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We are extremely excited about the release of Evaverse: Second Arrivals NFT collection. For those that have been here from the start, you know that our first collection of playable Evaverse Avatars is referred to as First Arrivals. It makes sense then, that our next collection of playable avatars would be Second Arrivals. First, let’s dive into the lore!

Two Factions: The Fight For Ascension

The avatars that comprise our Second Arrivals collection originate from the planet of Dysprevia. Tidally locked to its sun, one side is permanently scorched by sunlight, while the other remains in perpetual darkness. The only areas that produce life in abundance are the zones close to the Prime Meridian, a belt filled with life that wraps around the entire planet. This resource-rich zone has been contested by two factions in a never-ending war referred to as the War of Ascension. The Losians inhabit the side of the planet battered by the sun, while the Skotians inhabit its frost-covered dark side.

Two elements have helped the inhabitants of Dysprevia survive its harsh conditions: technology and spirituality. They are close to their gods and as such, have created a clear hierarchy based on your Path of Ascension. Elektros, the Losian’s God of electricity, sits atop their pantheon. Losians chosen by Elektros become appointed leaders of this faction. 

EVA took interest in the conflict raging on Dysprevia. In her infinite wisdom, EVA manifested a perfect solution.

We will share more details about EVA’s involvement in the future, so stay tuned.

The Road to Ascension

We will release the Second Arrivals in waves. Each wave consists of several thousand unique NFT playable avatars from one Faction and one Ascendancy. The first wave will be the Elektros Ascendancy from the Losian faction. The visuals feature a combination of “techwear” and spiritual elements that tie into the specific Ascendancy.

We previously mentioned that we aim to create engaging and fun experiences that tie to the NFT releases. So with that in mind, we have a whole set of events planned around this release that we are calling The Road to Ascension.

At its core lies the Map NFT. This is a special 2D NFT that we will airdrop to First Arrival holders and everyone who qualified via the Gleam contest that we held a few weeks ago. The map can be purchased and sold like any other NFT on Opensea.

Players who own the Map NFT will level it up using Badges that players obtain by exchanging tickets at the B.E.S.T. Machine. Each week, there will be a max limit to how much players can level up in order to encourage engagement throughout the duration of this epic event, culminating in the release of the Second Arrivals NFT collection. 

Power to the Players

Map NFT holders will vote on which gods belong to each faction, helping shape the unique visual identity for all subsequent Second Arrivals NFT launches. However, Elektros and Hadion are already set as the leaders of the Losian and Skotian pantheons respectively. Avatars from these two Ascendancies encompass Wave 1 (Elektros) and Wave 2 (Hadion).

Votes are linked to owning a Map NFT at the required level. The level required to complete activities increases with each phase. Our vision is to create meaningful community engagement throughout the event and offer players in-game utility for their badges.

• First Arrival holders will get two votes, one for being a First Arrival holder, and one for having the weekly max level Map NFT.

• All others with a Map NFT at the weekly level cap will have one vote.

Freebies!

But wait, there’s more! Regular concept art NFT drops will be distributed to all people that hold a Map NFT of the required level. Concept art drops will feature Second Arrivals avatars, however, if you keep your Map NFT leveled up you may obtain highly rare collectible concept art drops from Project A!

Whitelists

The Road to Ascension will give Whitelist slots for each of the Second Arrivals waves. In order to qualify for the Whitelist of each wave, players need a Map NFT of the required level. The level requirements will increase over the course of the event, so make sure to stay on top of your map leveling. Upon completion, players will also be able to earn a Whitelist for Project A.

First Arrival Benefits

• First Arrival holders will get an additional vote in determining which Ascendancies belong to which faction’s pantheon
• Guaranteed Project A whitelist spot with no map required.
• Ability to get a free Second Arrival through an airdrop of the “Ascension Chamber”. This NFT allows First Arrival holders to create a Second Arrivals NFT once all waves are completed and the full earning economy is launched.

We hope that you will join us on this epic journey and we thank you again for your support of Evaverse!

