How to best prepare for Illuvium?
Illuvium is slated to launch in Q4 of 2023 which isn't far away. What can you do to make sure that you are in the best possible position before the time comes.
Today we are going to cover a wide range of topics including the current state of Web 3, how to prepare for Illuvium and what we can expect from Illuvium Beyond Wave 2. This feels like the quiet before the storm.
Here is what I will be covering in this newsletter:
The key details of Illuvium Beyond wave 2
Some other Web 3 games I have been testing out
What I am seeing in the charts for the crypto markets
How I am preparing for Illuvium’s Open Beta release in Q4
We will cover all of that here and more so please keep reading. I am excited to share this journey with you.
Please don’t forget to subscribe below! It really means a lot and together we can tackle the Illuvium metaverse better than anyone else.
Details you need to know before
Illuvium Beyond wave 2
Illuvium Beyond Wave 2 is around the corner and there is a handful of new details you might have missed.
First things first, what is going to be available in wave 2?
In the image above you can see every single Illuvitar to come in the new collection. Some key examples include the 3 monkeys making up the Tier 1 Stage 1 heat, Kukkaraph closes out an existing collection and enables you to finish all those chicken milestones. Unlike in wave 1 there is 2 Tier 4 Stage 1s and 2 Tier 3 stage 2s which may make them slightly harder to achieve but also more scarce so keep an eye out. The notable grail of this wave is definitely Ophisto which should have similar scarcity to Rhamphyre not to mention just how badass it looks.
There have also been some shifts in core pricing and rarity structures, the full proposal can be found here but I will break it down for you in simple terms now.
With the new weightings in standard D1sks T1 Illuvitars will be 11% less frequent. This has been moved mostly to T2 and T3 to help promote diversity in the D1sk opening process. T4’s got a slight bump and T5’s remained mostly static to still keep the game similar at the upper echelons. To go with this change the Mega D1sk threshold has been changed from 1250 to 1450. I have not run the numbers on this yet but it stands to reason that T2’s will appear less frequently in Mega D1sks making them more enjoyable as well. It has less impact on T4’s and T5’s than you might expect.
The other core adjustment is the pricing. Most notably Mega D1sks have been dropped from $50 to around $36. This is a 28% price reduction and with the 10% odds improvement the entire product should be significantly more accessible.
What should you be collecting you might ask? It’s worth noting that standard D1sks may be less enticing now because the accessories and T0’s are not changed from wave to wave. However it should also be noted that the T0’s will have brand new backgrounds in each wave. Although this won’t affect your albums a great deal, it will certainly get perfectionists super excited. Also these odds changes will be applied to everything so rare accessories just became a bit easier to obtain.
It is also easy to forget but each wave will have a brand new set of individual goals for its participants. Things like buy 50 D1sks and earn a free D1sk. Its these rewards that I expect to be the most compelling in the long term for the investors within us. Which means that standard D1sks could be the best option for Wave 2, at least until you have reached the prize you were after.
Web 3 is starting to get good
here are the games I am playing right now
I have been trying so many new Web 3 games lately and if you asked me a year ago what I thought Web 3 would look like, I wouldn’t have predicted this.
I have 4 new major Web 3 titles to talk about here today and even though I have played many over the past few months, these stuck out to me. They are Shardbound, Wildcard, Blocklords and Spider Tanks.
Shardbound met my expectations and then quickly blew them out of the water. As soon as I started my first match against another player I was met with an onslaught of choices to make in this deep strategy game. Although it has some similar elements to Illuvium it plays much more like a card game. That being said the amount of decisions and strategy involved with managing the board was mind-blowing. It genuinely made me reminisce over my Hearthstone days and I will definitely be streaming this one when it launches sometime this year.
To outline the gameplay simply, you draw cards from your deck and place them on a hex tile board. Every turn you will play new cards, move your pieces on the board and do everything you can to eliminate your opponents commander. Its unique spin is that you need to do all of this while managing the terrain, some units have range, some fly across the field, but they are all at the mercy of line of sight and terrain related buffs, debuffs and movement restrictions. Making this one of the most compelling PvP strategy games I have ever played.
