ChainMonsters
Chainmonsters originated on Kickstarter campaign in 2020. The game was designed to be a pixel-art, similar to classic pokemon-games.
As a huge fan of creature-collectors, one of the favourite features I was looking for was the 2v2 battling with elemental combinations.
For example, if you wet a chainmon with a water technique, then an electric skill could electrocute it. The game also had the advantage of being on the blockchain and using NFT monsters, which envisioned it to be a free-to-play, play-to-earn game.
Then, few months later in 2021, the game somehow transformed into a 3D project as in the below.
The alpha was, very grindy! Sadly, in April 2023, the team had decided to pause development on the game.
Chainmonsters' New Era
Luckily, Spielworks realised that Chainmonsters had lots of potential, and acquired it in the first half of 2024! Since then, the Chainmonsters team has become incredibly transparent with lots of updates on twitter.
On their new website, one can see details about $Monster. This will be used to trade items and upgrade Chainmons.
The TapMonsters Spin-Off
With that, players have a chance to earn $Monster via airdrops, based on their performance in TapMonsters. Tapmosnters can be played through Telegram (which is my first experience of doing so).
Gameplay
The game is a classic idle clicker game. The basic is to tap the energy crystal to earn coins, with a limit of energy which refreshes.
After earning coins, players can find daily chainmons as a reward, which earn coins per hour passively.
In addition, one can use the coins to purchase Lab, Equipment and Products. Most of these are items that enhance your profit-per-hour. Some of these are required to unlock rarer and better products.
For example, one needs Rare Speciment level 8 before unlocking the Rare Species Locator. I built the Level 20 Rare Species Locator to be able to unlock rarer monster research.
I haven't been lucky to find any of the really rare specimen, but looking forward to doing so!
Tasks to Earn Coins
I found TapMonsters very easy to get into! The earn tab proposes missions in which you can easily earn coins to start.
The most rewarding activity is to Connect Tapmonsters to Wombat, which gave me +500,000 coins!
By completing most of these missions, I was able to earn a lot of coins that allowed me to build the passive earning items, which I focused more heavily on compared to the Boost effects.
Invitations & Referrals
Another way to improve your earnings is to invite friends. Although you earn a small boost, you earn 10% of your friends coins, and even smaller portions of your friend's friends and their friends.
On that note, if you'd like to give TapMonsters a try, you could use my referral link: https://t.me/tapmonsters_bot/start?startapp=ref7296946842&startApp=ref7296946842
Airdrop Value of $Monster
As mentioned before, rather than a play-to-earn directly, this is more for a play for an airdrop. Depending on one's placement in the leaderboard, from my understanding.
With over 10,000 players, I'm not really sure where I will stand, especially since most features are automated and the coming soon features, like Squads, aren't out yet.
What I think about Chainmonsters
I have to be honest, back in 2022-2023, I was very disappointed with how Chainmonsters changed from 2D to 3D and then paused development. The game had so much potential and it has definitely pivoted from a game that would've been accessible by creature-collecting players.
However, I do have renewed faith as I discovered the new era of Chainmonsters. Although it is not quite what I was hoping for, I look forward.
I'm not even sure how or if I still have access to the NFTs I got during alpha, but seeing again the chainmons in #TapMonster made me excited again!