DeFi Kingdoms | First Look Review
A review of DeFi Kingdoms' fundamentals, possible plays, and future plans. Everything you'd need to know to get started.
What is DeFi Kingdoms?
DeFi Kingdoms is a gamified decentralized exchange (DEX) where you can provide liquidity in various pools (The Gardens) and trade/use playable Hero NFTs in a setting of fantasy pixel art.
The team is dedicated to making the game a cross-chain, play-to-earn MMORPG and eventually serve as the basic ecosystem infrastructure for future games that want to launch on the DFK blockchain.
The heroes can currently be used for 4 different professions that reward players with the game’s power tokens ($JEWEL or $CRYSTAL) and/or resources that can be sold for tokens. Down the road, the Heroes will be playable in PvE and PvP duels.
How is it different?
DeFi Kingdoms simplifies the complicated world of decentralized finance (DeFi) into a game with a straightforward User Interface to abstract concepts such as DEXs, staking/yield farming, and liquidity pools.
The game provides an easy entry point into DeFi by essentially overlaying a game skin over the use-cases of a standard DEX such as Pancake Swap or Uniswap.
With the recent launch of their own blockchain and utilizing JEWEL as the gas token, DeFi Kingdoms is building towards being the foundational economy for future games that launch on their blockchain while also driving utility, and therefore, long-term value to the in-game NFTs and tokens.
The TL;DR Review
Initial Cost / Opening Investment - 6/10
The entry level price point for DeFI Kingdoms is technically extremely low since a player can use the DEX and provide liquidity with any amount of money.
However, in order to get more involved and unlock further earning potential past staking/LP APR rewards, you must purchase a hero NFT from the in-game marketplace with base NFTs at a floor of 35-45 JEWEL ($150-$250) and earlier generation or more rare NFTs easily selling for 100s of JEWEL.
Far better than crazy high entry levels of other games like TreasureDAO Legions ($5k+) or Crabada ($2.3k) but not as good as entry points into games like Skyweaver, which are free.
Community - 9/10
How active is the creating team? / How engaged are the players?
Social Media: Discord Members ~ 92.2K | Twitter followers ~ 123.3K
The discord community is large and welcoming of newcomers with most of the discussion gameplay focused
The creator team interacts constantly with the community on improvements for the game and future additions
The grant and bounty program allows the community to suggest developments to the game and even provides funding/rewards to actually build out the features
Their Twitter account has grown rapidly with regular game updates and constant giveaways as the game expands
They have several forms of weekly updates from leadership to the community.
The Serendale Town Crier is the DeFi Kingdoms official weekly newsletter discussing game news and events
The creator team also hosts a weekly AMA uploaded to YouTube with an article summary on their Medium page
Team members MrZipper and Samichpunch release The Hero’s Hold and the Whale Watch and Key Analytics Report breaking down game and player base metrics
They also have a burgeoning creator community.
Set Up / Convenience - 9/10
How easy is it to get going?
Getting started in DeFi Kingdoms is very easy in comparison to other blockchain games.
The ease is heavily due to the integration of Ramp, allowing players to directly buy the necessary tokens using a credit or debit card on the in-game widget. To do that, you just need to make sure you have a basic Metamask set up.
Alternatively, players can buy ONE or AVAX on a centralized exchange, transfer them into a Metamask wallet, and connect your wallet to the game to get started.
After that, everything else is in the game; ONE tokens can be exchanged for JEWEL which can then be used for everything in-game from purchasing NFT Heroes to staking or providing liquidity in the Gardens.
AVAX tokens must be bridged to the DFK Chain before being exchanged for JEWEL or CRYSTAL, but this is also made simple with the Synapse bridging protocol built into the game.
Playability - 4/10
How playable is it really? And is it fun?
DeFi Kingdoms is still in its early stages of playability. Their focus as a gamified DEX is evident as a “player” in the game can mainly only yield farm by either single staking JEWEL or CRYSTAL with the Jeweler or by joining various liquidity pools in the gardens.
The playable NFT heroes can increase rewards from the gardens by assigning them to specific professions. Players can also send heroes on other passive quests such as fishing or foraging to accumulate resources and gain experience that should be useful down the road as PvP and PvE elements are added.
However, when reviewed only as a game and not a DEX, DeFi Kingdoms isn’t currently the most playable. We’ll see how that changes with the implementation of more Hero features.
Vision / Roadmap - 7/10
What expectations have they set / have they hit them?
The DeFi Kingdoms team have successfully built the game into one of the largest DEXs on any blockchain with over $1bil in TVL at its peak.
