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What Is ‘Off the Grid’? The Buzzy Battle Royale Shooter Built on Avalanche

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If you’ve been on the online shooter video game portion of the internet over the last few days, then you’ve likely heard of Off the Grid, a brand new battle royale game that is picking up serious steam with players. Off the Grid has already topped the Epic Games Store’s list of the most popular free-to-play games, plus it’s commanding huge crowds on Twitch. In short: It’s a hit.

But what you might not know is that Off the Grid is a blockchain game built on Avalanche, with plans for a crypto token and the ability to mint rare items as tradeable NFTs. While these features aren’t yet fully implemented, it’s fair to say that Off the Grid has already made a bigger splash with mainstream gamers than any previous blockchain game—and the future looks bright.

Here’s what you need to know about Off the Grid, the current early access release, and the crypto and NFT plans ahead.

What is Off the Grid? 

Off the Grid is a new third-person battle royale shooter that has launched into early access on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via the Epic Games Store.

A screenshot from Off the Grid in early access. Image: Decrypt

Set in a fictional future where cybernetics can augment humans to make them even more deadly, you and two teammates will jump onto the sizable city map and fight it out against other trios to be the last ones standing, just like any good battle royale game.

However, Off The Grid touts itself as an Extraction Royale, adding in some extraction shooter style mechanics as well. In matches, you can find what are essentially loot boxes, and if you either hold them as you win, or manage to extract them at certain locations on the map, then you can use them to unlock cosmetic items or new weapons and skills for your loadouts.

Off the Grid is developed by Gunzilla Games, a studio co-founded by “District 9” and “Chappie” film director Neill Blomkamp—and as the studio’s chief creative officer, his style is strongly felt throughout the game.

The game is built around a future competition that essentially turns the battle royale premise into a televised competition between cybernetically-augmented humans. And unlike battle royale games like Fortnite and Apex Legends, Off the Grid promises 60 hours of narrative-driven gameplay, with cinematics that bookend matches and provide added flavor and motivation to the experience.

How do I play Off the Grid?

To play Off The Grid in early access, you simply need to download the free-to-play game on your chosen platform and boot it up, but it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. It’s available on the Epic Games Store on PC, as well as on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, and it can be downloaded freely on all of those platforms.

A screenshot from Off the Grid in early access. Image: Decrypt

Once you have the game downloaded, you simply need to boot it up and play your first game. It’s pretty easy to pick up if you’ve ever played a battle royale before, and there’s already a ton of guides available on the web.

The early access version contains just one mode (Extraction Royale) and the single, but very large map, though the future full release is expected to pack more modes and content.

Where does crypto come in?

In the initial early access build, there’s no obvious crypto integration. But it’s apparently humming along in the background, and there’s more coming on the horizon.

Off the Grid is being built on GUNZ, a dedicated L1 (or subnet) on the Avalanche blockchain network. Currently, GUNZ is on testnet and the network’s GUN token has yet to go live on mainnet, but those moves are on the horizon. Items in the game are denominated in GUN, which you can also earn by completing missions, however it’s effectively an in-game currency for now since the token isn’t live on mainnet.

A screenshot from Off the Grid in early access. Image: Decrypt

However, the game is racking up some serious numbers on the GUNZ testnet, with millions of wallets created during the first week of early access, along with millions of daily transactions. We haven’t gotten full clarity yet from Gunzilla Games on how this works, but it appears that a testnet wallet is created when a user starts playing the game.

Eventually, when the GUNZ network launches its mainnet, Gunzilla has said that players will be able to mint items as unique NFTs, which can be traded and sold on marketplaces and within the game itself. Gunzilla created the GUNZ network to let other developers utilize the tech, as well, so the ambition is for the GUN token to be usable across multiple games in the future.

When will Off The Grid launch? 

There’s no word on when the full game release will come, but for now the early access launch appears to be going down well. Gunzilla Games enlisted (aka paid) major streamers like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Seth “Scump” Abner to play the game for hours and hours during the launch week for their sizable audiences, and that investment appears to be paying off with buzz.

We’ll see whether Off the Grid can hold onto that initial momentum as the game evolves and expands in the near future, and whether mainstream gamers take kindly to the ability to mint and trade NFTs and utilize the future GUN token.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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HashCats prepares for Token Generation Event after completing mining season

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HashCats, a tap-to-earn miner game, is concluding its first season and shifting focus to its upcoming Token Generation Event. 

With nearly five million players engaged in the game’s first six months, HashCats has announced a $500,000 giveaway in collaboration with its partner Choise.ai to reward players ahead of this next phase, according to a release shared with crypto.news.

T2E games, which allow users to earn cryptocurrency by playing, have gained attention but faced challenges in maintaining long-term engagement. Games like Hamster Kombat and Catizen (CATI) initially sparked hype but have struggled to sustain user interest.

HashCats is trying to buck this trend by expanding its ecosystem and enhancing player incentives.

HashCats background

Tap-to-earn games let users generate cryptocurrency by playing simple games. In HashCats, players mine $HASH tokens by tapping their screens and upgrading virtual mining equipment. These tokens can then be converted into cryptocurrency or used within the game’s ecosystem. 

Unlike traditional games that charge for upgrades, T2E games aim to provide a potential income stream for players.

Season 1 of HashCats introduced basic mining mechanics, enabling players to use a single virtual ASIC miner designed for mining specific digital currencies based on their hashing algorithms. 

