ChainGuardians Sales Information: A Deep Dive

13 min readApr 17, 2020

This article should be read and understood in tandem with the ChainGuardians handbook, which is available here. You can also find the overview of the crates and sale information here. This article is designed to assist potential sales participants in evaluating their options and is composed of the following key areas:

NFT Valuation Overview
Valuation Factors: Army Rank, Uniqueness, Rarity, Natural Ability, Elemental Type
Circulation
Items

NFT Valuation Overview

All our collectible assets are of a limited quantity; which ensures they retain their scarcity and value within marketplaces. After this sale, there will never be any more of these particular Guardians or supporting characters minted beyond which is outlined in this article. These Guardians will always be amongst the strongest within the Cryptoverse.

It is noteworthy that whilst no duplicates of these particular characters will ever be minted, new Guardians or supporting characters will be later developed. This is necessary to support: in game-balancing, ecosystem growth, player growth and game evolution.

Moreover, The ChainGuardians Team will never sell any of the NFTs available in our sale at a lower price than what is set in this sales period. If all assets do not sell, a slightly higher price may be set for the same asset in future sales. This decision is made to protect the intrinsic value of the NFT and safeguard their value for those who purchase them.

At a high level, the below categories are what should be considered as significant when analysing the value of ChainGuardians’ characters.

There are also significant in-game statistics which impact the total strength of any in-game character. This is determined by the in-game logarithmic-growth meta and is not significant to the valuation of the NFT itself. The above table will be broken down in further detail in this article.

Valuation Factors

Typically a ChainGuardians’ asset’s value is underpinned due to the limited number of catches for each asset and, in the case of playable characters, a number of on-chain statistics which contribute towards the Overall Power Score. At the end of this article the number of catches available for each asset will be outlined. Potential sales participants are also encouraged to read the rationale outlined below for the statistical information to be considered when determining the value of the assets.

The valuation of an asset and the number of catches available for each Guardian, supporting character and item, is typically determined by the following meta statistics:

#1 Army Rank
— 1.A: Guardians
— 1.B: Captains
— 1.C: Lieutenants (Randomisers)
— 1.D: Officers (Androids)
— 1.E: Soldiers (in-game fungibles)
#2 Uniqueness (Legendary, Rare, Uncommon, Common)
#3 Rarity (Number out of 20)
#4 Natural Ability (Number out of 15)
#5 Elemental Type (Fire, Air, Earth, Psychic, Sound, Light and Water)
#6 Number of Catches (Varies for each character/asset)

Note that these statistics in isolation do not automatically determine the outcome of a battle, there are also in-game (off-chain) statistics which are not accounted for, as well as a player’s in-game skills. Details of this can be found in our Handbook here. In the case of items, their uniqueness, number of catches and in-game function, is key to determining their value. Items will be discussed at a later part of this article.

#1 Army Rank

It is vital that players become familiar with the Army Ranks, since the Army Rank of a character determines every other statistic which is to follow. There are five Army Ranks: Guardians, Captains, Lieutenants, Officers and Soldiers.

The current ChainGuardian characters which have been developed include the following ranks:

1.A) ChainGuardians: as the dedicated defenders of their respective blockchain worlds, the Guardians, alongside Captains, are the rarest assets that users can obtain in the ChainGuardians world and these Guardians will always be amongst the most powerful.

Like all of our characters, once our Guardian characters have been sold during our sales, there will never be any more of these specific Guardians characters available, other than in secondary marketplaces such as OpenSea.io.

Each Guardian is closely tied to their respective blockchain world both in terms of rarity, power and LORE. In other words, Bitsee, as the defender of The World of Bitcoin, the first of its kind, will always be the most powerful Guardian.

The Guardians which are developed as playable characters and available in this sales period are: Bitsee Naka, Seth Buter, Dasha locks, Lolita Lee and Mudra. During the sales event, you will notice a different pricing structure for each Guardian. Later in this article, once we have explained the key statistics important in valuation, I will discuss each Guardian individually and the logic for their pricing.

1.B) Captains: whilst captains do not typically overly concern themselves in the art of combat, they should not be meddled with; boasting unique skills harnessed and nurtured through their travels, they have considerable value in the ChainGuardians’ world, whilst still maintaining some of the strongest combat skills.

Captain Devex Attazer is the only character who currently holds the title of Captain, and whilst typically our Guardian characters are the strongest combatants and rarest assets, the top three catches of Captain Devex Attazer will ensure his scarcity and power are comparable.

1.C) Lieutenants (Randomiser Characters): Lieutenants (also called Randomiser characters) are free in-game. Every 24 hours each player has the opportunity to summon a Lieutenant for free.

These heroes range from Common to Rare but typically have no value as determined by ChainGuardians. That said, players have the option to mint these characters as NFTs, however at this point they can only be sold on secondary marketplaces such as OpenSea.

