Is Pulling For Core1 and Gen1 Guardians Worth It?
What’s up folks! Welcome to another post on GameFi Nexus.
The Guild of Guardians team announced its first NFT sale since it minted its eSports Guardians series in February 2023.
This mint, which launched today, features the Web2 Guardians we’ve been using in the regional playtest.
They’re divided into Gen1 and Core 1 collections, with the former containing slightly more desirable Guardians than the latter.
According to the team, the sale of new NFT Guardians will test some of the game’s core Web3 features, like the Altar of Sacrifice, and release more Web3 assets ahead of the read-only test scheduled in April.
This might all sound great at first, but if you haven’t been playing the regional test, it can be challenging to decide whether this opportunity is right for you.
In this article, I’ll cover how the mint works, which guardians to consider keeping, and which scenario this sale compliments.
Let’s get started!
What are Gen1 and Core 1 Guardians?
Before we get into how the mint works, it’s important to understand what you’re getting out of it.
Gen1 and Core1 refer to the collections of Guardians who are featured in the regional playtest.
The Grand Opening event provides you with the opportunity to mint their Web3 versions — allowing you to avoid the minting process and start the game with them in your squad.
Altogether, the sale includes 42 mintable characters between the two collections.
You can find a complete list of Guardians in the event guide.
The Gen 1 collection includes three legendary Guardians and the Core1 collection boasts seven. These include:
- Salve — Assassin (Sole in the regional test)
- Tian Long — Mage
- Phoenecia — Mage
- Atticus — Ranger (Eusef in the regional Test
- Ashwyn — Assassin
- Tybor — Warrior
- Grissell — Support
- Thorit — Assassin
- Ennara — Mage
- Oxellus — Support
Each time you pull a Guardian, there’s a chance they come with a Chroma.
Chromas are simply skins of different rarities that change your Guardian’s appearance.
They have no in-game utility, however, they may influence outcomes at the Altar of Sacrifice at some point in the future according to the team.
Which Guardians Are Worth It?
With so many Guardians in play, which are worth keeping?
Generally speaking, Gen1 Guardians are slightly more powerful than their Core1 counterparts, however, none of them will single-handedly carry your formation.
Squad composition is more important than simply holding a lot of legendary, and the ten I listed above don’t include important meta classes, like healers and tanks.
That means you’ll need to consider a mix of legendary and epic Guardians if you intend to build a formation exclusively from these two collections.
Ultimately, playstyle and personal preference have a lot to do with which Guardians to keep. Any of them can be viable with the right formation and against the right opponents.
That can be hard to gauge if you haven’t been able to play the regional test, so here’s a short list to get you started based on my experience and community feedback:
Legendary
- Tian Long — Mage
- Phoenecia — Mage
- Atticus — Ranger
- Grissell — Support
Epic
- Flix — Support (Healer)
- Derisda — Ranger
- Tusgrog — Tank
- Brund — Tank
- Fieval — Assassin
- Kriez — Warrior
- Aquiris — Support
- Grine — Tank
- Corvus — Warrior
- Palmera (a.k.a Brittney Spears) — Warrior
Rare
- Zole — Support
- Andronica — Support
How The Sale Works
The Grand Opening Sale is first and foremost a GACHA event.
If you aren’t familiar with that format, it’s essentially a lottery where each ticket nets you a random prize.
In this case, you’ll use a new feature called the Altar of Sacrifice to burn prayer NFTs to receive a random NFT Guardian.
You can purchase prayers from Eri’s Store in bundles of 5, 50 or 250 prayers (the latter are sold out at the time of writing).
There are three rarities of prayers, assigned randomly when you open a bundle.
The drop chance for the different rarities of Guardians varies depending on the prayer’s rarity:
To participate in the sale, you’ll need to load $USDC on your zkEVM Passport.
You can do this using the Immutable toolkit to bridge your tokens from Ethereum, or by purchasing IMX directly on zkEVM using fiat and swapping it through Quickswap if it’s available in your region.
Gas fees on Immutable zkEVM are paid in $IMX, so make sure you have some available before you get started.
Also, be warned that gas fees to deposit funds to zkEVM are paid on Ethereum, meaning it’s expensive to move small amounts.
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Should You Purchase Prayers?
As a staunch believer in strategy, I think you should do whatever best suits your approach to the game.
That said, I’ll break down whether this opportunity fits within three common scenarios I’ve seen in the wild.
1. Competitive Play
If you intend to compete for the largest prizes in the game or farm the best gear, you’ll need to continuously max out the best characters in the meta.
Maxing a Legendary Core1 or Gen1 Guardian requires ten copies plus the original, and unfortunately, the odds are not in your favor.
Your chances of receiving a legendary prayer are 2.5%, and there are 10 legendary characters in total.
That means you can go a long time without pulling the Guardian you want, and there’s no pity to save you from that either.
If you want to compete at the highest levels, then you’re probably better off purchasing Founder or eSports Guardians.
They’re rumored to be better than their Gen1 and Core1 cousins, and they also include some of the missing classes you need to dominate.
If you’re set on a particular Gen1 or Core1 character for your top squad, buying the copies directly from other players on TokenTrove could be a better option over pulling for them at random.
Be sure to do the math before you attempt it.
2. Flipping NFTs
If you’re considering a flipping strategy to recover your investment or turn a profit, you might find it difficult given the odds of getting the right Guardians.
Some of the most coveted ones— like Tian Long and Phoenicia — will have some market appeal, but it could cost you WAY more to pull them than you can make back.
On top of that, all Gen1 and Core1 Guardians can be obtained in the game, significantly limiting their upside potential.
Some Guardians were available for a fixed price of $130 in the regional test, which limits their value on secondary markets if that pricing carries over to the launch version.
If you’re a paperhand looking to make a quick profit, I’m sorry to say this event wasn’t designed with you in mind.
3. Light To Medium Spenders
So who does this sale target exactly?
Light to moderate spenders who want to do well in the game but have limited resources might appreciate some or all of its benefits.
By participating, you can:
- Get a head start on the free-to-play crowd;
- Avoid minting fees;
- Amass a surplus of Guardians to sacrifice for radiant souls, and
- Get considerably better odds of obtaining legendary Guardians than on the in-game banners.
In short, participating in the sale provides you with a good entry point into the game’s Web3 economy without breaking the bank.
Just keep in mind that it isn’t a fast track to success. Unless you get extremely lucky, you’ll still have to put a significant amount of time into building up these legendary Guardians with Web2 copies.
So, don’t sell your legendary Founder and eSports Guardians just yet. Their higher starting enlightenment and radiance levels can still give you an edge early in the game.
Conclusion
The Grand Opening sale is a great opportunity to get a few legendary Guardians on your squad, save on minting fees, and get ahead of the crowd at bargain prices.
If you’re a light to medium spender who wants to round out your account, or you’re priced out of the existing Founder and eSports collection, then this event is for you.
But manage your expectations before you dive in, because the odds make it too expensive to get multiple copies of the same Guardians reliably.
That makes a flipping strategy very risky. It also puts starting the game with maxed-out Guardians out of reach for most people.
If you’re on the competitive track, you’ll have to give the marketplace a second look and crunch some numbers for your dream build before you dive in.
