Champions Arena is the latest game from Gala Games to hit the market and is rapidly turning heads. This mobile, turn based RPG features a unique game economy unlike anything yet seen in all of gaming. This dual layer economy allows for the Champions Arena to appeal both to “traditional gamers” who prefer to avoid anything blockchain related as well as “web3 gamers” who value features such as owning their own assets and earning crypto for their time spent in game.
Traditional Game Economy
Champions Arena can be downloaded on PC, iOS, or Android and played like a traditional free to play game. It features a robust economy with multiple different currencies. Understanding them all will be crucial to maximizing progression in the game.
Experience & Gold
It might be odd to think of xp as a currency, but I’m including it here because it can actually be bought and sold via the gem market (more on that market shortly). There are two types of xp, summoner and champion.
The summoner is you, the player, so summoner xp is used to level up the overall account. This can unlock more powerful spells, increase the max daily arena rewards, and increase the amount of idle rewards your account can hold before claiming.
Champion xp is used along with gold to level up individual champions. Experience earned can be used on any champion, regardless of whether or not they participated in battles, so you do not need to battle with a champion to level it up.
Both types of xp can be earned from participating in various game modes as well as from idle rewards that automatically accumulate every day. Gold can also be extracted from lapis, another common reward found throughout the game.
Soulstones
Soulstones are used to increase the star count/quality, or rank, of champions. Increasing a champion’s rank will increase its overall stats as well as the max level it can reach. Soulstones can be earned in small quantities from various game modes and quests or in larger quantities by dismantling a champion (typically done when you pull duplicate champions).
Essence
Essense is a currency used primarily in the Mayhem game mode. In this game mode essence is exchanged to go on passive explorations with characters, mine, plunder, or actively attack raids by yourself or in groups. These activities generate a large range of rewards, including all of the previous currencies listed above! Essence is granted daily from quests and login bonuses and can be purchased in the shop.
Mileage
Mileage is earned from game modes such as Mayhem and Trial Tower and can be exchanged in the shop for other items. Items rotate daily and can include anything from soul stones to essence to xp.
Upgrade Stones
Upgrade stones are used to enchant equipment. The primary way to earn upgrade stones is by dismantling equipment and clearing floors in the Trial Tower. There are multiple levels of upgrade stones. The quantity and level of upgrade stones needed is dependent on the rarity and level of the equipment.
Gems
Gems are the premium currency of Champions Arena. There are 2 different forms, paid gems and free gems. Minting scrolls and peer-to-peer trades in the market require paid gems that can only be acquired by spending money, while everything else can be acquired using free gems.
The primary way to acquire free gems is to sell items in the marketplace. The marketplace can be found in the estate (choose an estate with low fees!). Many items, such as soulstones, equipment, upgrade stones, and chest rewards can be sold to other players for gems.
While gems can be used to purchase items from the primary and secondary shops, one of the most popular uses for gems is the Altar of Champions. Here you can spend gems to summon champions. Normal summons can reward soulstones or full champions, while premium summons guarantee you a full champion pull. These are equivalent to the “packs” or “loot boxes” you find in nearly all free to play games. It is the primary way to obtain new champions in game.
Play to Earn Economy
In addition to the traditional game economy, Champions Arena has an additional, optional blockchain economy as well. This integrates NFTs as well as the $GALA token.
Champion NFTs
Any champion in the game has the potential to exist as an NFT. Champions owned in game can be unlocked as an NFT, while retaining their same stats, by using minting scrolls. Minting scrolls can be purchased from the cash shop The amount of minting scrolls required depends on the rarity of the champion. Common champions are the cheapest at $100 while legendary champions are the most expensive at $1300.
Owning your champion as an NFT has 2 primary benefits. First, it gives you true ownership of that champion, including the ability to sell it to other players using marketplaces such as OpenSea. Second, it unlocks the ability to earn $GALA from arena battles.
An NFT champion does not have any advantage in battle over its non-NFT counterpart and does not aid in progressing through the game.
Earning Gala
Players who have at least 1 NFT champion in their arena lineup can crypto by winning arena battles. Winning battles will award Victory Points based on the rarity of NFT champions used and the current league the player is in. The full formula can be found in the litepaper.
At the end of every day, the $GALA reward pool is then distributed based on the victory points a player earns compared to the total victory points earned by all players in the game. The total $GALA pool is composed of 15% of revenue from gem purchases and Champions Arena Gala purchases.
Estates
Estates are the closest thing we have to guilds in Champions Arena. Players can join estates as a member or visit as a non member to use the gem market or recruit, promote, or dismantle heroes. Estate owners receive a percent cut of all gem purchases that go through their estate. Members of estates can work together to construct and level up buildings to improve estate offerings.
Nexus
Nexus is an NFT that has not yet been implemented into Champions Arena. Once this feature arrives, owning a Nexus will allow players to rent out their NFT champions to other players in exchange for a percentage of their pvp earnings. Nexus can be leveled up in order to increase the percent earnings for both the owner and the renter. This is projected to go live in November.
