It's been a while since I did a dedicated article about eXode. When I first found out about the game back in early April, I was totally blown away by the whole concept. Finally, there would be a blockchain game that really is a game first. With a scope way beyond what we've seen from most other blockchain titles on the market.
In the many months that followed, there have been many milestones met already. Several playable versions, the Contract and Booster opening events, the new character generator, and so much more. One thing has been missing ever since, though - leaderboards and rewards for placing high there. Now finally, this is going to be changing pretty soon, as the game's developer, 
Before we get into the details of what the challenge is going to look like and what to expect in terms of rewards, let me first give you a short introduction to what eXode is. Simply put, it's a decision making game taking place some centuries in the future. Mankind is attacked and mercilessly eradicated by an unknown alien force. The few lucky survivors scramble across the galaxy to hide from their attackers and start to rebuild society. It's also a collectible card game, where all assets you own are represented by individual cards, each portraying an officer, a ship, or a weapon that you can use in your games. While a character can get killed in a run or you can even loose the whole game, these cards are always yours and can be reused in your next run.
The game is going to be made up of two different parts. A fast paced Evacuation and a more laid back but also more complex Colonization stage. In Evacuation, you are aboard a space station under attack by the mysterious aliens. You scramble to save as much citizens, cargo, and fuel and escape to hyperspace before the station is destroyed. Afterwards, you look for a suitable planet to build your colony on. While the first part will be finished in half an hour, the scope of the second part will be much bigger, with individual colonies running for months or even years. As the name suggests, this first challenge is going to take place in the Evacuation part of eXode. Colonization is in active development right now, but I expect to see some first glimpses of it by the end of the year.
So what can we expect from that first challenge?
Everybody who helped to complete the objectives of the current station will receive some rewards. At the same time, there will be leaderboards for the individual stations, so while all players are working together to clear the objectives, they at the same time compete for the top spots of said leaderboard. In my opinion, that's a really clever way to combine cooperative gameplay with competition! Who said PvE games couldn't be competitive?
In terms of reward, we'll have to wait for more information on the exact numbers. There are some details in the announcement post, though. We'll see booster packs and reward cards for the contribution prices and rarer cards as well as Hive payouts for the leaderboards. This first contest will have at least 600 Hive in the reward pool - quite a nice number in my opinion. It's too early to tell how many players will take a shot at the main price, but this certainly is more than what I expected in such an early stage of the game!
So, when is the contest going to take place? We don't have an exact starting time just yet, the plan is to launch it somewhere around November 24th to November 26th. No matter when the exact start will be, the contest is going to end on Saturday 28th, 9:00 PM UTC. That's when a snapshot of the leaderbords will be taken and rewards will be payed out based on the standings at that moment.
To participate, you need to first get an Origin. These are basically starter decks that set the tone for the deck you build and dictate which cards you are allowed to include. There are 3 Origins sold for 10$ each or all 3 for 20$. Much like Splinterlands, eXode is not a Free2Play game. You won't ever have to buy anything beyond the starter if you don't want to, though. Because of the way the rewards work, this is all you ever will need to participate and to still earn some rewards for your contribution.
If you join the game using my ref-link, you will also receive two additional booster packs upon purchase of your first Origin. More importantly, though, I hold a lot of weapon cards that should be really helpful to get an edge in Evacuation. So if you do decide to join the game, just leave me a short comment with your account name and I'll make sure to send some weaponry your way to set you up for the contest.
I'll do some more articles about eXode in the coming days where I will go into more detail about how the game is actually played, what to look for on the market and some ideas on how to make the most out of the coming contest. There already is a playable version available, though, so you don't need to wait for the contest to start to get into the game. Just keep in mind that there are going to be some more adjustments and balance changes until the contest starts, so don't try to pick up a habit that might hurt you later on.
Also, if you want to learn more about the game and are more the video watching type, there's an amazing Youtube channel with some great tutorials for the game made by 
I am really looking forward to this contest and everything that comes afterwards. It's been a long wait to finally get there, but I feel like eXode is really going to take off pretty soon. The game itself is already really awesome and there are so many things that are going to be added to the game over the years, it won't get boring any time soon!
That's all from me today, thank you all for reading and if you have any questions about the game, please let me know in the comments and I'd be happy to answer them. See you all next time!