Are hamsters combating now? Not precisely—however whereas Hamster Kombat’s title could be somewhat deceptive, this Telegram-based tapping recreation shortly turned a dominant chief within the play-to-earn area by increasing upon Notcoin’s successful mannequin.
Hamster Kombat racked up over 300 million complete gamers earlier than launching its HMSTR token and airdrop for gamers by way of The Open Community (TON) in late September 2024. It turned one of many 12 months’s largest gaming token launches, primarily based on the height worth.
However Hamster Kombat is not stopping there. The builders are actually planning a “HamsterVerse” of video games with further airdrop rewards, plus a devoted community and growth past the Telegram ecosystem. This is every part you should know.
What’s Hamster Kombat?
Just like Notcoin, Hamster Kombat had gamers tapping away to earn cash in a Telegram-native utility (or “mini app”)—which implies to play the sport, you simply open a chat on Telegram.
Hamster Kombat’s core idea is much like Notcoin, with some barely richer recreation mechanics layered on prime of it. Briefly: It’s a tap-to-earn recreation blended with a crypto alternate simulator.
In Hamster Kombat, you’re the CEO of an up-and-coming crypto alternate, and it’s your job to develop the alternate to new heights by no means earlier than seen… on the earth of hamsters. So as to take action, you have to faucet a picture of a cartoon hamster to earn cash, after which use these cash to purchase upgrades on your alternate.
How one can play Hamster Kombat
Initially, Hamster Kombat began off in a way acquainted to Notcoin customers, with gamers tapping away on the display within the Telegram app to earn in-game cash.
As soon as gamers have earned some cash, they will begin utilizing them to improve their alternate within the “Mine” tab of the sport. This tab exhibits every kind of upgrades that gamers can buy (purely with in-game cash) for his or her alternate, and embrace issues like including cash or new options to their fictional alternate, or fake advertising and marketing efforts.
Each improve you bought on your alternate earned you extra cash passively. For instance, including a Bitcoin pair to your alternate price 250 cash, however then earned you 40 cash per hour. In different phrases, these additions shortly paid off and helped propel your alternate additional alongside.
Hamster Kombat concluded its first season of gameplay in September earlier than the token launch. At present, as of this writing, the sport is holding an “Interlude” season wherein gamers can earn in-game diamonds forward of the complete second season forward. The diamonds will reportedly give gamers some kind of benefit within the subsequent season.
What’s HMSTR?
What’s the purpose to incomes in-game cash? Equally to Notcoin, Hamster Kombat additionally incentivized gamers with a token airdrop, drawing a whole lot of thousands and thousands of gamers within the course of.
Hamster Kombat’s airdrop took place on September 26 on The Open Community (TON), the identical date that the HMSTR token was generated and launched on main exchanges. The HMSTR token was initially focused for July, however finally missed that ETA. The group attributed the delay to the problem of dropping a token to such an enormous participant base.
HMSTR reached a peak market cap of about $646 million on the launch date, although the worth of the token has fallen sharply since then. Given the immense dimension of the participant base, many customers complained about small allocations price $10 or much less, which some gamers known as “mud.” Fellow Telegram recreation Catizen, which launched its token the week earlier than, noticed comparable complaints.
What’s subsequent?
Hamster Kombat has shared a prolonged roadmap that extends into 2025 and contains extra rewards, extra gameplay, and plans to unfold outdoors of Telegram.
Following the present “interlude season” that was solely anticipated to final a pair weeks (however has since stretched on for months), Hamster Kombat plans to launch a brand new full Season 2 of gameplay, with plans to pay that off with one other airdrop subsequent summer season. Season 2 will shift the main target of the sport to that of working a online game improvement firm and platform, moderately than working a crypto alternate.
The builders shared a teaser trailer for the brand new season in October and informed Decrypt that it was deliberate to launch by the tip of October, however that estimate got here and went.
🐹 Hey Hamsters!
We all know you’ve been ready for this one… We wish to lastly offer you a style of what’s coming in Season 2!
Our concepts and ambitions pushed us to spend all of the previous weeks constructing this.
Season 2 shall be greater than only a recreation, it turned out a lot greater… pic.twitter.com/KIwZfQRahs
— Hamster Kombat (@hamster_kombat) December 22, 2024
In late December, Hamster Kombat’s group unveiled plans to launch a broader “HamsterVerse” initiative that may span three video games, together with the Season 2 gameplay talked about above. The entire video games will make the most of the HMSTR token. Hamster Kombat has since welcomed 30,000 gamers right into a closed beta check for HamsterVerse.
Additionally in December, Hamster Kombat launched a DAO, or decentralized autonomous group—primarily a gaggle that permits HMSTR token holders to vote on proposals to doubtlessly profit or develop the ecosystem. One of many first issues they voted by means of was a devoted layer-2 Hamster blockchain to be constructed on TON, which the builders are actually working in direction of.
💫HERE COMES THE BLOCKCHAIN 💫
The vote on the second proposal has ended! The DAO neighborhood has spoken: there WILL BE Hamster L2 blockchain constructed on TON!
We shall be serving our neighborhood, the largest web3 neighborhood on the earth, with the technological basis it requested for!… pic.twitter.com/v4p3jydAPF
— Hamster Kombat (@hamster_kombat) December 27, 2024
Hamster Kombat may even proceed to combine different third-party video games, evolving right into a platform for numerous titles. Moreover, Hamster Kombat plans to launch a progressive internet app (PWA) for the sport that shall be playable by way of iOS, Android, and desktop computer systems with out working the Telegram mini app.
Past that, the builders plan to combine with desktop video games, carry NFTs into Hamster Kombat, and purchase and burn (or successfully destroy) HMSTR tokens over time in an effort to spice up the worth by reducing the token provide.
“Telegram will at all times be a vital a part of Hamster Kombat and its ecosystem of merchandise. Nonetheless, we want to develop so as to seize the viewers that is not on Telegram but,” the group informed Decrypt in September. “In the end, we see it as a optimistic improvement each for Hamster Kombat and Telegram itself as a platform for mini apps, since it can carry further publicity.”
Extra reporting by Reza Jafery
Editor’s be aware: This story was initially printed on June 2, 2024 and final up to date with new particulars on January 2, 2025.
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