Randomiser characters are a special class since they can stretch quite far across the ‘Uniqueness’ attribute (see below section for details). Meaning that they can be of Rare ‘Uniqueness’ and have high stats, or they can be Common and have low stats. It is noteworthy that it is extremely rare to obtain a Rare Lieutenant. Very few have been found to date!

1.D) Officers (Androids): Officers are skilled in the art of war and maintain strong combat skills. Most Officers will maintain a ‘Uniqueness’ of Uncommon; though there are a few special Rare Officers who may be roaming around the Cryptoverse! At present, Rare Officers have not been uncovered in the ChainGuardians game world, but they might make an appearance at some stage.

The currently available Officers are Android characters: Celia Nexa and Kumabaggu. They are not available in this sale, but are purchasable on our OpenSea storefront. It is noteworthy that typically Androids are very strong in early game-play, however since they are androids, they do not level up as part of the in-game logarithmic meta. As such, for later game-play, they might not be the best characters to have in your team.

1.E) Soldiers (fungible in-game only): Soldiers are the grunts of the ChainGuardians’ world. Typically they are not particularly rare; though some officers are stronger than others and there are a few Uncommon soldiers in the ChainGuardians’ world. When a Soldier character dies in combat, it is lost forever, as they are not NFTs.

#2 Uniqueness

Another factor to consider when determining the value of an asset is their ‘Uniqueness’, which was referenced in the Army Rank section. All ChainGuardians’ characters, including Guardians, have been categorised by their Uniqueness.

The categories of Uniqueness are: Legendary, Rare, Uncommon and common. A Legendary character is likely to be the most valued available Uniqueness, whereas a Common character is the least valued. The below graphic indicates the likely scenario of valuation, with top being the highest valued (Legendary), and bottom being the lowest valued (Common).

A Guardian character can only ever be Legendary; however every other character ranges between the above mentioned categories. These categories are determined by their ‘Army Rank’ (see above valuation component — #1 Army Rank). The current characters have the following categorisation:

Guardians — Legendary (available in this sale)
Captains — Legendary to Uncommon (Captain Devex Attazer — sold in pre-sale in tandem with the NFT POS mining game release)
Lieutenants (Randomiser Characters) — Rare to Common (only available through in-game as part of the ‘summon’ feature)
Officers — Rare to Uncommon (Celia Nexa and Kumabaggu — sold on OpenSea storefront as part of pre-sales)
Soldiers — Uncommon to Common (available only in-game)

You will notice that depending on the characters’ Army Rank, the range of their Uniqueness will differ. Whilst a Guardian character will always be of Legendary uniqueness, an Officer character will never have Legendary Uniqueness. Captains meanwhile, will range somewhere between Legendary and Uncommon.

#3 Rarity

A Guardian or supporting characters’ Rarity is not the same as their Uniqueness. Rarity is a fixed number (on-chain) which contributes towards the Overall Power Score of a character for the ChainGuardians game; whereas a character’s Uniqueness has no direct effect on the Overall Power Score. Whilst Uniqueness does often serve as a useful guide for determining the likelihood of a character having a higher Rarity Score or Natural Ability Score, it does not contribute towards a characters Overall Powers Score in game. Whereas Rarity does affect the Overall Power Score of a character, which in turn dictates their strength in battle, and the likely outcome.

A Guardian or supporting characters’ Rarity is determined by their Army Rank and Uniqueness which can be seen in the table provided at the top of this article under NFT Valuation. The maximum number for Rarity is outlined as twenty (20). Only Bitsee Naka has 20 out of 20 for Rarity, which means her value is likely to be higher (in-line with her Rarity). The below table demonstrates the Rarity value for each Guardian and supporting character.

Users should see a correlation between the value of Rarity, Scarcity (number of catches/mints), Army Rank and Uniqueness. These factors align in determining the value of the character and NFT. For example: Bitsee, who has a Rarity of 20, is more costly than Seth with a Rarity of 19, and so on. The next statistic for users to consider when evaluating purchases is a characters ‘Natural Ability’, which will be outlined below.

#4 Natural Ability

Natural Ability, like Rarity, is an additional number which directly affects a characters’ Overall Power Score (the Overall Power Score is determined by On-Chain and Off-Chain statistics) within the ChainGuardians game.

Unlike Rarity, however, this number is not fixed and will range between two values. Despite your character’s Natural Ability being unfixed, the higher and lower value range will be dictated by the character’s rarity. For example, a Bitsee Naka with a Rarity of 20, has a Natural Ability value range between 12 (low) and 15 (high). Whereas Seth, with a Rarity of 19, has a Natural Ability value range of 12 (low) and 14 (high). As the cost of each asset decreases, so too will their Rarity and Natural Ability.

The minimum and maximum range from and to for Natural Ability rolls will be dependent on your character’s Army Rank classification, Uniqueness and Rarity as outlined in the stages above. You can review these numbers on the table appended to the bottom of this article and analyse how the numbers work in tandem.

