The Runicore (or Runi for short) is a new limited-edition promo card that will be added into the Splinterlands game. The Runi is unlike every other card that has ever been part of Splinterlands (or any similar trading card game that we are aware of) because the artwork for each individual Runi card NFT will be 100% unique.
The Runi will be Splinterlands' first "Generative NFT" project, similar to Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, and many others, which means that players will be able to mint Runi that will each have a completely unique, random combination of six different visual attributes. The Runi cards will all have the same stats and abilities within the Splinterlands game, but everywhere a Runi is shown - including on the collection screen, on the battlefield, in the battle history, etc - it will show the unique artwork for that specific Runi NFT.
These types of projects are also known as PFP (Profile Picture) projects in the space, because many people have come to use pictures of their unique generative NFTs as their profile pictures on various social media apps. We look forward to seeing Splinterlands players showing off their unique Runi as their profile pictures both in-game as well as on the various social media apps such as Discord, Twitter, Hive, and others.
The Runi card in the Splinterlands game will be a Neutral Legendary 6-mana Monster card, which we expect will become a staple in many different team compositions and will hopefully help to drive a strong mint and high resale value for the NFTs going forward.
It has a strong Melee attack and targets the enemy with the least health via the Opportunity ability. While it has very slow Speed, it makes up for it with the True Strike ability, which means its Melee attack cannot miss. In addition to that, the magic of the Runicore gives it some Armor and protects it from indirect damage via the Reflection Shield ability.
Last, but not least, the Runi will have a new ability called Rebirth! Rebirth is a self-resurrect, so when the Runi dies it will come back to life with 1 Health! This ability can only trigger once per battle, and doesn't reset if the Runi is Resurrected by another card.
The Runi NFTs will be minted via a smart contract published to the Ethereum blockchain and will cost roughly $500 in ETH each. The exact amount of ETH will be fixed based on the current USD market price of ETH close to the mint date. This means that players who would like to mint a Runi will need to have enough ETH in a self-custodial wallet to purchase the Runi and to pay the applicable gas fees for the minting transaction. Players can mint as many Runi as they would like until the cap is reached.
The mint is currently scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 25th, 2022 at 2 PM ET / 18:00 UTC and there will be a total of 6,500 Runi NFTs available to mint in total. Once all 6,500 have been minted, no more Runi will ever be created, and the only way to get one will be to purchase it from other players on the OpenSea marketplace.
Additionally, there will be a 2% chance that each Runi will be "Gold Foil" (approx. 130 in total), which will be represented visually via a special trait. Gold foil Runi NFTs will be gold foil cards in the game and will include all of the bonuses and benefits that come with gold foil cards when used in battles.
If the mint does not sell out within 30 days after the mint starts, the mint will close and any unminted NFTs will never be able to be minted and the total number of Runi NFTs in existence will be lower than the 6,500 max.
Once minted, the Runi NFTs will be held in the Ethereum wallet that submitted the mint transaction, and will be able to be transfered, bought, and sold on the OpenSea NFT exchange.
We understand that this process may be more difficult for many of our existing players who are familiar with the simple, feeless experience provided by the Hive blockchain, but ultimately we feel that putting this on Ethereum and OpenSea will be a fantastic opportunity to get this project on the radar of the wider NFT community and try to bring them into Splinterlands which should be hugely beneficial for the entire Splinterlands ecosystem.
Splinterlands will provide instructions and guides for setting up a wallet, acquiring ETH, minting a Runi, and buying/selling Runi in advance of the launch.
Our existing players and community members always come first, of course, which is why we will be making 2000 whitelist spots available through the Splinterlands website to allow our community members to reserve their Runi ahead of time and receive a 50% discount!
Whitelist spots will cost 100 VOUCHER tokens each and will be available to purchase through the Splinterlands shop starting on Thursday, September 22nd, 2022 at 2 PM ET / 18:00 UTC.
