Parallel // A Beginners Guide
A Galaxy Awaits. A Story Untold. Come Forth, Stand Tall, Be Counted, Behold
Welcome. In this article we’ll explore what Parallel is, how it came about and where it’s headed. We’ll also take a look at the game mechanics, the ambitious franchise plans and get you up to speed on everything else you need to know. Let’s begin.
Table Of Contents:
PARALLEL: THE BEGINNINGS
In this section we’ll look at how Parallel came to life, the team ethos, their exciting franchise ideas and the story that sits at the centre of it all.
Parallel Intentions: Where it all began
A group of friends had an idea. Inspired to create something that was as impactful on others as their favourite games had been on them, they pursued it. They wanted to push boundaries within the TCG (Trading Card Game) landscape. They dreamt of creating something magical that would leave a lasting impression. Something that would resonate with people on multiple levels, and that would stand the test of time. Before long, a concept was born.
Drawing on their individual talents, they collectively created a Sci-Fi digital collectible card game. It would become steeped in lore and beautifully represented with stunning artwork. And it would be known as Parallel.
With extensive experience in TCGs and the gaming world in general, the team felt there was an opportunity to build upon existing models and explore new mechanics that would provide a fun, inclusive and captivating environment.
With the advent of NFTs, and the interesting proposition they offered, it made sense to incorporate this new technology into their plans. They would allow for innovative implementations within the ecosystem, enabling the team to create something that wasn’t previously possible. Namely unique, provable ownership, a highly liquid international marketplace and huge play-to-earn potential.
The team have also embraced AR (Augmented Reality) technology and have ambitious plans when it comes to cutting edge gameplay modes.
YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley was an early investor in the project and Paradigm Digital Assets recently invested $50mill USD at a valuation of $500mill. Other notable investors include Ram Shriram (founding board member and one of the first investors in Google) and Gabriel Leydon, CEO of Machine Zone.
Parallel Lore: The Story
The story is at the heart of the game. It’s the foundation upon which all else exists and provides the landscape within which we immerse ourselves.
Set in the distant future, civilization on Earth faced depleting energy resources. Experimentation was underway to create renewable energy. Unfortunately, the results were disastrous and the radiation fallout made Earth near uninhabitable. This forced the majority of humans to flee. But not everyone had the same destination in mind.
Humanity splintered into several factions, known as Parallels. They embarked on different paths that would uniquely shape their evolutionary strains. They lived out their lives in isolated pockets of the universe.
Although initially a disaster, millenia later, the Parallels detected interesting developments on Earth. After a maturation period, it had become a source of pure harvestable energy. This event would be known as ‘The Priming’.
The Parallels would return to their homeland with the intention of harnessing its newfound potential. On their return they would encounter their evolutionary counterparts for the first time. Conflict was inevitable, as each fought to reclaim their right to their home planet…as humans.
The outcome? As of yet unknown.
Parallel Minds: Core Values and Ethos
The Game — From its inception, the core team members have reiterated that the ethos is a game-first mentality. Each team member has their unique area of expertise. Some are artists, some are developers, and many are experienced card game players. But the unifying motivation driving them all is to create a magical and immersive gaming experience through innovative and nuanced card mechanics, beautiful artwork and captivating lore. In short, they want to make the coolest game around.
Accessibility and Inclusivity — These are both critical factors for the team as well. The game is intended to be played and enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible.
In terms of both a financial aspect and user interaction standpoint, the team want to provide simple, open access for all. To this end they will create an affordable entry price such that cost should not act as a barrier to entry, and the game, in time, will be playable on multiple platforms, providing ease of access.
The team have also clearly stated that an understanding of blockchain technology (cryptocurrency and NFTs) will not be a prerequisite to enjoying Parallel.
Enjoy it how you want to enjoy it — It has been mentioned by the team on several occasions that they want people to be able to interact with Parallel in whatever capacity suits them. It’s a game for the community.
