How To Play dCrops Game

Since my last post about #dCrops, I've gotten a lot of questions about the gameplay and also how to start, and after much searching, I couldn't point them in any particular direction except the official discord channel of the game, hence I decided to create this straight to the point guide on how to get started playing the game.

Introduction

dCrops is a passive crypto collectible game where you actually take up the role of a farmer, it is built on the #Hive Blockchain.
What you basically do is get your lands and seeds like you would normally do in real life farming, plant the seeds that apply to the current season on the land, then wait for harvest time. Once the plant is due, you harvest it and sell for shares (will explain all in a bit), then repeat the process.

What you need

Before you can think of playing #dCrops, you'll be needing the following:

A hive account (obviously)
Kiwi browser (if playing from an Android phone)
Some hive coins for purchasing packs or cards

Getting started

For the purpose of this tutorial, I'll be using an Android phone for illustrations

Install kiwi browser from google playstore

Copy this link and load in the browser to install hive keychain in the browser, so you can easily access the game without needing to always input your private keys.

Click add to chrome, and It will prompt you to create a password, use something you can easily remember and is also strong, then save. Next it will prompt you for setup

Select the first option USE KEYS/PWD, next it will request for username and private keys.

Enter your hive username and then copy your posting key or active key and paste in section for private keys, click import keys, once this is done, close the tab.
Click the 3 dots to the right for options

and select extensions

to check if your hive keychain has successfully been installed, if yes, then you're good to go.

Now log in to the dCrops official website, you can copy my invite link here and paste in the kiwi browser. You'll be asked to log in, type your hive username, and click use keychain.

It will prompt you for your hive keychain password, input it and click unlock

Congratulations, you're now logged in, easy right😏

The above image should be displayed (switch to desktop mode for easier navigation)

Gameplay

Seasons

There are 4 seasons in the game, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, and each of this seasons last for 15 days. During that 15 days, you can only plant seeds that can grow in that particular season.

Seeds

Seeds are not just static NFTs, but NFTs with utilities, meaning they can be planted like real world seeds and like all NFTs, they can be bought, traded, transferred, etc.
Once you plant a seed, it can't be planted again after harvest until after a cool down period of 15days. There are 20 seeds available in the game, below are the various seeds listed according to their seasons.

Spring (Broccoli, Kale, Cauliflower, Potato, Strawberry)
Summer (Wheat, Turnip Watermelon, Tomato, Blueberry)
Fall (Garlic, Carrot, Pumpkin, Beet Root,
Raspberry)
Winter (Peas, Radish, Cabbage, Onion, Bell Pepper)

Lands

Lands too, just like seeds are also NFTs with utilities. You need lands to plant your seeds on, and you can only plant a seed on a plot of land at a time. There are 4 types of lands, each different from the other by the number of plots it contains and also its rarity. Below is a list of lands according to their rarity.

Average Farmland (1 plot)
Fertile Farmland (2 plots)
Awesome Farmland (3 plots)
Hi-Tech Farmland (4 plots)

The higher the rarity of the land, the higher the chance of getting bonus shares (crops) upon harvest, which translates to more crop tokens.

Packs

Packs are starter kits you buy when starting out in dCrops, though not a must. They can contain any combination of seeds and lands, but the total number of cards they contain are usually 4, so if you're lucky, you could find a rare card like a Hi-Tech Farmland or a Strawberry seed in a pack, if not, then you just have to purchase the cards you need from the in-game marketplace. Packs can be bought through the Hive engine marketplace using this link
(P.S. This post doesn't cover the use of Hive Engine, hopefully subsequent works will)

Navigating the dCrops website on mobile can be a bit tricky, but I found it most helpful using the web address to access most aspects of the game, below are the most important ones you need (remember to switch your browser to desktop mode).

To buy cards you need to start playing the game
https://dcrops.com/market
To view all cards, and also see how many of each card you have available, use https://www.dcrops.com/cards
To view and open your packs and also to buy packs on promo
https://dcrops.com/packs
To view your lands, plant seeds on them, and also harvest.
https://dcrops.com/lands
To view current season and it's time remaining, your ranking and other informations.
https://dcrops.com/game
To see how many shares you have after harvest and also to see your shares, use
https://dcrops.com/inventory

This is not an exhaustive list, but then again most Hive games are games of self discovery, so keep an open mind along your gaming journey. 😁

Steps to playing

Purchase the lands and seeds you'll be needing. Remember, if a seed takes 4days to reach harvest, then you'll be needing 3 of that seed to plant 3 times on a particular land, since a seed goes into cooldown mode for 15 days after harvest.
Get planting
To plant, just open your lands and tap on any of them, the available seeds for that season pops up, then you select which one you wish to plant, after that you will need to complete the transaction using your keychain. (Most actions on the game are actually transactions and will need to be broadcasted using your keychain)
It is advisable to wait for the beginning of a season before planting, since it gives you a chance to utilize your lands more efficiently.
Harvest
After planting, a countdown timer appears on that land, once the timer completes, it's time to harvest your crops. After harvest, you don't get crop tokens immediately, but Shares. This Shares are simply your portion of the rewards pool for that season. So go ahead and sell your shares to get a part of the crop tokens for that season.
Repeat
Once the circle of Plant-Harvest-Sell is complete, you then repeat the process again, either for that same season or a new season, whichever is applicable at the moment.

Conclusion

dCrops can be a really exciting and rewarding game, especially with so many developments coming soon. You can get in with little funds and experience the thrill of being a farmer, and who knows, you might get hooked and become an investor, which in my opinion pays a lot of dividends. And if the history of NFT games is anything to go by, then definitely at some point, every assets in the game such as lands and seeds would definitely skyrocket in value. Hopefully I find more helpful posts about dCrops, but for now, this is me signing off. 😎

Thanks for reading, if you found my post interesting, then remember to hit the follow button so you don't miss out on future posts. I look forward to your contributions in the comment section.

My name is Edwin Ifeanyi Louis (eil7304) and I love gaming, reading, learning, cooking, and most importantly, writing about my experiences on a Blockchain social media platform called Hive.