As part of the community-based section, we publish the voluminous work of a member of the CIS community nikita M. The article can also be read at teletype и telegraph. This is not just a review, but also a full-fledged guide to the game. Enjoy reading!
GM to everyone reading! While abusers are shedding tears over the razor from Starknet, we have an interesting project on our radar from Paimastudios - Tarochi.
The studio currently has a small public investment from Cardano Foundation, made about a year ago. He is probably not the last, judging by the uniqueness of the studio and projects.
To explain its uniqueness, you will have to dive into a technical analysis of the platform on which the game is deployed.
Surely everyone knows L2 Arbitrum. Not long ago, Arbitrum launched another network on top of itself - XAI, perhaps someone has heard about it, but this is not just a DAPP, but a full-fledged network of a new level working on top of Arbitrum.
XAI, by the way, has a very promising token, which is already traded on CEX/DEX. XAI is also happy to sell you nodes for validation, if suddenly someone is interested in this topic.
Here is a comment from one member of the development team Tarochi:
Join our Telegram channel and chat to keep abreast of the main trends in crypto games.
Thus, we get an unusual and multi-layered project architecture, and most importantly, Tarochi it first developed game project on XAI. Usually such projects become bluechips, and users and testers do not leave empty-handed. By the way, not long ago XAI itself made an intriguing post on this topic in X...
— XAI (@XAI_GAMES) February 5, 2024
And in general, XAI’s Twitter is flooded with reposts from Tarochi.
But that’s not all... Because Tarochi is a completely on-chain game, namely, every action you take becomes a transaction in the blockchain, it turns out Paimastudios generously pays for your gaming experience! But if you want to deploy a personal butcher and take on the payment of commissions, githabe studio has a distribution for you. Armed with a soldering iron and iron, I burst into Discord project and started asking questions to team members, for example: “Why would an individual deploy a batcher and pay his own commissions and the commissions of other users? If the studio does it.” To which I received a simple answer:
The guys don’t even hide the fact that they are planning their own token, with which they are ready to motivate the community and third-party enthusiastic developers.
Well, the cherry on the cake is its own web3 engine - Paima Engine, which is already used in several projects, including Tarochi developed on it.
In summary:
- The most hype technologies on board;
- XAI position themselves as a solution for blockchain gaming;
- Paima is completely under the wing of Arbitrum;
- Its own engine tailored for web3 gaming;
- Talented devas;
- A worthy and interesting product.
Briefly about what else you need to know
It seems to me that we have already discussed the technical component in some detail. Let's discuss what the development team offers us before we enter the world of Tarochi.
Now, to start playing Tarochi, you just need to connect your wallet in game and start the journey. Mind-blowing F2p.
On the official game site February 10 we were offered to purchase:
- FreePass (free);
- Season Pass (~$20);
- Season Pass + (full functionality of the season pass, but in addition for +5$ you will also be given game gold in the amount of 2560 $TGOLD).
Passes, alas, are soulbound NFTs that are not traded on the secondary market.
For purchasing the first season pass we are promised:
- Monster Trainer NFT (supply 10 tokens of various rarities). Secondary trainers are already open here. In the discord they confirmed to me that the rarity of the trainer currently does not affect the gameplay in any way.
- The trainer itself is an NFT that has only 2 important characteristics. These are Rank and Rarity. For example:
Work mechanism not yet known, but I think that the rarer the better, the higher the rank, the better.
* Trainer's hold 120 days from the moment of mint, gives you the opportunity to receive every 30 days special legendary monster capture card, which is guaranteed to capture the legendary in your backpack.
From confirmed information from the discord, holding multiple trainers adds up the number of capture cards you will receive.
* A player with a trainer receives accelerated progress in the game, including a higher experience level, a higher base chance of catching a monster, and a higher chance of successfully escaping from a fight. (Game functionality for coaches will be introduced in the near future).
- The ability to catch limited/event monsters, the circulation of which is very limited;
- Pass holders are promised rewards for their loyalty;
- Early access to new game functionality.
All in all, buying the pass seemed like a smart idea. Another thing is that almost no one knew about the project, especially in the CIS space. It took about 10 hours for a supply of XNUMXk passes to be redeemed. That's how much the project was underradar.
What is this Tarochi of yours?
Tarochi with its visuals it immerses us in the era of 8-bit dandy/shogi games. The phantom smell of Chinese plastic and pain in your fingers from cartridges that are always stuck are guaranteed. Visuals are not an acquired taste, but in the gaming community, be it regular web2 gaming or web3, pixel games have always found fans. Tastes could not be discussed.
We've already heard the plot of the game somewhere... Our hero lives in a town called Belclove. He dreams of becoming a monster trainer and earning respect. But to earn it, you need to meet face to face with 22 coaches Tarochi and in a fair fight of monsters, defeat each one. Five students can be found in the first city's district. The first student, by the way, hangs out right next to our house. In the city square, one of the trainers, Morrigan, invites us to find four more trainers, defeat them, and then she, so be it, will allow us to fight with her.
