NFTs are one of the latest cryptocurrency innovations, and in conjunction with the Metaverse and virtual worlds, they are about to impact the gaming industry majorly. The Metaverse is embracing the play-to-earn gaming industry, and one of the most popular play-to-earn games is Star Atlas. This project seeks to become a pacesetter in the gaming field, and this article will help readers explore the universe of Star Atlas.

What is Star Atlas?

Star Atlas is a space-themed, grand strategy game built on the Solana blockchain. It is a futuristic multiplayer online role-playing game set in the year 2620. Star Atlas’ developers created it using Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite, which helped create cinematic quality video games and visual experiences. The game features political factions, territorial pursuits, high-tech weaponry, and space crafts, all enriching different aspects of the gameplay.

The Star Atlas Realm features three main species; humans, aliens, and robots. Players must then pick their factions and fight on their behalf to acquire resources and territorial dominance. The game also seeks to bring back familiar concepts like battling systems, a farming and crafting system, and a thrilling guild war mode.

Built on the Solana blockchain, Star Atlas enjoys the network’s transactional throughput, which supports a blistering 50 thousand transactions per second. Players on the Star Atlas metaverse can trade and create NFTs within the universe, therefore enjoying an economy that reflects the tangibility and value of real-world assets.

Additionally, Star Atlas is a triple-A game, meaning it is close to the quality levels found in console games. To begin, players need to hold an in-game NFT, although they can sell them whenever they want.

History of Star Atlas

Star Atlas was founded in 2020 by ATMTA Inc. Its CEO is Michael Wagner, an entrepreneur and chartered financial analyst with experience in capital investing and blockchain projects. Its other co-founders include Danny Floyd, Jacob Floyd, and Pablo Quiroga. The game itself was published in January 2021.

Star Atlas has also partnered with several corporations, including FTX, Serum, and Solana Serum, all coming together to help achieve an immersive gameplay experience. Other partner corporations and venture capital firms include Sino, Animoca Brand, Yield Guild, Spark Digital, and Republic Crypto.

How Does Star Atlas Work?

Star Atlas features the Unreal Engine 5 technology, which delivers breathtaking real-time visual experiences and enormous levels of graphic detail. The developers on the Star Atlas team have leveraged this technology to produce realistic shadows, reflections, and full architectural imagery to maximize the dramatic gameplay experience.

Star Atlas capitalizes on Metaverse technology and play-to-earn culture by offering a peer-to-peer in-game economy featuring land, assets, and other items that NFTs represent. This economy is centered around the Serum DEX built on the Solana network. Serum allows players to trade their in-game assets directly with each other without involvement from any intermediary company taking custody of these assets. Building on the Solana blockchain also grants Star Atlas the benefit of using the network’s transactional throughput, which supports a monumental 50,000 transactions per second.

Key Features of Star Atlas

Star Atlas offers a plethora of innovative features.

Deflationary Assets

Star Atlas features a new deflationary mechanism that enables players to engage in riskier activities to earn greater rewards. For example, a player and their crew may explore the deepest regions of the metaverse, which is out of the protection of the safe zones, to achieve rewards like uncolonized planets and resources. During their travel, and due to the dangers of the darkest regions of the game, the NFT-based spaceship they use might get lost or be destroyed. When this happens, this will trigger a burning process of that asset, and the players who survive the challenges of the danger zones will be able to claim the spoils from the salvaged NFTs.

Additionally, specific in-game items are consumable and will be destroyed as soon as they are used. These include construction materials, fuel, and temporary boost items.

DeFi Financial System

With Serum’s integration into Star Atlas, players can interact with smart contract-enabled DeFi platforms while remaining in the center of the gaming experience. This enables them to use a variety of Solana and Serum assets.

Some of these benefits include riding on Solana’s throughput speed, and also affordable transaction fees at an average of $0.00026 per transaction.

