The Most Useful Axie Infinity Gameplay Guide [Season 20 Update]

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Asad Mehmood

Asad is a blockchain fanatic and an NFT gaming expert. A curious Capricorn who, with his undying love for knowledge accumulation, can always be found reading, researching, or writing about something new. Of course, that is when he’s not busy watching anime, playing league of legends, farming ancient fruits in Stardew Valley, and reading manga, novels, and novellas. Asad first found out about blockchain technology back in 2011 when Bitcoin and Illuminati were the cool words, and has been studying the subject since.

Latest posts by Asad Mehmood (see all)

• The Most Useful Axie Infinity Gameplay Guide [Season 20 Update] - February 21, 2022
• An Honest and In-depth Review of Axie Infinity - January 29, 2022
• Age of Rust Review: An NFT Game Review - January 20, 2022

Hey guys, Asad here, once again with another Axie Infinity guide. This time around, I’ll be guiding you through by sharing some veteran tips and tricks about the game’s gameplay and battling mechanics.

I am a blockchain fanatic and NFT gaming expert who has been studying the subject for over a decade now. Most recently, with the rise of NFT gaming, I have got the chance to combine two of my most loved activities.

These would be, learning the practical use-cases of blockchain technology and gaming. I have been playing Axie Infinity regularly for more than 6 months now.

Throughout this period, I have seen this game at its peak, I have seen it survive some brutal patches and updates, and I have seen it hit rock bottom in the last couple of months as well. And now, I believe we are on the way back up to see a new golden age of Axie infinity.

If you are new to the game and want some tips on getting started, then make sure to check out my Axie Infinity Getting Started Guide here as well. Now without further ado, let’s get right into the content.

A Brief Overview of Axie Infinity

Anyone who has read my article on The Best NFT Games knows that Axie Infinity is one of the most recognized titles in the NFT gaming space today. For those who haven’t read it, make sure to check it out after reading this guide to learn about the most trending and industry-leading titles in this space.

Axie Infinite is a Pokémon-inspired game that features little unique axolotl-themed monsters called Axies. Axies, or Axie for singular, are playable monster NFTs that can be collected, bred, and made to battle to collect different resources in the game.

Currently, these resources include the Smooth Love Potion, more commonly known as SLP, and AXS, the abbreviation for Axie Infinity Shard.

At its core, Axie Infinity is a monster battling game that takes some elements from the traditional Trading Card Games (TCG) genre. However, that’s not what Axie Infinity aims to be in the long run. One can say that it is what it has to offer at its current stage, which is one of many in its ever-developing community-driven roadmap.

Speaking of roadmap and development, let us talk a little about Sky Mavis, the game development company behind Axie Infinity, and their vision behind the game.

Sky Mavis and The Vision of Infinite Experiences

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, N.A., Vietnam, Sky Mavis is a technology company that creates decentralized applications and services. It specializes in information technology, blockchain, and video games.

After their success with Axie Infinity, the company successfully raised several Series A and Series B funds with an evaluation of over 3 billion dollars! A commendable feat for a company that’s only a little over 3 years old.

According to the team, Axie Infinity was named after the vision of creating a metaverse with infinite experiences for Axies. The story of Axie Infinity unfolds in the mystical land of Lunacia. Lunacia is a sacred world that draws energy from the moonlight.

This energy is called Luna, and Axies can utilize this unique energy to perform magical abilities and do things far above the comprehension of the ordinary mind.

The ultimate goal of the developers is to create a unified gaming experience. A game where players and Axie Owners can log in and interact with all the elements of Lunacia using their Axies.

These include collecting resources, participating in unique events and battle tournaments, breeding, trading, and doing a whole lot more in an ever-growing community-driven world.

To achieve this dream of Infinite Experiences, Axie Infinity aims to become a DAO, where the players are the owners. A game where the people who play it decide how it should be developed and maintained. The community will determine, what should be introduced, what should be kept, and what discarded.

Important 2022 Updates: Governance, P2E, and Season 20

Before getting deeper into the gameplay, I want to share some important updates which will define how you play the game. First of all, the governance token. As mentioned above, Axie Infinity aims to establish a DAO as its governing authority. A place where all major decisions about the game’s future are made by the community.

These decisions are made through voting, and the voting rights lie with the holders of the governance tokens, the AXS. At the time of writing, 13 February 2022, a single AXS token is worth $59. A recent game update changed the allocation of the earnable AXS from the Play-to-Earn aspect of the game. For the following season, the AXS reward pool is distributed as follow:

Besides the governance token allocation changes, the update also changed the SLP minting processes. Under this new update, from Season 20 onwards until specified, players would not be able to earn SLP from the Adventure mode or upon the completion of the Daily Quest.

The only way to gain SLP now is by winning PVP battles in the Arena mode. The previous update has been reverted to balance things out. Players under 800 MMR can earn SLP by winning their PVP Arena battles once again.

