How to Purchase a Gen 0 Photo Finish Live Horse Racing Ticket
EDIT
WE STRONGLY ADVISE YOU NOT TO BUY GEN 0 TICKETS ANYMORE AS THEY ARE ALL RETIRED. BUY IN-GAME HORSES. FOLLOW THIS NEW GUIDE.
/EDIT
Photo Finish Live is built using the Solana blockchain. Generation 0 (Gen 0) horse racing tickets guarantee you the ability to race in the beta and upcoming full release of the game. This guide explains how to purchase one. As always, you can join the Photo Finish Discord and ask for help any time.
Step 1 — Getting SOL
As the tickets are on the Solana blockchain, you’ll need SOL (the cryptocurrency of Solana) to purchase them. As such, you’ll want to download and install the Phantom browser wallet. You need the browser extension wallet, NOT mobile wallet. For those of you familiar with metamask, it works the same way. You can then purchase SOL on exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance and transfer it to the wallet. If you already have ETH or other crypto and want to avoid exchanges, you can use this bridge. Frustratingly, you need a little SOL in your wallet to bridge other assets over so ask in Discord and someone will provide you a few cents of SOL so you can.
Step 2 — Education
Now that you have SOL, you can purchase a ticket. HOWEVER, we need to educate you as not all tickets (and thus horses) are alike.
Each horse has a Grade (D is weakest then C, B, A, and finally S is the strongest), attributes, and preferences. The launch of the game will see only B- to S+ horses in existence meaning the best (and worst) horses will be bred in the future. The lower the grade of a horse, the cheaper it tends to be and the lower the entry fees and purse sizes are. Each grade of horse can be competitive within certain race types, it’s simply how big of stakes you want to take part in.
In addition to grades, each Gen 0 horse ticket will have various attributes (often called stats) with a score of 0 being the lowest and 3 being the highest. Those attributes are:
Start: Start is the speed at which the horse leaves the gate. It’s the most powerful stat at 4 furlongs, but quickly drops off in longer races. Furlongs are the traditional unit of measurement in horse racing (1F equals ⅛ of a mile). Races are run between 4 and 12 furlongs. In a 4f race, you want to race a horse that has a high start attribute.
Speed: the pace of the horse once it gets into its stride. Speed is most pronounced in short and middle distances, but drops off when races get long.
Stamina: the horse’s ability to keep running as it tires. The longer the race the more important stamina is.
Finish: the horse’s ability to push for the finish line after a hard effort. It is the strongest stat at 12 furlongs, but doesn’t become important until the longest distances.
Heart: the horse’s competitive spirit. The closer a horse is running to a competitor, the more influential the heart stat is. Heart is most beneficial in longer races with large and competitive fields. larger fields and in fields where other competitors are a similar strength.
Temper: the horse’s ability to focus and put effort into the race. Temper can be seen as consistency. Horse’s with strong temper are more likely to perform up to their potential over the course of a career.
Are you starting to see the intricacies of this game? Well, that’s just the beginning because each horse has track “preferences” as well. These are:
Surface: There are two types of surface in Photo Finish Live, Dirt and Turf. Horses that aren’t suited to the surface of the race course receive no bonus.
Direction: There are two race directions in Photo Finish Live, Right and Left. Horses that aren’t suited to the direction of the race course receive no bonus.
Condition: There are two primary track conditions in Photo Finish Live, Firm and Soft. Horses that aren’t suited to the condition of the race course receive no bonus.
Put all of this together and you may have a Gen 0 horse racing ticket that looks like this:
The above horse’s grade is A-, it’s a male (Colt), its total “boosts”, all the attributes and preferences added together, is 19.5 (out of a max 26) and it has strong start, stamina, and finish statistics. If this was our horse, we’d work to enter it in races we didn’t think any S grade horses would enter (unless they were handicapped), races that were 10–12 furlongs long (due to high stamina and finish) and we would make sure to enter it in a right turning, turf track with firm race conditions.
The higher the horse’s grade and the more total boosts, the more expensive it will tend to be. So which specific horse(s) to purchase will depend upon your budget, risk tolerance, ego, and more. Keep in mind, the game is designed in a manner where any grade horse can be profitable if you are smart about how you manage it. Yes, the stakes for S horses will be higher but good players will still see a solid ROI with lower grade horses and the very best will be able to breed up and race in higher grade races.
Fillies Versus Colts
Colts are male horses and fillies are female. When it comes to racing, they are equal. The big difference is in breeding. Colts, once retired, can breed 35 times per Photo Finish Season (and be paid for the service) whereas fillies can only breed once per season. However, fillies keep the foal so a single filly can result in upwards of 20 new horses before she dies. Horses can race at age 2, must retire by age 8, and live into their early 20’s and then die.
Step 3 — Buying a race horse ticket
Now that you have SOL and some knowledge, you can start buying tickets. While they’re all listed on Magic Eden, we strongly recommend using this filtering tool to help you filter and find tickets that fit your budget and have the stats you want. When you find one, the tool will take you directly to the ticket on Magic Eden to complete the purchase.
Step 4 — Redeeming, racing, and breeding your new horse