Catches #1–3 are the only exception to the above rule as they will always maintain the highest possible Natural Ability for their character. For example: catches number #1–3 for Bitsee Naka will always be 15/15, #1–3 Seth Buter will always be 14/14 and Dasha Locks catches #1–3 will always be 13/13.

#5 Elemental Types

There are currently seven Elemental Types discovered within the ChainGuardians world: Water, Air, Light, Fire, Fire, Sound, Earth and Psychic (from left to right in the above image).

Maintaining an Elemental Type advantage will grant your character a percentage buff against types over which it is stronger. Typically this will be a 10% power buff in game. However this is subject to change for the purpose of balancing.

Maintaining the same Elemental Type as your opponent will nullify their strengths. Typically, the more Elemental Types your character maintains, the stronger it will be in combat. Please note, during Beta, only your character’s primary Elemental Type will be active. In future development, their secondary Elemental Types will become active.

Only one character in the ChainGuardians’ world currently holds four elemental types: Bitsee Naka, the original ChainGuardian.

Typically other Guardian characters will maintain three Elemental Types; whilst Captain Devex Attazer will have two. Here is a break-down of the different Elemental Types for each character:

Lieutenant characters will maintain one Elemental Type initially, though they might be able to obtain two with experience (pending balancing); whilst Officers will only ever have just one.

During the Beta, since each Guardian will only have their primary Elemental Type (highlighted in the above table), the typical outcomes might be expected:

Whilst the above indicates a typical high-level meta, it should not be taken as though a percentage buff alone will result in a battle win where you have a strong Elemental Type advantage.

#6 Circulation

The following number of catches (or mints) has been determined for each Guardian and supporting character. This will never be amended and these characters will always be amongst the most powerful in-game as to reward early adopters and supporters of The ChainGuardians project.

Please note, new characters will still be produced in line with game growth and development. At our discretion, The ChainGuardians Team will hold a small number of each character (if they are not sold during the sales period) as a contingency to support development in the future and for testing purposes.

Items

Other than characters, there are five main types of asset currently available within the sales bundles:

— Satellite Assisted Combat (SAC) — Non-Fungibles
— Asteroids — Non-Fungibles
— Clones — Non-Fungibles
— Consumables — Fungibles

Every Non-Fungible received in the sale can be minted as an NFT by following the steps outlined on our website. Once again, be aware that in doing so, these items can no longer be sold on our marketplace. At this stage, they can only be sold on secondary NFT marketplaces.

A high level break-down for each asset class will be provided below. However for an individual break-down of each item, please refer to the Bundle Breakdown under our sale page here or in the tables below.

Satellite Assisted Combat (SAC)

Satellite Assisted Combat are spaceships which enter the game and perform different functions. They are representative of in-game Non-Fungible assets which provide special effects to players every ten turns. The effects are dependant upon which SAC the player owns but can range from:

Mass healing a player’s friendly units
Healing individual friendly units
Mass damage to enemy units
Single damage to an enemy unit
Freezing time (your opponent loses a turn)

When a player purchases a bundle where SAC Non-Fungibles are present, like all Non-Fungible items within the ChainGuardians world, the player can choose to mint these for a nominal fee of 25 CGC, or keep them as in-game Non-Fungibles.

It is noteworthy that once a player chooses to mint a Non-Fungible, they can no longer sell this on the ChainGuardians marketplace, but may wish to do so through secondary NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea.io.

Asteroids

Like SAC assets, Asteroids are also Non-Fungible in-game items where a user can decide whether to mint them using CGC.

At present, Asteroids are not usable in-game, however they will be vital for crafting items in future game updates. Asteroids produce ‘Shards’ of the same Elemental Type (see #5 Elemental Type within this document). For example: a sound Asteroid will produce shards which will be required for crafting armour, weapons and magical items suitable to characters which maintain the same primary Elemental type (Fire shards will be required to craft Fire related weapons or armour).

In the future, characters will not be able to equip crafted items which do not match their Elemental type. This again underlines the importance of having numerous Elemental Types (such as Bitsee).

In future game builds, in-game crafted items will be vital to improve the Overall Power Score of your character and increase your chances of success in game and PvP. The below table shows how many Asteroids are provided per pack:

Consumables

Consumables are Fungible in-game items which only have a set amount of uses as stipulated in game. Some of these items do not currently have a use-case, such as shards (which are also generated passively through holding Non-Fungible Asteroids). However as stipulated above, these will be very important in future game builds.

Meanwhile, some of these items are immediately usable and important for in-world gameplay. This includes healing potions, elixirs and time freezes, all which have immediate use cases and can be the difference between winning and losing a battle.

All of these items can be found in your backpack and inventory in-game, even those which are not currently usable. A full list of the different consumables can be seen in the table below and their use case on the right hand side.