Author: FaultProofBen
Before we start, I want to give a quick shoutout to the legendary nis.eth for collecting both Onchain Games Are Leveling Up and DeSports: How Onchain Games Can Democratize Sports Team Ownership last week!
I really appreciate your support :)
As always, you can collect those pieces and today’s for free by smashing the mint button above!
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Gm!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve written about my experience playing onchain games like Sky Strife.
I discussed the highs of victory, the lows of humiliating defeat, and the lessons learned along the way.
Sky Strife is one of my three favorite onchain games, along with Words3 and a new entrant to my Top-3 that I’ve talked about a few times here on WASD:
Primodium is a resource management game built in MUD and currently holding a public playtest on the Lattice Testnet.
The objective of the game is to build a galactic empire and top the in-game leaderboard by mining resources, creating factories, and colonizing asteroids.
Primodium has been out for a while, but recently released a major update, v0.7, that overhauled its gameplay and greatly improved its graphics.
Before this update, I had tried Primodium, but had not been fully immersed in the game.
However, starting last week, I’ve become completely hooked.
Today, I’ll walk you through my experience playing Primodium and my quest to build the legendary empire of Wasdtopia.
Throughout, I’ll also include my takes on different aspects of the game, as well leak some alpha on an upcoming patch that I think will shake up (in a good way) its competitive dynamics.
As always, what I describe is just an interpretation of a series of transactions. It may or may not be a correct, you’ll have to check the chain to see for yourself ;)
Be sure to keep reading on after, so you can get a primer on last week’s hottest onchain gaming news, along with my picks for three games to try this week and a breakdown of Loot Survivor.
Now, let’s get to it!
Primodium 101
Before diving into my adventures in Primodium, here’s some background on the design and core mechanics of the game.
Primodium is a browser-based game. To start playing, you simply have to head over to their site and hit the “Play” button.
Once you do, you’ll notice right away that you don’t have to connect your wallet.
This is because Primodium, like many other onchain games, uses burner wallets, a wallet that is stored locally in your browser and has the right to sign transactions on your behalf.
This means that gameplay is entirely signature free. Given that every action you take in the game is a transaction, this is a huge boost to Primodium’s UX and makes gameplay feel very smooth.
(Note: Don’t clear your browsing data, or you will lose access to your burnet wallet!)
Upon entering the game, you’ll spawn with your own asteroid.
While each player has their own personal asteroid, all of them live in a shared belt.
Each asteroid comes with a Main Base, a building that you have to upgrade in order to level up. Leveling up is critical to progressing through the game, as it allows you to unlock new resources, create new factories, and increase the buildable area on your asteroid.
This latter aspect is particularly important, as the name of the game in Primodium is production efficiency.
Each mine or building in Primodium takes up a certain amount of space on your asteroid, so you to choose wisely and construct the optimal placement of buildings in order to maximize your production efficiency and capacity.
In addition to your Main Base, you’ll also begin the game with deposits of four resources:
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Iron
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Copper
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Lithium
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Sulfer
You can extract these resources and put them to use by building mines.
Each mine (and all factories in the game) produces output at a per-minute rate that you can increase through upgrades.
Mines are the foundation of any Primodium civilization, as the four aforementioned resources are critical inputs to creating other materials and buildings.
You see, gameplay in Primodium is sequential.
To build something you want in the game, you’ll have to go through a series of steps such as:
Step 1: Mine a resource.
Step 2: Use that resource to build a factory.
Step 3: Use the output from that factory to construct a building or mine another resource.
And so on and so on.
That may seem a bit abstract but don’t worry, I’ll have some tangible examples to show this later.
There are also several key building types that are worth knowing so you can understand what on Earth (or should I say, what on asteroid) I’m talking about.
One of these are factories, which produce materials like alloy, iron plates, and cells that serve as inputs to create other buildings.
Another is solar panels, which allow you to generate electricity. Electricity is a utility (which refers to a resource in the game that has a fixed supply), and whose capacity you can increase through either upgrades or by building new panels.
Electricity is a critical component for two other building types in particular: Hangers and Training Centers. These buildings are used to train and house units, autonomous spacecraft that you can send out into the belt to battle other players and colonize Motherlodes.
Motherlodes are special asteroids that contain one of four rare resources (including Titanium) that are critical to progressing through the later stages of the game.
So as you can see, there’s a lot going on in Primodium.
It may seem overwhelming at first, but you’ll get the hang of it when you start playing for a bit (If I could then you can).
If you need more info, there is a game guide that covers the basics, and the team is very responsive to questions in their Discord.
The Wasdtopian Economic Boom
Now that we have an understanding of the basics of Primodium, let’s dive into my actual experience playing it.
