What Is 'Hamster Kombat'? The Telegram Sport's HMSTR Token and 'HamsterVerse' Plans – Decrypt

Are hamsters preventing now? Not precisely—however whereas Hamster Kombat’s title may be slightly deceptive, this Telegram-based tapping recreation rapidly turned a dominant chief within the play-to-earn area by increasing upon Notcoin’s profitable mannequin.

Hamster Kombat racked up over 300 million whole gamers earlier than launching its HMSTR token and airdrop for gamers through The Open Community (TON) in late September 2024. It turned one of many yr’s greatest gaming token launches, based mostly on the height worth.

However Hamster Kombat is not stopping there. The builders are actually planning a “HamsterVerse” of video games with extra airdrop rewards, plus a devoted community and enlargement past the Telegram ecosystem. This is every part you might want to know.

What’s Hamster Kombat?

Much like Notcoin, Hamster Kombat had gamers tapping away to earn cash in a Telegram-native utility (or “mini app”)—which implies to play the sport, you simply open a chat on Telegram.

Hamster Kombat’s core idea is just like Notcoin, with some barely richer recreation mechanics layered on high of it. Briefly: It’s a tap-to-earn recreation blended with a crypto change simulator.

In Hamster Kombat, you’re the CEO of an up-and-coming crypto change, and it’s your job to develop the change to new heights by no means earlier than seen… on this planet of hamsters. So as to take action, you need to faucet a picture of a cartoon hamster to earn cash, after which use these cash to purchase upgrades to your change.

Methods to play Hamster Kombat

Initially, Hamster Kombat began off in a way acquainted to Notcoin customers, with gamers tapping away on the display within the Telegram app to earn in-game cash.

As soon as gamers have earned some cash, they will begin utilizing them to improve their change within the “Mine” tab of the sport. This tab reveals every kind of upgrades that gamers can buy (purely with in-game cash) for his or her change, and embrace issues like including cash or new options to their fictional change, or fake advertising efforts.

Each improve you bought to your change earned you extra cash passively. For instance, including a Bitcoin pair to your change value 250 cash, however then earned you 40 cash per hour. In different phrases, these additions rapidly paid off and helped propel your change additional alongside.

Hamster Kombat concluded its first season of gameplay in September earlier than the token launch. At the moment, as of this writing, the sport is holding an “Interlude” season through which gamers can earn in-game diamonds forward of the total second season forward. The diamonds will reportedly give gamers some type of benefit within the subsequent season.

What’s HMSTR?

What’s the purpose to incomes in-game cash? Equally to Notcoin, Hamster Kombat additionally incentivized gamers with a token airdrop, drawing tons of of hundreds of thousands of gamers within the course of.

Hamster Kombat’s airdrop took place on September 26 on The Open Community (TON), the identical date that the HMSTR token was generated and launched on main exchanges. The HMSTR token was initially focused for July, however in the end missed that ETA. The crew attributed the delay to the problem of dropping a token to such an enormous participant base.

HMSTR reached a peak market cap of about $646 million on the launch date, although the worth of the token has fallen sharply since then. Given the immense measurement of the participant base, many customers complained about small allocations price $10 or much less, which some gamers referred to as “mud.” Fellow Telegram recreation Catizen, which launched its token the week earlier than, noticed comparable complaints.

What’s subsequent?

Hamster Kombat has shared a prolonged roadmap that extends into 2025 and consists of extra rewards, extra gameplay, and plans to unfold exterior of Telegram.

Following the present “interlude season” that was solely anticipated to final a pair weeks (however has since stretched on for months), Hamster Kombat plans to launch a brand new full Season 2 of gameplay, with plans to pay that off with one other airdrop subsequent summer time. Season 2 will shift the main target of the sport to that of working a online game improvement firm and platform, reasonably than working a crypto change.

The builders shared a teaser trailer for the brand new season in October and informed Decrypt that it was deliberate to launch by the top of October, however that estimate got here and went.

In late December, Hamster Kombat’s crew unveiled plans to launch a broader “HamsterVerse” initiative that may span three video games, together with the Season 2 gameplay talked about above. The entire video games will make the most of the HMSTR token. Hamster Kombat has since welcomed 30,000 gamers right into a closed beta check for HamsterVerse.

Additionally in December, Hamster Kombat launched a DAO, or decentralized autonomous group—primarily a bunch that enables HMSTR token holders to vote on proposals to probably profit or broaden the ecosystem. One of many first issues they voted by was a devoted layer-2 Hamster blockchain to be constructed on TON, which the builders are actually working in the direction of.

Hamster Kombat may also proceed to combine different third-party video games, evolving right into a platform for varied titles. Moreover, Hamster Kombat plans to launch a progressive internet app (PWA) for the sport that can be playable through iOS, Android, and desktop computer systems with out working the Telegram mini app.

Past that, the builders plan to combine with desktop video games, convey NFTs into Hamster Kombat, and purchase and burn (or successfully destroy) HMSTR tokens over time in an effort to spice up the worth by slicing the token provide.

“Telegram will at all times be an important a part of Hamster Kombat and its ecosystem of merchandise. Nonetheless, we want to broaden with a view to seize the viewers that is not on Telegram but,” the crew informed Decrypt in September. “Finally, we see it as a optimistic improvement each for Hamster Kombat and Telegram itself as a platform for mini apps, since it can convey extra publicity.”

Extra reporting by Reza Jafery

Editor’s notice: This story was initially revealed on June 2, 2024 and final up to date with new particulars on January 2, 2025.