Walken: The First-Ever Walk-to-Earn Game
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September 13, 2022

Walken: The First-Ever Walk-to-Earn Game

NFT Tech’s newest Move-to-Earn (M2E) venture, Walken, is catching the eye of other big names as investors and partners including Yield Guild Games and Huobi Ventures. Still in its early stages, Walken’s experienced team boasts over 50 million App Store downloads and $10 million in annual revenue. 

Move-to-earn (M2E) is one of the fastest-growing concepts in the cryptocurrency world, especially in the blockchain gaming space. What’s amazing about the move-to-earn concept is that it allows users to earn rewards in crypto by doing fitness activities. Move-to-Earn uses a combination of Gamefi, NFTs, and GPS technology to track movements. 

Last week, we sent one of our research analysts into Walken to provide a first-hand account of what it’s like to play the game. This article will provide an account of their experience in the game, outlining what Walken (and Move-to-Earn) is, and how to play.

What is Walken?

Walken is a walk-to-play, win-to-earn mobile app which is available for download in the App Store and on Google Play.

The game combines the Move-to-Earn concept with a Tamagotchi-inspired gameplay experience.

The Walken app synchronizes data from Apple Healthkit and Android Health to calculate the number of steps taken per day by the user and convert the steps into GEMs, one of Walken’s in-game tokens.

GEMs can be used to upgrade speed, strength, and stamina for your Cathlete (your in-game character) to participate in battles where they can earn WLKN tokens.

Get yourself a Cathlete

As you start your Walken journey, you will be given a free non-NFT digital pet (Cathlete) that you can level up and will eventually become an NFT once it hits level 6. You can also take a shortcut and buy Cathletesin the in-app marketplace.

Level up your Cathlete

Cathletes can be leveled up using Gem, which can be earned by converting the number of steps a user has taken within a day into Gems. One thousand steps are equal to one Gem for a user with one Cathlete. Earning Gems in-game has a multiplier depending on how many Cathletes you have–the more Cathletes you have, the more gems you can earn. Once a user hits a daily goal of 10,000 steps, they will be rewarded with additional bonus Gems on top of the Gems they’ve already earned.

The more steps you take per day, the faster you can level up your Cathlete.

To complete the level-up process of a Cathlete users will need WLKN tokens. They can earn WLKN tokens in the game’s Competitions.

Users can use the pending WLKN balance they acquired as they battle on the Leagues or they can also buy WLKN in exchanges. Currently, WLKN is available in Huobi Global, Bybit, Gate.io, Bitmart and Ascendex (Bitmart).

Players level up their Cathletes to unlock higher leagues to earn more WLKN tokens. Every league has a minimum level requirement in order to participate. The higher the league, the higher WLKN token rewards per win.

Leagues and battles

One of the cool features of Walken’s gameplay is Leagues.

Leagues are competition lobbies where users can participate using their Cathlete to battle with other players for a chance to win WLKN token rewards.

There are different leagues with different level requirements that a user can participate in, depending on their Cathlete’s level. The higher the Cathlete’s level, the higher the league it can participate in, and the more WLKN token rewards it can garner.

Here are the level requirements and earning potential for each of the Leagues:

  • League 1 — Minimum Cathlete level: 0; Possible reward: Up to 0.1 WLKN per win
  • League 2 — Minimum Cathlete level: 2; Possible reward: Up to 0.19 WLKN per win
  • League 3 — Minimum Cathlete level: 4; Possible reward: Up to 0.45 WLKN per win
  • League 4 — Minimum Cathlete level: 6; Possible reward: Up to 2.06 WLKN per win
  • League 5 — Minimum Cathlete level: 8; Possible reward: Up to 4.04 WLKN per win
  • League 6 — Minimum Cathlete level: 10; Possible reward: Up to 10.28 WLKN per win

Aside from the WLKN that players earn per win, players also have a chance to acquire Mysberies as a consolation prize. Mysberries can be used to boost one random stat of a players Cathlete giving them more chances of winning on competitions.

Below is a table showing the amount of Mysberries and the chances of getting them depending on the rarity of the Cathlete and the league they compete in.