Although I had started Primodium a few times, I’ve never taken the time to do a full-blown session where I attempted to grind to the top of the leaderboard.
So, in typical me fashion, I decided to try and do this on Wednesday, September 6, one day before my article on DeSports was set to release.
My goal was simple. I wanted to create Wasdtopia, a flourishing, galactic empire that would rule the Primodium Belt and propel me to the number one spot on the leaderboard.
With that goal in mind, I opened up the Primodium site and was ready to go.
Upon spawning, my first objective was to acquire some Iron by building Iron Mines.
Unlike the previous version of the game, Iron Mines are free, and all resources are claimed automatically after you build a mine or factory. I think this is a great change relative to V1, as it reduces the complexity of the game and helps you get into it much faster.
As the inhabitants of Wasdtopia mined away, I then set my sites on creating a Copper mine, which cost 15 Iron to build.
Copper is a critical resource that is widely used throughout the game, particularly for upgrading mines as well as other buildings to increase your production output.
After creating the mines and extracting some Copper, I turned my attention to building Iron Plates.
Iron Plates were critical to fulfilling the imperial ambitions of Wasdtopia, as they would enable me to fuel expansion and increase resource production by upgrading my Main Base from Level 1 to Level 2.
I needed 60 Iron Plates and 100 Copper to complete the upgrade. I had the latter, but had to create an Iron Plate Factory to produce the former.
After a few minutes, I was able to dish out what was at the time a whopping 450 Iron and 100 Copper to build the Iron Plate Factory, after which production of them began.
Whereas Copper and Iron were produced at very fast rates, the production of Iron Plates was, relatively speaking, incredibly slow. Just 4.8 Iron Plates were produced per minute, meaning it would take about 15 minutes (an eternity in early-stage Primodium time) to reach the 60-plate threshold I needed to upgrade my base.
After 15 long minutes, I got to 60 plates, enthusiastically hitting “Upgrade” as I leveled Wasdtopida up!
This was a small W, but this series of events is an example of the core gameplay mechanics of Primodium that I outlined earlier.
I had an objective, upgrading my Main Base to Level 2, and in order to get there, I had to:
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Build an Iron Mine
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Use the Iron extracted from the mine to build a Copper Mine
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Use Copper and Iron to build an Iron Plate Factory
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Use the Iron Plates from the factory to upgrade my Home Base
This gameplay loop, and the ones that followed, are very engaging, as it requires problem-solving and strategic thinking on how to acquire the right resources and maximize the efficiency of your production.
Anyways, by the time I reached Level 2, I was hooked.
I started going HAM, and upcoming article be damned, turned all my attention to the game in a rabid quest to climb the leaderboard.
As I progressed through the game, I began to figure out ways to create new materials from factories like alloy, solar panels to harness electricity, Lithium and Sulfur mines, and more.
Wastopida flourished, becoming a burgeoning, intergalactic, industrial powerhouse, and I propelled up the leaderboard to as high as 50 (though I now sit at 83 with 93.1 million points).
After a few hours, I managed to upgrade my Main Base to Level 4.
I wish I got higher score by the time I reached this level. However, I did a poor job of maximizing production efficiency, as I built way too many Alloy factories that were unable to be removed due to a bug.
I wanted to advance to Level 5, but to do so, I needed a single resource: Titanium.
And to get that, I had to head to the stars and find a motherlode.
Conquering The Cosmos
To reach a Titanium motherlode, I had to create a Mining Vessel, the only unit type capable of extracting resources from them.
But, I had to tread lightly while doing so.
You see, before reaching Level 5, you only have the capacity to build one mining vessel. In addition, once you send a ship out to an asteroid, you cannot retrieve it.
Furthermore, you can only take a limited amount of journeys to other asteroids in total unless you create or upgrade Starmappers.
Starmappers are a building in the game that gives you the ability to travel more in space, and also happen to take up a ton of room on your asteroid.
This all meant I had to choose my motherlode wisely.
So naturally, I didn’t.
I didn’t choose poorly per se, but I certainly did not pick the optimal one. The motherlode I sent my Mining Vessel to (which I’ll call M1) only had 5000 Titanium, which is the smallest quantity found in the game.
It was also more than 1700 blocks (block times are used to measure distance in Primodium) away, meaning that it would take quite a while for my ship to get there.
Perhaps I was blinded by my insatiable thirst for Titanium, as I happened to miss another motherlode (M2) with 5x the reserves that was a similar distance from my asteroid.
I ultimately sent a fleet of units to conquer this motherlode, but I cannot mine it until I reach Level 5 and build that coveted second Mining Vessel.
Whoops!
