A deep dive into how we plan on handling “play to earn” without hindering the player’s experience

Two of the major hurdles that every “play to earn” game encounters nowadays are:

• The unsustainability of the play to earn paradigm
• The pay to win that leads to the richer being better

We have already tackled the first problem in the previous article where we introduced the Coliseum.

Here, we will discuss the second problem by showing how our new system will provide: a fun, diverse, and competitive gameplay to everyone. Our game will give those who are willing to invest a chance to win more

Here is a simple spell: Root. It is one of many spells that you can use in 9tales to outwit your opponent. Notice the small charges in the bottom of the card’s description.

These represent the card’s level. I see what you are thinking: Card levels? Another pay to win game where you have to level up your cards to make them stronger!

Actually, the level of a card has nothing to do with its strength. Whether a card is level 0 (free to play), or 6 (the maximum level). The card’s strength, its text and all its in-game characteristics will remain the same.

The only thing that changes, is the reward!

Your deck has a total value called: fortune. The fortune of your deck is computed using the levels of all the cards in your deck. The total fortune of your deck is what determines how much play to earn rewards you will get upon winning.

Moreover, each card has only a finite amount of energy. The energy of the card determines how many games it will add fortune to your deck in a 24h period.

For the fortune, the general rule of thumb is that each level up increases the fortune of your card by a factor between 2 and 3. For the energy each card has 10 energy at level 1 and gets 5 more energy for each level between 2 and 5, then it gets 10 more energy at level 6.

In other words, you cannot spam the same cards all day long and expect to keep gaining rewards. You have to master different decks and cards if you want to get the most of your play to earn experience. This also ensures that the meta of the game will always stay diverse.

How to level up cards?

For the moment, you will level up your cards by combining multiple copies of the same card and paying a small fee in NIT. It takes 6 similar cards of the same level to level up. If your card is level 1 you will need 6 copies of it to get it to level 2. If it is level 5 you will need 6 copies of the same level 5 card to get it to level 6.

These numbers might change as we launch our open beta and get more insight into the statistics of the game.

But there is more!

Once a card reaches level 6 it becomes a foil card. There is also a verysmall chance of finding a level 6 foil card directly in a cards pack.

Foil cards are very special, as they do not only add a big amount of fortune to your deck, but they also have a chance of giving you a level 1 copy of themselves after you win a game.

The choice is up to you, will you take your shot and transform your card into a foil one or are you going to only play for fun with level 1 cards. There is something for everyone in our reward system.

To summarize

• Cards levels have no influence on the gameplay
• A high card level will have a significant level of fortune and energy
• Fortune determines your reward in case you win
• Energy determines the number of times a card will contribute to your fortune in a day
• Foil cards give you a chance of dropping a level 1 copy of themselves
• Cards level up by combining copies of themselves and paying a small fee in NIT
• This system works in the play&earn game mode, for our compete to earn system please read this
• Finally, the play to earn rewards in the ranked game modes will also depend on your ranking.