For the following season, the SLP reward allocation per rank has been changed as follow:

Furthermore, the development team has decided to give the Daily Energy mechanic a complete overhaul to scale more linearly with Axies ownership. This change will happen after collecting more data from Season 20 and is planned to incentivize collecting more Axies giving utility to floor Axies in the process as well.

With these updates out of the way, let me give you some veteran tips regarding the gameplay.

Reaching the End Game: Setting Clear Goals

First of all, know your end game and set your goals accordingly. As mentioned, Axie Infinity is about Infinite Experiences. As great as that sounds, this means that the game will continuously change, but the core vision will stay intact.

To stay on top of this ever-changing game, you need to know what kind of end game achievement you desire for yourself and then work towards that.

Based on the game’s current state, I see four end-game goals that you can aim for. Although interconnected, these will affect how you play the game and your basic gameplay strategy.

#1 Reaching the Top: Becoming Rank 1

The first goal that anyone playing Axie Infinity should aim for is reaching the top of the ranking ladder each season. Axie Infinity has successive cycling rank seasons, each lasting for about six weeks, which determine the distribution of the AXS Play-to-Earn reward tokens.

Becoming Rank 1 requires deep knowledge of the game’s mechanics and the overall Meta. Furthermore, you also need to grind a lot of matches, refine your strategy, and consecutively defeat your opponents to come out on top.

Because each season, the ranks and MMR scores reset, everyone gets a fair start to aim for that top position. The reward for this season is 203 AXS tokens, which equates to roughly 12,000 US dollars!

Besides this generous reward, by becoming Rank 1, you also gain a lot of recognition among the Axie community. This recognition can just be what you need to kick start a successful blog, a YouTube Channel, or any other account on a community-driven platform.

#2 Joining the Pro Play: Esports Tournaments

The second goal I can imagine for our more enthusiastic players is joining the Axie Pro Play. Axie Infinity took its first steps in the eSports industry with The FTX GalAxie Cup in November last year. The tournament had a prize pool of 5000 AXS, equal to more than 650,000 US dollars at the time, up for grabs for the tournament winners.

Becoming a Pro eSports Player can help you convert your passion and skill for the game into a revenue stream. Furthermore, you will also gain a lot of reputation among the Axie community. Players like Elijah | MT8 and Azarian || Perion are among the top few who joined and gained fame from Axie Infinity eSports.

#3 Breeder: Gotta Catch ‘Em All

The third goal for an Axie Infinity player is to become a breeder. Breeding is an integral part of the Axie Infinity Universe. Players buy new Axies to play the game.

These Axies earn them Smooth Love Potions by winning the battles in the Arena. Smooth Love Potions are then used for breeding new Axies, which are then bought by new players joining the game, and the cycle continues.

Breeding in itself has a lot of complex numbers and mechanics that one has to master. It is necessary to breed the best high-value Axies which can be quickly sold in the marketplace for high profits. Starting a breeding farm requires deep knowledge of the game’s meta, the abilities, combos, strengths, and weaknesses of every Axie.

Besides that, breeding can help you start your scholarship program, where you lend your Axies to other players in exchange for an SLP reward split contract. Having more Axies in your wallet also increases your daily energy cap. This allows you to play more games in the Arena, letting you gain more chances of winning SLP rewards.

#4 Becoming an Axie Tycoon

The fourth key achievement for an Axie Infinity player is to become an Axie Tycoon. I must admit, this one is more of a niche thing. Axie Tycoons are essentially players who want to become the owners of some really rare Axies.

These rare breeds of Axies are classified as Origin, MEO I, and MEO II Axies. These Axies have rare parts that are no longer obtainable in the game. This scarcity makes them expensive and more of a collectors’ thing.

These rare Axies might also come with exclusive benefits in the future as the game progresses and its development continues.

Axie Infinity Game Modes

Now, let us talk about the two main game modes currently offered by Axie Infinity. Infinite Experience as the vision behind its development would suggest many game modes. But for now, the game features only two playable game modes, the Adventure Mode and the Arena Mode, which are the PvE and PvP options, respectively.

Besides these, Project K with the Land Gameplay and Origins with the Battle V3 update will soon bring more features and game modes to Axie Infinity.

The Adventure Mode

Adventure Mode is the Player-versus-Environment, or the Versus Artificial Intelligence slash Computer mode offered by the game. Adventure Mode was initially created to provide a tutorial and free-match option for new players learning the game. It was made a part of the Daily Quest and became a necessary part of a player’s daily grind.

But, with the Season 20 update already here, the Daily Quest and SLP rewards from the Adventure mode have been sunset, meaning they have been temporarily discontinued.

With this, the Adventure mode is now back to being a free-match option for new players to learn the game and try new combos and team comps.

