Mario Bautista
Web3 game developer, publisher, and ecosystem Nexus Interactive has announced that their free to play turn-based trading card game Everdawn: Champions is heading into Early Access this September 25th on the Epic Games Store for Windows PCs.
By wishlisting the web3 game ahead of its early launch, you stand a chance of winning free Genesis Card Packs, giving you more options in building out your starting deck for an even more varied tactical blockchain gaming experience. Opening Genesis Card Packs will probably give you 5 minted tradable cards per pack. The ability to open these packs was introduced in July this year, and the complete list of all Genesis Cards that exist was revealed in that same month, so you can have a look at the list on Medium to see what kind of cards you have a chance of getting should you be lucky enough to win Genesis Card Packs for free. An unspecified number of wishlisters will be randomly picked for this special airdrop.
The Genesis Collection consists of a total of 65,001 Genesis cards, representing 49 different, unique cards, 5 of which are 1/1 Mythic for each faction. Next to this NFT collection, there will also be a Core Collection that will feature onchain gold cards, and non-tradable silver cards.
Let’s now dive into everything we know about this Base-powered blockchain game so far.
What Is Everdawn: Champions?
Everdawn: Champions is a turn-based game where players build decks of cards to deploy on hexagonal battlefields, bringing those cards into 3D life. The medieval-themed title is backed by industry titans and leading investors such as Animoca Brands, GameFi Ventures, Avocado Guild, Maven Capital, and more, all of which helped the development studio raise $2 million to develop this free to play title as well as their entire growing gaming ecosystem.
Based on the gameplay footage revealed up to now, players will engage in tactical 1v1 gameplay where the goal is to destroy the opponent’s golem while defending your own. This golem however isn’t static, so you can choose to move him around the map and attack enemy units if needed. It does also seem that there will be 2 control points for players to capture on the map, potentially giving you another way of securing victory.
Players will be able to deploy a variety of different fantasy cards, including a Commanding Warrior, melee units, ranged units, and spells, all divided into a couple of different rarities. The previously-mentioned list of Genesis Cards also reveals that some ranged cards have longer attacking range than others. According to an official X thread from last month, Every Commanding Warrior has a special ability, and should your opponent defeat your Commanding Warrior, it will go back into your hand to allow you to redeploy it, but at a higher mana cost. Each card has a certain mana cost, and some of them may come with a range of different keywords that determine what the card does after a certain action. Some keywords include Tombstone, Vengeance, and Warcry. Tombstone causes something to happen when the unit dies, while Vengeance activates when the unit survives an attack and Warcry is enabled when you do something with that particular unit.
Every deck can have a total of 25 cards, which include 1 Commanding Warrior and 24 regular cards (units, spells).
But how does this turn-based game attempt to make the experience more balanced for the player that doesn’t start the match first? Well, according to a tweet earlier this month, players who go second will get 2 bonus cards that the first player doesn’t receive: Mana Card and Blink Card. The Mana Card gives you a bonus Mana point to give you more options when deploying cards, while the Blink Card lets you teleport a unit up to 2 spaces to give you more room for strategic movement.
You can check out what the gameplay is actually like for yourself via the early access trailer down below. If you’ve enjoyed playing the beta version of card-based tactics game Shardbound, or simply like turn-based games in general, then you may possibly want to look forward to trying out Everdawn: Champions. You can also start farming Airdrop Points and possibly more right now by completing weekly Unique Quests in Everdawn: Questing Realms.
What Is Everdawn: Questing Realms?
Everdawn: Questing Realms is the first game made by Nexus Play, the gaming studio division of the Nexus ecosystem. It’s played via browsers by creating an account using Google or by connecting your web3 wallet.
Once you’ve created your character, you can start sending your Champion out on time-based quests that differ in difficulty and as such can have varying estimated success rates. There are quests from 4 different factions, and completing them is rewarded with Silver Coins and XP, with the former used for enhancing your character’s skills, while the latter levels your warrior up to increase their stats. Sending Champions on quests is rewarded with a Daily Loot Chest, which can include Airdrop Points and potentially other useful items.
Next to the faction quests, the mini-game also features weekly special events referred to as Unique Quests. Players can complete 1 Unique Quest each week to earn bonus Airdrop Points and in-game items. You will find Unique Quests marked with a white exclamation mark coupled with a purple background on the map. Starting a Unique Quest will require entering a specific keyword, which is the answer to a question that an NPC called Stix gives you, so you will need to figure out the answer to start the quest. Once you do though, you are guaranteed to 100% beat the 1-hour quest.
Collecting Airdrop Points will help you secure an allocation of the ecosystem’s upcoming $NXI token, which is planned to launch in Q4 2024. You can learn more about it in this section of the ecosystem whitepaper.