Dual-Token System

The Star Atlas universe also features a dual-token system. ATLAS is the in-game currency native to Star Atlas and is used to purchase digital assets (Solana-native NFTs) like spaceships, land and equipment. ATLAS is also the unit of exchange on the Star Atlas NFT marketplace.

The second token is POLIS, the governance token for the Star Atlas universe. Asides from being the governance token for Star Atlas, this token also grants its holders certain advantages in the form of political influence over territory and factions inside Star Atlas.

Star Atlas Gameplay

The Star Atlas game universe is vast, and its players’ goal is to expand their space empire by acquiring land, mining those lands for resources, and exploring the galaxy for ancient artifacts. In these explorations, players can also come across lost ships and weapons from dead players who failed to find the universe’s treasures. Players can collect and capitalize on these items with real-world value.

A Star Atlas ship (https://rare-gallery.com)

Players may wish to operate as landowners and team up with other players. For instance, a player could be in charge of extracting raw materials from the land. In contrast, another player could utilize these raw materials to fuel adventures across the galaxy and engage in combat. Star Atlas also has a novel feature- Land Value Tax (LVT), which prevents properties from being flipped while incentivizing players to keep using their land. Players can also use their land as collateral for loans.

Players can expand their operations and bolster their power by purchasing mining equipment, land, and bigger ships to level up in the game. These assets will be available as NFTs and can be traded on the Atlas marketplace.

Players can also build cities and micro-economies in the game and even form decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to govern certain regions. Players will also get full ownership of the assets they acquire in-game with opportunities to sell these NFT-enabled in-game items on secondary NFT marketplaces. The general idea of this play-to-earn model is to help players monetize their time spent playing Star Atlas.

Star Atlas: The Game

The Universe

Star Atlas is a gaming metaverse set in the year 2620. Players will start in a safe zone where they can learn about the game mechanics, pick races/factions and buy their first ships. There is no combat in this safe zone, and new players can consider this area a walkthrough zone where players can enjoy the game without any danger of losing their ships and assets.

Players can move into the mid-tier area after gaining experience in the safe zone. This area offers combat against AI-controlled opposition, and if the player is defeated in combat, they can respawn alongside their ship and crew and still not lose any assets. This area offers various options to try out new ships and also earn rewards for winning in battle.

The final area is The Wild Frontier, which offers the best rewards, although your ships, crew, cargo, and other assets can be destroyed and looted. Some of your NFT assets may also be lost, and players might have to repurchase them.

Nevertheless, Star Atlas is more than just combat-oriented. A significant portion of the game is economy-focused. This involves building outposts, mining, and creating trade routes.

The factions and ships

Star Atlas is home to three unique races. These are the humans, aliens and robots. New players in the game must decide which race they wish to be part of, which is permanent. Each race has unique strengths and resources and may usually be at war with other factions.

Humans

Humans originated from Earth and have united under a common cause. Their territory is the MUD (Manus Ultimus Divinum), which they govern. Their strengths are their industrialism and reliance on firepower. Thus, manufacturing, creating outposts, and general productivity will generate income for them while they can protect themselves with ballistics and weapons.

Robots

They live in the Ustur Sector, but no robot can recall where they originated. They had vanished for thousands of years but recently returned. These AI-controlled robots specialize in exploration and can build fast and nimble ships with solid hulls.

Aliens

They are also known as the ONI and are a consortium of varying alien species. These species include the people of the Om sector and those from the Segal, Akenat, and Neuno systems. They were once at war with each other for years, almost bringing them to the brink of extinction. However, they decided to ally to herald a new golden age of prosperity. They are diplomatic and tech-oriented, constantly looking for new ways to improve the life of all sentient life in the Universe.

Ships, land and Buildings

Star Atlas also features a ship, land, and building system that all contribute to the game’s economic model.

Ships

There are varieties of ships and buildings that players can acquire. Since these ships are NFTs, the ownership and type of asset are locked on the blockchain, ensuring their uniqueness. Players can trade these assets, buy or sell them for other assets or transfer their value to another cryptocurrency or fiat currency.

