Season 5 of Axie Infinity: Origins is starting on 26 July - Maintenance at 1030am VN time. Get your Rare teams ready and remember to use your Moonshards (but do NOT disenchant until the next Season starts).

Here I will share the information from the Axie Infinity Discord Channel on Season 5 and my views on the changes with the rewards. First up is the dates of the Eras, staying with 3 Eras and 2 weeks per Era which I think has been pretty good, so it is good to see that they stay the same.

Diversifying ways to earn AXS rewards could help player retention and acquisition

One big change to Season 5’s reward system is the shift of AXS rewards from Seasonal Leaderboard to other ways of earning including Events, Contests, and Weekly Missions! The new systems benefits casual players at the expense of high level players. Below are the AXS Leaderboard payouts for Season 4 and Season 5.

We can see that there is a reduction of about 24% of the AXS rewards from the Leaderboard in Season 5 compares to Season 4. Even if we include the AXS reward from Weekly Missions (assuming that everyone completes the Milestone for all 6 weeks to get the 0.05 x 6 = 0.3 AXS - see below), Top 20000 players would still be earning less in Season 5 than in Season 4.

Currently we do not know what the Events and Contests will be, but assuming that they have more to do with participation over competitiveness in the Arena, this will for sure benefit players at lower ranks more compared to the top players.

(Disclaimer: I usually rank around 500 meaning this change would decrease my earning from Leaderboard by about 10 AXS, which I think would be difficult to cover from Events and Contests unless I rank very high on those - i.e. it is likely my earning would drop from this change.)

I personally think that it is a good change for the game. It diversifies what it means to be competitive in the game and rewards different types of players with different focusses and strengths. Currently, only players who are competitive in the Arena are rewarded with AXS, whereas players who participate in Contests and Events mostly only get in-game items such as cosmetics, rune and charm boxes, and crafting items.

I think Sky Mavis is trying to promote different ways to enjoy the game by diversifying their rewards. The messaging is that different types of players can come to Axie Origins to enjoy the game. It is not just about buying and playing the strongest teams to climb in the Arena. This will hopefully attract more new players who may be intimidated by climbing the Arena for rewards but can now have more ways to enjoy and earn from the game.

I would like to see contests like the class-themed contests where they reward players playing with certain types of teams (e.g. win with 3 Mech Axies for a Mech contest). This kind of contests would increase the trading volume in the Marketplace as it incentives players to build teams for particular contests now that there are AXS rewards from the contests.

Before I move on, I do want to address the problem that the change in AXS reward system significantly reduces earnings from the Leaderboard for top players. I have no idea how significant this change is compared to other games as I am not a pro gamer, but I would not be surprised if some pro players may move to other games if the earnings of other games are more attractive. That said, I still think it is a good change for the game in terms of gaming experience as well as the growth of the game. With more players staying and coming in, there should be more revenue from market fees which should translate to more overall rewards in the long run (i.e. the pie should get bigger even though the way we cut the pie changes).

No Free Runes and Charms for Season 5 but lower Minting fees

The free Runes and Charms are removed for Season 5. It is not clear whether there will be other ways to obtain free Runes and Charms through Contests and Events, but it will highly likely be harder to obtain Mystic Runes and Charms.

Below you can see how the minting fees will change in Season 5 where the fees are halved for Epic and Mystic Runes and Charms. With the removal of free Runes and Charms, it is more likely that players will need to buy Runes and Charms from the marketplace. I assume Sky Mavis has done some calculations so that the overall revenue from minting fees should be similar or even more despite the decrease in minting fees as the demands for Runes and Charms will be higher, meaning the prices of Runes and Charms will be higher leading to more players minting their Runes and Charms for sale.

This can have quite a big impact on how players should approach the Season in terms of planning their teams. Many casual players primarily depend on the free Runes and Charms for the Season and plan their team accordingly when buying Axies from the marketplace. Now that the free Runes and Charms are removed, I would assume some players may have to change their plans as the Mystic Rune that their teams need (e.g. Last Stand or Endless Anger) will potentially be too expensive for many players.

It is difficult to say anything at this point as we have no idea if Sky Mavis will implement ways for players to get free Runes and Charms through Events or Contests but it is better to assume that there will be no free Runes and Charms if you are a very casual player who are not planning to be competitive in Events and Contests.

Conclusion

Get ready for a more diverse Origins experience with competing in Contests and Events to earn AXS rewards! Start theorycrafting teams that you want to play in Season 5 assuming no free Runes and Charms!

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