How to Play Aavegotchi: A Beginner's Guide

Aavegotchi is a Tamagotchi-inspired crypto-collectibles game developed by Singapore-based Pixelcraft Studios, which combines Decentralized Finance (DeFi) with non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Players can stake NFT avatars with interest-generating assets (aTokens) and engage with the Aavegotchi metaverse, a.k.a the Gotchiverse, which is yet to be released.

The Gotchiverse is an open-ended virtual world created by Aavegotchi that would allow users to engage in a variety of activities such as crafting, farming, fighting, and trading. The Gotchiverse consists of a large land area, with key landmarks occupying The Citaadel, The Grid, and The Beyond.

Aavegotchis like interacting with their friends, going on “Aadventures” together, and exploring dungeons in the Gotchiverse. To learn more about the futuristic Metaverse and tons of unreleased content, please visit Aavegotchi Wiki.

Although most of the features have not been launched, Aavegotchi’s price has grown swiftly since its inception in September 2020. The game may expand further following the launch of the Haunt 2 event. Continue reading to find out how you may immerse yourself in the current version of Aavegotchi gameplay.

What is an Aavegotchi?

Aavegotchis are ERC-721 NFTs depicting pixelated ghosts living on the Ethereum blockchain. Aavegotchi’s value is decided by factors including staked collateral (aTokens), base traits, and equipped wearables.

Collateral stake: Each Aavegotchi is staked with a required amount of aTokens, or Aave-backed ERC20 collateral, which will generate yield and accrues value over time. This is what determines Aavegotchi’s “intrinsic value.”

Base Traits: Each Aavegotchi possesses multiple traits that would influence their base rarity score (BRS), performance in mini-games, and eligibility to equip certain wearables. Some traits are generated randomly when the Gotchi was born, while others are determined by the player's interactions with the Gotchi.

Random Traits: Upon birth, every Aavegotchi is assigned with six random trait values:
- AGG = Aggressiveness
- NRG = Energy
- SPK = Spookiness
- BRN = Brain Size
- EYS = Eye Shape
- EYC = Eye Color

Each trait is assigned a rarity rating of Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Mythical, and they are distributed on a bell curve. Base rarity score (BRS) can be derived from the trait’s value of an Aavegotchi using the following formula.

Kinship: Kinship is not distributed randomly; instead, it begins at a fixed value of 50 at birth and increases or decreases depending on various circumstances, including how long the Aavegotchi has been with the same owner and how frequently the owner interacts with it.
Experience: By voting in AavegotchiDAO and playing in mini-games, Aavegotchis gain experience and level up. Aavegotchis gain one Spirit Point every three levels, which can increase or decrease a particular attribute.

Wearables: Wearables are in-game assets that can be worn by an Aavegotchi and alter its appearance temporarily. Wearables can also increase or decrease certain traits of an Aavegotchi. Some wearables may only be equipped by Aavegotchis who have particular collaterals, are of a certain level, or have certain traits.

How to start playing Aavegotchi?

1. Get Some GHST Token

To start playing Aavegotchi game, you’ll need some GHST token, the native cryptocurrency of the game. GHST can be used to purchase the game’s assets, including Aavegotchi, portals, wearables, consumables, and collectibles items. GHST also offers various additional features, such as staking and voting on the decentralized platform.

You need a sufficient amount of GHST tokens to start playing Aavegotchi. There are several ways to obtain GHST tokens. Simply click on “Get GHST” at the main menu to determine which one is your preference.

Buying from the Bonding Curve (requires KYC, which precludes citizens of the United States, China, North Korea, and Iran)
Buying from Decentralized Exchanges on the Ethereum Mainnet such as Uniswap
Buying from Decentralized Exchanges on the Polygon Network such as QuickSwap
Buying from Centralized Exchanges such as Binance and Kraken

Aavegotchi has migrated to Polygon in early-2021, so you’ll have to bridge your assets using the Aavegotchi bridge to spend your GHST tokens. In short, Polygon is Ethereum's Layer 2 scaling solution that provides faster and nearly costless transactions. To learn more about how to bridge assets from Ethereum to Polygon, please read this article.

