ZED RUN for Dummies
Welcome to another edition of my introductory P2E series where I’m teaching you the basics and introducing you to a play-to-earn/play-and-earn community. This week’s focus is ZED RUN, a platform that empowers users to become stable owners and buy, breed, and race their very own digital racehorses.
We’re Going to the Market
Step one on our ZED RUN journey requires us to have a horse, and for that we need to visit the marketplace.
With more than 100,000 horses available for purchase, there’s bound to be one out there that’s the perfect match for you. Let’s see what we can find…
Take this beautiful horse Soberano here for example. He can be purchased for right around $14 and all you need to start with ZED RUN is one horse. One thing I appreciate about ZED RUN is the low barrier to entry, it doesn’t require hundreds of dollars to start participating. In this example we’ve purchased Soberano, but how do we get him onto the ZED RUN platform?
It’s simple, you dont have to do anything! Once your ZED RUN NFT is in your MetaMask account and you connect your MetaMask to the ZED RUN site, you’re ready to race.
Off to the Races
Now that you’ve got a horse you can participate in the main ZED RUN activity, racing.
If the above image looks like information overload to you, don’t worry because I’m here to explain. The top purple banner is advertising The Podium Plate which is a tournament that can be entered after you have ran a select number of races. You can learn more about tournaments here.
Right under that you can see where it says Next to Run and it lists four different races. These are races that are ongoing or next in the race queue. Below that is the Races Open section that lists all classes of races and all the current events. It is defaulted to All but races can be filtered by all the different classes.
You can see that the NASCAR Speedway race is open and is a Discovery class event (we’ll get into all the different classes later). Also listed is the distance (2400m), entry fee (free), prize pool ($5.13), and the number of horses currently registered in the race. This race is free to enter and has a prize pool of $5.13 which will be distributed amongst the top three placements.
Example Race
I am now going to run a race and take you step-by-step through the process.
Step 1: Choose a race
I have selected the Telegraph Handicap 2200 as the race I’m going to be running for this example. This is a Discovery class race of 2200 meters. The purple banner tells us that this is a preliminary event for The Podium Plate which we talked about earlier. The next step is to pick a gate and select which one of our horses will be running.
Step 2: Pick a gate
After you click a gate, this is the screen you’re greeted with. I chose Gate 11 for this race so let’s hope I made a good choice. This is also the same screen where you will select which horse is running the race. For this race I am selecting my horse Always Open.
Step 3: Wait your turn
Each race is ran at a certain time and sometimes the ZED RUN interface can be so overwhelming and it’s easy to forget about races that you’ve entered. What I like to do is select the Next To Run tab, toggle the My racehorses only option and wait for the race to begin. You can see the race timer off to the bottom right and when this screenshot was taken, this race was scheduled to begin in fifteen seconds.
Step four: Race!
After the countdown has concluded, the race will begin. There are two different ways to watch your horse race, 3D view and this flat two dimensional view you see above. The 3D view can be CPU intensive and older laptops or computers could run into issues that can include lag or stuttering. What I like to do is watch the races from this flat view as it’s much easier to follow in real-time.
We’ve made it to the end of the race and…I came in 12th place. There’s a lot to look at here so let’s break it all down. Places one through three are highlighted in yellow, these are the only horses that will qualify for the prize pool of $4.94 and at the bottom of the image you can see the breakdown.
The portrait of each horse gives us a lot of information, let’s take a look at Mr. Always Open. The top right corner shows your gate number, right under that is the place you finished in and your distance behind the leader. I came in 12th a whole 2.5 seconds behind the 1st place winner. Under that is your horse’s name, gender, generation, bloodline, and name of your stable.
That covers the basics of racing, but it’s also import to understand the genetics of each horse.
Horse Genetics
Each ZED RUN NFT is more than just a horse, there are a number of traits that make each horse unique. Again, we’re going to be using Always Open for an example.
Bloodline
There are four bloodlines in ZED RUN and these are Nakamoto, Szabo, Finney, and Buterin. Bloodline plays a large role in determining each racehorse’s overall ability. For instance, Nakamoto’s inherit the ability of their ancestors more effectively than say a Buterin.
As you can see, each bloodline inherits the abilities and traits of their ancestors differently. If there’s a Buterin in the stud farm, there’s no chance that the offspring is anything but a Buterin. Because of this, Buterin is typically the cheapest bloodline of horse to purchase off of the marketplace.
Genotype
The next identifier of a horse is the genotype. Genotype refers to the number indicating how far a racehorse is from its ancestors. Z1-Z10 represent the Genesis genotypes and it is from these horses which all other horses on ZED RUN were born.
When breeding two horses together, the genotype of the stallion is added to the genotype of the mare. For example, if my horse Always Open were to breed with a horse having a genotype of Z16, the resulting offspring would have a genotype of Z46 (Z30 + Z16).
Gender
There are four potential genders that a horse can be. A colt or stallion is a male racehorse while a filly or mare is a female racehorse. A colt or filly means the horse hasn’t produced an offspring yet while a stallion or mare means the horse has produced at least one offspring.
Breed Type
Breed type is a system used to identify the location of a racehorse in its family line. There are six breed types: Genesis, Legendary, Exclusive, Elite, Cross and Pacer.
The Genesis horses (Z1-Z10) are the rarest breed and can not be reproduced. Genesis horses can breed offspring but those offspring could not have a breed type of Genesis.
My horse, Always Open has an Elite breed type which can be found right next to his genotype.
Coat
Coat colors don’t impact performance but can impact the collectability of a racehorse. Always Open has an Antique Brass which to many is not a desirable coat color.
Offspring
Always Open is a colt meaning he hasn’t produced an offspring yet and can breed three times during the current breeding cycle. In two days a new breeding cycle will commence. Colts and stallions can be bred three times a month and 36 times a year while fillies and Mares can only be bred one time per month and 12 times a year.
Horses can be bred in the stud farm. Colts and stallions can be added to the stud farm to breed, and fillies and mares can find other horses to breed with. As you can see, successful breeders can be very profitable. The stud fee for Keager the Szabo is $168! This is where ZED RUN shines as a play-and-earn game, if racing isn’t your thing you can breed your own horses to sell on the marketplace and make money through stud fees.
Breeding Decay
Breeding decay refers to a horses ability to pass on its genes. As your breeding decay increases, the horses ability to pass on genes weakens.
Stamina
Under the 3D view you can see your horses current stamina levels. For 5–10 races, a horses stamina will stay above 90%. Below 90% your racehorse will grow tired and its maximum speed will decrease. To fully recover to 100% stamina, a racehorse must wait 12 hours from the completion of its last race. This is to ensure that a winning horse can not enter dozens of race per day and maintain peak performance, leveling the playing field so to speak.
Race Time
Now that you’ve learned the basics of ZED RUN, you have the knowledge required to purchase your first horse and start racing/breeding. I hope to see you out on the track my fellow jockeys.
