The meteoric rise of racing blockchain games has blasted Pegaxy at the forefront of a peculiar niche in NFT gaming. We are looking closer at the robotic mythological mares and stallions and what the hype is all about.
Breed and Race Flying Horses Descended From the Mighty Pegasus
Pegaxy is a play2earn PvP on Polygon where futuristic looking winged horses called Pegas are raced against each other in contests that parallel traditional horse-racing down here on planet Earth. 12 Pegas line up to compete in each race and payouts are made to the first three past the post.
Pegaxy is being developed to be a fully-featured racing game, but for now it is an RNG game with the outcome of each race determined entirely by breeding - the Pega with the finest bloodline wins the race.
What is a Pega?
According to Pegaxy Metaverse mythology Pegas were originally created in the Pegasus Galaxy as work machines to replace horses. Underground racing and betting on Pegas became so popular that the sport went mainstream and wings were added in honour of the mighty Pegasus, the most revered god in the galaxy. For players in the 'real' world Pegas are NFTs used to race against each other.
Bloodlines
Pegas have 4 different bloodlines with each one representing a level of Rarity.
| Bloodline | Rarity |
|---|---|
| Hoz | Rarest |
| Campona | Rare |
| Klin | Uncommon |
| Zan | Common |
Each bloodline corresponds to one of Four Elements -- Fire, Water, Wind and Lightning -- which provide them with different qualities. You can visually identify bloodlines by such things as wing design.
Hoz
The rarest bloodline is called Hoz. These powerful elite Pegas are married to Lightning.
Hoz have an almost mythic status and are a force to be reckoned with on the track.
Campona
Associated with Fire, Campona are adapted to overcome the fieriest conditions.
These powerful steeds are regarded as gods in their own right.
Klin
When the going gets wet the Klin get going. Horseracing enthusiasts know them as 'mudlovers'.
Masters of Water, Klin can reliably outperform other Pegas in the wettest of conditions.
Zan
When the wild winds blow, you're better off backing the Pega bloodline known as Zan.
Renowned for focus and stability, these sturdy steeds can fly like the wind.
Breeding
As in other games, like Axie Infinity and Monsta Infinite, it is possible to breed new Pegas. This is the backbone of the Pegaxy ecosystem, which is particularly appropriate, since bloodlines play such an important role at the top levels of horseracing.
In order to breed you need a male and a female. This applies to Pegas, even though they are mechanical beings. The cost of breeding depends on the number of times the selected male and female have already bred. The more popular the parents, the more expensive they are to breed from.
You can crossbreed between bloodlines, but the resulting Pega will always take the type of the parent with the lowest rarity factor. So, if you breed a Hoz (rarest) with a Campona (2nd rarest) you will always get a Campona. If you breed a Klin (3rd rarest) with a Zan (least rare) you will get a Zan etc.
Gender Equality
The gender of the offspring is randomly generated on a 50/50 basis, It is possible that in the future NFT food types might be introduced that could alter the chance of producing male or female offspring, but since there is no gender bias affecting the value or ability of Pegas this is of minor concern.
Breed Types
Just as there are different levels of bloodline, so there are different levels of breed type. The most valuable are the so-called Founding Pegas, which were 'created, not born' as part of the Pegaxy mythos. There are just 5,000 of them and they cannot be bred, which is to say that if you breed a Founding Pega with another Founding Pega you will produce a Legendary Pega, which is the next level down. If this sounds a bit confusing the table below should help.
Breeding choices rely on two key considerations: The Bloodline of the parents, then the Breed Type of parents. Combine the two results and you can determine the type of Pega foal you'll get.
Here's an example: If you own one female Rare Zan Pega and you wish to breed it with a male Epic Campona, your resulting baby Pega would be a male or female Zan Pacer.
Since Pegas are mechanical there are no consanguinity problems, meaning you can breed between mother and son, brother and sister etc with no risks of genetical downside. Incest is not a thing with Pegas!
