Nyan Heroes: A New Flagship 3A Chain Game on Solana

During the two-week pre-alpha period, with over 1.3 million registered users, over 45,000 daily active users, and over 700,000 independent active wallets, Nyan Heroes, a leading GameFi project in the Solana ecosystem, achieved remarkable results.

Nyan Heroes is a third-person shooter game built on the Solana blockchain, combining fast-paced competitive gameplay with real-world impact, supported by Unreal Engine 5 and blockchain technology, offering a unique 3A multiplayer gaming experience with distinctive mechanical characters and gameplay capabilities. It’s reported that Nyan Heroes is the flagship chain game project supported by the Solana Foundation. Here, we’ll comprehensively explore Nyan Heroes, a 3A chain game masterpiece in the Solana ecosystem, from aspects including team information, project playability, token economic model, and internal test data.

Challenges Facing Current GameFi Adoption

In the eyes of Web2 users, Web3 is seen as a new and unknown territory full of potential and possibilities, but it also presents various challenges and obstacles. Promoting its widespread adoption has always been the goal of practitioners. If Web3 is to ultimately replace Web2, then undoubtedly, GameFi will become the sharpest weapon in the Web3 camp.

Therefore, the GameFi sector is highly favored by practitioners. They have learned from the experience of the previous wave of chain games and continuously refined their projects, resulting in a plethora of new GameFi projects emerging in this market cycle.

However, it seems that there has not yet been a successful Play-to-Earn concept like Axie Infinity that has broken through the circle, or a combination of sports and games like StepN that has driven more Web2 users into GameFi through excellent marketing and operations.

According to a summary based on feedback from numerous members of the chain game community, the following problems exist in chain games at present:

• Insufficient token activity incentives, resulting in few participating users.
• Unstable servers, frequent crashes.
• Poor game playability, unable to attract deep player engagement.
• Weak Web2 user base, leading to a death spiral of tokens.

These issues are prevalent in current chain games and can be considered common problems. Among them, the weak Web2 user base is a particularly fatal challenge. However, when we look at the pre-alpha activity data of Nyan Heroes, one data point is particularly noteworthy: “20% of players are from Web2 games.” This may mean that we have truly found the next potential blockbuster GameFi project—Nyan Heroes.

Overview of Nyan Heroes

Nyan Heroes is a third-person shooter game based on the Solana ecosystem, where players take on the role of a small cat driving a giant mech, using unique abilities and advanced feline movements to track targets and defeat opponents.

The Nyan Heroes team has extensive experience in game development, with members having participated in the development of acclaimed titles such as Destiny, Halo, Mass Effect, and Assassin’s Creed, deeply rooted in the gaming industry for many years. At the same time, Nyan Heroes has strong ecosystem partners. The chain game has received support from giants such as Razer, Xterio, Immutable, Superverse, NeoTokyo, Elixir, Hyperplay, and Saga, and has established deep cooperation with esports giants such as G2 Esports, Fnatic, Evil Geniuses, as well as planning to hold large-scale esports events with mainstream streaming platform Twitch in the future.

Funding Situation of Nyan Heroes

According to CRYPTO fundraising data and official information, Nyan Heroes has undergone multiple rounds of financing, with a total funding amount of up to $13 million, as follows:

• On November 3, 2021, it announced the completion of a $2.5 million seed round, led by Three Arrows Capital.
• On May 10, 2022, it announced a strategic financing of $7.5 million at a valuation of $100 million, with participation from Kosmos Ventures.
• On March 14, 2024, it announced the completion of a $3 million round of investment led by Mechanism Capital, with participation from Sfermion.

Playability of Nyan Heroes

Currently, Season 2 of Nyan Heroes is in full swing, and in order to attract more users to participate, Nyan Heroes has launched generous token airdrop incentives. Whether they are old players who participated in Season 1 or new players who have just learned about Nyan Heroes, they all have the opportunity to receive generous rewards.

On one hand, for all users, they only need to visit the event’s official website and register via Twitter to participate. Then, by completing a series of simple social tasks such as following, liking, and retweeting, they can earn Catnip rewards, which can be directly exchanged for NYAN tokens in the future. Additionally, by inviting friends to participate in the event, users will receive more Catnip rewards, contributing to the expansion of the community and allowing more people to enjoy the fun and rewards brought by Nyan Heroes.

On the other hand, Nyan Heroes will offer a two-week free game experience to all users starting on May 8, giving them the opportunity to experience joy in the game while earning more Catnip rewards. It’s worth noting that in previous game tests, Nyan Heroes was one of the few 3A games to receive positive feedback from traditional players, with its immersive gameplay not only attracting a large number of Web2 content creators and their audiences but also winning widespread praise, with players even momentarily forgetting that it’s a Web3 game.