2. Visit the Marketplace (Baazaar)

The Baazaar is Aavegotchi’s official secondary marketplace. Sellers can list their items for sale, which will incur a 0.1 GHST listing fee to prevent spam listings. When a listing is created or updated on Polygon, the 0.1 GHST fees will be transferred directly to the burn address, putting deflationary pressure on the currency.

At the time of writing, Baazaar is also the only place to buy an Aavegotchi. Alternatively, you may wait for the “Haunt 2” event to bid for a portal, which is scheduled to take place on August 26.

3. Summon a Friend

You can “summon” an Aavegotchi from the “Nether Realm” through a portal. Each portal contains 10 “friends”, in which you could select 1 out of the 10 to summon, while the remaining ones will vanish.

Initially, each portal would cost approximately 100 GHST on the platform, but they are all sold out. Fortunately, these devices will also be released in ‘Haunts’, a time-limited event that offers 10,000 Portals up for auctions. You may also purchase a portal from the Baazaar.

To claim an Aavegotchi from the portal, you need to stake the required amount of various aTokens (Spirit Force) to the portal. These aTokens can be acquired directly via Aave or decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. The staked assets provide each Gotchi with intrinsic value, in addition to its rarity value and market forces.

The main factor determining which friend you should summon among the nine others is base rarity score or BRS. A rare friend is expected to have 500 BRS and above.

4. Engage in Rarity Farming

Why does rarity matter so much, you may ask? Well, this is where rarity farming comes in. As the name implies, rarity farming is a game mechanism that rewards players who successfully raise the rarest Gotchis in a given period. It aims to reward users that engage with the ecosystem enthusiastically.

At the end of each period, the rarest Gotchis will receive an allocation of GHST rewards, which are derived from 40% of all GHST spent.

Currently, there are three types of rarity farming:

Aavegotchi Rarity Scores
Kinship Scores
Experience

5. Interact with your Gotchi

You can engage with your Aavegotchi in a variety of ways at your Aavegotchi profile:

Pet - Pay a small fee to pet your Gotchi every 12 hours to increase its kinship by 1.
Equip - Equip your Gotchi with wearables to raise its base rarity score.
Feed - Feed your Gotchi with consumables bought from the Baazaar. Consumables are items that would increase your Gotchi’s traits when consumed.
Rename - Rename your best friend like how you would name your pet.

At the lower right corner, you can add more Spirit Force (aToken stake) to your Gotchi. However, adding more Spirit Force than the minimum amount provides no further benefits or rarity to your Gotchi.

Mini-Games

There are two types of mini-games in the Gotchiverse: official mini-games and community-created mini-games. At the time of writing, developers are still working on the official mini-games. More information will be updated here once it is released.

To ensure fair gameplay across a wide range of trait distributions, each mini-game will provide advantages/disadvantages towards different Aavegotchi traits. For instance, a “HYPER-AGGRESSIVE” Gotchi may perform well in a Fight Club, but not in a cake-baking mini-game.

Staking

Staking refers to locking up your cryptocurrency to serve as a validator to the blockchain in return for rewards. GHST token can be staked in the Staking Contract to earn FRENS token.

FRENS are a non-transferable balance and are not available for purchase. It can be used to redeem Raffle Tickets or Drop Tickets:

Raffle Tickets can be used to enter periodic Wearable Raffles for a chance to win Wearables.
Drop Tickets can be used to win Portals and REALM Parcels in NFT Raffles.

Upcoming Event - Haunt 2 Aauction

The Haunt 2 “Aauction” will introduce 15,000 new Aavegotchis into the Ether Realm. The portals will be auctioned off for 80% of the total with the GBM auction model (where bidders make money when they are outbid, a.k.a #BidToEarn). The remaining 20% will be allocated through a Drop Ticket Raffle. What's more, at least 36 new wearables of various rarity levels will be available during the event.

Conclusion

Aavegotchi is a well-designed game that is still in its early stages with solid fundamentals, little awareness, and a blooming community. As the game continues to grow further, we can expect to see an increase in players and game features.

Like any other blockchain-based game we introduced to you earlier, players are required to invest ample amounts of money and time into Aavegotchi to see positive returns. Hence, never invest money that you can't afford to lose into the game, and kindly take note that this article is not financial advice. We hope you enjoy the guide and stay tuned for more Aavegotchi gameplay guides.

If you are interested in other crypto games, check out the following articles to learn about more games and how to play them.

References

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