A Look At Axie Infinity Origin's Early Access

Before we go into the new look of Axie Origins, let me share a short story on how I got into Axie (or you can skip this and just scroll down lol). I started playing Axie back in July 2021, I played on a scholarship account until December 2021. All of the money I got from playing Axie were spent on creating scholar accounts and buying more Axies. Some friends would ask me why I didn't buy an account for myself first - this is because I wanted passive income. In the end, I didn't envision myself spending 2-3 hrs playing a game that frustrates me (Axie can be pretty stressful especially when you're on a losing streak). Luckily, I was able to do this because the scholarship guild that I was in was very generous. The SLP split was 70-30 where the 70% was the players' cut. Also, if you perform well you can get a 40 energy account. I managed to get promoted after 3 months of playing and my highest MMR was 2600. Unfortunately, due to my mental health declining, I had to quit Axie. Now, I'm just a manager that's looking into Origin for my scholars. Seeing what changes would be done and what actions am I going to take with this NFT game.

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This is just the information on the surface level. I think if I go any deeper on each new change, this would never end haha. So now let's look at Axie's new look:

This is the main lobby of Origin. As you can see my Axies look constipated maybe due to the amount of new information on this game. Some changes that you will instantly notice aside from the look of your pets are the collection and craft option, and you have a level gauge on the upper left corner of the lobby. What are these for? We'll go into collection and craft later on so let's first talk about the player level. So far what I've noticed is you get your experience points whenever you clear a small or big stage in adventure mode. Depending on your level, you can unlock features such as the Arena. I don't know what we can unlock more in the future but the game seems to focus on the adventure turn based RPG now.

Since the game is still on early access, you are given 3 Axies to use in Adventure. So, if you're not an Axie player but want to try it, go ahead and download the game and try Origin on your desktop or laptop. Also, I think that you can also gain more Axies that you can use as you progress into the adventures' story.

You can also notice some misspellings like Listenl. On a side note, this is Axie’s new adventure mode with a story line.

Let's take a look at our cards. Previously, Axies would have 4 available cards that you can use. Each card represents a body part of the Axie - mouth, horn, back and tail. A card is the action you take either to attack, defend, gain energy, debuff and buff mostly targeted on an individual axie. These were the basic uses of cards before but now cards can draw cards, attack random or all, buff all allies, show cards, shuffle cards, retain, burn and many more since the cards available per Axie is now 6 instead of 4. Ears and eyes also have cards affiliated with them too. What does this mean for managers? For me, this will result in having to rearrange the teams for my scholars as some of the combos before do not make sense now due to the cards effect changing. Also, attack cards do not necessarily offer defense while defense cards do not necessarily offer attack.

Additional: as I played adventure and practiced on arena, I noticed how OP disable cards are such as stun and sleep. When your Axie is stunned or asleep, it cannot use cards at all. Nada. Some cards also allow you to select which Axie to stun. Imagine if 2 of your Axies are disabled then you draw 5 cards and you can’t use any = welp.

The gameplay has now literally changed to a turn-based game. There have been so many changes for the gameplay that I will just write down the before and after notes below.

Card Action:
Before - You select your cards and create combos at the same time as your opponent. Once both sides have ended their turns the battle executes. You can select your cards and deselect your cards.
Now - Once you select your cards, the card activates and executes the action immediately as long as there are no cards currently doing an action. So, click wisely because there are no take backsies.

Turn:
Before - Both parties end their turn before the action of an exchange begins. There is an order which axie attacks first depending on the speed of the axie.
Now - A player only attacks at their turn. Once you’re done with using your energy you press end turn and your opponent begins their siege then. For adventure, you have the first turn. For Arena, the player who attacks first is random.

Energy:
Before - Energy starts at 3 and adds 2 per round. Energy can be stacked until the next turn. Doesn't run out as long as you don’t use it.
Now - Energy starts at 3 and adds 3 per round in adventure. For Arena, you start at 2 energy when you're first turn and get 3 the succeeding turns. Energy does not stack but you can add energy. Once you press the end turn button, your energy resets to 3 even if you had energy left last turn.

Cards in hand:
Before - Your hand starts with 6 cards and you draw 3 cards per round. Your cards can be held until the end of the game (if you choose not to use it or discard it lol).
Now - Start at 5 cards. All your cards are in 1 pile instead of being separated into 3 per Axie. Cards do not stay till the next round unless your card has a special effect that does so. You draw 5 new cards each turn.

I noticed the biggest change in Origin is how Adventure is run. The Adventure mode has a story now and different changes. At some point of the game, your Axies can start foraging items. You win different rewards each stage unlike before where you only get exp and slp. Now you can also get charms, runes, exp books, moonshards, and even Axie eggs ;v Waw. When you are defeated, nothing happens so far, you don’t lose anything.

Adventure mode features small and big stages. You start at a big stage where you earn battle stars. Each battle star has a requirement and the more you complete and earn battle stars the more foraging rewards you earn. After your first big stage you need to complete 2 small stages to get to another big stage and it just goes on that way.

Now let's dive into the new shiny stuff such as charms, runes and crafting.

Basically, charms and runes will help boost your win rate as these items have special effects that can strengthen your axie. Specifically, charms are used to enhance your Axie's cards while runes give your Axie unique powers. Charms and runes both have rarity from common - rare - epic - mystic.

As mentioned earlier, charms are equipped on your Axie's card and how do you do that? You go into your Axie inventory, select your Axie, and click the charm icon (encircled in orange at axie inventory image). Now, you can't just equip any charm to any card. A charm will require potential points of the matching class/element ex: Reptile card = Reptile charm, Aqua card = aqua charm and so on... Most of the cards accept NEUTRAL charms but the purer your axie is the more potential points you have. Potential points are used to equip charms so every time you equip a charm to your card your potential points lessen. Charms have levels too and the higher the level the better the effect but you need to have enough potential points to equip these powerful charms. Charms can be earned from adventure rewards or crafted using moonshards.

If you're familiar with League of Legends, we select runes that fit the champion that we selected and sometimes even a wrong rune can cost a game. In Axie, runes are somewhat similar to League. It has passive effects and enhances your Axie performance. Runes can only be equipped to an axie of a matching class. To equip a charm, just go to your Axie inventory and select the rune icon (circled in red at axie inventory image). Like charms, runes can be earned from rewards or crafted using moonshards but some special runes cannot be crafted.

Charms and runes can be crafted once you've unlocked chapter 1 stage 6. Crafting is a feature in which materials are converted into rune, charms and other items. At level 1 crafting level, you can craft using a basic recipe which can give you a random common charm or rune. As your crafting level goes up, you can craft better items. There are also special items that are craftable which help boost probability. During early access, you can try out crafting using moonshards and later on SLP can be also used as a material to craft NFT runes and charms.

In the image above, on the right side of the screen, you can see the probability of what item I might get. Here, I selected intermediate crafting and added a special item. Hence, the higher success rate of crafting an item above common rarity.

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With these new features in origin, Axie has become slightly complex. Now, you can strengthen your Axie by grinding experience points and earning rewards through Adventure. Unlike previously, you go in, grind your adventure for SLP and daily quest. Axie Origin has cuter Axies but still awakens the RPG grinder spirit in you and what’s better as a gamer to spend your time playing games while earning money at the same time. As for me, I might go back to playing Axie for a bit as it seems more enjoyable now compared to before. Money wise, as long as slp has value I have a bit of passive income to buy candy or dog food (jk) ;v

Let me know what you think of Axie's new features and maybe share some winning strategies for Arena battles!

~ Nmore

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Disclaimer: This is from Axie Origin early access. There might be more changes in the future.