Crabada: A Complete Guide to the Play-to-Earn Idle Game

In the past few years, we have had our fair share of play-to-earn games. We saw the rise of Axie Infinity, which created the blueprint for gaming crypto projects. While most games in the blockchain space struggle to survive in bearish market conditions, we can't say the same thing about Crabada.

It's an exciting play-and-earn NFT game that stood tall during the recent crypto gaming dip. Let’s uncover what makes Crabada different from other blockchain games.

What is Crabada?

Crabada is by far the most popular play-to-earn game on Avalanche. And I don't mean Avril Lavigne kind of popular. I mean international superstar Britney Spears type of popular. As of the time of writing, Crabada has more than 12,000 active wallets, making it the #24 most popular crypto game in April 2022.

At one point, it was responsible for 64% of all weekly transactions on Avalanche. These numbers tell even a bigger story, considering that Crabada managed to do all of that in a period when there wasn't much hype around crypto games.

The game is set in a world that's occupied by fierce hermit crabs called Crabada. Players can earn in-game currencies, CRA, CRAM, and TUS, through mining, looting, breeding their crabs, or staking tokens. But Crabada offers a lot more than crab blasting each other using their skills. It has one of the more unique economic models, so let's take a look at it. It will help us understand the earning potential of this crab-themed play-to-earn NFT game.

What is Crabada's Game Economy?

Few crypto games use only one native token. Most established games like Axie Infinity and Thetan Arena have two. But not Crabada. The game uses a three-token economic model.

Let's take a look at what each one does.

Crabada (CRA) - The Governance Token

© Crabada

By the end of 2023, Crabada will have 3 games - an Idle Game, a Battle Game, and a Farm Game. For each of these, the incentive period for earning CRA is around 3 months.

We have missed the boat on the Idle Game but we can still earn CRA by playing the Battle Game or the upcoming Farm Game. You can also buy the token via decentralized crypto exchanges on Avalanche such as Trader Joe.

Treasure Under Sea (TUS) - Crabada's Game Currency

TUS is the game token that players earn by participating in game battles such as looting. But there are more ways to earn TUS than simply participating in the Battle Game. You can earn it by mining or lending your Crabs via the Tavern.

Crabada Amulet (CRAM) - The Token That Gives You In-Game Perks

Players earn CRAM by staking their CRA tokens. Owning CRAM gives you benefits like having a larger team. The bigger your team is, the more games you can play and the more you can earn.

How to Participate in Cradaba?

© Remi Turcotte / Unsplash

Now that we know more about Crabada's different tokens which serve as game rewards, it's playtime. There are three ways to participate in the game and start earning crypto. It all depends on how much money you’re willing to spend.

Let’s check them out.

The Budget-Friendly Option - CrabaDAO

Crabada has a quite high barrier of entry. At the time of writing this, one Crab NFT goes for around $500 which is a lot for most crypto gamers. This is where CrabaDAO comes in. It's a collective that doesn't have a direct affiliation with the Crabada game or its developers. But it offers players more accessibility.

By buying its NFT, you get membership access to the DAO. Right now, one membership NFT goes for around 0.6 AVAX which is worth around $10 bucks. With the funds generated from the NFT sales, CrabaDAO buys crab teams and distributes the rewards to its members. As of now, 100% of the sales funds minus the gas fees go to purchasing crab teams.

If you become a member, you'll start earning both CRA and TUS which would be airdropped to your NFT-holding wallet.

The Standard Route - Buy 1 Crab and Rent It Out

If you want to go deeper into the game, you'll need to buy 1 Crab. While having only 1 Crab won't be enough to start participating in looting and mining missions, it's plenty to get you some passive income.

The process is straightforward. You buy one Crab and start renting it out in the Tavern in exchange for TUS. You decide how much TUS you’ll charge for your Crab. But keep in mind that Crabs listed for more than 330 TUS won't be displayed in the Tavern.

The Degen Option - Buy 3 Crabs to Start Mining and Looting

To experience Crabada in its full glory, you'd have to buy at least 3 crabs. Having that many crabs will give you access to the mining and looting missions. These missions include active involvement in the game, resulting in exclusive rewards.

It’s unfortunate that currently, we can’t rent crabs for mining and looting. We have to buy them, so we can play these missions. This option comes at the highest cost, 3 Crabs are worth less than $20 at the moment, but the rewards might be worth it. It all depends on how interested you're in the blockchain gaming space.

How do you Make Money from Crabada?

There have been a lot of blockchain gaming projects that have promised their users life-changing earnings. Almost none of them delivered. Crabada takes a more transparent approach, showing you how much in-game tokens you can earn from each in-game activity. They revealed all of that in their whitepaper. That's a nice change of pace for the crypto gaming industry.