All Leagues feature three different disciplines or competition types that a user can choose from for its Cathlete to compete.

  • Sprint Running — in this discipline, Cathletes will battle using mainly their speed. Secondary factors are strength, stamina, and the number of steps taken in 24 hours.
  • Urban Running — in this discipline, Cathletes will compete using their strength stats. Secondary factors are speed, stamina, and the number of steps taken in 24 hours.
  • Marathon Race — in this discipline, Cathletes will compete using their stamina. Secondary factors are speed, strength, and the number of steps taken in 24 hours.

Once a user has already chosen a discipline the battle algorithm will randomly match players and start the idle battle. Each battle costs one energy.

Pro tip: Select a discipline where you have the highest trait/stat. For example, if your Cathlete has 10 Strength, 12 Stamina, and 13 Speed, you should choose Sprint running since it battles mainly using Speed stats.

Users can also buy clothes (hats, t-shirts, shorts, sneakers, accessories, and artifacts) to boost their Cathlete’s stats. Each item of clothing has its own strength, stamina, and speed that will help increase a Cathlete’s overall traits.

Using Mysberries is a good way as well to increase your chance of winning as it increases your Cathlete stats when consuming Mysteries (Please see below Stats boost per Mysberries consumed).

Energy plays a big part in how much a user can earn in Walken. Depending on rarity, Cathletes have a maximum amount of energy storage and energy cooldown.

Here are the maximum energy storage and energy cooldown for every rarity:

Next level UX/UI

One striking element of Walken is the attention paid to UX/UI. The app is easy to navigate and understand.

There are five tabs in the app, wallet, statistics, competitions, collectibles and store.

  • Wallet tab — is where you see your GEM, WLKN, and SOL balances and transactions. In order to withdraw your WLKN earnings, two criteria need to be met. First, you need to have at least 20 WLKN tokens in your pending WLKN balance, and you need to have one NFT (Cathlete or Clothes). Take note that your Cathlete will be a fully-fledged NFT once it hits Level 6, meaning that the “free-to-play” route is really possible but it will take a little bit of time and effort. Once both criteria are met, you can now transfer your pending WLKN to the main WLKN wallet wherein you can freely transfer your WLKN to different wallets or exchanges.
  • Statistics tab — shows you the steps taken daily and for the past seven days, the gems you earned and the distance you traveled. This tab is currently available only for IOS users but will be available soon on android as well.
  • Competition tab — is where you can enter battles where you can earn WLKN. The higher your Cathlete’s level, the higher the league you can join, and the higher WLKN you can earn.
  • Collectibles tab — is where you can see your collection of Cathletes, Clothes, and Lootboxes.
  • Store tab — is where you can buy Cathletes, Clothes, and Lootboxes.

Walken is innovating the M2E space by combining the traditional Move-to-Earn concept and Tamagotchi-inspired gameplay. Nurturing a Cathlete and battling it with other players while doing physical activities is a huge selling point for the game as it provides an entertainment experience for users, which most move-to-earn projects don’t have. Free-to-play is also an amazing feature of Walken as it allows almost all types of people and investors to test out the project without having to put money into it immediately.

A one-of-a-kind M2E game

Overall, Walken’s gameplay is very unique.

Having an NFT that you can level up and even put clothes on really covers the enjoyment part of playing a game that most Play-to-Earn and Move-to-Earn blockchain games don’t have.

The free-to-play model is also a good marketing strategy that showcases the amazing app and the features of Walken. New users can test out the gameplay first, and once they love it and realize the investment potential of Walken, they can eventually invest in more Cathletes aside from the free one. Another positive side of Walken is the combined experiences and results of each member of the team.

All in all, Walken is a very promising new game in the blockchain space.

References:

Walken. (n.d). Walken Litepaper. Herrera P. (2022, April 20). DappRadar x BGA Games Report — Q1 2022. Phemex. (2022, June 30). Move-To-Earn: 5 Apps That Pay You Crypto For Exercising. Walken. (2022, August 11). Mysberries & Mysberry Booster Explained.

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