If people want to grind it on the gaming front, and get rewards, they can. If people want to play casually, they can. If people want to be collectors and not play at all, that’s also fine. Others may be interested in being part of the economic ecosystem and purchase ‘assets’ only, and some people may be wrapped up in the lore and the artwork more so than the game. Whichever is your preference, each person is as welcome and valued as the next.
Parallel Premonitions: Future Vision
From its inception, the idea with Parallel has been to remain boundless. The team has clearly stated that they envisage Parallel becoming more than the card game in terms of franchise potential.
We have already seen glimpses of the amazing Augmented Reality projects they are working on, and the team have openly discussed the idea of comic books, TV series and films as projects they may explore in the future.
In this respect, it offers an exciting prospect for those invested (both emotionally and financially) in the project. You can be sure that the world you’re a part of will continue to expand, develop, surprise and delight you as time goes by.
PARALLEL: THE FOUNDATIONS
In this section we’ll look at the technology the team chose to build upon, why NFTs are part of the plan, pack drops, the $PRIME token, Prime Proposal, keys and how you can start getting involved.
Parallel Core: The Tech Behind The Game
The game is initially being developed for use on desktop computers/laptops. In time, it will also be available on mobile devices.
The Parallel cards are currently available as NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) on the Ethereum blockchain. They can be viewed and purchased on OpenSea.io. Click here to visit the official collection.
At present, you will need an Ethereum-compatible wallet to purchase the cards. The team recommends using Metamask (metamask.io) as the wallet of choice.
Once you have a Metamask wallet and have funded it with ETH (Ethereum cryptocurrency), you can connect to the Parallel collection and start buying.
In time, all NFT cards will have a corresponding physical card. The team are currently working with Cartamundi to produce them. These are the same people who produce cards for ‘Magic: The Gathering’ and ‘Pokemon’, so we’re in good hands.
The team is already implementing AR (Augmented Reality) into the Parallel game, and will continue to develop this theme as time goes on. AR is the modification of a real-life environment by the addition of sound, visual elements, or other sensory stimuli. To see how it’s being used in Parallel take a look at this:
Parallel Integrations: Why NFTs?
Good question. And there’s several answers. Let’s look at a few below.
There have been many digital card games released in the past, but you never actually owned the cards. Now you can.
With NFT technology you have unique, provable ownership of your cards and can keep them in your personal digital wallet. Every cards attributes, such as rarity and edition, are also stored on the blockchain ledger for easy reference.
NFT technology also helps facilitate an extremely liquid marketplace. You can now sit in the US and trade/sell/buy cards with someone sat in Australia, all in real time. You can also place bids on cards or put your own cards up for auction.
On top of this, thanks to the Royalties system, whereby 10% of secondary market sales goes back into the Parallel treasury, the team have been able to develop the game at a faster pace than would otherwise have been possible.
50% of the Royalties received by Parallel are used for project funding. The other 50% goes towards a prize pool for in-game leaderboards and competitions.
For an extended look at NFTs and their functionality, please read this article: Non-Fungible Tokens Explained
Parallel Concerns: But I don’t know about NFTs. Can I still play and collect?
Yes. Certainly. You do not need a deep understanding of blockchain technology to participate in the game, and in the future, there will be ways to play which do not require interaction with the blockchain at all.
For now, it’s pretty simple to get started though. Here’s how:
- Download a Metamask Wallet from metamask.io. This is quick and simple. All relevant info is explained on their website. We recommend installing a browser extension for easy interaction. Be sure to keep your wallet seed phrase safe. Do not store it on your digital devices.
- Fund your Metamask wallet with ETH. This is easy to do within the Metamask wallet, using a debit card. You simply hit the blue ‘Buy’ button and ‘Continue to Wyre’ to complete the transaction. You can also fund the wallet from an external source, such as your CEX (Central Exchange) wallet e.g. Coinbase, Binance etc.
