Image Source: Animoca Brands
Here is what I thought: if I play games anyway, why not look for play-to-earn titles? Being a passionate player I can’t abstain from playing something for long. P2E blockchain games would introduce some extra reward and practical value into gaming.
This one is not the debut game of the dev team: they published Crazy Kings for iOS previously. And this time, targeting both iOS and Android, they decided to make a P2E TD game: Craze Defense Heroes.
A spoiler right ahead: if you are looking for quick money, look elsewhere. The “Claim” button does not work yet. As soon as the dev team ports the TOWER token to Polygon, you’ll be able to withdraw the hard-earned crypto to your MetaMask wallet. Just not yet because Ethereum gas fees would kinda ruin all the fun.
My attitude to P2E games is clear: I like playing anyway, and I would pay for a great game on Steam anyway. Games that pay back are a pleasant alternative. I’m not in it to make a living.
How to earn in Crazy Defense Heroes, exactly?
The scheme is straightforward (although not functional ATM). Earn that much Experience in game (275K as of October) to share a reward pool of this much TOWER among the other eligible players (1M TOWER as of October). And you must check in at least once a day (grabbing the daily reward is obligatory).
To accumulate rewards, one must link MetaMask to a game account on the official website.
I earned 202 TOWER as a July reward. The TOWER price at that time was about $0.05, so the total monthly earnings amounted to $10. That’s a ridiculous number compared to what people make in Splinterlands, but let me repeat: I like the genre, I like the design, I like the mechanics. I’m also curious to see where it’s going.
Is that it?
No. A whole CDH game and its TOWER rewards seem merely a marketing campaign before introducing a PC game with more elaborate token economy and more diverse ways to earn. All I know is that:
• the said PC game is being in development right now;
• the devs sold a bunch of Chests with NFT cards awhile ago and will probably sell some more in future. Those cards will be used for staking (renting?) to earn TOWER passively, or in play, as game assets. They will be available in the PC game exclusively (not in the mobile CDH we discuss right now).
One could also earn TOWER through playing a REVV car racing game made by the same team. This info is available in the CDH blog.
How to earn XP in Crazy Defense Heroes?
I’m way past level 35 so take it as an expert opinion.
The best source of XP in the game is Easy Orc Raids. You’ll notice that, on average, you get 100XP per 1 Energy point. So, a 750XP mission for 6 Energy (🗲) is better than a 1100XP mission for 12🗲.
But hey, if you start from scratch and Raids are not even unlocked at the moment, what do you do? – Just burn the Energy on Campaign maps and abstain from Scavenging until you have enough XP to claim the reward.
Clan Quests is an irregular source of XP: there are fairly long delays between Clan Quest Seasons. Still, using them to the fullest is a nice bonus.
Events have the same great XP per 🗲 ratio Orc Raids do: 1500XP for 12🗲.
There might be some other sources that I missed, yet it took me less than 20 days to reach the monthly XP goal in my first month of playing. There is nothing particularly hard, so the players who complain about the XP goal being too high are either exaggerating or being sloppy.
How much XP do you need to stay on the safe side?
Divided by 30 days, 275,000XP turns into about 9,200XP a day. It’s quite a lot, so yeah, the game is grindy if you keep the reward in mind.
Let’s do the math: if you make roughly 100XP every 1🗲 then you must burn 92🗲 a day. Of course, going for the optimal solutions in XP farming is going to save you some time and effort but low-level players should watch their Energy levels and check in more often. It takes 9 minutes to regenerate 1🗲. Naturally, it won’t regen beyond the max value, which is about 25 (if I remember it right) for a level 1 player and overflows every four hours or so. 36 level players are comfortable checking in twice a day: the cap is 65🗲. By the way, it took me two full months to get to level 35: at this point all the major game features are unlocked.
Finally, if you're interested, here is my referral link:
https://crazydefenseheroes.gsc.im/88eqzkfT2d
It would earn us some Gold freebies.
Stay tuned for the advanced guide on the game. Like in case with XP, some practices are generally better, some – worse. Thanks for reading! 🤷