I started Battlebound in May 2021 after spending 4 years creating game art and scalable pipelines for League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics. I left Riot Games instilled with a passionate belief that video games have the unique potential for players to experience thrilling moments that meaningfully enrich their lives. We call these moments heroic stories, and they are the cornerstone for the games we’re building at Battlebound.

Our mission is to build memorable lifelong gaming communities that invite players into heroic stories, creating deep connections and positive life changes. Our games are meant to be played with friends and offer players genuine ownership, utility, and composability over their well-deserved game assets. We believe NFTs and blockchain technology empowers us to connect with our players more deeply and share the value generated by people playing games they love.

After leading our founding team out of League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, at Riot Games, we’ve expanded our team’s AAA development experience with developers from Blizzard, Ubisoft, and NCSoft.  As we continue to build at the intersection of play-to-earn and world-class gameplay, we’re actively hiring talented individuals to join us on our mission.

Our vision is to create top-tier AAA game experiences that give traditional players the ability to opt-in to the world of on-chain gaming. Players will play and enjoy our games because they offer best-in-genre gameplay. Our play-to-earn model will enhance an already superb gaming experience by providing a heightened level of ownership in the games players play a pivotal role in building.

Battlebound is currently developing two titles. The first is Evaverse which is available to play on PC, Mac, and eventually mobile. It is a web3 multiplayer video game evolving into a digital metaverse where players can socialize, play competitively, and collect NFTs. Last year, we launched an NFT collection of 10K playable game avatars called First Arrivals, which generated $3M in funding from thousands of passionate players around the world.  We’ve now grown the Evaverse discord community to over 7K members and airdropped three other NFT collections to our community. We will be launching a Second Arrivals collection and an Evaverse token later this year. Join our Evaverse discord to stay in touch.

Evaverse is Battlebound’s metaverse and an open platform for other NFT communities and IPs that otherwise couldn’t build a metaverse with strong and consistent game dynamics. We’ve partnered with several notable NFT collections to integrate playable avatars for their respective communities and will continue to partner with projects as well as facilitate open integrations as the Evaverse expands.

Project A, our second game, is a next-gen creature collecting adventure for friends to discover, battle, and own. Project A offers players a more curated gaming experience with unique interoperability opportunities between all of Battlebound’s titles.

At Battlebound, we build games for players. These passionate communities pour their time and resources into their favorite games but historically have not seen nearly enough value and ownership to reflect their efforts spent furthering the games ecosystem. Battlebound aims to revolutionize how developers and players share in the rewards of the games they play a pivotal role in building.

We’re also noticing interesting parallels between the emergence of free-to-play and web3 games. Free-to-play was initially met with similar doubts and misunderstandings that web3 games face. We believe the best versions of play-to-earn games are still being developed. When the player ownership model is optimized for long-term community value, players can participate in the ecosystem of their favorite games like never before.

As we continue our game development and hiring process, we decided to raise capital to facilitate growth and sustainably accelerate product development. We wanted partners that share our community values, believe in the direction of our games and the games industry’s future. 

We are excited to announce that we closed our $4.8M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with Play Ventures and Dapper Labs participating. In addition, we have an amazing list of angel investors including Kristian Segerstrale (CEO of Super Evil Mega Corp), Ryan Wyatt (CEO of Polygon Studios), Gabby Dizon (CEO of Yield Guild Games), Roham Gharegozlou (CEO of Dapper Labs), Alex Price (a16z Advisor), Raaid Hossain (Partner at Tribe Capital), Thomas Vu (Web3 Investor), and Kenny Carvalho (Game Industry Recruiter). We thank everyone for their invaluable guidance and support. 

This funding will allow us to scale up and release our titles in phases while being quicker to market, de-risking development, and iterating as we grow alongside our players.

Battlebound is a remote-first studio but will eventually open a physical headquarters for developers who prefer to work together in person. If you’re passionate about forging this new frontier and building the future of play-to-earn games, please check out our job board. 

We look forward to meeting you.