The Building Blocks
Before diving head first into tokenomics this, ROI that, and all things economically minded, let's quickly review what we're working with. These are the foundational elements of Astral Revelations that drive the gameplay cycle and provide incentives both for progressing further in the game and collecting NFT assets.
This is a wordy post, but there's really no other way to communicate our economic vision for Astral Revelations. If you don't want to miss out on any opportunities, take the time to read this one all the way through. 😉
Gold and Consumables
Gold is intended to cover the general "day-to-day" expenses of playing the game. This includes activities such as expediting the recovery process of familiars between adventures, restocking consumables for the next adventure, and sending familiars off on expeditions.
Consumables are an indirect form of currency that help sustain your adventure team with combat buffs, fast travel, healing, and familiar recovery (to name a few).
Want to tackle a challenging encounter but your top familiar got knocked out in the previous battle? Use a consumable to revive it and you're good to go! There will be limitations on how many consumables you can bring into each adventure—also how many times you can revive the same familiar—but they're a utility resource you'll want to regularly acquire (with gold!) and use.
$ASTRA and $STELLARUM
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Serving as the primary and secondary tokens for the vast majority of transactions within Astral Revelations, every player from F2P to mega whale will want to get extremely familiar with how each token supports their chosen strategies.
$ASTRA is the gateway token to most forms of progression such as content unlocks, asset upgrades and NFT minting. It's entirely possible to progress through Astral Revelations as a F2P player hoarding most of your $ASTRA for a rainy day (or just to sell), but thoughtfully spending it on meaningful power boosts will allow for a smoother gameplay experience.
(NOTE: "Content unlocks" refers to gaining the ability to access new regions, control stronger familiars, begin minting NFTs, etc. All forms of content will be accessible to F2P players via the $ASTRA earned by simply playing the game.)
$STELLARUM is akin to a reward token, and it's obtained indirectly through $ASTRA or non-combat in-game activities. For example, staking $ASTRA yields weekly $STELLARUM airdrops, and both forms of NFT staking in-game—familiar expeditions and attunements—can return regular amounts of $STELLARUM.
Once you have $STELLARUM, it can perform many of the same functions as $ASTRA—though not always at the same level of efficiency. $STELLARUM will also have unique uses such as purchasing/minting Eternal Consumables (an NFT form of Consumables) and paying for Familiar Rentals.
TL;DR — $ASTRA is the most direct way to "get things done" in Astral Revelations, but $STELLARUM offers a more cost-effective path for those willing to stake their $ASTRA and NFTs over the long-term.
NFTs
We've dug a bit into certain kinds of NFTs in previous posts, so here's a brief summary of all forms of NFTs currently planned for Astral Revelations:
- Consumables are "bottomless" by being usable X number of times per adventure.
- Familiars are the collectable "pets" that fight for you in combat.
- Keystones are "keys" that influence where you can go and which familiars you can control.
- Attunements are "land" extensions of your Sanctuary (a non-NFT asset) that enhance your familiars and can generate $STELLARUM/$ASTRA.
(NOTE: Every NFT has an associated non-NFT form that will typically be acquired first. This is to allow for a generous reward structure within the game that enables players to pick and choose which assets are valuable enough to them to mint as NFTs.)
Now on to the nitty gritty! 🤓
Tokens
Whether we're talking about $ASTRA or $STELLARUM, both are intended to have a diverse set of use cases firmly establishing them as utility tokens. To distinguish the two, $ASTRA is designed to be friendlier to the "hodl" mentality (i.e. staking rewards) while $STELLARUM should experience a higher turnover rate through its use cases.
We've uncapped both token supplies (technically, the maximum is ~9 x 10^15) and tied their distribution methods to player activities. This means the supply and demand for either token is driven entirely by the Astral Revelations community.
As such, more players should result in more $ASTRA earned in-game which potentially results in more $STELLARUM being generated and used. At the same time, the use cases (and sinks) for both tokens are intended to balance unnecessary inflation against organic growth in the player base.
$ASTRA Presale
The one exception to this distribution strategy is the presale we're running all the way up until the v1.0 launch of Astral Revelations. All $ASTRA remaining in our sell order by the time we launch—if any—will be pulled from the market and merged into the in-game distribution system. At that point, the supply will be dictated by what players are able to generate through playing and staking NFTs.