They have several significant developments planned throughout their roadmap in order to ensure long-term success. They have set ambitious goals in the past and constantly provide progress updates. However, there are generally no specific timelines in place.
Some significant upcoming roadmap items:
Recent launch of NFT land sections and buildings for players to build their own kingdom
Announced PvP developments as 3v3 idle combat with abilities and skill lists
Plans to launch usable equipment and items, expanding the utility of the in-game currency Gold
Discussions of expansion to 2 other blockchains by the end of 2022
Tokenomics - 7/10
How thorough and sound are the tokenomics?
The creator team has thoughtfully implemented their tokenomics in order to prevent many of the problems that other blockchain games commonly run into. The $JEWEL token is the main in-game currency with transaction fees from the game split into single staking holders rewards, quest rewards, development fund, marketing fund, and a founders fund.
With the expansion to Crystalvale, the $CRYSTAL token was launched serving the same purpose as JEWEL but with one fourth the circulating supply (500 mil JEWEL vs 125 mil CRYSTAL). These tokens can be staked with the Jeweler in exchange for xJEWEL or xCRYSTAL tokens that are the governing tokens of the game.
Although they have large staking boosts initially to incentivize new users, these taper off quickly based on the token issuance schedule. Along with the withdrawal fees and lock up periods based on time in the pool, the team has done well to prevent rapid inflation and/or dumping of their tokens. The creation of new NFTs (summoning) is also well controlled with a hard cap to how many times each Hero can summon based on rarity and generation.
We have yet to see how these tokenomics fare with the full implementation of Play-to-Earn mechanics of PvP and PvE along with the addition of countless more in-game tradable items down the road.
Earnability - 7/10
Can you earn in the game and how sustainable is it?
The way we judge earnability is less on the raw amount of return made and more on the sustainability and options that people have to earn from.
DFK currently provides multiple paths to earn return:
1. Staking (Jeweler)
2. LP Pools (Garden)
3. Heroes (Questing, Summoning)
While you aren’t going to get rich playing the game, the team has provided a level of stability for those playing.
Where there’s always options to move your money around to earn more, if you’re on top of your investing strategy.
Where there’s room to earn a lot in LP pools but the substantial rewards that people do earn through LP pools (which is the major draw for earning), is locked for a significant amount of time. These vesting schedules can range up to ~1.5 years.
Where their team is slowly introducing skill-based play through their Hero system but has not fully matured yet.
First Look Rating: 7/10 (Great)
Possible Plays
Possible Play #1: Passive Investments in the Game’s Liquidity Pools or Single Staking
DFK has a low barrier to entry as anyone can get involved in the project with any amount of money through the game’s passive earning plays.
Players can simply buy any amount of JEWEL or CRYSTAL and single stake that amount for a variable APR that is usually around 15-20%.
Additionally, the tokens can be traded for a variety of other tokens that can then be used to create liquidity pool tokens and earn substantially higher APRs upwards of 300%+ (1000%+ currently in Crystalvale).
Possible Play #2: Active Investments in Playing the Game
Minimum Investment: ~$250
Floor price hero of any profession [35-45 JEWEL] - $175- $250
Why: The hero will be able to quest, ideally in his primary profession category, for items than can then be sold for tokens
Gardening or Mining professions would be more ideal as they boost APR yields in the Gardens or increase the number of locked tokens
Invest the remaining funds in single staking with the Jeweler or in an incentivized liquidity pool in the gardens for more gains along with the risk of locked tokens and impermanent loss
Light Investment: ~$750
Low gen mining or gardening profession hero [70-100 JEWEL] - $350 - $600
Invest the remaining funds split between single staking with the Jeweler and in an incentivized liquidity pool in the gardens
Why: A mining hero will be able to unlock locked JEWEL earned from the gardens increasing total accessible rewards while a gardening hero will boost garden APRs
Lower generation heroes also have more summons enabling you to summon new NFT heroes or rent out your hero to other players for summoning
Medium to Heavy Investment: ~$1500
2 Lower gen mining and gardening profession heroes [140-200 JEWEL] - $700 - $1200
Invest the remaining funds split between single staking with the Jeweler and in an incentivized liquidity pool in the garden
Why: Having 2 heroes doing both of these quests will maximize token rewards and enable you to summon without renting additional heroes
Whale Investment: ~$20,000+
Gen0 Hero [2000-4000 JEWEL] - $10,000 -$25,000
Why: Gen0 heroes have unlimited summons allowing you to summon as many new heroes as you like or constantly rent out the hero to others for summoning
4-5 other heroes across various professions and rarities
Why: These heroes will enable you to do all the various quests and earn experience/rewards in those categories
Higher rarity/level heroes will become useful in PvE and PvP competitions
Invest the remaining funds split between single staking with the Jeweler and in an incentivized liquidity pool in the garden
Note: Keep in mind that none of what we’ve written here is financial advice. These are the insights and opinions of our team and you are free to disagree or correct us on absolutely any of it. We’d rather be corrected with more information and hopefully glean some insight along the way!
