DISCLAIMER: THIS CONTENT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IT IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION TO PURCHASE TOKENS OR ANY OTHER ASSETS. ANY INVESTMENTS MADE IN THE PROJECTS OR ASSETS MENTIONED BELOW ARE DONE SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.

Project Highlights

• Illuvium is a collectible 3D fantasy RPG game built in Unreal Engine 4.26 and run on the Immutable X network. In Illuvium, players can explore the landscape, collect alien beasts and battle each other to earn, drawing inspiration from Pokémon for its combat and open-world game structure.
• Illuvium is powered by two tokens, $ILV and $sILV. The $sILV token is a synthetic token pegged to the price of ILV and can only be used in-game. $ILV is listed on many big exchanges like Binance, Gate.io, and KuCoin.
• Illuvium has established a strong community with 343K Twitter followers and 199.3K Discord members.
• Illuvium has been in development since 2020 and is being built by a worldwide team of more than 75 individuals with experience across several fields. Some of the more prominent names among the team include co-founders Kieran and Aaron Warwick, the brothers of Kian Warwick who founded the DeFi protocol Synthetix. Illuvium’s game producer, Nate Wells, previously worked on hit games like Bioshock, The Last of Us and Rise of the Tomb Raider.
• In March 2011, Illuvium raised $5M in seed round led by one of the most established venture capital funds in the decentralized finance space, Framework Ventures. The project has also gained financial backing from IOSG Ventures, LD Capital, Delphi Digital, YBB Foundation Ltd, Stake Capital, Moonwhale Ventures, Lotus Capital, Blocksync Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Quantstamp, Yield Guild Games, Bitcoin.com. etc.
• Illuvium recently released the auto-battler game mode in Private Beta 1 which has close to 7,000 players in total so far. With AAA graphics and gameplay, Illuvium has won the hearts of many RPG fans as the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.
• In June 2022, Illuvium closed a virtual land sale worth more than $72M. The digital land was sold via a Dutch auction from June 2 to June 5. The sale distributed 19,969 land plots, with roughly 282 plots going on sale every hour. The game will feature 100,000 land plots in total.
• The Illuvium official release date has been pushed back further into 2022 because the team "look to include a larger scope”. All the releases will be available on PC and Mac only. A “Second Major Illuvium Title” will then release in 2023. However, these dates remain subject to change depending on any development issues that may arise.

Illuvium early concept art

Overview

• Illuvium is an open-world RPG adventure game that runs on Ethereum and integrates with the hyper-scalable Immutable X L2 solution to provide players with zero gas fee transactions. The RPG features 3D state-of-the-art characters with real-time character-focused gameplay, all with the ability for users to earn in-game NFTs and stake their tokenized assets in a decentralized, zero-fee framework.
• The game is a blend of outer-space fantasy adventure and Pokémon-style creature collection and battles. Players are passengers on an intergalactic spaceship that crash lands on a dying planet filled with mysterious creatures called ‘Illuvials’. All survivors from the spaceship begin their exploration of the planet by becoming hunters that subdue and tame the alien beasts of the planet. Players then strategically face off against opponents, establishing their rank through competition. Players earn $ILV through play and become part of the community-based governance.

Illuvium official trailer

Gameplay

• In Illuvium, players begin the game by customizing their character and selecting an accompanying drone that acts as a sidekick. Defeated Illuvials can be captured via shards and minted as NFTs.
• Illuvium provides users with a free-to-play option on a Tier 0 server that they can use as a trial game experience to get a feel for the game and make practical preparations. Joining in the real Illuvium battlefields will require some amount funds to purchase in-game NFTs.
• Illuvium consists of 3 distinct gameplay loops, only one of which is playable for now.
  • Survival mode (PvE): An auto battler where players strategically place their Illuvials onto the battlefield to beat and wipe out the enemy. As players move and win each wave, the wave difficulty gets more challenging, but they will also gain more gold to buy stronger Illuvials. Illuvium’s beta focuses on this feature.
  • The Overworld: This mode allows players to roam the fascinating land of Illuvium. Players can visit various environments and biomes as they collect shards, gather resources, and hunt for Illuvials they want to seize.
  • Leviathan Arena and Ranked Arena (PvP): Players go into battle with their Illuvial team. They can arrange their Illuvials to challenge in Ranked Arena battles to win $sILV rewards.

