Pirate Nation (PIRATE): Experience High Seas Adventure On-Chain
The GameFi sector is one of the fastest-growing niches within the blockchain industry. Countless projects have joined the space over the last couple of years, hoping to capitalize on the explosive growth in the popularity of crypto games. However, many, if not most, of these gaming platforms only have a part of their functionality supported by web3 technologies. A large part of their working mechanisms, including the game engines, often resides on centralized Web 2.0 servers, with only certain features enabled by blockchain. A typical scenario is to have crypto wallet operations tied to players' accounts, while the game engine and computing resources come from traditional Web 2.0 sources.
Pirate Nation is a GameFi project that, unlike many other platforms in this sector, has a fully on-chain gaming environment. Launched by the Proof of Play game studio, Pirate Nation takes you on a pirate adventure to collect materials, explore seas, gather loot and battle on bold quests and missions. Its fully on-chain web3 game leverages blockchain technology to offer a secure, permanently protected, transparent and user-owned gaming experience.
Key Takeaways:
Pirate Nation is a fully on-chain RPG game in which players use their pirate teams to hunt for treasures, travel across seas and participate in various quests and battles.
The platform uses fully decentralized, on-chain tradable NFTs for its main in-game assets — pirates, ships and other items.
Pirate Nation's economy is driven by three main tokens: two in-game currencies, Pirate Gold (PGLD) and Gems, and an ERC-20 token, PIRATE. PIRATE can be bought on Bybit as a USDT Spot pair (PIRATE/USDT).
What Is Pirate Nation?
Pirate Nation is a fully on-chain RPG game that allows you to assemble a team of pirates and send them on quests across seas to collect gold and other resources, loot, participate in battles and more. By successfully carrying out these quests, your pirates gain experience, and you can eventually level up to unlock in-game-asset trading opportunities.
Unlike many other GameFi platforms, Pirate Nation is completely blockchain-based. No part of the game's functional mechanism — its game engine, asset storage functionality, trading environment or user accounts — is held off-chain. By being completely web3-based, Pirate Nation offers significant advantages to users, including better security, public traceability and transparency, the permanency of game assets (as long as the host blockchain exists) and the ease of creating user-generated content (UGC). The last point is a particularly notable feature, given the growing popularity of UGC in the web3 world, particularly in the gaming and social media sectors.
Many gaming platforms extensively use Web 2.0 solutions to enable their functionality, even when they claim allegiance to web3. The use of Web 2.0 systems — with their heavy slant toward proprietary and centrally controlled features — limits UGC opportunities within these games. In contrast, Pirate Nation actively supports and facilitates UGC, thanks to its fully blockchain-based nature.
Pirate Nation was developed by Proof of Play, a New York–based blockchain game developer. In March 2024, the blockchain technology company rolled out a dedicated chain to host and support Pirate Nation. The dedicated blockchain, Apex, features minimal gas fees and average block times of about 0.25 seconds, providing an affordable and scalable hosting environment for the game.
Apex also provides multi-chain functionality, enabling smooth asset transfers across different blockchains. While the gaming engine for Pirate Nation is based on Apex, the Pirate non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — the main in-game asset types on the platform — reside on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.
Pirate Nation Gameplay
You’ll need to own at least one pirate to start the game. However, you don't have to purchase your first pirate, as Pirate Nation can be free to play. All you need to do is mint your first free pirate NFT to get started. Of course, the more pirates you have, the higher your chances of succeeding and leveling up, so purchasing more pirates is definitely advisable for those serious about playing the game.
You send your pirate(s) on quests or to collect treasures and pirate gold in an open, procedurally generated gaming world. Pirates are driven by an energy resource to carry out their tasks and quests. This energy replenishes every 24 hours. During sea exploration and quests, pirates use ships, which can be leveled up as players collect bounties and complete quests using their pirates.
As your pirate team successfully completes its missions, you earn points that let you level up in the game. For many users, the eventual goal is to level up to the tradable level; this is the level at which you acquire the ability to trade in-game assets on the platform.
There are three main modes of accomplishing tasks and leveling up: the combat-based Skullduggery mode, the discovery-based Exploration mode and the trade-based Privateering mode. Each player will gravitate toward one of these modes based on their gaming style and preferences. Regardless of the mode, you’ll encounter plenty of unexpected surprises and challenges along the way.
Source: Pirate Nation lite paper
Pirate Nation's Game Wallet is gasless and signless. This means that after you’ve authorized the Game Wallet once on your main wallet, you can play Pirate Nation without having to confirm transactions on your main wallet or switch blockchain networks.