- Connect your wallet to OpenSea.io, and head over to the official collection here.
- Browse the collection and make your first purchase.
It’s as simple as that. There are extensive resources online to help you through the above process if you come unstuck, or simply jump into the Parallel Discord, and ask for directions. The community will be happy to assist you. You can find the Discord link here.
Parallel Primes: What’s the $PRIME token and Prime Proposal?
The $PRIME token will be the in-game currency. This will be what is earnt through the P2E/win to earn elements of the game. It may also have utility in staking and other economic mechanisms, but we’ll have to wait for the Prime Proposal for more details.
The ‘Prime Proposal’ is a highly anticipated paper which will provide insight into the economic ecosystem of Parallel. It’s a bit like a Whitepaper. It will shed light on how the $PRIME token will be incorporated into the game, and how ‘Assets’ such as the ‘Prime Key’, ‘The Core’ and ‘Catalyst Drive’ will interact with the ecosystem.
The proposal is expected to be released before the end of 2021.
The term ‘Prime Proposal’ also refers to proposals put forth by those who hold Prime Keys. These proposals are intended to give the community the opportunity to make suggestions regarding anything related to Parallel. The proposals are then voted upon by Prime Key holders. This concept is in its Beta stage of experimentation.
Parallel Access: The Three Keys
To date, the Parallel team have unloaded three Keys on us. All keys are ‘assets’ and will have a function within the Parallel ecosystem. What we know so far is speculative, except in the case of the Overclock Key, which has already had its function revealed, as shown below.
The Prime Key and Galaxy Key utilities will be outlined in the Prime Proposal. For now, we know the following:
Prime Key — Forms a part of the economic ecosystem, and rewards holders. Will interact with the Catalyst Drive somehow. Existing rewards/benefits have included guaranteed pack drop reservations, hoodies, prime proposal voting rights, the ability to create prime proposals and access to the Paradox discord channel.
Galaxy Key — Will provide holders with ongoing rewards. There is rumour of a Galaxy Faucet which holders can connect to and receive Parallel cards as rewards.
Parallel Supplies: What is a pack drop?
A Pack Drop is an event whereby new cards are released into the ecosystem. They are open to the general public, so anyone can participate.
There have so far been three drops: a Pre-Sale Drop (PS15), Pack Drop 1 (PD1) and Pack Drop 2 (PD2). The Pre-Sale drop took place in March 2021, with PD1 following on 31st July and PD2 on 30th October. Pack Drop 3 (PD3) is scheduled for the end of January 2022.
Information on how to participate in Pack Drops will be shared well in advance on the @ParallelNft Twitter account, as well as in their Discord channel.
PARALLEL: THE CARDS
Here we’ll explore the five playable Parallels and their characteristics. We’ll also look at deckbuilding, card basics, rarity, card classification, parasets, snapshots, the card continuum and how to start buying cards for your collection.
THE FIVE FACTIONS
There are five playable factions within Parallel. They are called Earthen, Kathari, Marcolian, Augencore and The Shroud. There are also Universal cards which do not belong to any Parallel and can be used within any deck.
Each Parallel has its own unique identity, supported by its lore, but is also uniquely customizable through Paragons and an endless variety of deck setups. Below gives a brief rundown of each Faction.
Earthen Identity: They are the survivors that were left behind on Earth. They are connected to all things natural, and have grown exponentially stronger since the advent of The Priming.
Earthen Gameplay Style: They are slower, more defensive and have high health creatures.
- Marcolian Identity: They are the colonists of Mars. They’re scientifically gifted but their egotistical desires have led them on a path to prove their superiority at all costs.
- Marcolian Gameplay Style: Military superiority, expansionism, aggressive, offensive direct damage.
Kathari Identity: Colonists of Europa, Jupiter’s Moon, they grew infertile and as a result became masters of cloning and genetic manipulation. They are formidable in numbers, with exacting precision.