Project Deep Dive: Gameplay
Essential Game Information (Everything you need to get going)
Official Resources:
Articles - Whale Watch, Token Analytics, Strategy, and General Articles
Useful Tools:
Kingdom Watch - Information about Dev Wallets, Bank APRs, Epochs, and Holdings
DFKTavern - Hero Information
DeFi Kingdoms VFAT Tools - Unofficial DFK Farming Calculator
Socials:
Tokens:
Heroes (1)
What are they?
These are the main playable characters in the game. Heroes have two sets of genes, one for appearance and the other to determine their playable attributes such as profession, class, subclass, passive/active abilities.
What utility do they provide?
They can complete passive profession quests for in-game resources and currency, and in the future participate in PvE adventure quests, and PvP 3v3 duels.
Here’s how their sub-attributes affect their value:
A deep dive breakdown into hero attributes from @samipunch
Generation: Lower generation heroes can summon more heroes (higher cap) and at a lower cost with gen0 heroes having unlimited summons.
Rarity: The rarer the hero, the more likely they are to summon rare heroes. This affects the base stats of the hero as higher rarity heroes get large bonuses.
Rank: Heroes of higher rank have better starting stats and stat growth parameters, however they require much more resources to summon additional heroes.
Levels: Heroes can increase their stats by leveling up once they have sufficient xp and the right runes. Levels do not reset. So, higher level characters usually fetch higher trade prices.
Profession: Each hero has a base profession allowing them to complete that profession quest quicker and earn more rewards. This affects value as some professions have higher demand than others at specific points in the game.
What’s their future plan?
Heroes are only at the beginning stages of their utility as the creator team is planning to build ability/skill trees for each type of hero class in anticipation of the PvP 3v3 tournaments.
Professions (1)
What are they?
Passive quests that allow heroes to gather in-game resources and currency while gaining experience, or to increase yield from their gardens.
There are currently 4 types of profession quests: Gardening, Foraging, Fishing, and Mining.
What utility do they provide?
Gardening rewards power tokens if you have seeds (LP) in the garden and also rewards with Gaia's Tears, Shvās runes, and Green Eggs based on the hero's profession, WIS, VIT, and gardening stats. (Basics of Gardening | A Video on Gardening)
Mining rewards gold or power tokens in the form of increasing unlocked rewards along with gaia's Tears, Shvās runes, Yellow Eggs based on the hero’s profession, STR, END, and mining stats. (Basics of Mining)
Fishing rewards fish, Gaia's Tears, Shvās runes, Blue Eggs along with XP and fishing skill increases based on the hero’s profession, AGI, LCK, and fishing stats. (Profession Quest Breakdown)
Foraging rewards plants, Gaia's Tears, Shvās runes, Gray Eggs, along with XP and foraging skill increases based on the hero’s profession, DEX, INT, and foraging stats. (Profession Quest Breakdown)
What’s their future plan?
The resources you can gather from these quests currently have little use other than to be sold for tokens or gold; however, as PvP and PvE elements come out these resources may be used in crafting various items that can be used in game.
Jeweler (1)
What is it?
The Jeweler is a place to stake JEWEL or CRYSTAL tokens for fee sharing rewards.
What utility does it provide?
The Jeweler serves as one of the key features of a DEX and provides a passive single staking method of investing in the game through its primary token.
These tokens are exchanged for xTokens which are the governance tokens for the realm.
What’s its future plan?
Not much has been discussed on the future plans of the Jeweler, but it is expected to continue as a core mechanic of the game
The Portal (1)
What is it?
The portal is where new heroes are summoned.
What utility does it provide?
Summoning is another core mechanic of the game and allows players to create new, potentially more powerful, NFT heroes.
Summoning requires 2 heroes whose traits such as class and subclass along with stats, rarity, and profession determine what kind of new hero will be created.
Players can also rent heroes for summoning through the Arch Druid (NPC).
Here’s a deeper breakdown on exactly how to get a hero.
What’s its future plan?
There are no specific developments planned for the portal and summoning as it is working well in its current state; however, more classes of heroes are expected to be added as the game expands.
Summoning could result in mutations creating new ranks of heroes, which may be added to in the future.