Figure 1: Illuvials engaged in PvE battle

????Assembling your Illuvial team is one of the most essential aspects of Illuvium’s gameplay. Battles can be made or broken by team synergy. Players must carefully and strategically select Illuvials to increase their chances of winning as the combinations of classes and affinities are hugely important when battling. So even if opponents have Illuvials with greater raw power, skill level matters. This helps to avoid a pay to win dynamic.

• The game is also made up of four core components that are used extensively in world-building and gameplay: Illuvials, Illuviary, Game Items and Regions.

1. Illuvials

Figure 2: Illuvials - Archeleon and Rypper

• To start playing and collecting NFTs, players will need to catch an Illuvial which is the alien creature present on the dying planet.
• There are more than 100 Illuvials to find and collect throughout the world, each possessing unique abilities based on their class and affinity. Illuvials will not be sold separately as NFTs to ensure a fair launch for the project.
• Illuvials are separated into five classes and five affinities. Each can evolve from its base form up to its final stage. Notably, final forms of Illuvials called the ‘Ascended forms’ can sometimes possess a stacked version of classes or affinity.
• Synergies are the symbiotic relationships with one another based on common affinities or classes.
• Hybrid Synergy System helps to make Illuvials stronger when working as a team in the Battle Arena. Different synergies create different bonuses for the team, allowing players to outplay their opponents, even if they have Illuvials with more raw power.
• Fusion allows players to merge multiple Illuvials of the same type into a more powerful beast, with different attributes.

Figure 3: Ascension Path of Dash

????There are over 100 Illuvials with different classes and affinities in Illuvium, this gives players a lot of options in forming their team and to create new Illuvials with different attributes. Some Illuvials will match well together in battle while others may not. Team effectiveness also depends on the opponents’ Illuvials, which makes for interesting situations and matchups. At the moment, only 13 Illuvials have been introduced. More will be revealed in the near future.

2. The Illuviary

• The Illuviary is a database comprised of info on all the Illuvials, but, initially, all entries are locked. To unlock entries, players must find and capture the corresponding Illuvials and record their digital signature into the Illuviary.
• Illuvium has integrated the blockchain element into this process by inscribing the name of the person who first discovers a particular Illuvial next to their discovery in the worldwide Illuviary database.

Figure 4: Illuviary 013: Dash

3. Game Items

• Shards – Shards are probably the most important item in the game which are used to capture and control the Illuvials after a victorious battle. Shards are NFTs that come in a variety of tiers based on their power at capturing Illuvials. Each player is given a set number of shards when they begin the game. Players can also mine them from deposits within the game world or acquire them on the IlluviDEX.

Figure 5: Ultra-rare 4D Holographic captured in a Shard

• Weapons – Weapons are NFTs that can be equipped onto the player’s character before the battle. The weapons determine the class of the player’s character which give additional benefits to their team. Weapons are tradable on the IlluviDEX.
• Armor – Armor are NFTs which are forged from items mined on Illuvium and defend against damage from the beasts that players fight. Armor can sway the battle, as each suit has different properties. Armor is tradable on the IlluviDEX.

Figure 6: Illuvium Armor concept art

• Imbues – Imbues are cosmetic improvements that can increase the value of a player’s collection by distinguishing them from others. Imbues are modular and can be applied to multiple items. Various items in the game can be imbued, such as weapons, armor, and even Drone.

4. Regions

• Illuvium will initially launch with a limited number of accessible regions. Later on, players will unlock Obelisks which allow for travel to new, challenging, and important regions with new Illuvials to battle and collect. This. also advances the story and lore of the game.
• The regions will be tiered, and the Tier 0 region will be available for free to play players.

Figure 7: Illuvium Obelisk concept art

5. Other Features

• Illuvitars — llluvitars are configurable avatars used as profile pictures in the Illuvium universe. An Illuvitar consists of a Portrait and Accessories with near-infinite possibilities. Once purchased, players can connect their accounts and wallets to use the Illuvitar across all Illuvium games. Illuvitars represent the perfect mix of randomness and rarity via Accessories that are “bonded” to a base Portrait. The Illuvitars Sale is yet to be announced.

