Blockchain gaming ecosystem Crypto Unicorns has finally officially launched on Xai, an Arbitrum-powered Layer 3 network, just in time for the Play to Airdrop campaign that starts next week.

What Does the Migration Bring?

Laguna Games’ plan to ditch Polygon for Xai has been long in the making, and now, after almost half a year, and almost a month since the migration of more than 250 smart contracts began, this diverse ecosystem (or at least its flagship title) is now finally live on the gaming-centric network that is partnered with global esports organization Team Secret, bringing varied NFT gameplay to the Arbitrum and Xai communities.

In general, the ecosystem is built with Unicorn NFTs at the heart of it, with the main game focused on breeding Unicorns and playing with them in the jousting arena while crafting various items and collaborating in guilds called Tribes. There are also Land NFTs that can be connected to the game to allow owners to create their own kingdoms that can be inhabited by Unicorns in order to improve farm efficiency by completing quests, crafting items and collecting resources and crops.

Now that the core game and ecosystem have a new home, what benefits does this move bring? Well, the CEO of Laguna Games, Aron Beierchmitt, sums it up nicely with the following statement said in a press release:

“Launching Crypto Unicorns on Xai is a game-changer for our community. With faster, gas-free transactions, a new marketplace, and enhanced features, the player experience is significantly improved. By combining these advancements with hyper deflationary tokenomics, we are setting the stage for a stable and sustainable in-game economy. Two years of bear market building is finally coming to fruition!”

Next to the new marketplace, fast gas-free transactions and quality-of-life additions, the migration also brings with it a new primary token: $CU, replacing the $RBW token that previously powered the Polygon version. Holders of $RBW were able to convert to $CU at a 10 to 1 ratio. This new governance token can used as an entry fee for in-game quests as well as for staking, liquidity providing, crafting, buying various items from the in-game marketplace, participation in various tournaments and party-based games, and more.

To ensure long-term sustainability, two DAO proposals are planned to be implemented to lower the circulating supply of the new token. To do this, a buy-and-burn system is being introduced so that 50% of all ETH earned by the treasury is used to buy and burn $CU. The other proposal involves adding a burn mechanism where tokens spent in-game are burnt every month, a process that even applies retroactively for the last 2 years, meaning that the studio is burning 6.48 million tokens for past in-game activity, or 15% of the token’s total supply, according to the press release and recent tweet, while making future player activity in the ecosystem beneficial to the ecosystem’s core token.

Play to Airdrop Season 1 Campaign & Exclusive Bundles

To celebrate this migration, the studio is planning to host Season 1 of a Play to Airdrop campaign starting on July 1st, giving players 2 months of time to compete and earn $XAI rewards by doing a variety of tasks, with a Vanguard Campaign also set to go live during that period to incentivize players to complete a wide array of in-game objectives. Users looking for more active, complex gameplay will want to participate with Unicorn and Land NFTs, while those who’d prefer a passive experience will opt for the rare Shadowcorns, of which there are only 3000 that will provide bonus $XAI rewards by using a new feature called Shadow Forge, which should go live soon and allow Shadowcorn holders to allow players to mint minions, gather resources and craft rituals to climb the leaderboard and take part in “future Shadowcorn vs Unicorn game loops.”

While all necessary assets for participation can be bought through the official marketplace (you need at least 2 Unicorn NFTs and 1 Land NFT), Laguna Games is dropping 750 limited-time bundles for XAI Node holders to claim on June 28th at 1 AM UTC, with the claim period ending on June 29th at 12:59 AM UTC or while supplies remain. If you’re lucky enough to claim a bundle, you’ll be getting all the assets you need to start playing, and potentially more.