Tavern(1)
What is it?
The Tavern is the place to purchase and sell heroes, rent out your hero for summoning, send heroes to other people, or view the hero catalog.
What utility does it provide?
Barkeep Kessing (NPC) allows you to view individual heroes by their number, view the full hero catalog, and/or send heroes to an 0x address if it has a DeFi Kingdoms profile attached.
Agent Selina (NPC) allows players to buy and sell heroes, in addition to listing heroes for hire to be used in summoning.
What’s the future plan for the Tavern?
The team at DeFi Kingdoms have continuously updated the tavern to accommodate the latest developments to the game such as the upcoming hero ability/skill trees.
Recently, many new NPC have been added to tavern; their purpose has not been specified, but they seem to offer additional quests and/or mini games.
The team has also announced the implementation of a scholar program called the Champion Program to allow players to quest using other people’s NFT heroes and be compensated.
Marketplace(1)
What is it?
This is the center of commerce in DeFi Kingdoms and where the primary functions of the DEX are.
What utility does it provide?
Trader Matoya (NPC) is the face of the DeFi Kingdoms DEX where players can trade any token on the Harmony blockchain, including resources found in game that can be sold for JEWEL.
This is where you would initially exchange tokens when first starting the game in order to get JEWEL.
Druid Lazarus (NPC) assists with making seeds that represent LP tokens, which can then be planted in the gardens to earn rewards.
Trader Zada (NPC) could also be found here and is the marketplace for any of the resources earned questing, bought or sold for in gold.
There are two other NPCs, Crier Milo who allows you to view the most recent DeFi Kingdoms newsletter and Stylist Sandra who allows you to change your profile picture.
What’s its future plan?
Nothing specific has been mentioned for future development of the marketplace; however, it is expected to be updated item NFTs that will be added to the game down the road.
Similar to the tavern, new NPCs have recently been added that seem to provide more quests and mini-games for players.
Docks
What is it?
The docks enable players to travel to other realms of DeFi Kingdoms that live on different blockchain networks.
What utility does it provide?
Dockmaster Maria (NPC) assists in bridging tokens to other chains with the use of the built in Synapse bridge overlay.
This is also where a player can switch to the Crystalvale realm and transfer their assets there.
What’s its future plan?
As DeFi Kingdoms expands to additional blockchains the Docks will have to be updated to handle switching and bridging to those networks.
Meditation Circle
The meditation circle is where players level up their heroes once they have enough experience points and the correct runes to do so. The Esoteric Wander (NPC) serves as the leveling interface for players to interact with.
Alchemist
The Alchemist is a relatively recent addition and allows players to craft a variety of positions with the resources they have found by talking to the NPC, Herbert.
Castle
The Castle is another relatively recent addition that houses the land auctions and hero leaderboards. The top right section is labeled roadmap but does not have any functionality as of now. There are also several new NPCs at this location that will provide access to even more side quests or games.
Project Deep Dive: Tokenomics
For Tokenomics, here are a few fantastic resources to go deeper:
$JEWEL Token (1)(2)
$JEWEL acts as the main token of value in DeFi Kingdoms.
Players can earn JEWEL primarily by either single-staking with the Jeweler or from LP seeds in the gardens.
Players can also earn JEWEL by doing any of the profession quests, either unlocking locked rewards or earning resources to be sold for the token
The JEWEL (and CRYSTAL) from even in game transaction will be divided as follows:
1% - Burned
10% - Sent to the Bank to reward xJEWEL/xCRYSTAL holders
30% - Sent to the Quest Rewards Fund
25% - Sent to the Development Fund, to pay for future game development and bounties
17% - Sent to the Marketing Fund, to pay for advertising, airdrops, etc
17% - Sent to the Founders Fund, used to pay milestone bonuses to the dev team
The hard cap of JEWEL is 500,000,000 with a steadily declining issuance schedule and a lock up period for liquidity pool earnings that will start being ratably unlocked after an estimated Q3 2022.
The lock up period and issuance schedule combined with withdrawal fees based on the amount time in the pool help prevent reward dumps and rapid inflation.
The DFK Chain expansion enables JEWEL to be now used as the gas token for all transaction on that chain, further creating intrinsic value
JEWEL Gardens - A great resource to learn more about exact JEWEL emissions and the locking model
$CRYSTAL Token (1)
The $CRYSTAL token serves the same primary purposes as the $JEWEL token, but is dedicated to the Crystalvale realm
CRYSTAL launched with a hard cap of 125 million tokens (¼ of JEWEL) with 2.5 million tokens pre-minted for liquidity and initial rewards
Ice Gardens - provides exact CRYSTAL emissions and details about the locking model
Both power tokens can be exchanged at the Jeweler for xTokens that are the governance tokens of the project. (1)
Current Forms of Earning:
Staking $JEWEL or $CRYSTAL Tokens or Yield Farming through LPs have been a significant way to get exposure to the game’s growth with high incentivized yields to promote newcomers and adoption.
