The developers of Arcas Champions have announced that the free mint of Arcas Bastonium Crystal NFTs is set to begin on February 28th.

What Is the Arcas Bastonium Crystal NFT?

Arcas Bastonium Crystals are 1500 NFTs said to represent the “hidden source of power” for the Apes on planet Arcas, and those who excel at wielding this power can dominate the planet’s jungle by crafting “objects of unimaginable power.”

The total supply of 1500 NFTs is divided into 3 rarity tiers: Common (1000), Uncommon (400), and Rare (100). These assets will come with exclusive utility not yet revealed at the time of writing, with the developers teasing that the NFT collection could possibly end up being deflationary as the project develops, “but for now we won't say anything”.

Here’s how you can participate in this NFT mint.

How to Free Mint Arcas Bastonium Crystal NFT

The free mint for Bastonium Crystal NFTs will take place on February 28th at 12:00 UTC+0 on the Soneium chain. It will take place on a certain marketplace that has not been officially announced yet. While there is no mint price, you will need to pay for gas fees, which should “probably be around 1-2 cents worth of ETH.” Up to 2 NFTs can be minted per wallet.

If you want to participate in this free mint, you can do so either by joining the whitelist phase or the public phase. The first 12 hours is reserved for the whitelist phase, after which the public phase begins and also lasts for 12 hours.

If you want to get a whitelist spot, you need to be holding 5000 $ARCAS tokens on Ethereum, Soneium, or the BNB Chain. If you have a wallet owning at least 5 Gamester Apes on the BNB Chain, that makes you eligible as well. As long as you have a wallet with enough tokens or NFTs before the snapshot takes place, you’re good to go. According to the official X announcement thread, the wallet snapshot will be taken at a “random time” 24 hours before the mint starts, so from February 27th, 12:00 UTC+0, the snapshot could happen at any point. It’s best to be ready for the mint before that time. Partnered communities might also get to win whitelist spots.

The Gamester NFT collection launched in November 2021 and sold out in 12 hours. The initial utility was to give holders early access to Arcas Champions and provide in-game identity, but new utility is planned to be introduced soon. According to the official documentation page, the NFTs will represent “10,000 Gamers” that other blockchain gaming projects can employ as testers. Web3 gaming studios building on BNB Chain, Avalanche, Base, and Polygon will be able to hire NFT holders through an “innovative horizontal NFT DAO design” that is powered by Chainlink CCIP. This info however was last updated 8 months ago, but according to Discord messages from 2025, it looks like new utility is set to be coming soon. Based on the more recent messages, Gamester NFT holders can look forward to a “completely unique infra offering” through Skillstaking. This offering will be both web2 and web3, as well as B2B and B2C, so maybe the plan has remained generally the same. You can purchase a Gamester NFT on the BNB Chain through PancakeSwap’s NFT marketplace, where the floor price is currently 0.055 $BNB.

Skillstaking is a competitive gaming platform in which you will be able to earn by supporting your favorite gamers, and the better rank they have, the more you could possibly earn. This too is in development by developer Arcas Games, and players who purchase Champions in Arcas Champions will be able to compete for the top of the leaderboard, while $ARCAS holders will get to stake tokens on any Champion to earn yield that varies based on the character’s MMR. Learn more in the official docs.