(NOTE: $ASTRA spent in-game will not be burned. Instead, it'll be collected in a distribution pool that disburses existing or "loose" $ASTRA before minting new tokens into the supply. If we decide to compensate our development staff in the form of $ASTRA, it will only be pulled from this pool when there is an excess of loose tokens.)
Staking $ASTRA
Right now, the only reason to stake $ASTRA is for weekly 10:1 $STELLARUM airdrops running up to and through the launch of Astral Revelations. We want to reward those that support the development of the game, but we're leaving the door open for a future ongoing rewards system based on staked $ASTRA.
~ Here's the first bit of "alpha" for those reading all the way through. ~
At the time of this post, we took a one-time snapshot of all staked $ASTRA. This snapshot will be used to determine the preliminary rewards given out when we unveil our staking tier rewards for $ASTRA at the end of this week. We've planned perks for staking various amounts of $ASTRA—big and small—for both the pre and post-launch periods of Astral Revelations' development.
Examples of these perks include:
- Presale discounts on upcoming NFT bundles
- Limited edition alternate art NFTs
- Discord roles/flair
- Hive badges
- etc.
Even if you're a F2P player, these staking tiers will persist after launch with some rewards adjusted to reflect the "live" state of the game. You'll have the opportunity to work towards any rewards that appeal to you, and we're doing our best to ensure these rewards don't feel pay2win in nature.
$STELLARUM Airdrops
Staking $ASTRA yields 1 $STELLARUM for every 10 staked $ASTRA.
This airdrop will serve as the most direct way of acquiring $STELLARUM outside of buying it on the marketplace. We're planning on forming one or more liquidity pools in the future, and the current thought process is to have $STELLARUM be the main reward token for liquidity providers.
That said, we're likely to make the reward ratio for any LP we make lower than staking given the relative level of commitment each option requires. There's a delay in the unstaking process compared to the ability to immediately remove liquidity from LP's that we want to account for (and reward).
Consumables
To reiterate, consumables provided pre/post-battle options for preparing for (or recovering from) combat encounters. Consumables will never be usable within combat itself, as we don't want them to become a crutch for overcoming difficult battles. Using a consumable should be part of a planned strategy or a means for extending an adventure run.
Basic (Non-NFT) Consumables
Purchasable only with gold, non-NFT consumables are single-use with a limitation on how many of each type can be brought on an adventure. This limit will initially feel overly restrictive, but upgrading your Sanctuary and/or keystone(s) will increase how many you can carry.
Eternal Consumables
Serving as the first kind of NFT consumable, Eternal Consumables are "bottomless" in that they can be reused multiple times. They'll initially be limited to one use per adventure, but additional uses can be unlocked by upgrading it's tier (T1 through T9) via Alchemy.
Alchemy will require $STELLARUM to mint new T1 Eternal Consumables or upgrade them to a higher tier once unlocked through upgrades. There will be a similar limit on how many can be carried into adventures, and upgrading your keystone(s) will increase this amount.
Clan Consumables
~ Here's another bit of "alpha" for those paying attention. ~
Like Eternals, Clan Consumables will be reusable up to X times per adventure. They differ from Eternals in that they'll cost $ASTRA and are the only consumable you'll be able to bring to clan raids—a cooperative form of boss battles.
Buying and upgrading Clan Consumables will require certain levels of clan influence (see below), and the clan vendor will only provide a limited number each week. This limitation is to prevent one clan from flooding the market and encourage clan members to coordinate their use when tackling clan raids.
Familiars
In short, familiars have an element, race, and type that determine their overall stats. Certain combinations (variants) also provide additional forms of utility such as increased rewards when staked. Familiars can also evolve into new forms by progressing through tiers of strength (T1 to T9) which will increase their value when minted as NFTs.
(Read the Familiar Variants post for a detailed breakdown)
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Check out this latest set of Undine variants from our incredibly talented artist, 
Wisp Giveaway
For the first 500 people to join our Discord and claim a Wisp, you can pick one NFT Wisp (Fire, Air, Earth or Water) to receive for free. We'll begin distributing these NFTs shortly after our NFT minting process is live.
(Read the Wisp Giveaway post for details)
Starter Pack
If you wish to participate in the Closed Alpha/Beta tests, you can purchase a Starter Pack (limit 1 per account) to receive 2000 $ASTRA and four NFT Familiars:
- 1x Fire Orthrus
- 1x Air Hippogriff
- 1x Earth Goblin
- 1x Water Undine
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These familiars are different from the giveaway wisps and will only be available to purchase during the presale through this pack.