According to the release, Season 2 will expand this concept, enabling players to manage a full mining farm and introducing Secret Points, which boost TGE rewards. Players from Season 1 who accumulated SP through contests and giveaways will gain an advantage in the new phase.

HashCats and Choise.ai Collaboration

The partnership with Choise.ai, a platform that merges traditional finance with blockchain, adds an extra layer of incentives. 

The ongoing $500,000 giveaway includes events like the “Wheel of Fortune” contest, where players can win CHO tokens. Choise.ai also plans to launch Visa and Mastercard options tailored for HashCats players.



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How Dogecoin Beat ’Em Up Game ‘Super Doginals’ Came to Life

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The launch of arcade-style beat-’em-up game Super Doginals came at an opportune time this month, being inscribed on the Dogecoin blockchain right as the original meme coin saw a resurgence in demand and attention, with DOGE hitting a three-year price peak.

But there’s little indication that the rollout was specifically timed like that. As pseudonymous creator Pimax told Decrypt, the game was created in honor of the fun vibes that have defined Dogecoin and its community for over a decade.

“I created Super Doginals as a tribute to the Doge spirit and playful culture,” they said, “adding my own touch to it.”

Super Doginals is particularly polished and robust for a web game, let alone a crypto game inscribed directly onto a blockchain. It’s simple in design, taking its cues from classic button-mashing brawlers like Fatal Fury and Streets of Rage, but has charming artwork and music, and really does capture the spirit of the meme coin’s fandom.

Pimax said that the game was developed using OpenBOR, an open-source game engine, which was ported to the WebAssembly language to run well in web browsers and remain compatible with the Doginals protocol standard.

It’s also a “lightweight” engine, they said, which was key for a game that would be fully inscribed onto a blockchain. Meanwhile, the old-school pixel art vibe both paired well with the retro gameplay and didn’t take up too much space, though the original music posed a bigger challenge.

“Pixel art was an ideal choice because it’s lightweight and scales nicely on higher resolutions without needing extra data,” said Pimax. “The heaviest component was the music—35 minutes in total—so we compressed it into the web-friendly OGG format to keep it Dogecoin-compatible.”

Super Doginals screenshot
A screenshot from Super Doginals. Image: Decrypt

Pimax wanted to put everything on-chain, right on Dogecoin’s blockchain itself via Doginals—a protocol that, like the earlier Ordinals for Bitcoin, lets users inscribe artwork, code, and other data onto the chain. That can yield assets akin to NFT collectibles, but it can also enable interactive games and apps that fully live on-chain.

The builder first experimented with on-chain games on Dogecoin earlier this year, porting over the original shareware version of first-person shooter Doom, as well as launching a Doge-themed riff on Tetris.

But Super Doginals is a much more ambitious project—not just because it’s an original creation, but also because the size of the game requires the use of multiple inscriptions that work together as one in a process called recursion. Doginals then pulls all of the pieces together into a single, playable game, plus that approach unlocks potential add-on features as well.

“We inscribed the game engine, assets, and utility functions separately, then tied them all together in a final Doginal,” said Pimax. “This approach enables others to build on Super Doginals by adding their own levels, characters, or even creating entire games on top of existing on-chain content.”

Players will also be able to create a “delegate” inscription to have a version of the game in their own Dogecoin wallet, and playable through compatible wallet apps. Pimax said that details on this process will be shared in the near future.

Super Doginals was clearly born from Pimax’s own passion for Dogecoin and the community, but they shared that AI tools were used to make this a manageable solo project. In their view, the AI tools only helped them execute on that vision, rather than strip away their human touch.

“As a solo developer, I used AI tools to accelerate development—whether drafting art, composing music, coding, or gaining insight,” they said. “Today’s AI tools give developers superpowers. While they don’t replace human talent or creativity, they provide a massive productivity boost, making it possible to create a game like this.”

“It still required many months of work with a lot of hands-on effort,” Pimax concluded, “but AI, combined with ingenuity and determination, made it possible to tackle this project on my own.”

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Here Is Today’s ‘Tomarket’ Telegram Game Daily Combo

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Telegram crypto game Tomarket is currently conducting its airdrop process via The Open Network, but the game is still letting players rack up tomatoes for potential future rewards.

Tomarket offers various ways to earn tomatoes, including by farming them over a three-hour span, playing a game where you’ll swipe over falling tomatoes, and completing tasks that point you towards YouTube videos and other Telegram games and communities.

But now Tomarket has launched another way to juice your earnings, adding a daily combo feature. Unlike the daily combos seen in games like Hamster Kombat and Captain Tsubasa: Rivals, this one gives you a grid of little pixel characters and tasks you with tapping the three faces in question—and in the right order.

Tomarket offers teases of the solution via YouTube videos, but Decrypt’s GG will make it easy on you: We’ll be updating this guide daily for the foreseeable future with the latest solution, as seen below. Enjoy the free digital tomatoes.

Tomarket daily combo

Tomarket’s daily combo is found by tapping the Tasks button at the bottom of the screen. You’ll need to watch the YouTube video listed under “Time-limited tasks” and successfully claim the reward before entering the combo, so be sure to do that first.

Here is the daily combo solution updated on Friday, November 8:

Image: Decrypt

The daily reward is 15,000 TOMATO, 2 stars, and 3 tickets.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on October 16, 2024 and will be updated daily with the latest combo.

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