The play to earn aspect of this game is real and very rewarding, especially since I genuinely enjoy the game.
That being said, I wouldn't advise getting into this game purely for the money. If you're interested, try it, and if it holds your interest, stick with it. Otherwise, don't feel pressured to stick with it. There will be other opportunities better suited for you.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed, and maybe you'll end up picking up a game or two that sounds like something you'd like to try.
Let me know what some of your favorite crypto games are in the comments! If you're up to it, maybe you could even make a post like mine; I'd love to read about them!