After defeating Morrigan, additional locations of the game world will be opened to you, where you can continue your stalking of other trainers to show the whole world how much of a persistent seeker you are.
Surprisingly, the game world is quite large. Several large key locations and their surroundings. As I said above, to open a new location, you first need to get into it, to get into it, you need to defeat the masters. And yes... there is even fast travel between regions -_-
At the time of writing this text, I had not yet left the city, but while walking through the forest I came across a mine, as it turned out, one of the students lives right there... In addition to the degen student, there is also a local miner in the mine who can, if you have special cards, dig up quite rare items that will probably be very needed a little later. We'll talk about this later.
Monsters
The entire main gameplay revolves around monsters (Pokemon), which you need to: catch, train, heal, correctly match your opponent, and many more mechanics for interacting with them.
Therefore, I will try to cover the topic of monsters in as concisely, but in detail as possible. Tarochi, so that you don’t have the same questions that I had at the start of the game.
In the game, monsters differ in color, which is associated with their belonging to any element.
- Blue (water);
- Red (fire);
- Yellow (electricity);
- Green (nature);
- Gray (neutral).
In addition to the elemental faction, all monsters also have different rarities, with all the ensuing privileges.
- Normal;
- Unusual;
- Rare;
- Epic;
- Legendary.
Each of your monsters is a unique NFT, even if its rarity is 'common'.
There is one feature that scared me off at first, but a little later I decided that there probably couldn’t be any other mechanic, so that rare monsters were rare in more than just words. Each rarity of monsters in each region is severely limited.
For example, Komonki and Unusual monsters are found everywhere, no matter where you go, but the rarity above already has strict limits on spawning.
The following law follows from the table above:
- In each zone of the world there is a cooldown for the spawning of monsters of high rarity.
*/ For example, you and a friend are playing in the same location together, one of you was lucky enough to meet and capture a rare monster. This means that the pool of rare monsters in this location has already been exhausted for an entire hour. To hunt another rare monster, you need to either wait until time passes, or move to another location in search of a monster. /*
Indirectly, this means that early players, purely technically, have the advantage of taking the most impressive and rare monsters for themselves. Don't forget about collectors who sometimes don't skimp on shelling out large sums for rare items.
By the way, the marketplace for items from health potions to the monsters themselves has already been confirmed and will be introduced into the game in the next iterations. This means your progress will already be monetized at this stage.
The whole point of the game at this stage is to catch (capture) monsters. To capture monsters, we need capture cards, a kind of pokeballs. You can 'buy' them in the store to the right of the house. The seller will easily give them to you for free.
They will appear as purple cards at the bottom left corner of the screen.
We can't carry anymore 2 capture cards, therefore, trips to the store will be a constant occurrence.
Then the gameplay begins, which takes up the bulk of the time. It's about going out into the wild and looking for adventure. When you enter a wild zone, there is a WILD indicator at the bottom left near the cards, which shows the presence of monsters nearby. If your eyes turn red, then you are being forcefully pulled into PVE.
I forgot to mention that at the start there are 2 monsters available to you with which you will begin your journey. These monsters are the same for all players, and the most interesting thing is that they cannot be burned. More on the mechanics of fusing a little later.
We equip the team and go into the forest to look for adventure. When we are attacked by wild monsters in the forest, we find ourselves in the battle arena interface. In the left corner of the ring are the player’s decent and obedient pets, in the right corner of the ring are still wild monsters.
Functionally, you have a choice of several strategies:
- fight and kill the monster;
- fight and capture the monster;
- run away.
Everything is clear with murder, you just need to reduce the enemy’s HP to zero before your HP drops. After a victory, the experience gained is given to each team member, even if he was afk and did not make any attacks. The combat itself is made in an interesting way - during the battle you can see the statistics of your pets and the statistics of the enemy. Each monster has HP and STAMINA. You can also see its rarity and element in the PARTY statistics. Based on this data, you can, instead of making a move, swap your monsters in places so as to inflict as much damage as possible. But such an action takes away your turn. Everyone goes 2 times. For example, you can give both turns to one of your monsters, you can delegate tasks: someone hits, someone heals. Your pet at the forefront is not only the only one on the team who takes damage, but also the only one who deals 100% of the damage. Other pets from the second and third lines can attack, but with a loss in attack efficiency: the further you go, the weaker the attack. You also only hit the first enemy monster. If you are attacked in the forest, then the ghosts will simply disappear after you defeat the first monster; your task is to defeat only the first monster. In battles with masters Tarochi the situation changes as they can have from 1 to 3 pets in a team.
To be as effective as possible in battle, you need to choose the right pet for the battle during the battle. Here is a table of the superiority of one color over another. I think many people are familiar with this mechanic.
Perhaps in the initial stages, correct matching of pets is not particularly important, and it’s easier to shut up the enemy with losses on your part, but in battles with masters Tarochi This knowledge allows you to win, even if the enemy’s pet is higher than you in level.
The second strategy for behavior when you are suddenly involved in a fight is to escape. But I have never managed to escape; to be honest, I don’t know how it works. Experienced players say that there is always a chance of escape.