Prices for these ships range from as low as $10 to over $100,000. Guilds can also combine their funds to purchase the larger ships since these ships need a large crew to operate them. Players who want to buy the large ships alone can purchase NPC crew members or loot them in debris after a battle.

All ships contain a predetermined amount of components and crewmember slots. Combining the right crew members is essential to improving the quality of the vessel. Otherwise, it could degrade your performance. Crew members trained together on the same ship also get improved buffs.

Land

Each plot of land in Star Atlas is for sale, and a player claims his part of the Universe by buying a claim stake. Once a player buys a plot of land, they can mine resources, raise buildings and even toll the region and ask for taxes (depending on the area and if their defenses are set up).

Similar to ships, all plots of land are NFTs. They all differ in size, and larger plots are more expensive and have better resources in abundance. Players also have to pay taxes on their land, incentivizing players to exploit their land instead of just buying land to sell it for a higher price. Failure to pay taxes would lead to the land getting sold in an auction.

Star Atlas Game Modes

Star Atlas features two classic game modes.

Player vs Environment (PvE)

The Player Versus Environment (PvE) allows players to engage in combat with Non-Player Characters (NPCs) to complete different sets of missions. The ultimate goal of this game mode is to explore the cosmos looking for any new planets that could be mined for resources or colonized. Players can also farm and sell unique resources from these planets on the marketplace.

Players exploring the Star Atlas metaverse (https://store.epicgames.com)

Player vs Player (PvP)

When they discover new planets, players must participate in PvP mode. Players will be assembled alongside their chosen faction members to compete for resources and colonization as a guild war.

Star Atlas Token System

As stated earlier, the Star Atlas metaverse runs on a dual-token system. These two tokens are:

ATLAS

The ATLAS token is a utility token and the medium for all transactions and missions within the Star Atlas metaverse. It is the driving force behind the operating costs and revenue in the game, including ship repair, refueling, replacing worn-out equipment, and paying Land Value Tax.

To maintain liquidity, Star Atlas featured a burn-and-mint system to control ATLAS supply. Atlas tokens will be minted when players discover and explore a new planet and burned when they are used to create items.

ATLAS Tokenomics

The total market supply of ATLAS amounts to 36 million tokens. 80% of future minted ATLAS tokens will be rewarded to outstanding players in the game, and the development team has zero stake in the undistributed token supply. The current distribution of ATLAS tokens is as follows:

• 20% will be allocated to stakeholders
• 45% will be distributed to mining stations
• Another 15% will be allocated to gathering resources for the platform’s development
• 20% goes to market making and trade
• Another 20% will be allocated for PvE missions

POLIS

POLIS is the governance token in the Star Atlas metaverse. POLIS holders can vote on proposals to enhance in-game policies, similar to older NFT-based games. Essentially the more POLIS token a person has, the greater their control over Star Atlas’ ecosystems. The total market cap of POLIS is 360 million tokens, and the token also serves as the supply controller for ATLAS

POLIS Tokenomics

POLIS would be distributed as follows:

• 22.5% would be allocated to a private token sale
• 1.5% of the distribution would go to a public pre-sale
• 2% will be allocated to public token sales
• 30% to be shared amongst the Star Atlas team
• 4% goes to listings/liquidity pools
• 40% would be allocated to rewards and emissions

POLIS is a low-velocity, long-term store-of-value asset that incentivizes governance of the Star Atlas economy for its long-term growth. The POLIS governance system is also saddled with the responsibility of minting, distributing, and redistributing ATLAS within the ATLAS treasury.

Is Star Atlas a Good Investment?

Star Atlas combines state-of-the-art blockchain technology with a massive metaverse where players can fully explore the depths of outer space. However, navigating such a large project comes with risks, and it is best to do your research or consult with qualified personnel before investing in Star Atlas.

Take Action on Star Atlas

Star Atlas is available for purchase from both centralized and decentralized exchange platforms, including gate.io. Check out your favorite pairs here:

• ATLAS/USDT