Cooldown Times
Even though they are not flesh and blood animals Pegas can't be breeding all the time. They need 'cooldown times'. These vary according to bloodline, but not breed type. Here's some Q&A to explain:
Q. What is the cooldown time for a Pega to breed again?
A. Hoz 24 hours | Campona 48 hours | Klin 72 hours | Zan 96 hours
Q. What is the length of time a newborn Pega needs to wait before it can race its first race?
A. Hoz 24 hours | Campona 48 hours | Klin 72 hours | Zan 96 hours
Q. What is the length of time needed for a Newborn Pega to be able to breed?
A. 96 hours for all bloodlines.
How to Get Racing
Okay, okay, you're a player and you want to get racing. Breeding can wait, right? To start racing you need to get yourself a Pega. You can buy one or rent one, so the first thing to do is connect your wallet to the Polygon Chain and Pegaxy Website. Now you're ready to go to the Marketplace and get in the game.
Marketplace
Currently, there are 4 differents ways to get involved in Pega racing. You can Buy a Pega, Profit Share with an owner or, alternatively, you can choose one of 2 rental options: Fixed Rental or Direct Rental.
Buy a Pega
There are two ways to buy a Pega. You can select one at a fixed Buy Now price or bid for one in an Auction. If you win the auction and the price meets or surpasses the seller's reserve price, then you've got yourself a Pega. Bear in mind that you will need to pay for it with the seller's requested currency, which may be Pegaxy's PGX governance token or USDT.
Profit Share
This option allows you to rent a Pega directly from an owner within the Pegaxy platform for a split of any race payouts. Traditional P2E rental systems leave renters vulnerable to being ripped off by unscrupulous owners. Pegaxy avoids such issues by using an automated rental and payout process with funds held in escrow. The Pega that is being rented for profit share is also held in escrow until the owner terminates the agreement.
The usual profit share for the renter is around 10%-20%. Profit Share is not the quickest way to get racing, however, since there is a lot of competition to rent a Pega this way.
Fixed Rental
This option is like renting a car -- you can rent a Pega to race for a fixed number of days for a fixed price. Once the renter has accepted the agreement the Pega is held in an escrow wallet. The owner receives the full fee from the escrow account, but cannot "take back" their Pega until the fixed rental period is over.
Direct Rental
This system is specifically designed for Guilds of the type popularised in Axie Infinity. Being able to buy, breed then rent-out their NFTs to is the main aim of most guilds. The rental escrow systems outlined above apply to this method as well, which should simplify the management of guilds and reduce workload.
Essentially, Direct Rental allows owners to create a rental contract which they then offer directly and exclusively to a prospective renter.
One important aspect to note about the rental system is that each wallet can only rent a maximum of 3 Pegas at any one time. If players attempt to rent more than 3 at a time the account will be banned and the VIS locked forever. The logic of limiting Pega rentals will help keep an even playing field, but maybe making it technically impossible to rent more than 3 Pegas would avoid such punitive sanctions.
Gameplay
Once you've got a Pega to race with you can click the Enter Race tab and you will be pushed into a lobby matching your Pega's class. There is no fee to enter a race. Once the lobby is full, you have 60 seconds to assess the variables of the track and fit the best available gear to your Pega to help it handle the track best.
And They're Off!
Now you really are up and running. Watch your Pega compete against 11 others and if you place in the top 3 you get a payout in VIS tokens!
Tokenomics
PGX
PGX (Pegaxy Stones) is the Governance Token of the Pegaxy Metaverse and is located on the Polygon Layer 2 chain. Initially, there will be limited ways to earn PGX through gaming itself; although this is eventually due to change with the introduction of community treasury staking.
Current use cases for the PGX token include:
Breeding fees
Purchasing of Pega on the Marketplace
Staking (eventually)
Large tournament rewards
VIS
Vigorus (VIS) is the Utility Token for "earning" and "spending" inside the Pegaxy ecosystem. VIS is only minted as winnings for the first 3 finishers in races, none having existed prior to the running of the first race. VIS is burned through the Breeding model (and other VIS sinks in the future) outlined later. The goal is to create a reasonably balanced mint and burn ratio while avoiding micromanagement and over dictation of the ecosystem.
Due to the fast moving nature of the in-game economy, the awarded amount of VIS for races is expected to change up or down in the future. VIS is also the primary token used for breeding and the amount of VIS required to breed depends on the breed count of each Pega.
Fabled Tokens and Crowned Pega
Fabled tokens are a powerful tool which early adoption players were incentivised to earn by referring people to the Pegaxy platform and having them purchase at least one Pega. Once earned they give players the ability to evolve their normal Pega into a Crowned Pega.
