What is the NFT game Illuvium?
Illuvium, developed since 2020, is an open-world adventure RPG game that combines combat mechanics commonly seen in popular Auto Battler games.
Illuvium runs on Ethereum integrated with the Layer 2 scaling solution Immutable X, aiming to eliminate transaction fees for players.
The game is a blend of outer-space fantasy adventure with creature collection and Pokémon-style battles.
Players are passengers on a spaceship traveling between galaxies, which crashes onto a planet in turmoil, teeming with mysterious creatures known as ‘Illuvial’.
All survivors from the spaceship begin their planetary exploration by becoming hunters, subduing and mastering these extraterrestrial beasts. Subsequently, players engage in battles with opponents, establishing their rankings through competition.
There are 3 main games on the Illuvium platform:
- Illuvium Arena: Your mission in this game is to build a team of Illuvials to fight and win rewards.
- Illuvium Zero: Use NFT lands to construct high-tech complexes. Then, mine resources and earn plentiful rewards.
- Illuvium Overworld (Private Beta): Explore the world’s secrets, capture Illuvials, harvest exotic plants, and help your people survive.
To play Illuvium, you can download it from the Epic Games Store. The game officially launched in November 2023 on the Epic Games Store, but the Overworld mode is still in private beta.
NFT assets in the game:
Illuvium Zero:
- Illuvium Zero is a mobile-friendly mini-game introducing NFT lands within the Illuvium metaverse. NFT lands in Illuvium Zero produce interactable resources for the main game.
- A total of 100,000 plots of land will be sold, and as of now, 20,000 plots have been auctioned off for $72 million in a Dutch auction during the first sale.
- By owning your piece of Illuvium land, you can build digital complexes, mine resources, create NFTs, and reap many rewards.
- In this initial land sale, 20,000 plots will be available out of a total of 100,000. Lands come in 5 different levels and are purchased using ETH. Higher-level lands can earn you more rewards.
IlluviStar:
- IlluviStar is the avatar image used in the Illuvium universe. IlluviStar includes portraits and accessories with endless combinatory possibilities.
- Currently, you can own IlluviStar at two price points: $20 and $100.
After purchase, players can connect their accounts and wallets to use IlluviStar across all Illuvium games. IlluviStar represents a perfect blend of randomness and rarity by combining Accessories with the basic Portrait.
Illuvial NFT
To start playing and collecting NFTs, players need to capture an Illuvial, an extraterrestrial creature present on Illuvium’s planets.
There are over 100 Illuvials to find and collect, each possessing unique abilities based on their species’ type and attributes. Illuvials will not be sold individually as NFTs to ensure a fair project launch.
Illuvials are divided into five types and have five different attributes. Each type can evolve three stages. Notably, the final form of an Illuvial, known as the ‘Ascended form’, sometimes may possess a stacked version of types or attributes.
Synergy involves symbiotic relationships based on shared types and attributes.
Hybrid Synergy System enhances Illuvials when operating as a team in the Battle Arena. Different synergies create various strength bonuses for the team, increasing players’ chances of victory even against stronger Illuvials.
Fusion allows players to merge multiple Illuvials of the same type into a stronger creature with different attributes.
Gameplay Guide for Illuvium
Players start playing Illuvium by customizing their character and choosing a drone to act as an assistant. Defeated Illuvials can be captured via shards or minted into NFTs.
Illuvium offers a free-to-play mode on Tier 0 servers for an initial experience to feel the game and practice skills. However, to participate in real battles in Illuvium, players need to invest in purchasing NFTs.
Game Modes
Illuvium features three main gameplay modes, with only one currently available:
- Survival Mode (PvE): An automatic combat mode where players use Illuvials to defeat and clear enemies. As players progress and win each round, the difficulty increases, but they also earn more gold to buy stronger Illuvials. The current Illuvium Beta focuses on this feature.
- The Overworld: This mode allows players to explore the mysterious lands of Illuvium. Players can explore environments and different creature communities as they collect shards, resources, and hunt Illuvials.
- Leviathan Arena and Ranked Arena (PvP): Players engage in battles with their teams of Illuvials. They need strategy and proper arrangement of Illuvials in their team to achieve high rankings in the Arena and earn rewards in $sILV.
Some Tips for Playing Illuvium
Synergy
The most important attributes of Illuvials are their affinity and level. Illuvials are stronger when they have multiple synergistic relationships or layers. Players are rewarded for choosing creatures with similar affinities or levels through unique rewards.
Enemy Selection
There are 5 basic types in the game: Water, Land, Fire, Nature, and Air. The damage each Illuvial deals depends on its relationship with and the type of its enemy.
Characters
There are 5 basic character types in the game: Fighter, Guardian, Rogue, Psion, and Empath, similar to traditional RPGs. Each type has its own unique strengths.
Powerful upgrades sometimes manifest in dual classes, such as Slayer (Fighter + Rogue), or becoming stronger in a single class like Invoker (Psion + Psion).
Combat Mechanics
When battles begin, each Illuvial finds an enemy target and initiates attacks.
Throughout the battle, through attacks and damage dealt, Illuvials accumulate energy. Battles end when one team is completely defeated.
Capturing Illuvials
In this mode, after a successful encounter, players can capture defeated Illuvials. To do this, players must use Shards.
The capturing strength, combined with the inherent strength of the Illuvial, determines the capture chance. If successful, the Illuvial becomes yours. If unsuccessful, Illuvials will flee.
Searching for Illuvials
There are still mysteries surrounding the fate of Illuvials after capture. One of these mysteries is capturing rare Illuvials.
