Illuvium's Launch is Imminent, here's what comes next
Illuvium is being officially launched on July 25, here is my entire game plan and everything you need to know for the next few months
The Illuvium community has waited 3 long years for this release and its surreal to think that the games release is less than 60 days away. If you are also feeling overwhelmed and even a little nervous, let me put your mind at ease.
Here is what I will be covering in this newsletter:
Everything you need to know about the Illuvium launch
Every current and upcoming Illuvium airdrop
[PAID] My personal launch strategy
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.
Everything to know about the Illuvium launch
Illuvium not only has a huge list of new features coming to the launch, but many more in the pipeline.
The Illuvium launch has been officially announced for the 25th of July. After 3.5 long and hard years, the time has come to release Illuvium to the world on the IMX blockchain. To give you the cliff notes, Illuvium is a creature collecting RPG game built on the blockchain with undeniable AAA graphics and a collection of creatures the likes of which, the world has never seen. As far as I can tell, Illuvium will be the first AAA Blockchain game in history to go to market with a substantial launch. It is being termed an Open Beta but it is feature complete enough to be experienced as a whole game, one not far off major Web 2 titles.
Despite the team stating in the past that testnet and the Open Beta will have the same features, many new improvements are now set to be released for the main net launch. They have also mentioned several times in the discord that many of these features will first come to testnet to allow the community to test them out beforehand.
Above we can see all of the new features coming to Illuvium in the very near future with the caveat that not everything is guaranteed to be in on day 1. I personally believe there are several features here that are required to ensure Illuvium is fun for a broad audience, and easy to adopt for newcomers, I will detail them below.
Gauntlet Mode
This is the brand new game mode coming out for the Illuvium universe in a much more traditional autobattler style. 8 Players will participate in a round robin format with a shared pool of Illuvials. Not only is this at least five times easier to pick up than the Ascendant 1v1 Arena, but it will be free to play for all. Unlike Illuvium Zero, it will be based on PC, easily making this the best onboarding tool at Illuvium’s disposal.
Overworld Combat
Although I am nervous given the small amount of testing this will receive, this will remove the autobattler from the Illuvium Overworld. It will make the Overworld more accessible to casual gamers, and if handled well, add some much needed engagement, excitement and ‘WOW’ factor. I just hope its action packed enough to not make it too easy, which could defeat the purpose of this change. Despite what some people argue, there is nothing more boring than an overly easy game.
NPC Interactions and Missions
People have been asking for this for a very long time. Although I expect it to be minimal, this will bring new life into the game and fill something I could only describe as an empty void in the Illuvium world. Alongside the lore, story, new regions and things like factions, it will fill up quickly.
Forge UX Revamp
The Forge UX is easily the weakest part of the entire Illuvium universe at this point in time. Last week the Illuvium team removed drone components and changed it to use prior equipment for upgrading your character. Although this change was simple, I had never been more excited to play the game following this change. This upgrade might just be the most important thing for the Illuvium world, period.
iOS/Mac support
Although I don’t currently use any Apple products myself, its no secret that they are an extremely large part of the mobile market. Personally I’ve always thought Illuvium Zero was a good standalone game, going onto the popular app stores is the natural progression.
After the launch of Illuvium, the team already has a lot of plans for making the game better than it will be at launch. There are too many features to list off here but we can even see 2 features at the bottom of the Overworld list that are truly exciting.
Raid Battles and Multiplayer. Several weeks ago Aaron responded to me in discord saying that multiplayer is a higher priority than Overworld combat. Although I don’t expect it to arrive beforehand, getting social elements added to Sanctum Mesa is coming as soon as possible. With any luck we will be showing off our cosmetics, Illuvials and everything else to our friends before September 2024.
All the Illuvium airdrops and what they mean
There are 3 major airdrops right now, but there are also other ways to win ILV tokens just by playing the game, here is what you need to know.
3 Airdrops have been created for the Illuvium launch, 1 has past, 1 is current and 1 is in the future. I will break them down, and even another way to win ILV tokens by participating in the Illuvium universe.
The first of these is a 50,000 ILV token Loyalty Airdrop, currently valued at approximately $4,500,000. The snapshot was taken on April 14 and will reward everyone who has interacted with the Illuvium ecosystem. The team has stated that financial interactions with the ecosystem are mostly in focus here. How many tokens you have staked, how much land you have held, Illuvitars purchased and trading on the Illuvidex. If you have contributed to the success and growth of Illuvium in some way, then you can expect a special thank you from the Illuvium DAO in the not so distant future.
Following this we have the testnet airdrop. This started as 20,000 tokens but has since been increased to 30,000 tokens. The rules are simple, capture as many Illuvials as possible and play either the Illuvium Overworld or Illuvium Zero to gain extra points based on play time. Depending on how many Illuvial lines and sets you complete you will gain airdrop points. A snapshot will be taken on July 25 and everyone will receive rewards based on how many points they have accumulated. Currently, there are approximately 5,000 highly active daily players. If you divided the airdrop amongst them you’d be giving each of them an average reward of 6 ILV tokens. If you assume 20% are even more dedicated, then many in the community could look at $1000 USD in rewards for 60 days of hardcore gaming.
The final airdrop will last 5 months starting from the release of the Illuvium Open Beta to all on July 25. This is a whopping 180,000 ILV tokens, currently the equivalent of $16,200,000. We don’t know the full extent of the rules for this but you can bet your efficiency in how you spend ETH will be key. I personally recommend strategizing as you test out the current testnet beta.
Even though those are the 3 key airdrops, there is 1 other way for you to win stacks of ILV tokens, and that is: The Mega Hunt. The rules are simple, every Illuvial you capture that’s on the list, grants you 1 entry to win a given prize. You cannot buy them on the market or fuse to acquire them, they must also be in your wallet on June 30 when the snapshot takes place. I have seen just how many Illuvials have been caught so far and I am noticing some gaps in the strategy. Ophisto will be incredibly difficult, Blazenite is currently a great risk vs reward and Axodon and the Fliish are both fantastic as well. Ultimately just play as normal and capture these Illuvials whenever you see them roaming around.
This competition has already been such a big success that I expect many more of these in the future. I recommend you start writing down which region you encounter different Illuvials to help you prepare for future Illuvium events.
Here is my strategy for all 4 Illuvium games
I have dedicated myself to Illuvium for over 3 years now and its now time I put all of my knowledge and experience to the test.