The third most common option for developing a battle is capturing a wild monster. Perhaps the most likely scenario for the development of events, especially in the initial stages. To capture a monster you need:
- Destroy more than half of the enemy's HP;
- Be higher level than the enemy;
- Have capture cards.
In fact, the capture scheme is a little more complicated; its operating principle is shown here:
In short, if the enemy monster is 5 levels higher than you, then there is no chance at all to stuff it into your backpack. If our pet is several heads stronger than the monster from the world, then there is a tiny chance of not capturing it on the first try.
Let's imagine that we were attacked by a wild monster, and we captured it, but we ran out of cards and our pets were badly battered... What to do?
Right! “We’re running to the city hospital.” This is the most frequently visited place after the store, where you are likely to register. Especially at the start of the game.
The hospital is located above the store, across the street. Noticeable landmarks are the white cross on the sign and a citizen with a bicycle. Doctor's services are free.
The Medic heals ALL injured team members, after which you will most likely have to open your inventory and re-arrange your pets in the correct order. Because often after a pet completely loses health, if it is healed, it takes a random place in your battle deck.
The hospital also has a fuser on duty. Also a very useful and important character who provides the fundamental mechanics of the game, namely fusing (melting/merging) monsters. Fusing works very simply.
You need to have 2 monsters of the same rarity to strengthen one while sacrificing the other. When fusing, the monster you decide to improve gains a lot of experience and its level increases very quickly. But the higher the level, the more donor monsters are needed to burn. In this trick lies powerful inflation model. When fusing and the resulting level increase, your pet receives many additional buffs:
- HP increase;
- Increased combat characteristics;
- Increasing the maximum pet level.
Oh yes... If you don’t fuse pets and gain experience only through battles, then having reached 10 lvl the monster will stop growing. Therefore, fusing is required to move this ceiling back. Why is this cool and brilliant?
Imagine that you miraculously caught a rare or maybe even legendary monster. Sooner or later you will hit a ceiling on his leveling, and you will have to wait for a second pet to push his maximum level up by 1. This mechanism will very powerfully encourage players to hold and develop rare monsters. This is such a good idea that, having now several unusual monsters, I am already experiencing difficulties in finding a donor for fusing, because you cannot raise the level of a monster by feeding it ordinary common brothers, you need the same rarity. This means that the rarity and happiness of owning and collecting are ensured by the basic mechanism of development.
In short... Rare monsters are truly rare, and when the market launches, they will be an excellent speculative asset, not to mention the correlation of rarity with the power of the monster.
After fusing, monsters very often end up in the chest from the backpack. Don't despair if you don't find it in your inventory after the merger. Check the chest in the upper left corner of the hospital. By the way, it’s very convenient to put monsters there for storage. The same chest is in your home, there is no difference between them. You can have (as far as I understand) only 6 monsters with you. If you're out hunting, make sure you have a couple of grapple slots in your backpack.
A few more notes about monsters. During the game I didn't see many different monsters, but you can definitely notice that some monsters from the same element have strengths and weaknesses that you can use to your advantage.
I think it will be interesting to study species in the game itself.
If you understand the nuances, then I think you will comprehend Tarochi.
The last stop of our analysis will be arena.
The arena is located on the left side of the town, and it is difficult to confuse it with something else. In order to start battles in the arena and earn in-game gold, you will first need to assemble a team of specific monsters, also with a passage through the level. So... Go hunting.
Let's touch on the items in the game very quickly. I hardly had time to see all the items in the game, but I can’t say enough about them. Your inventory contains various potions, excavation maps, and other semi-useful loot. Remember what I said about the mine? So here it is. For an excavation map, a miner can find us very useful things, for example, health potions, with their help you can heal or completely cure your fighter without returning to the hospital. At the initial stage, I suspect these things are not particularly in demand, but the further we go from the city, the less often we want to go to the hospital, because it is easier to treat the pet on the spot.
The long-awaited conclusion
So it turns out... We take cards, look for skirmishes with monsters in wild places, capture them, fly to the hospital, heal and fuse the captured monster, raising the level... And all over again, all over again.
Of course, in the first stages of the game you probably have excitement and a desire to explore each monster, put it in a chest in the collection, study its characteristics, etc. and so on. But after a few hours of play, this vicious circle will inevitably begin to tire. Maybe I should have done more story quests with masters Tarochi. The gameplay promises to be very grindy and monotonous, despite the fact that we always have a chance to meet some rare monster on our journey. But given the strict population limit, I’m not sure that the chances of catching even a Rare monster are guaranteed after several dozen hours of play. Therefore, before praising or scolding a project, you must first understand whether such gameplay is suitable for you by trying to play it. Fortunately, it’s absolutely free.
I am sure that in the next updates of the game interesting things await us, judging by the hints from the discord, we may get PvP, co-op, and many more interesting things. I think the guys from Paimastudios everything will work out. Perhaps we are looking at Axi 2.0. Who knows.
The call was given February 10 в KARAOKE DAO
Thanks to <3 members of the Tarochi team for answering questions on discord
@Sebastien @gil7751
Thanks to @yuno266 for the advice and the redesigned game world map <3