The Arena Mode

The Arena Mode is the competitive Player-versus-Player game mode currently offered by Axie Infinity. Most would argue that this is the primary game mode of the game, where most of your time will be spent.

Axie Infinity is a competitive game at its core inspired by old Pokémon games. This element is apparent from the Arena Mode. Each season players start at a Match Making Rating Score of 1200.

From here on, players compete against each other in Axie Battles. The winners gain MMR scores and climb the ranking ladder, while the losers lose MMR scores and fall down.

Being higher in the ladder means more Smooth Love Potion rewards per win. Besides that, finishing the season in the top three Hundred Thousand (300,000) Players enables you to earn generous AXS rewards as well.

Battle Mechanics (Battle V2)

Now let us talk about the Battle Mechanics of the game. In the beginning, Axie Infinity was an auto-battler. This means that there was no active gameplay.

The game essentially played itself for you, and you just had to wait to see the outcome of battles. This was Battle V1, and no one would deny that this version of the game was pretty limited and not as fun to play either.

After that, we move on to Battle V2. This is the game that we have today. Battle V2 essentially changed the whole game, transforming it from a boring auto-battler to a Pokémon-style Turn-Based Cards-slash-Monster Battling Game.

This overhaul introduced various game mechanics, making Axie Infinity more complex and a better competitive blockchain game.

Now, everyone is waiting for the Origin: Battle V3 update. This update will, once again, introduce new features to the game and evolve the current battling system into a new and improved one.

Even though we are promised the Origin Update for the first quarter of this year, it is still quite far from having its first official Alpha release. Battle V2 is still here to stay for quite some months, so you can use this gameplay guide to climb the ranking ladder in the meantime and work towards your long-term goals.

Once the Origin Update is live, you will find my updated or dedicated guide on Battle V3 and new features introduced in the Origin update here as well. With all that said, let us see some of the vital battling terms, features, and mechanics in the game.

Axie Battle Stats

First of all, let us talk about Axie Battle Stats. Each Axie has four stats that affect their battling capabilities. These stats are determined by the class of the body parts that Axies possess. The relationship between stats and Axie body part class is listed below:

• Aquatic: +3 Speed, +1 HP
• Beast: +3 Morale, +1 Speed
• Bird: +3 Speed, +1 Morale
• Bug: +3 Morale, +1 HP
• Plant: +3 HP, +1 Morale
• Reptile, +3 HP, +1 Speed

The four stats are briefed upon below:

Health (Hit Points)

Health or Hit Points determine the amount of damage your Axie can take before they are defeated. Hit Points is a crucial stat for most Plant Axies or Tank Axies.

These Axies are included in a team as a shield and damage absorber for the backline damage-dealing Axies. These Axies are usually equipped with high defensive abilities to complement their high health.

Skill (Combo Damage)

Skill points determine how much additional damage your abilities do when played in a combo. This extra damage is calculated via the following formula:

Card attack * (skill * 0.55-12.25) / 100 * 985

Morale (Critical Strike Chance)

Morale Points determine your critical strike chance. A critical strike deals more damage. Usually, it is based on a multiplier of the attack power of an ability card.

Morale Points also increase the chances of entering the Last Stand. Last Stand is a unique battle mechanic in Axie Infinity. Entering the Last Stand allows an Axie to survive for a few turns even after its Hit Points reach zero.

Speed (Critical Strike Dodge Chance and Swiftness)

Speed is arguably the most important stat in the current version of the game. Speed Points determines the turn order by which each Axie attacks each round.

Speed Points also decrease an Axie’s chances of being hit by a critical strike giving them better survivability. Aqua and Bird Axies are known for their swiftness and Speed boosting abilities.

In case two Axies have the same Speed stat, the attack order is determined based on the following factors in order:

• High Speed
• Low Hit Points
• High Skill
• High Morale
• Low Fighter ID

Battle Rounds

Axie Infinity is a turned-based battling game. However, these turns are also divided into different rounds. The game starts with Round one. In the Arena Mode, both players have three Luna energies and six ability cards in their hands in Round one. These are randomly drawn from a deck made of their Axies Ability Cards.

Both players play their cards and end their Turn. Once both players end their Turn, their played cards are revealed, and the Axies use their abilities according to their Speed stat.

Each successive round after Round one adds two Luna energies to both players’ pools and three ability cards from their decks. Axie Infinity aims to keep its battles fast-paced and short. After Round 10, the Blood Moon rises.

Once the Blood Moon Rises, all Axies on the map take equal damage at the end of each successive round. This mechanic keeps the Axie Battles short and consistent.

Axie Team Positioning

In Axie Infinity, you play Three-vs-Three battles. In these battles, your team’s positioning also plays a vital role. There are 7 possible positions for any Axie to occupy in your Axie Team. Once set, Axies hold their assigned Positions during battles.