Completing the mining profession quest to increase the amount of unlocked tokens from the liquidity pool rewards - The number of tokens unlocked depends on the hero’s profession, STR, END, and mining stats.
Completing the gardening profession quest to increase the yield of liquidity pools that a player is currently participating in - The number of tokens “found” depends on the hero’s profession, WIS, VIT, and gardening stats.
Trading of resources found while questing such as fish, plants, runes, eggs, etc. for tokens with Trader Matoya - Each of the different profession quests have different resources as rewards and drop rates are dependent on the hero’s stats and core profession.
Renting out Heroes for hire in summoning is another avenue to earn in the game as players need two heroes to summon and high level/rare heroes would cost more to rent.
Appreciation of the underlying NFTs and summoning new NFT Heroes has also been a significant way to earn in the game as the value of the lower generation NFTs have exploded and continue to climb.
Upcoming Forms of Earning:
#1: PvP 3v3 Tournaments
The team recently announced plans of implementing 3v3 tournaments where players can earn JEWEL, combat will be idle and based on a skill list.
#2: PvE Dungeons and Quests
This has just been discussed as a roadmap item but there is no concrete information yet.
#3: Champion Program:
Players can run quests for using other people’s NFTs and resources to be compensated in JEWEL based on a pre-agreed contract.
#4. Kingdoms, Land, and Buildings:
Kingdom plots (Land NFTs) have been recently added and given away to random winners with the World Map expansion. Having a Kingdom allows for buildings to be built, providing passive bonuses to heroes and increasing overall earning potential.
Project Deep Dive: Roadmap & Future
Short-Term Roadmap (4/15/22):
The DeFi Kingdoms team is constantly pushing out updates, patches, and new features that are all mainly announced within their discord.
They recently launched the Kingdoms and Land features, giving away 51 Kingdom plots to random chosen xJEWEL holders. With these land NFTs, they plan to launch the Buildings feature in early to mid 2022 which would add much more complexity to the game. Resource buildings can be used to craft rare equipment while other buildings provide passive bounces to the heroes.
Another significant roadmap item is the game’s expansion to the AVAX chain through the launch of Crystalvale and its token, Crystal. Both Crystalvale and the current Serendale game on Harmony will follow similar roadmaps, but with features first launching on Serendale to incentivize continued growth on the Harmony network. Crystalvale would add more heroes, new genes, and unique quest lines providing more content for the community overall.
The creator team also recently added several different NPCs throughout the map. Although no exact information has been released on what each NPC will provide, a quick look at the dialogue text that pops up when selecting an NPC alludes to the addition of multiple new side quests or mini games to DFK. This will hopefully give players their first taste of PvE or even PvP gameplay rather than just the passive questing that is currently available.
Long-Term Roadmap:
Equipment:
The Defi Kingdoms team has announced the addition of equipment NFTs to the game. Heroes will be able to craft and equip items ranging from common to mythic rarities that will grant new passive and active abilities, as well as increase their stats. Rare, mythic, and legendary amulets were awarded as part of a launch raffle to holders of certain amounts of xJEWELs.
Battle System:
Heroes, in parties of 3, will be able to compete in PvP tournaments with JEWEL rewards. The team has not detailed any specifics about the launch, but mentioned combat will likely be idle with abilities and skill lists involving most of the strategy and competition.
DFK Blockchain:
The DeFi Kingdoms Blockchain (DFK Chain) is being built using Avalanche’s subnet technology to handle gameplay transactions in Crystalvale and host the Crystalvale DEX.
The creator team can now run and manage its own blockchain, giving them direct control over aspects such as transaction fees and finality to ensure a quality user experience in the long-term.
The DFK Chain also serves to empower the JEWEL token as it will be used as the gas token in Crystalvale.
Half of this gas fee will be burned while 25% is sent to validators
The other 25% to a floating quest fund dedicated to the players.
Overall, the addition of a proprietary blockchain for DFK sets up the infrastructure to unlock the potential of a full DeFi Kingdoms game ecosystem and drive long term value for the project.
The team plans on continuing to expand to other chains using the JEWEL ecosystem as the foundation with talks of 2 more expansions by the end of 2022.