Kathari Gameplay Style: They fight in numbers, with clones, and ultimately, you can buff them all together to create formidable opposition.
- Augencore Identity: They remained in space, living aboard their ship. They mine resources in space and adapted to the harsh living environment by becoming experts in mechatronic and bionic technologies, combining humans and tech in one.
- Augencore Gameplay Style: Heavy on technology, and geared towards building up the perfect Unit through Upgrades, mixing and matching them for the situation.
Shroud Identity: Once earths greatest thinkers and creatives, they were sent on a mission aboard The New Dawn, to start a new chapter for the human race. However, they were met with misfortune. Swept into the abyss of a black hole, they are now the proxies of the blackness they were birthed from.
Shroud Gameplay Style: Themed around power, corruption and the mysterious. They feature otherworldly effects, with limited scope RNG and the Singularity.
- Universal: These cards are not part of any individual faction, and can be used as part of any deck.
THE PARAGONS
Each faction also has three associated Paragons. These cards allow the player to further craft their deck into a more personalized playing style. You can pick one Paragon per game which sits outside of your main deck. They have both passive and active effects.
Think of your paragons as the personality of your commander in chief. Some may be ultra-aggressive, some may provide a more defensive stance, and some may create random carnage. Below shows examples of the three Kathari paragons:
PARAGON 1: Scipius Magnus Alpha
Passive: Whenever you bank a unit, create a 1/1 clone. Active: When you play Scipius, activate all your units’ Muster ability
PARAGON 2: Aetio, Exalted Hydrolist
Passive: Each time a Kathari unit is mustered, waste the top card of your deck. Active: When you play Aetio, if you have no cards left in your deck, create a 1/1 clone that gains all the stats and keywords of units in your waste. This clone ignores Defender and immediately attacks your enemy
PARAGON 3: Naeus Valerius Alpha
Passive: At the end of your turn, if a friendly unit did combat damage and survived, that unit gains +1/+1. Active: When this unit attacks, up to 3 other units gain +1/+2 until end of turn
CARD BASICS
The cards currently available are part of the ‘Alpha’ set, and will likely retain a collectible value over time. In the future there will be a ‘Beta’ set, a ‘Gamma’ set and so on and so forth. There will be several expansion sets a year, which will be of varying sizes.
There are 5 different types of cards that can be played during the game. These are as follows:
- Units: These are comprised of Creatures, Constructs and Beings of all types that can occupy the board and engage in battle.
- Relics: These are Non-combat permanents that can occupy the board and have varying effects. These may be persistent, activated, or temporary.
- Effects: These are One-time spells that do something and then are Wasted.
- Upgrades: These are cards that provide additional stats to Units on the Battlefield.
- Paragons: As explained in the above section.
DECKBUILDING, BUYING CARDS AND THE CARD CONTINUUM
Accessing the game will be easy for anyone who wants to. At first glance, people can be forgiven for assuming that it will be expensive to form a full, playable deck. But just a basic understanding of card issuance through the ‘Card Continuum’ mechanism reveals it will be a very inclusive gaming experience.
Yes, like most TCG’s there is collector interest in early and special edition cards/NFTs, but the individual price of these cards is not representative of the average cost of cards used in the game.
There is opportunity to deck build through the Pack Drops which happen every 3 months or so, or alternatively, you can buy cards on the Secondary market. The Parallel cards are available for purchase as NFTs on the OpenSea platform. The official collection is here.
The Card Continuum is a means to increase the supply of certain cards without affecting the collectible value associated with earlier editions.
Let’s take an example. Lancer Tank FE was released in Pack Drop 1. It has a supply of 700 cards. There is also a Lancer Tank SE with a supply of 250 cards. Clearly, both these cards have collector value. With the card continuum, the team can release more Lancer Tank cards, under another Classification, with a much higher supply. The artwork may differ slightly, and of course, they will be less rare. These easily identifiable differences, which are provable and immutable on the blockchain, ensure that lower supply Editions will not suffer in terms of collectability value as more of the same cards are released to players.