Crabada offers its users three different ways to earn crypto which include:

1. Mining

© Crabada

Having at least 3 Crabs allows you to form a Mining Party, giving you access to various mining missions. If you're successful on those missions, you'll be earning CRA and TUS. After we have assembled our party, we need to find and select a vacant mine to deploy our Crab team. And that's it! Our Crabs will start mining the treasure without us doing anything. Each Mining expedition takes around 4 hours, giving you a return of 3.75 CRA (currently worth ~$0.05) and 303.75 TUS (currently worth $0.06). You'll get these rewards once the expedition is done.

Don’t get confused the mining missions in Crabada with the traditional crypto mining. In Crabada, mining is an "idle game", allowing users to earn crypto. It has nothing to do with securing the blockchain network.

2. Looting Missions

If you have a higher risk tolerance, you might enjoy looting missions more than mining. Again, to start looting, we must form a Looting Party of 3 Crabs. After that, we need to find a mine that has hard-working miners. Then we start our attack!

We deploy our Looting Party and the Crabs will start engaging the other player's Mining Party in cut-throat crab combat.

Each Looting Mission takes between 1-2.5 hours, depending on whether or not the miner sends reinforcements. They can call for help within the first 30 minutes of the attack. If that happens, the looter can also use their own reinforcements within 30 minutes.

Your Looting Party will earn a small bounty of 0.3 CRA (worth around 2 cents) and 24.3 TUS (worth almost $1) for each looting mission they participate in. To have a successful Looting Mission, we must steal 65% of the Mining Party's rewards. If we do that, we would earn a grand total of 2.7 CRA (worth $1.62) and 221 TUS (worth $8). But for unsuccessful looting, we will only get the small bounty for the mission. Also, keep in mind that looters have a 1-hour cooldown, meaning that we'd have to wait a bit before our next attack.

3.v Lending Mercenary Crabs via the Tavern

If you have a few Crabs but don't want to do daily mining expeditions or looting activities, then you can lend them out in the Tavern. It's Crabada's marketplace for lending and hiring Crabs.

Remember we mentioned looting before? Well, mining parties are always at risk of being targeted by looting parties, but fear not, players who are under a looting attack can pay a fee to use your Crabs as reinforcements. After the attack, your Crabs will return to the Tavern unharmed from the battle.

When someone hires your Crab, you'll get paid in TUS. How much? Well, that depends entirely on you but keep in mind that the Tavern charges 10% on all transactions.

How to Buy a Crab?

It’s easy to buy or rent Crabs. Everything happens on Crabada’s site, so you won’t need to have 15 different tabs open at all times. Here's how:

Step 1: Add the Avalanche Network to your Metamask

© Tanyo Gochev

Click on the "Add Network" button and fill out this information:

Network Name: Avalanche Network
New RPC URL: https://api.avax.network/ext/bc/C/rpc
ChainID: 43114
Symbol: AVAX
Explorer: https://snowtrace.io/

Step 2: Buy AVAX from a crypto exchange

You can use popular digital exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.

Step 3: Send it to your Metamask wallet

Step 4: Exchange your AVAX for the TUS token

We will be using TUS to purchase the NFT.

Step 5: Go to the Crabada Marketplace

© Tanyo Gochev

Step 6: Look for a Crab based on our goals

© Crabada

If you’re going to mine a lot, it makes sense to choose a Crab with a higher speed and critical stats. That’s because these types of Crabs will help you get bigger mining rewards faster.

When assembling your team, keep in mind that Prime Crabs specialize in mining, giving you bigger rewards through activities. You get 10% in additional mining rewards by having them in your party. Also, Crabs with high-speed stats can shorten the mining duration by up to 30 minutes.

But if you want to loot other miners, buying Crabs with a higher attack, armor, and HP stats makes more sense. Losing a looting attack is expensive, so getting a Crab with these stats will make your victory more likely.

Step 7: Let's get this bad boy

Step 8: Success

How to Rent a Crab?

Now that we have our Crab, it's time to rent it out:

Step 1: Navigate to Crabada's site

Step 2: Connect your wallet by clicking the “Connect Wallet” button

Step 3: Go to the Tavern

© Crabada

Step 4: Click on the “Rented out” tab to select the Crab you want to rent

© Crabada

Step 5: Fill out your Crab's hiring price

© Crabada

Step 6: You did it

You can stop renting it at any time you'd like by clicking the "Cancel > Yes" button.

© Crabada

What's next for Crabada?

Crabada has a lot of things going for it. It has a strong user base, a diverse economy, and unique game mechanics. Since the launch of the game at the end of 2021, there have been +20M in-game transactions. That's a huge number for a game that's not even a year old.

Due to the transaction volume, Crabada will launch its own subnet (the Swimmer Network) on Avalanche. Its testnet will launch on April 22 for the community to test it out. The testnet will help the Crabada's team to ensure everything is working well.

If the launch is smooth, the players will use a dedicated gaming blockchain. It will hopefully result in a more engaging experience for the users. We are excited to see how that launch goes! It could be the thing that turns Crabada from a popular Avalanche game into the go-to P2E game for crypto enthusiasts.

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