Anyways, after 1700 painstaking blocks, my Mining Vessel completed its voyage, arrived at M1, and began the process of mining that sweet, sweet Titanium.
I Am *Not* Titanium
To say production of Titanium is slow is an understatement, as a single Mining Vessel can only extract 0.6 per minute.
Given that I needed 800 Titanium to upgrade my Main Base to Level 5, this meant I had to wait roughly ~22 hours in order to level up.
This was a bit of a blessing in disguise when it came to my meatspace life, as it gave me an excuse to pull myself away from the game so I could work on that pesky DeSports article.
Over the 22 hours it took to fill my Titanium coffers, I wrote, edited, and slept, but not without checking the status of my production as frequently as I did the ETH price (i.e. often).
After what felt like 220 hours, the wait was over. At last, I had 800 Titanium.
I was euphoric as I enthusiastically smashed the “Upgrade to Level 5” button.
But then, I was met with this:
An error.
Despite having the resources, to do so, I could not upgrade my Main Base.
I frantically raced to the Primodium Discord, looking to get answers and troubleshoot.
When I got there, I saw that everyone else was having the same problem. As it turns out, there is currently a bug in Primodium where players are unable to claim resources from motherlodes.
Given that you need Titanium to upgrade your Main Base to Level 5, this meant that player progression across the game is stunted until the team ships a fix, which is expected in 1-2 weeks.
The Wasdtopian Economic Boom was over.
The inhabitants of the Primodium Belt, Wasdtopida included, were now locked in a holding pattern.
Ready, waiting, and preparing for the patch to ship.
What Comes Next
If you couldn’t tell, I’ve really been enjoying Primodium.
It’s addicting, and a clear demonstration that it's possible to build what many skeptics think is impossible: A very fun onchain game.
Although the bug is frustrating, in a way, I actually think makes the world of Primodium more interesting by shaking up the competitive dynamics of the game.
For instance, once the patch ships, there’s likely to be a huge change in the leaderboard, as players use their accumulated Titanium to quickly upgrade to Level 5 and begin their expansion anew.
Furthermore, players will now be able to increase their Mining Vessel capacity and mine on multiple asteroids.
This is likely to produce some epic battles, as players battle to claim these asteroids and secure the rights to extract their precious resources.
All in all, I can’t wait to see how the Titanium patch impacts the game, and to continue to play Primodium while growing Wasdtopia.
See you on the battlefield and in the belt!
The TLDR
The hottest news from the last week in onchain gaming and autonomous worlds.
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Pirate Nation announces a snapshot of Founder’s Pirates holders for their “Trade License” airdrop
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Doomsday completes its Season 2, with the winner taking home 114 ETH (~$185K)
Plays Of The Week
Three onchain games to try out for yourself this week.
Words From Frens
The best non-WASD articles, videos, and conversations from the past week.
Game Spotlight: Loot Survivor 💀
Overview:
Loot Survivor is a roguelike survival game developed by Bibliotheca DAO as a part of the Realms Autonomous World.
In Loot Survivor, players journey through a post-apocalyptic world with one objective: To survive for as long as possible.
You’ll have to attempt to do so while contending with monsters, creatures that you encounter during the game that you can choose to either fight or free from.
Fighting monsters will earn you XP, which you can use to upgrade attributes of your character (known as an adventurer), as well as to level up and climb the in-game leaderboard.
Loot Survivor is currently playable on the Starknet Goerli testnet, but will be implementing new features when it goes live on mainnet including a “Play-To-Die” mechanism.
When Play-To-Die goes live, player will purchase their adventurer with $LORDS, the native token of the Realms ecosystem. When they die, the $LORDS they spend will be released back into the Loot Survivor game world.
The WASD Take:
So far, I’m really enjoying Loot Survivor.
I like the strategy elements of the game, like choosing which attributes to upgrade to build out your adventurer, and the tension that comes with waiting for the outcome of an encounter with a monster.
I also really like detailed designs of the monsters and the overall aesthetics of the game, as the neon green and black color scheme jump off the screen.
I’ve also noticed that the game’s UX has also drastically improved over the past several months.
When Loot Survivor first launched, players had to sign a transaction for every move they made in the game. This, coupled with the very long-block times of pre-Quantum Leap Starknet, severely hampered the game experience.
However, the team recently implemented Arcade Accounts, which are similar to Burner Wallets in that they enable signature-free gameplay. This has Loot Survivors UX far smoother and more enjoyable.
All in all, I’m excited to keep getting into Loot Survivor and to see how Play-To-Die is implemented. I’m also very excited to see the synergies between it, and the rest of the now many games building in the Realms ecosystem.
Thanks for reading!
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Have a great weekend, and see you all on Thursday!