(Read the Starter Pack post for details)
It's also worth pointing out that the initial Adventure Team size is limited to 10 familiars. If you snag a free wisp from the giveaway to go with this pack, you'll have exactly 10 familiars to start playing with at launch:
- 5 free non-NFT familiars received during the game's prologue
- 1 NFT Wisp of your choice
- 4 NFT Familiars (listed above)
Wisp Bundles
The next presale bundles we'll be releasing are Wisp Bundles.
Each Wisp Bundle will cost 10 $HIVE (or the equivalent $HBD) and contains:
- 1x Fire Wisp
- 1x Air Wisp
- 1x Earth Wisp
- 1x Water Wisp
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Why buy a Wisp Bundle?
Binding new familiars requires you to exhaust one of your own and wait for a set cooldown to finish before either can be taken on new adventures. If you have more than the 10 familiars you're initially allowed to bring on each adventure, you'll be able to bind new familiars more often without weakening your roster.
Wisps are also the most commonly used familiar in T1-to-T2 evolution paths, and only one of the familiars used in the evolution process need be an NFT to ensure the resulting (T2) familiar is also an NFT.
Lastly, if you plan on purchasing Attunement Bundles (see below), the extra wisps will allow you to start generating $STELLARUM at launch by staking them. If not, you can still stake them to expeditions for the same (but lesser) effect.
Oh, and don't forget: NFT familiars don't count against your storage limit for non-NFT familiars.
Expeditions
Regardless of how you go about acquiring NFT familiars, you can send them on Expeditions by staking them. Non-NFT familiars can also be sent on expeditions to earn gold (and very rarely $STELLARUM), but only NFT familiars can be staked for guaranteed $STELLARUM and/or $ASTRA.
Once you have NFT keystones, you'll be able to periodically stake them alongside familiars to acquire rarer familiars in their non-NFT form.
Keystones
For those familiar with collectible card games, Keystones can be viewed as "theme enablers" that double as keys for accessing certain dungeons and controlling more powerful (higher tier) familiars. Every player will receive a set of four free non-NFT Keystones (one per element) throughout normal play that can be upgraded with $STELLARUM.
Keystone Bundles
Following Wisp Bundles, we'll release Keystone Bundles.
Each Keystone Bundle will cost 25 $HIVE (or the equivalent $HBD) and contains:
- 1x T1 Fire Keystone
- 1x T1 Air Keystone
- 1x T1 Earth Keystone
- 1x T1 Water Keystone
Why buy a Keystone Bundle?
The keystone you choose during the prologue limits which dungeons you have access to when starting out. You won't be able to use NFT keystones until you unlock the ability to switch your active keystone—this is accomplished by completing your first dungeon to obtain a 2nd non-NFT keystone—but having a full set of keystones (one of each element) will expand your exploration options when playing.
NFT keystones also have a higher upgrade cap than non-NFT keystones, and you can possess more than one NFT keystone of the same element (non-NFT's are limited to just one per element). This means you can pair NFT keystones with non-NFT keystones to create multiple "builds" for each element. If you chose fire during the prologue, your non-NFT fire keystone could be specialized for binding new familiars while your NFT fire keystone is specialized to improve the combat capabilities of your fire familiars.
Lastly, if you're planning on purchasing Attunement Bundles (see below), they cannot generate $ASTRA without having an NFT keystone of the same element staked to them.
Attunements
While possessing many of the same features of keystones (elements, upgrade paths, etc.), Attunements differ in that they are the closest thing Astral Revelations has to the land many have come to expect from blockchain games. Every player will receive a set of four free non-NFT Attunements (one per element) throughout normal play that can be upgraded with $STELLARUM.
Attunement Bundles
Following Keystone Bundles, we'll release Attunement Bundles.
Each Attunement Bundle will cost 100 $HIVE (or the equivalent $HBD) and contains:
- 1x T1 Fire Attunement
- 1x T1 Air Attunement
- 1x T1 Earth Attunement
- 1x T1 Water Attunement
Why buy an Attunement Bundle?
Since this is a post focusing on the economy of Astral Revelations, the primary reason for acquiring NFT Attunements (especially multiples) is to either really specialize your early adventure team from day 1 of launch, or to quickly setup a steady source of tokens. How you use these tokens is entirely up to you, but viable options include:
- Focusing on $STELLARUM to evolve familiars or upgrade non-NFT keystones/familiars
- Amassing a stable source of $STELLARUM to secure daily familiar rentals
- Establishing an early source of ROI by selling $STELLARUM and/or $ASTRA
~ Even more alpha! ~
The other major reason is in preparation for clan activities (see below). Whether it be clan level, weekly airdrops for clan raid performance, or clan PvP leaderboard rewards, they're all enhanced by the individual clan influence of each clan member and the total influence of the clan. The more NFT attunements you have, the more influence you contribute to your clan and its capabilities.