Figure 8: Illuvitars Batch One

• Illuvium Zero — Illuvium Zero is a base-building mini-game that can be played on mobile. The game introduces the concept of NFT lands in the Illuvium metaverse. NFT Land in Illuvium Zero will produce resources that can interact with the main game. There will be 100K plots of paid land in total, and the game sold more than 20K digital land plot NFTs worth $72 million in a Dutch auction in the first land sale.

Figure 9: Illuvium Zero

• IlluviumDEX — The IlluviDEX is the native online marketplace of Illuvium used to trade NFT assets including Illuvials, weapons, skins, and other in-game items. The game’s DAO controls the IlluviDEX by making it more community-driven and attractive to investors. A 5% fee is deducted from each sale and funneled into the rewards pool for $ILV stakers.

Game Economy

1. Token Utility

• Illuvium features a dual token model, $ILV and $sILV. The $sILV token is a synthetic token pegged to the price of ILV and can only be used in-game.
• $ILV holders can lock staked $ILV for a certain duration to get rewards (the longer the duration, the higher the weightage (no lock up is 1, max is 2) and APY). Staking rewards are subject to a 12 month vesting period, or can be claimed immediately as $sILV and used for in-game purchases. Finally, all in-game revenue is distributed back to stakers in the form of $ILV.
• Either single-sided or ETH pair are available for staking.

????Besides its main purpose as a governance token, $ILV does not have in-game utility, so one does not need to own the $ILV token to start playing the game, since the primary currency for in-game purchases will be $ETH. For gamers interested in getting extra money to spend in-game, the $sILV offers a great value to get into $ILV early, stake, and potentially generate more money to spend on NFTs and other in-game activities. For long-term staking $ILV holders, the issuance of $sILV will increase the concentration of revenue distribution, meaning each $ILV is rewarded with a greater share of the revenue.

2. Token Allocation

Figure 10: $ILV token allocation

????The game economy of Illuvium is designed in a unique way compared to so many of the early P2E games in the space. 30% of $ILV is allocated to staking rewards and 10% for in-game rewards and tournaments. Staking rewards also include revenue distribution so simply buying and staking $ILV is one way to earn. While token use cases are limited and the play-to-earn structure unclear, Illuvium may cater more to real players over speculators, which means the gameplay must be compelling. Traders may want to make the most of yield farming instead.

Figure 11: $ILV vesting schedule

????Kieran Warwick, CEO of Illuvium, announced that the founding senior management team will lock and vest their tokens for an additional two years. The intent of this is to show the team’s commitment to the game, while also reducing the risk of potential token dumps that will occur in upcoming years.

3. Revenue Distribution

100% of all revenue is to be distributed to staking $ILV holders.

Figure 12: Illuvium revenue distribution diagram

????Revenue distribution provides a long term potential for value in addition to standard token price appreciation. To conduct revenue distribution, the DAO will automatically purchase $ILV from the Sushi ETH/ILV pool, putting buying pressure on the $ILV token to bolster its price, while distributing those $ILV to staking $ILV holders. This encourages a self-sustaining cycle of recycling $ILV and providing that value to the long-term $ILV holders.

4. Illuvium DAO

• The Illuvium DAO consists of $ILV token holders, which has an elected list of representatives called the ‘Illuvinati Council’. The council members act as community representatives, debating and voting on proposals from the members.
• DAO governance is handled via two types of proposals, Illuvium Configuration Change Proposals (ICCPs) used to update System Configuration Variables and Illuvium Improvement Proposals (IIPs) used to make improvements to the protocol.

????The Illuvium DAO reserves 1.5 million tokens designated to the treasury. The purpose of the treasury is to reserve some central revenue generation and storage, as these tokens are eligible for revenue distribution. The primary publicly stated role of these tokens is for player rewards, either through in-game accomplishments, or the flashier tournament prize pools. These tokens have already been issued, but remain under control of the DAO and up to community decision making and proposals.

