If you haven’t already played Thetan Arena, you have probably at the very least heard about it. This MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) style blockchain game from the studio, WolfFun, is a really well-made game that offers players a chance to earn through the THG (Thetan Gem) and THC (Thetan Coin) tokens. Built on BSC Network as well as Kardia Chain, this cross-chain game can be played on Android, Apple, and PC. Their website boasts 23 million players, which makes it one of the most played crypto games out there.

Gameplay

To begin as a free player, you unlock three starter heroes: Steelshot, Venika, and Raidon. You can use these three heroes in various different game modes such as Battle Royale (both solo and duo), Tower (defend your own tower, and attack the enemies), and Superstar (capture the flag). As mentioned above, this is a MOBA-style game, so you will be battling, usually as a team, to defeat the enemy team. Each game mode has different objectives, so you will want to get used to each one.

There are a wide variety of rotating abilities to assist you and your team including heals, shields, lasers, and more! You get to choose which two abilities you would like to accompany you in battle. It does take some time to learn how to use each skill, and to figure out which ones match well with your chosen character.

Winning a match allows you to climb the ranks, and earn prizes along the way including THC and Power Points, which can level up your in-game heroes. These Power Points are only an in-game currency.

The game itself is fun to play. It’s very, very similar to the game Brawl Stars, which isn’t blockchain. In my research, I couldn’t find a clear connection between the two, but I believe there is a lot of crossover on their teams. When they first launched and were advertising Thetan arena, they frequently compared it to Brawl Stars.

The Play-to-Earnability

As with any blockchain game, the tokenomics are where the rubber really hits the road. Unfortunately for Thetan Arena, their tokenomics fall a little bit flat. For players who want to earn for free, it requires grinding all the way to the rank of Bronze 1 (15 ranks up). Bronze doesn’t sound like a high rank to get to, and it isn’t really, but it still takes a long time to get there.

At that point, you can withdraw any in-game currency that you have accrued. If you are using the free characters, then you only get currency by ranking up. So while it is technically possible to earn for free, it is very time-consuming, and quite a challenge.

If you would like to invest a little, you can pick up a character for around $10. There are a variety of heroes to purchase in the marketplace other than the free starting ones. Buying one will allow you to earn more when you play as each bought character can earn extra coins for a set number of games a day.

It will also be a little bit easier to make progress, as the bought characters seem to be a little better than the free ones. Some other perks to owning a bought hero, are being able to participate in special events, as well as the ability to rent them in the future. These special events can award players if you do well in them, but again, will require a lot of playtime.

The main issue with the game is that there isn’t much incentive to hold THG and THC. These two currencies have been in free-fall since the game launch. THG has fallen from $20 to $0.84 a coin, while THC has fallen from $0.71 to $0.012 a coin. Both seeing their highs in November soon after game’s launch.

Likewise, the price of a hero used to be in the hundreds of dollars, and now it’s in the tens. The game is fun, the earning ability is there (somewhat), but the economy is not. For a blockchain game to thrive as a Play-to-Earn game, there has to be a healthy balance between players who cash out, and players who invest further. When there are too many of the former, the coins will inevitably crash. There was a large amount of hype and initial investment put in from the start by many players, but over time people cashed out more than others bought in.

Final Thoughts

Thetan Arena is a fun and well-made game. The gameplay is smooth and bug-free, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing. The variety of heroes and abilities adds to the enjoyment and strategy, and it does take some time to learn what each can do. I would recommend giving this game a chance as you can play for free, and it may become your new favorite! 

My concern for this game is it takes a considerable amount of playtime to reach the necessary level to cash out, so it may not be the most free-to-earn friendly. It also seems as if the initial tokenomics aren’t working as the dev team intended. If the devs don’t change some fundamentals of how the game economy works, it might not be long before this blockchain game is forgotten.

Let us know what you think about Thetan Arena in our Discord, we would love to hear your thoughts! To learn more about Thetan Arena, you can check out their website here.

If you didn’t get a chance to read last week’s interview with stuckatsixpm, you can find that here.