When purchasing a whitelist spot, players will be required to enter their Ethereum wallet address, and then once the mint goes live that Ethereum wallet address will be guaranteed to be able to mint one Runi NFT for each whitelist spot purchased at half of the normal mint price, or roughly $250 of ETH plus gas fees.
Please note that if a whitelist spot is not used to mint a Runi NFT in the 30 days before the mint ends, then the spot will be forfeited and the voucher tokens spent will not be refunded.
Aside from looking really cool, one of the biggest differentiators between the Runi and all of the other generative NFT PFP projects in the space is the ability to use them to battle other players in the Splinterlands game and show off your unique Runi on the battlefield!
The way that this will work is also quite unique as it will allow the NFTs to be completely held and controlled from players' Ethereum wallets while still being able to be used in battles through their Hive accounts in game.
After the mint is completed (which will be no more than 30 days from when the mint starts) all of the Runi NFTs will be created as unique card NFTs within the Splinterlands game with graphics that match the unique attributes of each Ethereum NFT. These cards will all be held in a single Hive wallet address that is owned and operated by the Splinterlands team.
Players who own a Runi NFT in their Ethereum wallet will be able to "stake" their NFT by publishing a transaction from the Ethereum wallet that holds the NFT to the Runi NFT smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. This transaction will lock the NFT on Ethereum making it unable to be transfered or sold until it is unstaked.
Staked Runi NFTs will still be owned and held within the player's Ethereum wallet address and the player will maintain full control over the NFT at all times. The NFT can be unstaked at any time by publishing a transaction from the Ethereum wallet that holds the NFT on the Ethereum blockchain which will allow it to immediately be able to be transfered and/or sold once again.
Splinterlands is planning to provide a user interface within the game website to allow players to manage their Runi NFTs in their linked Ethereum wallet, including staking and unstaking them, in as easy and user-friendly a way as possible.
Whenever a Runi NFT is staked on the Ethereum blockchain, the corresponding Runi NFT card in game will be automatically delegated to the specified player's Hive account in game, which will allow that player to use the card in the battles. Similarly, when a Runi NFT is unstaked on the Ethereum blockchain, the corresponding Runi NFT card in game will be automatically undelegated from the player's Hive account, meaning they will no longer be able to use the card in battles as it can now be transfered or sold to another player on Ethereum.
This mechanism will allow the cards to be able to be used for battles in the Splinterlands game, while ownership of the NFTs will be completely controlled via the Ethereum blockchain. It also means that Runi NFTs will not be able to be transfered, bought, sold, or rented on the Hive blockchain like all of the other cards and in-game assets to date.
Finally, we want to note that when a Runi NFT is staked in a player's Ethereum wallet, the player can also specify the Hive wallet address to which they would like the card to be delegated in the game. This means that if a player owns multiple Runi NFTs in a single Ethereum wallet, they can stake each of them within that one wallet, but specify different Hive accounts to which each of those Runi cards should be delegated. This will allow a lot of flexibility for Runi owners to rent out their cards to other players to use in battles, and we look forward to third-party rental markets emerging for Runi in the future.
Please note that all Runi cards in the game will be max level as it will not be possible to combine them due to the fact that the NFTs will be held in Ethereum blockchain wallets. Additionally we want to reiterate that the staking process which will allow the use of the cards in game is not planned to go live until after the mint ends, which will be no later than 30 days after the start.
Unlike the majority of NFTs (including the current Splinterlands NFTs) we plan to offer a full commercial use license to all Runi NFT holders for the artwork and graphics for the specific Runi that they own. This means that Runi NFT owners will be able to sell the rights to their unique Runi images and derivatives for commercial gain.
Please keep in mind that these rights will only apply to the Runi character itself and NOT to the card frame used around the artwork in the Splinterlands game, the Runi/Runicore name, or anything else related to the NFT project or Splinterlands game.
More details on the licensing rights will be provided before the mint begins.
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