Axie Infinity Philippines: How Filipinos Are Making A Living With This Crypto Game

Weeks ago, I posted how a 21-year old “meme celebrity” was able to sell the original copy of her meme photo for half a million dollars through NFTs. If it’s converted to Peso, that would be close to 24M Pesos. Now, would you believe that a young Filipino bought himself two houses? Although not as lucky as selling his own NFT meme, but by playing in a crypto-based NFT game called Axie Infinity. _{axie infinity philippines}

If you want to know more about cryptocurrencies and NFTs, just head over to my previous crypto guide and NFT articles.

An Axie Infinity player from the Philippines bought two houses with the money he made by playing Axie Infinity.

John Aaron Ramos, a 22-year old Filipino, revealed on social media that he has amassed enough profits playing Axie Infinity to purchase two homes in the Philippines.

In his post, John shared that he started playing the crypto-based game last November 2020. The game rewards its users with SLP (Small Love Potion) and John held his SLP tokens because he believed that their potential was high for prices to increase in the future. He had high hopes that he could make some serious money if he kept his tokens.

And just as John predicted, when most cryptos went skyrocketing during the first half of 2021… his patience paid off!

The post also included photos of him and the new house he bought.

But John’s story isn’t the only Axie Infinity success story in the Philippines. When the world was ravaged by disease, many people in Cabanatuan, Philippines turned to Axie Infinity as a source of income. With most kids, adults, and even grandparents playing this game on their smartphones, it’s no wonder that John’s story isn’t one-of-a-kind.

This documentary highlights Filipinos from Cabanatuan who play the Axie Infinity game:

And now you’re on fire to get into this game!

I hate to break that excitement, but it’s not as easy as downloading the app to play this game. You still need to buy a team of digital pets called Axies to start.

Axies may be cute, but they’re not cheap. The game is free to download and play, but you’ll need a team of three Axies if you want any hope of winning! On average, a good team of three Axies costs a whooping 50k-70k Pesos!

I know it’s really expensive just for a game. I was bummed too when I found out. But last year, you could buy an Axie team for as low as $5 or roughly 250 pesos!

But you don’t have to shave off this hefty amount just to start playing and earning from Axie. For example, you can tap for sponsors who are willing to fund your playtime and give a share of the profit in return for their sponsorship. But before delving deep into this part, let’s break down how the game works first; specifically how it is played and what you need to do in order to earn.

How does Axie Infinity Work?

The release of Axie Infinity is a refreshing take on the traditional Pokémon game. The play-to-earn game is open to all players who want to battle, collect, and raise cute little digital pets called Axie.

This game doesn’t rely on any type of hunting. You just need to buy or breed Axies and be prepared for all sorts of battles! You have plenty more activities too: You can build land-based kingdoms for your digital pets where you can farm rare resources, tokens, and attack dungeons!

Axies are classified into six basic classes:

• Beast
• Plant
• Bug
• Aquatic
• Bird
• Reptile

And three secret classes:

• Mech
• Dusk
• Dawn

Each Axie has unique strengths and weaknesses based on its genes. And with billions of possible genetic combinations through breeding, the possibilities are as infinite as you can imagine!

You need to have an unstoppable team of Axies (which consists of three per team) in order to conquer your enemies. You also need to be acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses, so you know which cards will give you a fighting chance during battles.

Here’s an example of a battle game in Axie:

How do you make money on AXIE infinity?

There are three major ways on how to make money of Axie Infinity:

1. By going to Adventures and finding rare items and treasures.
2. By joining Player vs Player Arena battles and earning SLP tokens during victories.
3. By breeding Axies and selling them in the Marketplace.
   
   

How much can you earn in Axie Infinity?

On average, you can earn 150 SLPs per day. I have friends who play Axie Infinity and most of them earn around 30-50k Pesos a month. But of course, this will also depend on the current market price of SLP tokens and the amount of effort you put into the game. From an average of $0.03 (1.4 PHP) per SLP since its inception in July 2020, it skyrocketed to $0.36 (17 PHP) per token last May 2021. And at this time of writing, the SLP price per token is $0.13 (6 PHP).

It’s important to note that just like any cryptocurrencies, the price of SLP token is highly volatile and is not guaranteed. If you want to know the current USD conversion of the SLP token, just click HERE.

How much does it cost to play Axie Infinity?

Axies are available at the official Axie Infinity marketplace, which you can find by visiting https://marketplace.axieinfinity.com/axie. Poking around the market, you’ll find that some Axies are for sale. In order to buy them though, you’ll first need some of this digital currency called Ether (ETH).

As you can see, the cheapest Axie you can buy right now costs 0.052 ETH or $125.11. And since you need three Axies in order to build a team, that will cost you around $375 (18K PHP) to build a team of Axies and start the game. However, these low-cost Axies or also called floor-level Axies aren’t competitive enough. If you want to have an initial edge on the game, I suggest looking for high-level tier Axies which could cost you around 50k-70k to build a solid team.

The value of Axies in the marketplace greatly differs depending on the Axie’s breed, capabilities, and the current USD conversion of Ethereum, which you will use to pay these Axies. To know ETH’s current price, CLICK HERE.

Axie Scholarships

Recently, I’ve seen posts from FB friends that they’re accepting “Axie Scholars”. They’ll be the ones to cover up the cost of building an Axie team and handle other technicalities such as trading the SLP tokens. All you have to do is play the game, earn SLPs, and share earnings with your sponsor. Most of them do 50/50 profit sharing, which is not that bad at all.

You can also find FB groups or subreddits that are accepting Axie Scholars:

Final Thoughts

For some players, Axie Infinity is a dream come true game where they can make a substantial amount while doing the thing they love. But there are also some people who make a living from Axie. For them, this is more than just a game. And in the next coming years, I bet we’ll see more and more of these play-to-earn games.

Honestly, my shiny object syndrome urges me to try this game out. Aside from the potential earnings, I was quite hooked with the way this game is played. Breeding digital pets and dealing with Axie’s strengths and weaknesses? Shocks, I’m in! Sounds like the Dragon City game I was addicted to before. Still, I’m having second thoughts about the cost of buying an Axie team as well as the time it requires to play the game (although I’m also thinking of hiring an Axie scholar instead).

What about you? Do you think it’s worth trying Axie Infinity?