Hi guys,
Today I'd like to share about my findings on Crypto Raiders, an NFT RPG game on the Polygon network.
My first encounter with Crypto Raiders was this post by 
With Crypto Raiders we have our first investment outside the HIVE ecosystem. It runs on the Polygon blockchain and is a pixel graphic dungeon crawler.
The 'pixel graphic dungeon crawler' part got me interested, so I did some research.
Game mechanics
Basically, in this game you send your characters, also known as Raiders, into Dungeons to kill monsters. In doing so, you get loot and exp. As you level up, you can fight higher leveled dungeons to gain more loot and exp. However, the catch is that there is permadeath, meaning if your character dies in a dungeon, it is gone forever. (Will be a opt-in feature, meaning you get more rewards but take higher risk). Raiders also can get runes from dungeons, which allow them to use skills, although only 1 can be equipped each time.
^ Ice Barrier rune, gives you a shield which scales off of your Intelligence stat. One of the best runes in game currently
Each week, every raider will get 5 free dungeon runs. After which, you can purchase Dungeon Keys with $AURUM to do extra runs. Each dungeon will require a different amount of Keys.
The combat is pretty simplified for now, your Raider will auto pathfind to the monster(s) in the dungeon, and combat consists of 2/3 buttons: Attack, Skill(if available) and Run Away. Forgive me for now including a visual, my free Dungeon Runs for the week are done and they reset on Wednesday😅
There are currently 2 tokens in game, $RAIDER and $AURUM. $RAIDER can be earned through providing liquidity for the $RAIDER or $AURUM liquidity pools on SushiSwap
Meanwhile, $AURUM can be gained from locking $RAIDER into a stake (min 3 months, max 12 months). The longer your stake period, the higher your APR.
There is also a PVP function, where your raider can duel another. Its currently only for entertainment purposes, there is not PvP rank system or anything like that. However, regular tournaments are hosted on discord, where the top 8 places will be rewarded in $AURUM.
My Progress:
I bought a lv 6 Raider about a week ago on OpenSea, and used it to run a few dungeon runs to level it up to level 7. I think I bought a pretty decent character, as it came with some decent equipment, and a rune (Ice Barrier). My character is building Intelligence, so its a perfect fit for him.
My character currently has 42 stat points invested into Intelligence, and after including those from my weapon and armor, I have a total of 60 Intelligence.
My strongest piece of equipment right now is this Sorcerer's Cowl, providing me with a good +9 Intelligence and +13 Wisdom.
New Features/ Upcoming Events
The game recently had an Airdrop of mounts around Christmas to everyone holding $RAIDER, their stakeable governance token. Unfortunately, I missed this airdrop, but I'm excited to see if there are any future airdrops.
They're going on Opensea for at least 0.25 ETH now, mainly because it complements the new Questing feature released this week.
The Questing feature allows you to send your Raiders out to gather resources, in this case Grimweed, and earn Herbalism XP.
There will be a recruitment event coming this Wednesday, where everyone holding a Raider will be able to recruit/mint a new raider. This raider will be a Gen 4 raider. Each subsequent recruitment event will mint raiders of a later gen. This will affect play to earn mechanics when they are released in the future, the earlier the Raider's gen (generation), the more their potential to earn.
This event is also causing a squeeze in the market, as people are hodling their raiders for the event, while new players are looking to get in. The floor for raiders now on opensea is 0.24 ETH, although it will most likely drop once the Recruitment event is live, when people start to list their newly minted gen4 Raiders for sale.
The game is still in its early stages, so I'm excited to see how this will turn out. The art and dungeon music in the game is pretty cool, which is also what attracted me in the first place. The play to earn mechanics of the game aren't fully released yet, so I'm also looking forward to that. I hope to keep track of my progress through my posts here as well 😊
Thanks for reading, here's an image from the Crypto Raiders website, to illustrate my point of the nice pixel artworks :D
Date: 9 Jan 2022
Total Amount Invested so Far: $687.59 USD
Lv 6 Raider: $540.71 USD
3500 $AURUM: $146.68 USD