Token Harvesting
NFT attunements can either slot into the sanctuary—up to one per element—to provide adventure bonuses, or they can be staked to with NFT familiars and keystones to generate daily amounts of $STELLARUM and/or $ASTRA. Here are the requirements for activating an NFT attunement:
- Stake 4 NFT familiars of the same element (to enable $STELLARUM)
- Stake 1 NFT keystone of the same element (to enable $ASTRA)
The tier of each NFT involved (familiars, keystones, and attunement) influences the amount of tokens generated each day. We'll provide numbers/details closer to adding Attunement Bundles to the presale, but here is a general outline for how the amount of tokens generated each day is determined:
Daily $STELLARUM:
- Staking 4 Familiars to an Attunement "activates" it
- An activated Attunement generates between X and Y $STELLARUM each day
- Higher tier Familiars move the daily average closer to the max value (Y)
- Staking a Keystone increases the minimum value (X) relative to its tier
- A higher tier Attunement increases the max value (Y)
Daily $ASTRA:
- Staking a Keystone generates between 0 and Z $ASTRA each day
- Rarer/Higher tier Familiar Variants move the daily average closer to the max value (Z)
- A higher tier Attunement increases the minimum value (from 0)
- A higher tier Keystone increases the max value (Z)
One important detail we're currently working on is whether to impose a limit on the number of days players can wait or the total amount of tokens that can be stored before needing to collect them. In either case, token generating would pause until you retrieve them from your in-game token storage.
We're also considering a line of upgrades that increases this limit, so we could start with a lower amount that eventually expands into a more relaxed one.
Future Opportunities
~ The bestest alpha! ~
In our roadmap, we listed several future milestones without describing them. You can probably guess what they involve, but here's a sneak peak for how these features will fit into Astral Revelations' economy in the long-term.
Clan Influence
When clans are live—currently aiming for Q3 with additional features arriving sometime after launch—the biggest metric players will want to focus on is clan influence. The more of it you have (by having more and/or higher tier activated Attunements), the more rewarding each clan activity will be.
Clan Level is increased by spending $ASTRA from the clan's treasury (collected through clan activities) with each level requiring a certain amount of total influence to unlock.
Clan PvP will have a monthly leaderboard that yields rewards based on a clan's final PvP Rank and is increased by the clan's influence.
Clan Raids (challenging co-op boss fights) will also have a monthly leaderboard but yield rewards on a weekly basis based on the clan's current Raid Rank. Players that have been actively been participating in clan raids will receive rewards that are individually increased by the amount of clan influence they're contributing.
This system allows a clan struggling to achieve top ranks to earn rewards similar to top performing clans if its members work together to increase their influence.
Village Bounties and Hunts
While Expeditions provide opportunities for passive rewards by staking familiars to idle missions, Bounties and Hunts will provide active rewards for completing daily challenges or tackling dangerous bosses.
Bounties will consist of daily rotating side quests posted to the Bulletin Board of each village that can sometimes have specific requirements to complete. Those requirements will include:
- Familiars of a certain element
- Familiars of a certain race
- Using a keystone with a certain element
- Having familiars of a certain tier
Hunts will consist of a branching boss arena system that allows you to choose your path through a "tree" of boss battles. Each boss will have certain strengths and weaknesses you'll want to strategize against, and your progress will be periodically reset to allow for different choices each run.
In both cases, having multiple adventure teams will increase your options and chances for success. This is why both are slated for release sometime after launch: We want players to have time to explore Astral Revelations for a bit while preparing their strategies.
Familiar and Keystone Rentals
Currently slated for 2024, renting familiars and keystones is a double-edged sword we want to carefully balance. This means ensuring that providing easier access to familiars doesn't trivialize content while also making the process worthwhile for all involved.
Renting Familiars will cost $STELLARUM and require you to be capable of actually using the familiar before renting it. This means upgrading your sanctuary, keystone(s) and attunement(s)
enough to unlock the ability to control whatever you're wanting to rent. We don't want brand new players renting T3 familiars to faceroll early content to be a thing. Our progression system is part of the process we want each player to experience to provide more meaning to the gameplay.
