Axie Infinity Season 18 is here!
With the new PVP Arena Season of the most popular play-to-earn game also comes new changes to the game’s structure and rewards.
Are these changes good or bad for the economy of Axie Infinity?
How will these affect the players, both newbies and veterans?
Over 200,000 USD worth of AXS rewards
Good news for all competitive players of Arena!
For Season 18, the top PVP players will be rewarded for climbing the leaderboard with a whopping reward pool of 200,000 USD!
(Related Guide: Best Starter Teams in Axie Infinity)
Because of the surge of new players in the past few months, the AXS leaderboard is also increased to 1,000.
Here is the new distribution of AXS rewards for each leaderboard ranking:
Lastly, the length of the season is also increased by 2 weeks.
Changes to SLP rewards in PVE and PVP
(Full Guide: Updated SLP Rewards for Season 18 – What You Need to Know)
One of the biggest changes introduced this season are the changes to the daily SLP earnings.
Starting Season 18, SLP rewards earned in Adventure (PVE) are significantly reduced.
- Reduced daily limit of SLP earned in PVE from 100 to 50
- Reduced daily quest rewards from 50 to 25
This means you can now only get a total of 75 SLP per day by playing Adventure mode and by clearing the daily quests.
However, SLP rewards in PVP now increase at a faster rate as you climb the leaderboard.
Check out the new estimated SLP earnings per Arena bracket in our guide here.
Now this may sound devastating at first, after all, why would anyone want to receive only half the SLP rewards?!
(Related Guide: How to Farm SLP in Axie Infinity)
But worry not—these updates were made with the long term health of the Axie economy in mind, and there are two advantages to this.
First, if there is more SLP produced than burned in the game, that is unhealthy for the Axie Infinity ecosystem as it may cause hyperinflation or oversupply.
As law of supply and demand states: the higher the supply of a resource and the lower its demand, the lower its price will go.
Second, halving the SLP rewards in PVE and increasing the rewards in PVP will encourage players to focus on climbing the PVP leaderboards.
This means players will need to try their best to improve their PVP battling skills, and not just focus on mindlessly grinding on PVE.
Since there is more incentive for PVP in higher ranks, this will also prevent players from forcibly dropping their MMRs and farm on lower-leveled players, which is not fun for everyone!
(Related Guide: Axie Infinity Adventure EXP Farming Guide)
What the Season 18 updates will mean for players
Because of the lowered SLP rewards for PVE and the increased rewards for Arena (especially for players at the top), this means PVP will be the end-game for players who want to maximize their earnings.
Expect a more competitive community as players race to the top of the leaderboards.
Remember, not only are the SLP rewards in higher MMR brackets increased, but also the number of players in the leaderboard who will be receiving AXS rewards at the end of the season.
(Related Guide: Axie Infinity PVP Guide – How to Win More in Arena)
For new players, the PVP Arena will be more newbie-friendly in Season 18.
This will make the game less discouraging for beginners and hopefully drive more demand for the game.
Lastly, the SLP reward adjustments may also affect scholarships.
In the patch notes, the devs stated that “these adjustments will put upward pressure on scholar wages for skilled battlers and reward managers that have put time into educating and training their scholars for the arena.”
(Related Guide: What is an Axie Scholarship and How to Apply?)
Upcoming New Features for Axie Infinity
Aside from the balance changes for this season, the devs also announced a few features and upcoming changes that they’re currently working on for Axie Infinity:
- AXS portion of the breeding fee will soon be adjusted
- Amount of SLP needed to breed Axies may also increase to help prevent SLP oversupply
- A dedicated decentralized exchange will be launched to attract greater liquidity for in-game resources
- An Axie sink which can convert Axies for crafting materials. These materials can be used to upgrade land, body parts, or buy cosmetics
- New features and game modes to increase demand for Axies
Are the Season 18 changes good or bad for Axie Infinity?
Overall, despite the decreased SLP rewards for Adventure Mode, we still think the future for Axie Infinity looks bright.
If any, these announcements further show us how much the developers care about Axie Infinity’s economy and playerbase.
Both AXS and SLP haven’t had any huge price drops since the announcement.
The playerbase and the community is still growing fast, and more exciting features and game modes are still yet to be released. Remember, the game is still on Alpha!
Axie Infinity is still the #1 play-to-earn cryptocurrency game in the world and as of writing, there are no signs of stopping that.
