When Play-to-earn games started gaining popularity, it seemed like there was a new title to check out every day. Developers started churning out games whether they were good or not. Some projects were released even if they were still in development and I still believe to this day that it’s one of the reasons why the Play-to-earn gaming growth was stunted. However, the project we are looking at today took a different approach. Let’s dive into the Rune Metaverse and its ecosystem of games!

Background

Rune Metaverse is not just one metaverse game but I like to think of it as an ecosystem of games where each project they create is able to coexist with their existing projects and connect in an almost seamless way. It’s developed by Singapore-based Rune Games, although the actual team working on the game is anonymous and only goes by the name ‘Binzy’. The game is built on the Binance Smart Chain but the team tagged it as a ‘blockchain-agnostic’ game and plans to make the game cross-platform friendly. The game is available on the web as well as PC, iPhone and Android.

Graphics and Gameplay

Built with a dark fantasy setting, one look at the Rune Metaverse webpage will remind you of other Dark Fantasy RPG games like Diablo and World of Warcraft but Rune offers more than its predecessors. To be able to start the game, you need to create a character from a selection of 7 classes with unique backgrounds which are Barbarians, Mages, Rangers, Necromancers, Paladins, Assassins and Druids. Do note that at this stage, selecting one of the classes doesn’t mean much but it’s required to be able to interact with the game modes so planning ahead may help you further down the road.

There is no ‘one’ gameplay for Rune as there are a handful of games in the Rune metaverse which include:

Rune Raid

Rune Raid is a farming game mode where players can farm for the 33 available runes (which are all BEP20 Tokens) by staking their $RUNE (the metaverse’s token) which is then used for different transactions in the Rune metaverse like upgrading weapons, pets, characters, etc.

Rune Evolution

A 2D arcade game similar to Snakes.io where you play as a dragon and collect ‘sprites’ to grow stronger and kill other players in the lobby until you are the last man (or dragon) standing after every round. Players can also find in-game items in this game mode.

Rune Infinite

A 2D top-down ARPG arena game where players battle in an arena with the equipment they equip. This game mode is still in-development so the actual PVP system is yet to be known.

Rune Sanctuary

Rune Sanctuary will be a 3D MMORPG where players can find unique items and earn from winning raid battles. Players can also buy land and NPCs to customize their game experience.

Rune Guardians

A 2D breeding game where you can generate and hatch cute pets that you can use in other Rune games.

The overall system can be confusing at first, but the game’s website is complete with all the information you need to get started. There is also a wiki for people who would like some help while crafting their Runewords which are the NFT items that players can craft and use inside the game using the Runes they farm from Rune Raid.

Earning Mechanics

The Rune Metaverse uses two tokens in the form of $RUNE and $RXS (Runeshards). $RUNE is a coin that can be used for all the Rune games and can be acquired by exchanging your BNB for $RUNE either in Pancakeswap or the game’s very own aptly named Runeswap. $RUNE can also be broken down to $RXS which acts as the primary in-game and marketplace currency.

There are also 33 different runes (not to be confused by $RUNE) that are used to craft different items in the game. Different combinations of these runes will result in different items like weapons or armor which are called Runewords that you can also trade in the game’s marketplace. You can only get these runes by participating in Rune Raids where you have to stake some $RXS to be able to farm one specific rune.

As of writing (February 26, 2023)  the price of one $RUNE is $22.46

Final Thoughts

Rune Metaverse feels like a long-term project that everyone needs to watch out for. It’s one of those projects that plans to deeply integrate blockchain technology into a system in order to create something that we’ve never seen before.