Sky Mavis has announced its plans for Axie Infinity: Origin, the upcoming free-to-play version of its play-to-earn game Axie Infinity.
According to the Vietnam-based game developer, Axie Infinity: Origin will feature "new interfaces, game mechanics, art, special effects, storylines, and expansive onboarding experience," making it "more approachable for a mainstream audience." Moreover, it will come with "3 free starter Axies."
For those unaware, Axie Infinity's play-to-earn scheme is based on NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which prove ownership of a digital item. In the case of Axie Infinity, players must first purchase three Axies (the game's token-based digital pets) in order to play the Pokemon-inspired game. After that, they can earn token rewards in the form of SLP (Smooth Love Potion) that can be swapped for other cryptocurrencies.
With Axie Infinity Origin's free starter Axies, players will get a taste of the game without earning SLP reward tokens, although some form of reward mechanism may be added later. The free monsters will not be available for sale or transfer but will be integrated into the game client of Axie Infinity.
Along with the free Axies, the new "V3" fighting system will be introduced, which will be more robust and strategic than the present model, as well as new battle cards, power-ups, and other improvements.
Moreover, Sky Mavis believes that "this fast-paced new game design is more engaging and provides a greater feeling of control over your Axies."
The updated mechanics of Axie Infinity Origin include Axies that immediately attack after Trainers play their cards. As noted by the developers, "opposing trainers will take sequential turns using their cards versus choosing them simultaneously at the beginning of a round (as in Battles v2)."
The devs also decided to remove random critical hits from combat. Instead, they will introduce new "above-card play mechanics" like a continuously accumulating rage meter.
Axie Infinity Origin is slated for release by the end of the first quarter of 2022. The alpha phase will launch soon, and interested players will be able to download the game through Sky Mavis' hub or Android APK.
Also read: List of Free NFT Games (Play-to-Earn)
To know more about Axie Infinity Origin, you can go to Axie's Substack page, The Lunacian, at https://axie.substack.com/p/origin.