You can check out more on Shardbound here
You can also watch me play the game here
Next is Wildcard, the only way I can describe this game is that it feels like Clash Royale, except you are on the field, moving and fighting alongside the very creatures you are summoning. I must admit I had a lot of trouble finding my groove but its a very well put together game. You will draw your cards and place them in one of 2 available lanes to fight against your opponent. Managing your accumulated mana and carefully countering your opponent are both keys to winning in this crazy game of tug of war. Much like Shardbound, the graphics and gameplay both hold up in a world where Web 3 used to be just 2D line drawings and rudimentary gameplay loops, Wildcard is a highly competitive game of skill.
You can check out more on Wildcard here
You can also watch me play the game here
Next up is Blocklords. This game strives to really bring Web 3 to the forefront of gaming and not shy away from it. It enables players to form major guilds and factions and essentially create micro DAO’s within the world. They govern each other, tax one another and war neighboring continents full of other players to steal their resources. The original beta only had the farming side of the game but all the graphics, minor details and gameplay loops are very cohesive, intuitive and solid. I am personally mostly looking forward to the war and combat mechanics and look forward to cooperating with others and attempting to dominate the entire world and bring them under my rule.
You can check out more on Blocklords here
You can also watch me play the game here
Lastly we have the Web 3 game that likely boasts the title for the highest number of daily active players and a sustainable play to earn model. I won’t go into depth on the tokenomics but there are people playing this game daily and earning enough money for a coffee every now and then. What’s most important however, is the gameplay. Although rather simple, the gameplay loop is intuitive, tight and fun. There’s never a dull moment when you are trying to take out opposing tanks. If you haven’t tried Spider Tanks yet I recommend you give it a try, its a heap of fun.
You can check out more on Spider Tanks here
You can also watch Classy Games play the game here
Is the Bull Run beginning early?
Although I don’t have a crystal ball I invest a significant amount of time listening to those smarter than me and learning how to understand a range of different charts. Now I will pass those insights onto you
The first thing we need to analyse is the long term trend and macro scenario for Bitcoin. When I analyse any crypto chart I primarily focus on the interactions between price and volume, given volume is a fantastic indication of the real movement in a market. The second panel on my screenshot here is something called the Money Flow Index which essentially shows the trend of money entering and exiting the market by multiplying the price by the volume over a certain number of days or even weeks. As you can see on this weekly chart, the second top for Bitcoin at the end of 2021 had significantly less people in the market and formed a Bearish Divergence, where price increases but volume decreases.
To be confident in a continuation of a trend I like to see the MFI go higher than the previous peak when price is doing the same. As you can see, even as Bitcoin’s price increases, the Money flow is diverging quite heavily. If we look back in the historical prices of 2018 we can see that Bitcoin ran up halfway into 2019 and fell back down after creating a hidden bearish divergence. This was approximately 1.5 years after Bitcoins top at the very end of 2017. Bitcoin topped at the very end of 2021 and is now seeing a similar run up about halfway into 2023 as we speak, which follows the exact same timeline.
If I do a trend based Fibonacci retracement to find the golden ratio of the move. You can see where the high in 2018 touched was at the 618 (golden ratio). Given this is the most commonly retraced to Fibonacci level, it makes sense for Bitcoin to return there. You can also see the points of confluence as the future bull run didn’t break through the 3.618 on either top for 2021 and is now fighting the 1.618 right now. All major levels in the market.
If we also retrace the major move for 2021 being the second top. Then we can see price has interacted with the 382 fib twice. But if we were to see it return to the 618 at 40k then it still has room to move. This is most certainly not a guarantee but definitely not impossible although the volume would indicate this may not happen without a serious catalyst.
The other key chart in this entire equation is something called the DXY. This is the Dollar Index and is typically used to measure the strength of the US Dollar at any given time. As we can see here, since 2008 (The GFC) the dollar has been in this ascending channel. This chart is inversely correlated to Bitcoin. Most recently it topped out in September 2022, which just so happens to be the exact local bottom for Bitcoin on its Monthly chart as well.
In this chart you can also see Bitcoin in orange. This would leave me to believe that Bitcoin may have some room to go at least until the Dollar hits the bottom of that channel. As you can see in the history of this Index it isn’t uncommon for the DXY to move sideways for months or even years back to back. During these times Bitcoin did often move up, but not nearly as much as when the DXY was in free fall.
I know this is a lot to take in but if you ever feel the need to further your education on the markets when investing. Then surface level things like this are a fantastic place to start but always seek out a financial advisor if you want to know the best possible avenue for your personal situation.
It’s never too early to prepare for the
Illuvium Open Beta
The Illuvium game has never felt closer and its the most important time to prepare for the best thing to happen to Web 3