CARD CLASSIFICATION
Each card has an assigned rarity. As a general rule, this relates to the number of each cards circulating supply. The rarity of a card is denoted by the colour of the QR Code and the strip located just below the artwork. The image below shows what each colour means:
Cards are further categorised by their class. These include the following:
FE (First Edition), SE (Special Edition), PL (Perfect Loop), Card Backs, Concept Art Cards, Assets & Masterpieces
As it stands, Common, Uncommon, Rare and Legendary cards will have FE’s (First Editions), SE’s (Special Editions) and in some cases PL’s (Perfect Loops).
FE’s and SE’s are rather self-explanatory. But for the uninitiated, Perfect Loops are cards which feature a short animation, which constantly repeats, almost imperceptibly.
The Prime Cards category is made up of Assets, Card Backs, Concept Art Cards and Masterpieces.
- Assets are non-playable cards, but form part of the Parallel economic system.
- Card Backs and Concept Art Cards are non-playable cards with high collectible value.
- Masterpieces are 1/1 non-playable cards with the highest collectible value of all. Owners receive a revenue share of secondary market sales.
Day and Night Versions — One last note on cards is that some (such as Rug Poll) have both a day and night version of the card. In such a case, a cards total supply may be 1,000, with 500 issued as day versions and 500 issued as night versions.
You can see rarity attributes coming into play if you explore the OpenSea marketplace. It’s already evident that cards with a low supply, such as Masterpieces, are already attracting attention from collectors who have put a high price tag on them. Cards with higher circulating supplies are considerably cheaper.
PARASETS & SNAPSHOTS
Parasets are collections of cards that form an officially recognized set. Up until now, owning these sets at particular times (during Snapshots) has resulted in rewards being distributed to holders.
A Snapshot is when the teams developers, at a predetermined time, capture the blockchain data in that moment. They can use the results to analyze various metrics on the blockchain in relation to the Parallel NFT collection. To date the main goal has been to identify which wallets have the right configuration of cards in them to qualify for Paraset rewards.
So far, rewards have come in the form of Parallel NFT ‘keys’, namely the Galaxy Key and Overclock Key, which are ‘Assets’ within the Parallel ecosystem. These will have functions that reward users in various ways.
PARALLEL: THE GAME
Now let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of things: how to play the game. In this section we’ll build up a picture of how the gameplay will work based upon everything we know up until this point. This includes how to setup a game, the flow of play and what we know about game modes and rewards.
GAME OVERVIEW
Parallel is a turn based digital card game. The game can be played as either PvP (Player vs. Player) or PvE (Player vs. Environment). It will have several different game modes, most of which we don’t know the mechanics of yet. The standard mode, however, will be the way most players initially experience the game, and that is what we’ll look at below.
Please note that since the game is still in development this is a general overview, and not an exact representation of the final product.
SETUP
- Each player will require a deck of 40 cards to play, as well as their chosen Paragon.
- A deck can consist of up to 3 copies of any card, except legendary cards, which is limited to 1 of each. You can have more than 1 legendary card in a deck, but not multiples of the same one.
- The deck must be made up of cards from one faction only plus universal cards. You cannot mix cards from different factions into one deck.
- When the game begins, each player starts with 30 Health points.
THE GAME
- Each player will shuffle their deck, and place it face down.
- Players will then draw 5 cards from the top of the deck. These cards represent the players initial Hand.
- On a players turn, they will take the top card from the deck, and add it to their hand. (Note that the player who goes first in the game, does not get to draw a card on their first turn, but can on each turn thereafter).
- The player can then put up to one card into their Power Bank (this is known as “Banking” a card). The Power Bank acts as the resource which players Spend to transfer cards from their Hand into the Battlefield. All things being equal, 1 card equates to 1 Power.
