Today we are launching our newest experiment: Stars and the Star Store. It’s another way for us to give players what they want: rewards for playing and winning. It is also another step forward along our Free to Play path in Gods Unchained. With the Star Store, players can get cards spending only Stars.
Here are the headlines:
- Stars are earned by playing games in the Ranked Constructed queue.
- Use those in the Star Store to get off-chain cards from Core and Welcome Set.
- No changes are happening to Flux at this time.
- This is an experiment, and anything about it may change over time.
Stars: What they are and how you earn them
Stars are a new off-chain resource, like Flux, which are tied to your account and cannot be traded. You gain Stars by winning games in the Ranked Constructed queue. Stars are awarded in a Star Vial, which you open up immediately after getting a ranked game win.
There are six types of vials, ranging from a Nebula Vial (40 to 60 Stars) to a Universal Vial (2000 to 2500 Stars). When you open a vial, there is a chance that it upgrades to the next-highest level. Those upgrades can keep happening, too… there is a tiny chance that your Nebula Vial could contain a universe of Stars!
Each day, awards are given on a set schedule. This schedule is subject to change, but here is what we are launching with:
- 1st win: Supernova Vial (400, 500, or 600 Stars)
- 2nd, 3rd, and 4th win: Supergiant Vial (200, 250, or 300 Stars)
- 5th win: Nebula Vial (40, 50, or 60 Stars)
- 6th win: Giant Vial (100, 150, or 200 Stars)
- 7th through 10th win: alternating between Nebula and Giant.
- 11th through 20th win: Nebula Vial
In addition, each vial has a 10% chance to upgrade to the next level when you open it. Your Giant could become a Nebula… which when opened could also upgrade! Here are the extremely rare vials:
- Galactic Vial, only available as an upgrade from Supernova, has 1000, 1100, or 1200 Stars
- Universal Vial, only available as an upgrade from Galactic, has 2000, 2250, or 2500 Stars. It cannot be upgraded further.
Rewards decrease after the fourth win and stop after the twentieth win because we don’t want people to feel that they “must” play a few hours each day. There is a cap of 20 wins per day, and stars are only rewarded if a game progresses to 5 or more rounds. The reward schedule resets each day at midnight UTC. (7pm EST, 4pm PST, 11am AEST.) So log in, play a few games, and get some Stars. Then…
Star Store: Turn your Stars into cards!
We have launched a Star Store, which will contain a rotating list of cards for you to acquire for your account. You get to the Star Store by clicking Market on the menu on the top of the screen, then selecting Star Store. Here is a picture of the Store, but please note that in the game the list of cards will change often:
Previously, the only way to get Core cards from Immutable was to either win them in Weekend Ranked events, earn them when you level up through ranked games, or to win shiny versions of them through prize drawings. Now, you have the ability to get them in the Star Store.
We will have a rotating list of cards, ranging from key commons to chase legendaries and everything in between. We plan for most of the cards to be plain-quality, the default border treatment of Core cards. But we will have higher-shine quality of cards in the future, as big-ticket items to reward our most dedicated players.
We will also make Welcome Set cards available through the Star Store. Get your Vanguard Axewoman in Shadow quality while you can! Each card is available for a limited time. However, you can buy as many as you want if you have the Stars to spend. (We might release a “limited quantity” item into the Star Store in the future, however.) If you miss out, don’t stress. Some of the cards will appear in the Store in the future, and once Immutable X launches players will be able to get cards from other players through the Market.
For the record, we have no plans to put Trial of the Gods or any other set cards into the Star Store at this time. While we could use some of the promotional allocations to do so, for now, the best way for free to play players to get those cards is through Weekend Ranked. Now, with the Star Store, those players will have another tool to tune their decks and get them battle-ready.
Cards acquired in the Star Store lower than Meteorite quality are not on the blockchain
It is important to note that plain cards acquired in the store are added to your account but not on the blockchain. This is no different than other Core cards and Welcome Set cards players acquire without spending money. The plain Core cards can be fused and upgraded to Meteorite in the Forge (using Flux to do so). From December 14th, 2022, all Meteorite and higher quality Star Store cards will be minted automatically when you buy them and and any cards you’ve purchased from the Star Store before Wednesday 14 December 2022 will be minted to the default wallet on your account and thus will be available for trading on the Immutable X marketplace.
The Meteorite and Shadow cards in Welcome Set will be minted and sent to the player’s wallets in Immutable X later. They will be in players’ accounts (similar to how we treat cards from Trial of the Gods).
We feel that this system gives us the opportunity to let free to play players get the cards they need, while also giving play to earn players a chance to turn their play into a chance to get paid! We will put special things into the Star Store that we hope players will love and value.
What about Flux?
Flux is a system we have in place to encourage users to play decks from all of our domains, to be able to upgrade Core cards from Plain quality. Now that the Forge has launched, the plain-quality Core cards players acquire with Stars can be fused like any other Core card, with Flux, to get a Meteorite-quality version.
Read more about Flux and the Core cards market here.
Final notes: Everything is subject to change
This is an experiment, I’d say our largest experiment since the launch of the Sanctum. And just like with the Sanctum and Weekend Ranked, we intend to make changes as we go. Literally, everything might change about this system. As always, we’re going to look at the data and listen to player feedback to guide our decisions going forward.
To be clear, here is a partial list of the things we may do in the future:
- increase or decrease the rate Stars are earned,
- change the amount of Stars in each of the Vials,
- change or remove the upgrade path for Vials,
- increase or decrease the cost of cards in the Star Store, and
- increase or decrease the length of time cards appear in the Star Store.
While we list a length of time an item is scheduled to be available in the Star Store, we can’t guarantee that it will be. We reserve the right to remove items early or to extend the time an item is available.
We can’t wait to hear what you think about our newest feature. We have plans to update the Star Store in January and beyond, and your feedback will be an important part of that! Please join us in the official Discord, and let us know in the #feedback channel.
~ Thandrie "Seeker” Davis, Lead Game Designer
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