So Illuvium is here but does it live up to the hype?
The Illuvium PvP Beta came out on Epic Games, the Teambuilder is live and a mountain of Overworld upgrades, you won't miss a thing if you read this article!
Incase you have been sleeping under a rock I am going to cover everything that has been happening in Illuvium, some interesting upcoming news, my personal favourite team for paid subscribers and much much more!
Also I should apologise for missing out on the article for last week. It was a very busy time in my life and I prepared so many different things, including Inferno, Rivals and some other large streams, but I am BACK and I am PUMPED!
Here is what I will be covering in this article:
What does the Epic listing mean for gamers and investors?
Team Liquid partnership with Illuvium
Illuvium still has a long way to go and this is why
IMX needs to drastically change
This is my very own HEALY BURNY team, here is how I play it
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.
Is Epic Games exactly what Illuvium needs?
Epic Games is a great start, but it doesn’t actually get Illuvium in front of new gamers.
So Epic Games does a lot of good for Illuvium, its accessibility and a range of other things. Some of the key benefits are a simple patcher for players but more importantly, it has now become 10x faster for the internal team to test the builds as they happen. This is probably the single biggest advantage that has come from being on the Epic Game store. Secondary to that, anyone who doesn’t know about Illuvium can easily install the game from Epic, although this doesn’t seem like a big deal, they no longer have to risk downloading malware or spyware, which are common in the Web 3 space.
So Steam boasts 120 million monthly active users, which is only a 2x from Epic’s active player base, however this is quite an inaccurate representation. As you can see below, after the Arianna Grande concert Fortnite saw over 200m monthly active players, making it the largest game in the world. I suspect a vast majority of these play on iPad, mobile and consoles but you’d have to assume that 80-90% of Epic’s active player base purely play Fortnite.
The other thing to consider is that Epic Games does very little to promote trending and upcoming games. Although it is there, its really up to the games to market themselves, Steam isn’t much better but even the way friends lists are structured to tell you what your friends are playing at any given time helps with cross pollination.
Don’t get me wrong, Epic games is a massive win for Illuvium and without it, would have an extremely difficult time reaching mass adoption. But this is a single piece of the puzzle that will get Illuvium to millions of players after Open Beta launch.
There’s more than meets the eye to the Team Liquid partnership
Team Liquid is streaming Illuvium, but that’s not even the best part.
If you haven’t seen the mind-blowing announcement, it is right here: Team Liquid Announcement.
Now its great that Team Liquid has partnered with Illuvium to drop an exclusive line of Illuvitars but there is far more than meets the eye. They are also streaming the game and testing the game to help it become a top Esport.
This is the best possible thing they can do to benefit Illuvium and means that we can improve the game significantly faster than we could have otherwise. Not only that but Team Liquid is THE top Esports team by earning and now brings legitimacy to not only the Illuvium IP but Web 3 and crypto as a whole. If you are interested in the Team Liquid Illuvitar portraits you can see them here: Illuvitars Portraits.
I am unsure what has been made public but they will follow a very different format to the Gamestop sale. Not only will your D1sk purchase grant you a limited edition Illuvitar but you will also open accessories and a rare Illuvitar in your D1sk, similar to a Mega D1sk. This will help the existing community continue their collections and new buyers to get a taste for what Illuvitars are all about.
There is nothing Illuvium does, where it doesn’t take on feedback afterwards.
Illuvium is far from ready, Ascendant is the bare minimum
Although Ascendant is fun and addictive, the Overworld and overall interoperability still has not been tested
Illuvium pulled it off, they have built a highly competitive game that is addictive to grind once you have gotten the hang of it, but now what? The team has to turn their attention to the Overworld because even though it is beautiful and massive, it now needs to become truly exciting. A good example of something they have shown off recently is the new teleportation devices eliminating loading screens.
But what does the team need to actually do, to make the game ‘fun’?
Most of you will shout from the top of your lungs, ‘Multiplayer’ but that is not the answer. Multiplayer without real interaction is nothing, sure a Multiplayer hub in Sanctum Mesa would be cool to flex your wallet but it gets old really quick unless you are battling raid bosses, or actively competing.
Instead, they need to make every single adventure into the Overworld feel unique. One way to accomplish this is have Illuvials roaming around the Overworld but more importantly, add interesting characteristics such as size differences or new behaviors and interactions between them. To simplify this, you can simply set it up so you chase Illuvials, or set up a system where they chase you. They don’t necessarily need to knock you out but the Pokémon game loop is tested and true. If your team faints too early then you miss out on finding something valuable and powerful.
The downside to this is making the game too difficult for everyone to pick up and play. The simple solution is to have multiple game modes, much like Minecraft Survival and Creative, with different outcomes for loot, resources and Illuvials in the world.
IMX could be holding Illuvium back
The onboarding process for IMX sounds easy but is actually incredibly difficult, however things may improve soon.
Personally I believe IMX is one of the only ways to do gaming on chain, simply put, it is gas free, not ‘low gas’ but gas free. I don’t care how cheap Solana gas prices get, if you do 500 transactions on chain in the span of seconds you will feel its effects.
However… Immutable X is cornered off from the rest of Web 3, it is the only chain that you cannot connect to via centralised exchanges. Although it has a credit card onramp, that may fail in many countries and is highly risky. Until it becomes more interconnected via bridges, CEXs and everything else, it will remain hidden to the broader crypto space. Gamers AND web 3 enthusiasts are both important.
Thankfully the IMX zKEVM is coming very soon and should unlock its full potential. Once people can build on IMX out in the open it will be able to welcome even more people into the fold.
Here is my favourite Illuvium team right now, and no one else is using it
Many of you may have seen me mention HEALY BURNY and that’s because it is incredibly well balanced. I will share the strategy below