Are you looking to enter the blockchain gaming community but can’t find any game that shows long-term promise? The current blockchain games lack many aspects, such as graphics, storylines, and actual game content. These drawbacks have made blockchain gaming unattractive to most traditional gamers who are used to complex games with realistic graphics and enjoyable gameplay. Only one developing game comes to mind when we think of the features of a traditional game with the play-to-earn model, and that is Mist NFT.
PLAY-TO-EARN Market Analysis
Play-to-earn is not a new concept for traditional gamers, as other games allow selling in-game items for real money. Keeping the competitive esports events aside, players would also go an extra step to sell leveled-up game accounts for some extra cash. With the advent of blockchain gaming and NFTs, it has become easier for players to earn easy money only by playing games. Turning in-game assets to NFTs has completely revolutionized the game industry, making games more engaging and profitable for players.
As proven by the tremendous success of Axie Infinity, there is a lot of scope for the growth of play-to-earn games on the blockchain. Right now, the NFT gaming industry is so lucrative that traditional game makers like Ubisoft are also trying hard to grab this opportunity. The game metaverse The Sandbox and the first AAA game on blockchain Illuvium are among the most promising projects in this space right now.
What is MIST?
Mist is the first of its kind BSC-based Action Role Playing Game (RPG) where players can experience a dynamic combat style, which you can only find in MMO games. The game is centered around mainly NFTs, staking, and farming. Mist is built with Unity using its Mist NFT Game Framework (MNGF) and provides players with an immersive experience with various playable classes, spells, abilities, and environments. Mist uses functional NFTs inserted into the Mist Game Framework to obtain special in-game items.
The Gameplay
Mist mainly focuses on core fighting and questing mechanics, which is greatly influenced by traditional action role play games. Just like any other MMO game, players can interact with each other in the massively multiplayer world of Mist. Apart from PvE concepts such as raiding and questing, players can also engage in PvP activities that are a trademark of traditional MMOs. The developers are trying their best to create a platform where competitive players can test their skills against other like-minded players.
We will see a fast-paced combat style where the players need to move during a fight continuously. It will mainly employ WASD controls with many options to jump and dodge incoming rage attacks. However, for players who like relaxed gameplay, there are zones where they can roleplay with the protection of guards. The developers also have plans for adding emotes to the regular gameplay.
Mist will also have various guilds and factions where players can battle and trade to gain MIST tokens and make deals. Mist’s writers are already creating a joinable system for guilds and factions in the Mist Metaverse. In the first phase, pre-made guilds will be implemented where each guild has a different story. With further developments and improvements, players will also have the ability to create their guilds.
The Character Classes
In Mist, there are five paid character classes with one additional free character class. Different character classes enable players to experience various spells and abilities, gameplay, and in-game roles. While some classes are more vigorous at melee fights, others can be ranged spellcasters. Players can also play the default Adventurer class grow stronger as they progress. Each paid character class NFTs was released at 3000 $MIST, and all ability effects increased by 3% with every tier upgrade.
1. Crusader
Crusaders are the tenacious warriors in Mist who are very self-righteous and stubborn. Crusaders have superior physical power and god’s gifts with which they protect their kind from wild beasts and fight to reclaim their lands. From the character description and the early game footage, it is evident that Crusaders will wield potent melee weapons and are deadly in close combat. With the Crusader class, you get to use a class-restricted pair of battle axes known as Vengeance and Mercy.
2. Enchanter
Enchanters have a natural gift of psychic abilities combined with powerful analytical minds. Enchanters have spent a long time perfecting their skills, and they can prove to be a dependable ally or deadly foe, depending on which side they are on. This is the wizard class of Mist, with which players get access to a variety of spells that they can use to outsmart their opponents. Enchanters can also equip the class-restricted Staff of Leixran to cast more powerful attacks.
3. Ranger
Rangers are known to harness earthly divine powers to control natural forces. Players can also get a faithful and mysterious class-restricted canine companion named Virdis Lupus with the Ranger class. Rangers are versatile martial artists and can master new weapons and fighting styles to overpower their opponents in combat.
4. Witch Hunter
Witch Hunters are relentless in their pursuit to destroy evil. Witch Hunter is a class of ruthless assassins who can use their opponents’ abilities against them in combat. Players playing as Witch Hunters get to combine strong range attacks with powerful defensive spells when fighting enemies. The Shield of Agrazzak is a class-restricted item that Witch Hunters can only use.
5. Shape Shifter
Shape Shifters can turn into fierce natural predators and gain the upper hand in any situation. Players can use a Shape Shifter’s arsenal of multi-target attacks and powerful melee abilities to dominate the battlefield. With the class-restricted Ember Ursus, Shape Shifters can change into the fiery beast and improve their battle prowess significantly.
6. Adventurer
The Adventurer class was announced as a free-to-play class that requires no NFTs to play, but you can still use NFTs to upgrade your spells and abilities. Adventurers are jack of all trades and have access to a limited number of spells from each class. Players with the Adventurer class can use various skills in different situations, making them sustaining and unpredictable. There are no class-specific items for Adventurers yet, but they can use the standard item, Stag of Mozuer.