NYAN Token Mechanism

For the initial 1 billion NYAN tokens, the specific allocation is as follows:

• Community rewards: 335,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 33.5% of the total supply. These tokens will be used for airdrops, in-game rewards, competition prize pools, etc.
• Ecosystem: 165,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 16.5% of the total supply. These tokens will be indirectly used for the community through IP extensions, partnerships, and strategic growth opportunities.
• Early investors: 220,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 22% of the total supply.
• Team and advisors: 180,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 18% of the total supply.
• Strategic investors: 70,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 7% of the total supply.
• Liquidity and market-making: 30,000,000 NYAN, accounting for 3% of the total supply.

Pre-alpha Data and Recent Developments of Nyan Heroes

Pre-alpha period data review

On March 26, Nyan Heroes officially launched on the Epic Games Store, where all players can download and participate in earning Meow points.

During the two-week pre-alpha period, Nyan Heroes achieved remarkable results. According to official data: over 1.3 million

registered users, over 70,000 independent active wallets, over 45,000 daily active users. Additionally, Nyan Heroes surpassed 200,000 downloads on the Epic Games Store and successfully entered the top five most popular games and one of the top 30 most popular games globally.

These data indicate that Nyan Heroes not only attracted a large number of Web3 players during the testing phase but also organically integrated with Web2, gaining support and affection from a group of Web2 players and streamers. This provides favorable conditions for Nyan Heroes to successfully break through the circle after its official launch and brings opportunities for it to enter the Web2 gaming industry.

Season 2 is officially underway

On May 1, the team announced the completion of Season 1 token airdrop activity and directly launched Season 2 token airdrop activity, themed “Hunt For Catnip.”

Compared to the MEOW points of Season 1, the Catnip to be obtained in Season 2 activities will be more precious and harder to obtain. Due to the higher threshold for obtaining, those who strive for it will have the opportunity to receive more rewards from the prize pool.

Moreover, the highlight of this season’s activity is the launch of a new matchmaking ranking system (MMR) on May 8, aimed at improving competitive skills and rewarding high-quality players. Regardless of whether players are seasoned veterans from Season 1 or newcomers preparing to participate in Season 2, MMR will match them with other players of similar skill levels, enhancing strategic abilities.

Based on players’ rankings at the end of the season, they will receive additional Catnip rewards, with higher rankings receiving richer rewards. At the end of the second season, Catnip will be directly exchanged for NYAN tokens. Finally, the team also stated that the token airdrop activity is not limited to two seasons, and more interesting activities will be launched in the future to incentivize real players.

Nyan Heroes Will Lead the Next Generation GameFi New Paradigm

In the gaming world, whether Web2 or Web3, any game has a certain lifespan. Specifically, League of Legends is a typical case. This multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Riot Games was released in 2009 and quickly won the love of many players with its rich gameplay content and competitive atmosphere. However, over time, the popularity of League of Legends gradually declined. Despite Riot Games’ continuous content updates and event hosting, the lifespan of the game was still affected.

Compared to Web2 games, Web3 games face unique challenges. On one hand, due to poor playability, Web3 games struggle to attract Web2 users, resulting in a severely insufficient user base. On the other hand, the token economic model of Web3 games has flaws, attracting a large number of “mine and sell” users. These two factors combined lead to continuous token price declines, thereby shortening the lifespan of games and ultimately leading to their demise.

Taking Axie Infinity and StepN as examples, although they innovated in the token economic model, they faced serious problems in the later stages of game development. Due to the severe lack of Web2 user base and the high barrier to entry for new Web3 users, there were not enough new users to support old users, and the token price plummeted all the way until the game was forgotten, ending its brief glory.

Firstly, Nyan Heroes continuously refines the game, increasing its playability, and its diverse game content and gameplay design provide players with a rich gaming experience. This enables the game to meet the needs of users who truly love gaming, giving it a strong Web2 user base even in the testing phase. This foundation not only maintains the game’s popularity but also delays its lifespan, making it the core of the game’s development.

Secondly, Nyan Heroes chose the most discussed ecosystem of this bull market cycle—Solana’s ecosystem. In the Solana ecosystem, there are many active Web3 users, which provides the potential for Nyan Heroes to continue attracting Web3 users. Through integration with the Solana ecosystem, Nyan Heroes has gained broader attention and support, providing strong momentum for the continued development of the game.

Finally, Nyan Heroes adopted phased and continuously optimized token incentive measures, further increasing user stickiness. Through this approach, the game can better incentivize user participation and retention, laying a solid foundation for the game’s long-term development.

Bottom Line

Nyan Heroes has not only made accurate decisions in game design and ecosystem selection but also continuously innovated in token economic models and user incentives. Therefore, Nyan Heroes is expected to become a pioneer leading the next generation GameFi paradigm, bringing new vitality and development opportunities to Web3, and opening a new chapter in the gaming world.