Fabled Tokens do not expire or disappear, they remain in your wallet until they are used and burned or sold on the P2P marketplace. You can attempt to evolve a Pega at any point in time. Like PGX and VIS, Fabled tokens are an ERC20 token on the Polygon Chain.
The tokens were limited to 4,000 and the maximum amount of attempts at evolution was 800, meaning that the maximum possible number of Crowned Pega in circulation is 800, although less than 50% of attempts are expected to be successful.
As verified in the relevant Polygon Smart Contract, only 722 Fabled Tokens ended up being claimed, so there probably won't be more than 300-400 Crowned Pega ever. Since Fabled Tokens are burned on use, the scarcity value in the market is bound to increase exponentially, especially if the game really takes off.
Fees
The Pegaxy marketplace has a 3% seller fee on every transaction. This fee is the same no matter which currency you use to sell your Pega, Food, Gear or (in due course) Stadium. The exception is auctions, where the fee is 5%.
According to the White Paper, once the community treasury is active these marketplace fees will then be directed to the community treasury for the use of staking rewards, tournament rewards and ecosystem development.
The Long and Winding Road to Decentralization
Pegaxy will not be a decentralized game on release, although this is the aim down the road. As stated in the Pegaxy White Paper: "The complete decentralization of Pegaxy will not be a simple or quick process. Through trial and error alongside our growing community, we plan to eventually fall into decentralization once the game economics, DAO and gameplay has been perfected". This process is expected to take many years of game development and community growth. The fees taken within the ecosystem of Pegaxy for the first year are to be put towards "the costs of development, large scale partnerships, recruiting senior experts and building an extremely strong foundation". This system is expected to allow the game studio to move forward and increase the pace of the game's development, which will presumably speed up the eventual decentralization of the game.
When staking does go live, players will be able to stake their tokens inside the treasury and be rewarded with PGX plus the ability to vote on key ecosystem developments and suggestions. Eventually, through large scale tournaments and other events, players will be able to earn PGX.
What's Next?
Down the line Pegaxy will be building in more and more in-game options to make gameplay more fun. Meanwhile there is plenty of working going on to build out the whole ecosystem and grow what could become a great and active community with tons of growth potential.
Here's the latest roadmap from the Pegaxy White Paper:
Updated 19th November 2021
Q3 2021: $PGX Private Sale ConclusionQ4 2021: Initial DEX Offering for the $PGX Governance TokenQ4 2021: Initial Founding Pega SaleQ4 2021: Beta Release of the Pegaxy Game on DesktopQ4 2021: Native Marketplace ReleaseQ4 2021: Renting Platform ReleaseQ4 2021: Breeding Platform ReleaseQ4 2021: Issuance of Earned Fabled Tokens to PlayersLate Q4 2021: Beta Release of the Pegaxy Game on MobileLate Q4 2021: Beta Release of 3D Gameplay on Desktop- Early Q1 2022: Initial Sale of Pega Food
- Q1 2022: Beta Release of 3D Gameplay on Mobile
- Q1 2022: Pega Change Name (VIS Sink)
- Q1 2022: Crowned Pega Release
- Q1 2022: Ramp.Network Integration (Direct fiat on-ramp)
- Q1 2022: Token swap on platform
- Q2 2022: First Stadium Sale Event
- Q2 2022: Release of Pegaxy Game on iOS and Android Device App Stores.
- Q2 2022: Introduction of Lootbox/Gacha system
- Q3 2022: Pegaxy Community Hackathon with Rewards From Developer Incentive Fund
- Q3 2022: Introduction of the Community Treasury (fees from marketplace and breeding
- Q4 2022: Introduction of Staking $PGX into Treasury.
- Q1 2023: Introduction of Secondary Racing Mode.
- Q1 2023: Introduction of Pega Burn System.
- Q2 2023: Initial Sale of Perseus (Rider) NFT's
- Q3 2023: Introduction of Community Based Games
- Q4 2023: Interoperability/Cross Chain Use of Pegaxy NFTs in Other Games
This article was written by @cryptosimplify and @francis.melville.
Our Cartel operator for Pegaxy is @cryptosimplify.
What's The Cartel Plan?
The Cartel is coming late to the Pegasus party. While we were preparing this article, we were still in range for an investment. But as we speak, prices are through the roof for a breeding pair. It would be a huge gamble right now for us so we will not make an investment at this point. We will watch closely from the sidelines, if some affordable opportunities arise again in the game to invest.