During the battle, the Axies always attack the enemy Axie closest to them. This rule can be overridden by certain Ability cards and battle effects, buffs, and debuffs.

The seven occupiable positions are as follow:

• Top Front
• Top Back
• Middle Front
• Middle Center
• Middle Back
• Bottom Front
• Bottom Back

The attack priority goes like this:

1. Middle Front
2. Top Front = Bottom Front
3. Middle Center
4. Top Back = Bottom Back
5. Middle Back

Usually, Tanks are kept in the Middle Front. High Damage Dealers are placed in the Bottom Back, Middle Back, and Top Back Positions, and Mid Range Damage Dealers are placed in the Bottom Front and Top Front Positions.

Body Parts, Classes, and Ability Cards

All Axies possess six body parts that determine their abilities. These parts are:

1. Head
2. Back
3. Tail
4. Mouth
5. Eyes
6. Ears

In the current version of the game, only Head, Back, Mouth, and tail parts have ability cards. However, the Origin update will revamp most of these cards and introduce ability cards for the Eyes and Ears Parts.

These Body Parts are further classified into 6 Classes, which are as follow:

1. Bird
2. Aqua
3. Reptile
4. Bug
5. Beast
6. Plant

Speaking of classes, each Axie belongs to one of 9 unique Classes. Each of them has advantages or disadvantages over each other. These classes are as follow:

1. Bird
2. Aqua
3. Reptile
4. Bug
5. Beast
6. Plant
7. Dusk
8. Mech
9. Dawn

As implied, the Dusk, Dawn, and Mech classes have no ability cards or body parts in the game yet.

The Advantages and Disadvantages are calculated as follow:

• Group A. Reptile, Dusk, Plant
• Group B. Aqua, Bird, Dawn
• Group C. Beast, Bug, Mech

Group A is Stronger than Group B. Group B is Stronger than Group C. Group C is Stronger than Group A. All Axies in the same group are neutral to Advantages and Disadvantages among themselves.

Ability Card Stats

All Ability Cards have a few key stats that you must know to utilize their effects ideally. These stats are the Luna (Energy) Cost, Attack Damage, Shield Power, Class, and Effect Description.

• The Luna Cost determines how much Luna Energy you need to play that card in a specific round. Currently, most of the Ability Cards have a Luna cost of one.
• Attack Damage determines how much damage an Ability Card does to the opponent Axie. This damage is first applied to the enemy Axie’s Shield and then its Hit Points unless the shield is ignored by a specific effect.
• Shield Points determine the amount of defensive shield the Ability Card provides.
• Ability Card Class is determined by the class of the body part the Ability Card is associated with. The Class Advantages and Disadvantages apply to Ability Card Classes as well.
• Finally, the Effect Description on an Ability Card talks about the unique effect that the Ability Card enables. This can be a rule-bending effect, a Buff, Heal, or a Debuff.

Battling Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

If you have made it this far into the article, then as appreciation, let me share some battling tips, tricks, and techniques that will help you get a head start against your peers in the game.

• Always play Combos. Combos enhance damage dealt by up to 25%.
• You can get Free Damage on the Enemy Axies in Round one against Bird Beast Plant Team comps.
• Understand the difference between Chain Combos and Regular Combos. Chain Combos often have powerful effects but require a coordinated attack from multiple Axies on your team.
• Count the Luna Energies of your Opponents. This can give you a considerable advantage over your opponent, as they would not be able to get a surprise hit on you.
• Count the Cards your enemy has left in their hands. Once again, this will give you a considerable advantage over them, rendering their surprise attacks ineffective.
• Know your opponent’s Ability Cards. You can press on your opponent’s Axies during battle. This will let you see all their stats, classes, and Ability Cards.

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

People are often intrigued by some specific questions regarding the topics that I write about. So here are some frequently asked questions about Axie Infinity and my answers to them.

Wrapping Up: Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Even though it is a fast-paced battling game, in my opinion, Axie Infinity is a game where you want to sync in a lot of hours to learn and improve your skills. Aiming for Rank 1 or at least the Top 300,000 to earn the AXS reward is a feat that inspires the players, and I believe this is a welcoming change for the game’s competitive scene.

Besides that, with the Origin Update just around the corner, the future of Axie Infinity is looking bright. Furthermore, the Land Gameplay has made considerable progress and is expected to go live this year as well.

All these updates are something that the game needed. Especially after the last crypto market crash and SLP price hitting its All-Time-Low.

I hope this gameplay guide was helpful for you. I included all my game experiences in this guide, sharing basic gameplay mechanics to tricky combos and battling tips. So, it provides you with a complete experience.

If you want an in-depth and honest review of the game, make sure to check out my Axie Infinity Review article. Or, to read some of my other NFT gaming articles, you can click here.

Keep playing, improving, and climbing the rank ladder, and we will meet in the Arena.