Play-To-Earn in MIST
According to the whitepaper provided by the Mist NFT development team, there will be several play-to-earn opportunities both in-game and outside. Mist will provide players with various options for earning MIST tokens to convert to other cryptocurrencies or fiat money. Players can obtain skills and craft items such as swords, bows, and armours. Players must gather raw materials or buy from other players to do this. Some of the ways players can earn MIST tokens are:
- Killing monsters in the open world of Mist.
- Completing various quests and claiming rewards.
- Selling items in-game.
- Selling NFTs in-game.
- Farming in-game after buying farm estates.
- Staking in-game through in-game businesses.
- Staking MIST tokens on the MIST website or partner websites.
How NFTs Work in MIST
While most NFTs today are strictly collectible or artworks, Mist NFTs are very dynamic, practical, and functional. It is possible to transfer your NFTs out of the game and sell them on exchanges or use them to redeem in-game items. The NFTs vary from weapons, armours, pets, and mounts that you can use to make your gameplay more exciting. NFTs can also be upgraded; whenever you upgrade an NFT, a new NFT gets minted while the lower level NFTs get burned and removed from circulation. There are five tiers of NFT upgrade, and you have to spend exponentially more resources as the tier goes up.
Tier 1: It is the first level of NFTs which you can easily buy or collect in-game.
Tier 2 to Tier 4: These NFTs become progressively stronger and rarer with every upgrade in the tier.
Tier 5: This is the highest level an NFT can achieve in Mist, also known as the Legendary NFT.
Remember that every edition of NFTs is only compatible with the same edition for the upgrade. The Mist NFT announced that the first edition NFTs will have better in-game stats as a token of thanks for the early supporters of the game.
Tokenomics
Token Distribution
Name of the token: Mist NFT Token
Ticker: MIST
Blockchain: Binance Smart Chain
Token Standard: BEP-20
Token type: Governance and Utility
Contract address: 0x68E374F856bF25468D365E539b700b648Bf94B67
Total Supply: 1,000,000,000
Circulating Supply: 56,357,088.00
As evident from the token distribution chart, Mist has only allocated 4.5% of the tokens for the team, while it will utilize the rest of the tokens in various project operations. That is clear evidence of the team’s desire for building a long-term project, but the tokens have a lock time of 6 months, which says otherwise.
Token Utility
Apart from being the governance token, MIST is also the primary utility token of the game. Till now, only the following usages have been announced by the developers:
1. In-game currency: MIST is fully integrated with Binance Smart Chain and can easily be transferred from one wallet to another both inside and outside the game. MIST can also be earned in-game by killing monsters, completing quests, selling NFTs, etc. You would also need MIST for various utilities like repairing damaged items, purchasing NFTs, and swapping them.
2. Farming and Staking: You can also stake your MIST tokens both in-game and outside if you want to earn additional revenue. Players can also invest in in-game businesses and profit when the company is successful. It is also possible to purchase in-game farmland and farm livestock for generating rewards.
Unique Selling Point
Instead of the Unreal Engine, Mist is developed using Unity. The Unity Teams Collaborate module allows the game builds and code synchronization, which significantly helps developers synchronize the work in different time zones. The game framework is suitable for creating and deploying multiplayer ARPGs (Action Role Playing Game), including systems like:
- Inventory system directly connected to Binance Smart Chain
- Adjustable user interface and special effects
- The net promoter score function
- Alignment system
- Ability system
- Quest system
- Weapon system
- Zone System
The Mist framework consists of a Python SDK on the server-side that allows transactions to router to the Binance Smart Chain. Every user’s information is forwarded securely to the smart contracts responsible for mining, farming, and NFT rewards.
Developers Behind Mist
It has been more than one and a half years since the development of Mist started as a passion project. The team consists of developers from various countries, with the lead developer (alias: Scythe) being an experienced indie game developer. But the team is still anonymous and still discussing whether it would be the right move to reveal their real identities. We know that the group consists of various AI engineers/researchers and game developers involved in some popular games through various AMA discussions. For now, the developer team has decided to focus more on the game, and they think doxing may distract them from the roadmap. We can only wait for them to reveal their identity when released.
Bottom Line
If you enjoy playing open-world MMORPGs such as Albion Online, where you can enjoy PvE action while also having the option for PvP, Mist is the perfect blockchain game for you to try. The roleplaying aspect of Mist caters to a large number of casual gamers who like to have relaxed gameplay. The life-like graphics and complex game mechanics also attract a lot of traditional players who find existing blockchain games too simple. The game is yet fully released (with alpha releases in May 2022), so we can only speculate now. Although the anonymous developers are good for only focusing on the game, it can be a red flag due to the lack of player security. So make sure you do your due diligence before investing in Mist NFT. You can join their Discord server and follow Mist on other social media platforms to keep yourself updated with the development.
