Introducing LOOT Dungeons, by Crypto Raiders

• Crypto Raiders is an NFT-based roguelike RPG dungeon crawler built on Polygon
• Crypto Raiders has a unique deflationary permadeath mechanic in the same vein as hardcore Diablo or Path of Exile
• We'll be integrating LOOT bag items as dungeon rewards
• We'll also be adding passive income on dungeon completions for LOOT bag owners
• If you want to play, grab a character on OpenSea and check out Discord

What is the Metaverse?

So far, it's been a vague idea: a highfalutin concept that the likes of crypto nerds have been touting for years. What does it truly mean to cross ecosystems? Sure, it's possible, but no one seems to do it: crypto is as wide as an ocean, but as shallow as a puddle. The Crypto Raiders team has consistently pushed the boundaries of what's possible with NFTs; so far, we've flawlessly executed:

• NFT migrations from L1 to L2 (Ethereum Mainnet to Polygon)
• Dungeon gameplay & looting with the very NFTs you own
• Leveling up & stat distribution on your characters
• Generation 2 Raider recruitment

All this in 45 days! Well strap in, folks, we're about to blow your minds again 🤯

The LOOT NFT

What is Loot? Simply put, it's an NFT that represents item drops; in their own words:

Loot is randomized adventurer gear generated and stored on chain. Stats, images, and other functionality are intentionally omitted for others to interpret. Feel free to use Loot in any way you want.

Where does Loot drop? How is it distributed? What are the stats? You decide.

The LOOT on-chain data is quite simple. Every loot bag has the following methods:

getChest()
getFoot()
getHand()
getHead()
getNeck()
getRing()
getWaist()
getWeapon()

We can, of course, also verify what address owns a particular LOOT NFT via ownerOf() and the owner field. This means that the data is accessible, decentralized, and completely free to access.

Crypto Raiders Items

Currently, items in our ecosystem are stored along with your Raider, as properties in our NFT Metadata DB. This is how we instantiate inventory items:

"item": {
    "internalName": "WEAPON_TRAINING_STAFF_ROSEWOOD",
    "name": "Rosewood Staff",
    "rarity": "uncommon",
    "category": "gear",
    "slot": "main_hand",
    "constraints": null,
    "stats": {
        "intelligence": 7,
        "wisdom": 3,
        "luck": 4
    },
    "flavor": null,
    "icon": null
}

We want, of course, to eventually move this data – or at least provenance IDs – to the blockchain, but for now, it works great. People can get item drops in dungeons, equip them, and so on. For example, here's Glimmer of Hope, our second dungeon (it drops weapons for your travel-weary raiders):

And after a bit of exploring, my raider finds that sweet sweet loot:

The loot is generated using a "loot table" RPGs typically employ. In our case, this week's loot table looks like:

And this is where the new LOOT NFTs come into play: they already exist, and Crypto Raiders would like to build on top of them. Which, incidentally, is exactly what Vitalik Buterin's thought process seems to be:

I think the @lootproject philosophy has it right: pretty much anything that anyone creates "exists", what matters is to what extent other people build upon it.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 2, 2021

Embracing the Loot Ecosystem

For us, the Metaverse isn't just market-speak and it's not a way to get people riled up. It's been proven over and over again that open systems foster growth, creativity, and quality. Especially in the gaming space: Minecraft has an incredible modding community, as does Counter Strike; DOTA started out as a modification of Warcraft III. The details are still in the works, but we are actively working on integrating Loot drops in our Crypto Raiders dungeons. Let's get to work; internally, our item types are:

export enum SLOT {
  DRESS = "dress",
  HELMET = "helmet",
  BACK = "back",
  MAIN_HAND = "main_hand",
  OFF_HAND = "off_hand",
  TRINKET = "trinket",
  TOME = "tome"
}

We can use these item slot types to easily map between Crypto Raiders and Loot, merging the two ecosystems.

NOTE: We don't have to use all LOOT NFT item types, and in fact we don't use gloves, boots, or belts – as Crypto Raiders don't have that many sprite layers. This kind of "plug-and-play" behavior where you use what you need, and ignore what you don't, is the hallmark of decentralized systems.

All we need to do now get our pixel artists to build out new sprites for the Loot drops and engineers that properly initialize drop rates based on rarity, difficult of dungeon, and so on.

We are actively working on integrating Loot drops in our Crypto Raiders dungeons...

Will Pay for Loot

But that's not all! We are discussing how to reward owners of Loot, and this is our rough outline – still subject to change, but we are extremely excited to share it:

• Wallet A owns Loot #1234 with items {a, b, c}
• Wallet B owns Loot #5678 with items {d, e, f}
• A can stake Loot #1234 + 1000 $RAIDER to add their loot table to the crypto raiders master loot table
• B can do the same thing with Loot #5678

As you may already know, current dungeons are free, but we will eventually start charging a modest $AURUM price for raiders running dungeons. To wit, every dungeon will provide some revenue for Crypto Raiders.

However, when raiders will decide to raid a special LOOT Dungeon, loot will be randomly dropped based on all staked Loot bags and whenever a piece of loot is dropped, whatever staking address owns that Loot will get some share of the $AURUM cost of running the dungeon.

So, for example, if item d drops, then B will get some $AURUM proceeds of that dungeon. We handle all the heavy lifting – the stats, the item distribution, even the art. All you provide is the loot. We love the loot.

But why?

Some might say this is silly – storing the text Great Helm of Giants on the blockchain and us rewarding whomever might own that text. But we look at it this way: is this that much different than a Dungeons and Dragons stat sheet? Than a loot table in World of Warcraft? Than a Magic the Gathering playing card? Especially when, with a bit of elbow grease, that text can turn into something like this:

We need to start somewhere, and we believe that this is the perfect time and the perfect place...

It's time to start building the Metaverse.

Get Involved!

Do you want to get involved with Crypto Raiders, support the team, or just simply play the game? You can:

• Buy a raider on Open Sea, raid weekly, and share your loot on Discord
• Check out $RAIDER, our governance token
• Check out $AURUM, our in-game currency