- The next step is to choose which cards from your hand you would like to send into the Battlefield in accordance with how much Power you have in your Power Bank. You can only introduce cards with a combined total Power cost equal to the total of your Power Bank. i.e. If you have 5 cards in your Power Bank, you could introduce a single card that requires 5 power to be played, or two cards that require 2 power and 3 power respectively.
- Now your Units are ready to attack. They will attack either your opponents Units, or the opponent themselves, depending on what cards are in play.
- Your opponent can use Units which have the ‘Defender’ ability to protect against your attacks. If an attack is not defended against, the damage is dealt to the opposing player, reducing their Health points.
- Note that Units cannot attack on the turn they are introduced into the Battlefield unless they have the ‘Battle Ready’ ability. And once a Units Health is reduced to zero, it is retired from the Battlefield and placed in the Waste pile.
- If you played a card into your Power bank at the beginning of your turn, you can draw another card at the end of your turn.
The Win Condition for the game is that your opponent’s Health points are reduced to zero before yours are.
If a player runs out of cards before this happens, they do not lose. Instead, they start drawing cards from their Waste pile, at a compounded rate of +1 damage per card. i.e. the first card drawn deals 1 damage, the second deals 2 damage, the third deals 3 damage and so on.
The intricacies of the game will be explained at a later date, once there is more concrete information available.
For now, one of the best overviews of how the game works can be seen in this clip which shows two community members playing a mock game using limited cards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtilIzGfGk4
GAME MODES, PREPARATION & RELEASE INFO
There’s been much talk of innovative game modes being developed within the Parallel ecosystem. We don’t have too much concrete info, but we know they are looking at utilizing P2E/win to earn mechanics, and we’ve heard that the following ideas have traction:
- Standard PvP & PvE mode
- 3 vs 3 team mode
- Automated tournaments
- Guild Wars
- Deck-builder style, called ‘Sectors’
People often ask what games they can play to best prepare for Parallel. The most popular suggestions are ‘Magic: The Gathering Arena’, ‘Legends of Runeterra’ and ‘Hearthstone’.
The Parallel game has been in active development since the middle of 2021. The team are aiming to deliver an initial playable version of some sort in 2022, be it a closed alpha, open beta or full release.
REWARDS, INCENTIVES & CUSTOMIZATION
The team have clearly indicated that there will be player incentives within the game to acquire a variety of different rewards. The exact mechanics of what will be required to receive which rewards is still unknown.
A hypothetical example would be that players may be rewarded with a free card at the end of the month if they have the highest win percentage in competitive matchups. Another example would be that a player will be able to customize their in-game presence with portraits, banners & titles etc., by unlocking gameplay achievements.
We are still waiting for more information on this topic.
THE CONCLUSION
Hopefully you enjoyed this Beginners Guide to Parallel, and learnt a few things along the way.
Parallel is such an exciting project with an impressive and passionate team driving it forward. They have proven they can execute their game-plan in a professional manner, often exceeding expectations. They welcome community feedback and are constantly looking to improve and provide the absolute best in everything they deliver. We can’t ask for more.
As the Parallel story unfolds, there’s no doubt we’ll come across a broad range of characters and storylines we’ll come to love and admire. We’re at the very beginning of what promises to be a fascinating journey and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us.
At present, all indictors are suggesting that this will be an epic game. It promises to be both innovative and accessible, and may well set the bar for digital collectible card games.
Thanks for reading, and if you’d like to delve deeper please see the links and recommendations below.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Discord is probably the best resource for in-depth and up to date information on everything Parallel. It has an active community with channels dedicated to discussing all elements of the Parallel universe. In the #resources channel on Discord you will find a great selection of tools and fun things created by community members.
The Life in Parallel Podcast is a great source of general information, and provides the best insight into the artists behind the game.
The Parallel Website is also a good resource of information, in particular for the lore and back story.
You can also follow @ParallelNFT on Twitter to keep abreast of news and developments.