Renting Keystones will cost $ASTRA and have similar restrictions: Upgrade your sanctuary to whatever point is required to use the keystone you wish to rent. Rented keystones will maintain the upgrade points the owner invested into the NFT, but the renting player will be able to "respec" the keystone once before using it. This is to make all keystones more rentable, as suboptimal upgrades won't negatively impact the renting process.
With both options, we want to enable a "try before you buy" experience where spending a few tokens to test out strategies will help players choose what to bind, upgrade and/or mint without needing to overcommit their resources. Secondary to that is the ability to flesh out existing strategies and providing earning potential for those with unused NFTs laying around.
Let's Recap!
Here are the highlights from everything we've covered.
Tokens
- Gold is used for "day-to-day" expenses
- $ASTRA is a "hodl" friendly token with an ongoing presale
- The presale tokens will be pulled from the market at launch
- All $ASTRA will be generated in-game after launch
- Tiered staking rewards for $ASTRA are coming
- Staking $ASTRA provides weekly $STELLARUM airdrops at a ratio of 10:1
- $STELLARUM is intended to be a highly liquid token with greater turnover
- $STELLARUM can only be obtained through non-combat activities and staking assets
Consumables
- Consumables can only be used before or after combat
- Non-NFT consumables are obtained with gold, single use, and have individual carry limits
- Eternal NFT consumables are obtained with $STELLARUM, multi-use, and have total carry limits
- Upgrading your sanctuary and/or keystone(s) increases your carry limits
- Clan NFT consumables are obtained with $ASTRA, function like Eternals, but can be brought to clan raids
- Clan vendors will sell a limited number of clan consumables each week
Familiars
- Non-NFT familiars can be sent on expeditions for gold (and rarely $STELLARUM)
- NFT familiars can be staked to expeditions for guaranteed $STELLARUM
- NFT familiar variants can be staked to expeditions for a chance at $ASTRA
- The first 500 people to join our Discord can request a free NFT wisp
- There's an ongoing presale for Starter Packs containing 4 NFT familiars and 2000 $ASTRA
- Presale Wisp Bundles will be priced at 10 $HIVE
Keystones
- Keystones are "theme enablers" and keys for accessing certain content
- 4 free non-NFT keystones can be earned by playing the game
- Non-NFT keystones can be upgraded with $STELLARUM
- NFT keystones have a higher upgrade cap
- Players can hold more than one NFT keystone of the same element
- NFT keystones can sometimes be staked to expeditions for rare non-NFT familiars
- Presale Keystone Bundles will be priced at 25 $HIVE
Attunements
- Attunements are our take on land
- 4 free non-NFT attunements can be earned by playing the game
- Non-NFT attunements can be upgraded with $STELLARUM
- NFT attunements have a higher upgrade cap
- NFT attunements can generate $STELLARUM by staking 4 NFT familiars of the same element
- NFT attunements can generate $ASTRA by staking 1 NFT keystone of the same element
- The tier of each NFT contributes to a greater daily "harvest"
- Familiar variants increase the chance of generating more $ASTRA
- Activated NFT attunements (i.e. those generating tokens) provide clan influence
- Presale Attunement Bundles will be priced at 100 $HIVE
To start generating tokens "straight out of the box," each Attunement Bundle needs:
- 4 Wisp Bundles (for 4 of each element)
- 1 Keystone Bundle (for 1 of each element)
The total cost for a complete "harvesting set" will be 165 $HIVE.
Getting Involved
If you're just now learning about Astral Revelations, come mingle in our Discord to get regular updates, ask any questions you might have, and hang out with your fellow gamers!
The first 500 people to do so can also receive a free NFT Wisp of their choice through our Wisp Giveaway, and you can learn about the current Starter Pack Presale if you're interested in participating in the Closed Alpha/Beta testing phases.
You can also check out some of our earlier posts below:
INTRODUCING: Surgent Gaming — A Web3/Hive Game Development Studio
Astral Revelations — An isometric turn-based pet tactics RPG (built on Hive)
Astral Revelations — Whitepaper, Roadmap, Presale, and Giveaway!
Astral Revelations — Starter Pack Presale Details (Pre-registration Available!)
$STELLARUM — 1st Airdrop Complete & An Economic Preview!
Understanding Variants — Breaking Down Familiars in Astral Revelations
Stay tuned for more Astral Revelations deets!
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