Fusion
Illuvials do not develop like in traditional RPGs. Instead, they combine with each other to grow stronger.
To fuse, two requirements must be met: players must have three Illuvials of the same type, and each must reach their maximum level through battles.
Experience and Leveling Up
Each battle, Illuvials gain experience and levels. This is a distinguishing factor, as each Illuvial’s strength increases with their level.
It’s not advisable to leave Illuvials in Shards without engaging in battles, as they will not develop.
Resource Collection
It’s not just Illuvials who battle. In fact, players’ characters can be some of the most influential figures on the battlefield.
Each player wears protective armor and wields weapons. When infused with gemstones and crystals, the player’s armor and weapons emit a radiance indicating their attributes and level.
Exploration
Illuvium is a vast world. Scattered throughout are Obelisks that players can use for instant travel between locations, enabling access to different areas and various Illuvials.
Over time, more Obelisks will be unlocked, expanding the world’s scale. Obelisks also provide some protection from Illuvials.
Game Items
Shard: Shards are among the most important items in the game, used to capture and control Illuvials after defeating opponents. Shards are NFTs with different levels based on their strength when capturing Illuvials. Each player is provided with a certain number of shards at the start of the game. Players can also purchase them on IlluviDEX.
Weapon: Weapons are NFTs equipped for the player’s character before battles. Different types of weapons determine the level and attributes of the player’s character, providing additional benefits to their team. Weapons can be traded on IlluviDEX.
Armor: Armor is an NFT forged from items mined in Illuvium, protecting players from damage inflicted by opponents. Armor can influence battles, as each set of armor has different characteristics. Armor can be traded on IlluviDEX.
Imbues: Imbues are aesthetic improvements that can increase the value of a player’s collection by distinguishing them from others. Imbues are modules that can be applied to various items. Different items in the game such as weapons, armor, or drones can be imbued.
Features on the Illuvium Platform
Staking
This is one of the popular features in NFT games. The amount of ILV tokens currently staked in Illuvium is $171 million.
If you hold a quantity of ILV tokens and want to earn profit, you can stake them in the game to receive passive income.
IlluviDEX
IlluviDEX is a decentralized exchange platform integrated into Illuvium. IlluviDEX is used to exchange Illuvium assets, including Illuvial NFTs, Land NFTs, and Illuvistar NFTs.
A 5% fee deducted from each transaction will be allocated as rewards for ILV stakers.
Project Development Roadmap
- Public Beta launch – Q1 2022
- Illuvium: Zero – December 2021 (To be confirmed)
- Mobile release – 2022
- Second Major Illuvium Title – 2023
Partners and Investors
Seed Round Funding
During the Seed round, Illuvium raised $5 million led by Framework Ventures. The project also received investments from major funds such as IOSG Ventures, LD Capital, Delphi Digital, YBB Foundation Ltd, Stake Capital, Moonwhale Ventures, Lotus Capital, Blocksync Ventures, and Bitscale Capital.
Additionally, Illuvium received investments from its partners including Quantstamp, Yield Guild Games, Bitcoin.com, and from industry-leading developers such as Jason Choi from Spartan Group, Kain Warwick from Synthetix, Stani Kulechov from Aave, Anton Bukov from 1inch, and Santiago Roel Santos from ParaFi.
How to Own ILV Tokens?
ILV Token Information
- Token Name: Illuvium
- Ticker: ILV
- Blockchain: Ethereum
- Token Standard: ERC-20
- Total Supply: 10,000,000 ILV
ILV Token Allocation
30% of ILV is allocated to staking rewards and 10% to game rewards and tournaments.
Staking rewards also include revenue sharing, so simply purchasing and staking ILV tokens allows players to earn passive income.
Although the utility of the token within Illuvium is limited and the play-to-earn structure is still unclear, Illuvium may attract more actual players than speculators, meaning the game must be carefully invested in gameplay.
Additionally, traders will maximize profit through staking.
Token Utility
ILV is the primary token of Illuvium, used for:
- Transaction fee payment on the platform.
- In-game currency (e.g., purchasing game characters).
- Participation in governance through the Illuvium Council for proposing and voting.
- Staking to earn rewards.
Revenue Distribution
100% of the game’s revenue will be redistributed to ILV holders.
Revenue distribution alongside increasing the project’s potential also boosts the token’s price.
To distribute revenue, the DAO automatically buys ILV tokens from the Sushi ETH/ILV pool, creating buying pressure on the token to increase its price, while redistributing those ILV tokens to ILV holders. This encourages a self-sustaining cycle of ILV regeneration and provides long-term value to ILV holders.
How to Buy ILV Tokens?
You can buy ILV tokens on major exchanges such as Binance, Bybit, or MEXC.
Illuvium DAO
Illuvium DAO consists of ILV token holders and is represented by the “Illuvinati Council.” Council members act as community representatives, debating and voting on proposals from members.
DAO governance is managed through two types of proposals: Illuvium Configuration Change Proposals (ICCPs) used to update system configurations, and Illuvium Improvement Proposals (IIPs) used to improve the protocol.
Illuvium DAO holds 1.5 million ILV tokens in a reserve fund. The purpose of this fund is to store centralized revenue, as these tokens are used for revenue distribution. The primary role of these tokens is to reward players for achievements in the game or tournaments.
These tokens have been issued and are under the control and decision-making of the DAO and the community’s proposals.
Summary
Illuvium is an open-world RPG game where players undertake missions and explore various lands to capture creatures called Illuvials.