Looking for a fun roguelite game in the world of Web3 inspired by indie hit Vampire Survivors? Then you may want to check out The Backwoods, a play to earn browser-based slash 'em up and shoot ‘em up on Solana that is running a play to airdrop event during its open alpha phase.

Getting Started

Anyone interested can get started by launching the dApp from the game’s official website and connecting a crypto wallet on Solana, one of the most popular chains for blockchain gaming. This will allow you to sign in with your wallet, after which you will also need to connect your Discord and Twitter profiles to enjoy the game for free.

With all that done, you’re set to press the play button and begin racking up points to climb to the top of the leaderboard!

Gameplay

Upon opening the game, you’ll be placed in a detailed pixelated world which acts as a hub from which you can set out on your action-packed run. In this home area, you can find plenty of different characters chilling about, and if you get up close to them, the game will in most cases let you switch characters. This seems to be purely cosmetic, so you don’t have to worry about any stats changing when switching to a character with your preferred style. As this is a very early version of the game, there’s not much you can do in this area, but given the fact that there’s a shop and blacksmith present in it, we can likely look forward to seeing new features added here in the future.

When you’re ready to go, simply jump into the portal at the top of the map. This will let you choose which mode you’d like to play in: Normal or Hardcore. A limited game mode may also pop up from time to time, such as the currently-running The Bonkwoods Cup, but that’s only open to players who signed up during the brief registration period that appeared earlier this month.

The difference between Normal and Hardcore is not only in difficulty, but also in point earnings, as Hardcore rewards players with bonus points on top of the standard earnings present in the Normal mode.

Whichever of the two modes you choose, you’re thrown into a 2D arena full of varied monsters to slay, moving around using your keyboard or mouse. If you’re not familiar with Vampire Survivors and similar games inspired by it, it’s pretty simple: fight waves of ranged and melee enemies for as long as you can to win the run by getting to a certain wave or holding out long enough. In this case, you can win the game by beating wave 30. Attacks are done automatically, so you just have to move around the map to avoid getting hit. There are no obstacles in the map, only enemies coming from all directions.

Every wave lasts a certain amount of time, and at the end of each wave, the game will let you spend the coins you’ve collected on various different weapons and items. The game will give you a random assortment of 4 weapons and items to purchase at the end of every wave, though you can also spend coins to reroll the selection in hopes of getting better options. If you end up collecting a chest during the wave, the game will open this chest for you at the end of the wave and let you choose whether to keep the loot or sell it. You can have up to 6 weapons equipped at the same time, but you can also sell weapons if you need more coins to get something better. A merge function is also available to combine duplicates into a better version. There are both ranged and melee weapons, including axes, rifles, bazookas and more. Items can be super useful as well, as they range from increasing your character stats to even adding a mechanical tower at a random part of the map for more firepower.

There is a limited amount of runs you can do each day though, based on the amount of VIT you have. This is basically an energy system that gives each player a total of 20 VIT every day. Each run costs 5 VIT, meaning you can play a total of 4 times a day.

How Do You Earn?

Players earn by attempting to get the highest score possible. These points then rank you on a global leaderboard, which also counts points gained from staking and referrals. Only those who stake assets can get a referral code, and anyone who plays the game using it will lead to you getting 5% bonus points.

Depending on your leaderboard ranking and number of points collected, you will be able to convert your points into the game’s upcoming token: $LEAF. Basically, the more points you have over the majority, the bigger your $LEAF airdrop will be. Based on the roadmap in the litepaper, the TGE for $LEAF is planned to take place at some point in Q3 or Q4 2024, the same period in which the beta version of the play to earn title will go live. A preseason is also planned, with the first official season set to feature play and earn rewards. Aside from being a reward token, the utility of $LEAF doesn’t quite seem clear for now, though based on info available on the official website, it looks like players will be able to craft armor and weapons using $LEAF. There will also be another in-game token called $SEED, but no info on that one is available at the time of writing.

A specific date on when this play to airdrop event will end has not yet been revealed.

NFT Holder Benefits

The Backwoods has its own Hero NFT collection consisting of playable characters from 9 different races. By owning an NFT, you can get 100% of the points you earn in one session, while free to play non-holders get 50%. This means holding one of the game’s assets lets you maximize your chances of reaching the 4000 points cap for each run, providing you with the opportunity of earning up to 16,000 points every day through gameplay. NFT holders can also earn from staking, meaning that holders can get a bonus 4000 points every day per NFT without even playing the game.

Last but not least, NFT holders can generate a referral code by staking their heroes, so if you have friends to invite and want to benefit from their time spent playing the Web3 title, then you’ll need to get an NFT and stake it to get your own referral code that will allow you to get 5% of the points that your friends manage to earn.

The floor price of a Hero NFT on Magic Eden is 2.471 $SOL (~$346) at the time of writing.