Pirate Nation Economy
The game's token economy revolves around three currencies: Pirate Gold (PGLD), Gems and the PIRATE token. Each serves a specific purpose for advancing in the game, trading or accumulating assets.
PGLD is earned and spent by players throughout the game. It’s the Pirate Nation gaming environment's primary play-to-earn (P2E) crypto. Gaming achievements are mainly rewarded using this token. New players who haven't reached the tradable level earn Marks (MARK) tokens instead of PGLD. When their accounts reach the tradable level, all the accumulated MARK is converted to PGLD. From then on, their in-game achievements are rewarded with PGLD tokens.
Gems, another in-game currency in Pirate Nation, can be used to boost your gaming capabilities. For instance, using these tokens, you can purchase additional pirate energy and meet quest requirements. Gems also provide access to special events and game modes. It’s a non-transferable, internal asset limited to use within the Pirate Nation gaming environment.
The platform's main cryptocurrency, PIRATE, can be used to purchase Gems, which in turn open up access to a variety of game functions and features.
What Is the Pirate Nation Token (PIRATE)?
The PIRATE token is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token launched on Jun 13, 2024. As noted above, it can be used to purchase Gems tokens. Unlike Gems, however, PIRATE is freely tradable and is already available on the crypto market.
The Pirate Nation team has outlined in the project's lite paper that PIRATE will also be used in the future to reward players for various activities. These may include completing on-chain and off-chain quests, winning tournaments, expanding the player's grid and more. There may even be rewards for building on top of the existing Pirate Nation ecosystem, so other developers and gamers creating UGC might also benefit from the envisioned rewards program. As detailed in the next section, the PIRATE token also has staking functionality.
The total and maximum supply for PIRATE tokens is 1 billion. Supply allocation shares are per the chart below.
Source: Pirate Nation lite paper
Staking Pirate Nation Token (PIRATE)
Staking PIRATE on the game platform allows you to collect Proof of Play Points. Pirate Nation applies a multiplier to the points earned to encourage early participation in the staking program. This multiplier is decreased daily, but once you stake your funds, you’re guaranteed to earn points at a multiplier rate applicable on the starting day. Thus, getting in early allows you to lock in a better multiplier.
A valuable feature of staking on Pirate Nation is that you can still use your staked PIRATE funds for discounted on-platform activities and transactions without affecting the multiplier bonus. You can also unstake at any time.
Where to Buy the Pirate Nation Token (PIRATE)
The PIRATE token can be bought on Bybit's Spot market through a swap pair with USDT (PIRATE/USDT). You can also take advantage of Bybit's Token Splash campaign dedicated to the token to earn a share of the 7,000 USDT prize pool . The campaign, which runs till Jun 26, 2024, 8:59AM UTC, requires existing and new users to complete a series of deposit and trading tasks to qualify for their share of USDT rewards. You can also earn USDT bonuses for referring your friends to sign up to Bybit.
Pirate Nation NFTs
The Pirate Nation platform features three main NFT varieties: Founder's Pirates, Ships and Items. Items are NFTs representing a vast variety of in-game assets, including tools and equipment used by pirates, materials for crafting treasures, trees, muskets, pirate flags and many more. Ships, being larger and more critical in-game assets, are listed separately as an NFT variety of their own. As the NFTs are generated on-chain, the skills and traits they develop as they evolve are permanently stored in blockchain.
The most prominent NFT type on the platform is Founder's Pirates. These are 9,999 genesis NFTs in the form of pirates released by the platform in November 2022. Initially, Founder's Pirate NFTs were required in order to gain access to the game. However, the project team quickly realized that as the game gained popularity, requiring a Founder's Pirate from each new player would dilute the collection's supply.
The rules were modified, and new players can now start playing in the game using a free pirate NFT of a different type, not necessarily a Founder's Pirate. This move helps retain the scarcity element for Founder's Pirate NFTs, which are now used to provide access to certain exclusive features and benefits. They may also be used in Pirate Nation's staking program along with PIRATE tokens. Staking a Founder's Pirate NFT with PIRATE tokens allows you to earn a better points multiplier.
Closing Thoughts
Fully on-chain games aren't yet mainstream within the broader blockchain ecosystem, where many games still feature a combination of Web 2.0 and web3 technologies. Pirate Nation is a notable exception in this field with its dedication to providing a fully blockchain-based gaming experience. Besides this technological factor, the platform has uncompromisingly fun gameplay, as you take your pirates on many adventures across the high seas to discover hidden treasures and participate in quests and fierce battles.
Having recently launched its native token, the platform is ready to take on an active role in the niche of fully on-chain games. Its focus on the exclusively web3 experience and an engaging game environment are definitely going to help Pirate Nation in the high seas of the competitive GameFi sector.
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