Team

Illuvium is a growing, multinational organization of over 75 people, dedicated to bringing in the best and most promising professionals.

Kieran Warwick - Co-founder

• Successfully onboarded major Australian Exchanges and started the world’s first OTC cryptocurrency exchange, Blueshyft.
• Kieran helped The Burger Collective amass 100,000 unique reviews, 20,000 monthly web app users, and established a partnership with the global food-delivery business, DoorDash.

Aaron Warwick - Co-founder and Game Designer

• A consummate entrepreneur, with a background in sports and business and has operated multi-million dollar retail franchises.
• Aaron owns and directs two major Australian sporting complexes.

Basil Gorin - CTO

• Over 15 years’ experience as a full-stack developer, with experience as a solution architect, tech designer and software engineer. He has a strong background in Java, Web, and Blockchain tech stacks.
• Basil is also a participant in Cryptominerworld, an ERC721-based Decentralized Game by Sophophilia Studios, as well as an architect for the Korean based company, PaxNet. Additionally, Basil designed and built the deedlock.com ERC721 solution for the real estate industry in New York.

Danny Wilson - CFO

• Danny is a business executive and partnership leader with over 20 years of success in amplifying business performance to hit top goals.
• In 2016, Danny founded a joint venture with one of Australia's iconic business leaders, Gerry Harvey. In three short years, this venture grew to over $150M+ in revenue with a team of over 150 people.

John Avery - Lead Server Engineer

• John has a 20-year career in both the gaming and the financial services industries.
• He has also worked as a senior consultant at major Australian financial institutions, including the National Australia Bank, Westpac, and Suncorp, where he focused on migrating services to the cloud.

Nate Wells - Game Producer

• 20+ years in the gaming industry. He was also a Lead Game Producer on The Last of Us, and Rise of the Tomb Raider.
• Nate is also president of Vacationland Novelty Company.

Rogier Van De Beek - Lead Concept Artirst

• Freelance concept artist and illustrator working on a wide variety of projects, ranging from print, film, toys, theme parks, and of course, games for over 10 years.
• Rogier is a known artist in the world of tabletop RPG's – having worked for Paizo as a character designer for over six years.

Partners & Investors

• In March 2021, Illuvium raised $5M in seed round led by one of the most established venture capital funds in the decentralized finance space, Framework Ventures. ****The project has also gained financial backing from IOSG Ventures, LD Capital, Delphi Digital, YBB Foundation Ltd, Stake Capital, Moonwhale Ventures, Lotus Capital, Blocksync Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Quantstamp, Yield Guild Games, Bitcoin.com, as well as crypto founders Kain Warwick of Synthetix, Stani Kulechov of Aave, Anton Bukov of 1Inch, and Santiago Roel Santos of ParaFi.
• The funding positions Illuvium to become a premier gaming platform in the crypto ecosystem.

Figure 13: Illuvium partners and investors

Community

Social media statistics of Illuvium and other prominent projects (Source: SparkToro)

• The Illuvium community on Twitter and Discord is very active. Events like Bug Bounties, Airdrops Liquidity Program, etc or product updates have driven great interactions from users.
• Illuvium has a widespread communication and marketing strategy, successfully positioning themselves as one of the most highly anticipated games. It is a two-stream approach covering two major audience bases that comprise our crypto-gamer hybrid target market: DeFi and Mainstream.
  • DeFi: Illuvium is planning comprehensive partnerships with many of the most significant DeFi projects, to find affinity dapps and platforms that will incorporate into its framework and development. Illuvium will offer communities exclusive cross-promotional NFTs that are part of the project’s ‘CosPlay Promo Editions’ series to galvanize new converts to Illuvium, while giving free airdrops of unique digital collectibles.
  • Mainstream: Besides partnering with KOLs, Illuvium will create targeted content and desirable giveaways to increase brand exposure and incentivize a loyal following that sees their community-building ethos in action.
• Illuvium’s goal is to start make mainstream users aware of the benefits of Play to Earn, educating them on how being a part of a DAO empowers their chance to define their own economic opportunity, and to give them the same quality of gaming title that they have come to expect from mainstream AAA studios.