The rules live on-chain
The game rules are a smart contract on Zycord. Every spawn draw, capture, battle turn, level-up and collection change is computed by that contract. No game server decides who wins.
What makes it different
Your capybaras are yours
Your capybaras are recorded in the contract under your account. The contract has no admin key: nobody, not even the team, can take, change or delete them. Only a signature from your key can act for your account.
Real time on a blockchain
Your moves go to a Zycord sequencer, which confirms each one in a fraction of a second and then seals it into the chain. You play at game speed while every move still ends up on-chain.
Duels with a ranking
Challenge other players to duels where both pick their moves in secret. Wins earn XP and rating, and the ranking lives in the contract like everything else.
No game fees
The game charges nothing. Catching a capybara is free: each move only pays the small network fee for running it on the blockchain.
Randomness you can check
Wild capybaras and battle turns use numbers that were locked in the contract before the game started, mixed with a secret of your own. See how it works.
A wallet built into the game
Your game wallet lives in your browser and signs your moves for you, so there are no pop-ups while you play. You decide how much ZCD it holds.
Getting started
- Create your account. Your key is created in your browser and encrypted with your password. Download the backup file: with it and your password you can log in from any browser.
- Fill up your game wallet. On the test network, press the faucet button to get free test ZCD. You can also send ZCD from your own Zycord wallet to the deposit address shown.
- Pick a username and register. You get a free starter capybara, drawn at random and bound to your account.
- Explore. Walk with WASD, jump with Space, press E next to a wild capybara to battle it, T to train, C for your collection and M for the map.
The world
- The world is a 12 × 12 grid of 144 regions, with a city in the middle and seven biomes around it: plains, forest, mountain, lake, desert, ruins and volcano.
- Walk across a region border and you are there at once. After each crossing there is a 10-second pause before the next one, shown on the region border.
- Lakes are only for teams that have a Water capybara.
- Other players walk around with you. Chat with Enter and talk to players nearby with proximity voice chat (the microphone turns on only when you press it).
Wild capybaras and captures
- Each region holds 0 to 3 wild capybaras for you every day: your own set, drawn just for you when you arrive. The region's biome shapes which kinds of capybaras turn up.
- Walk up to one and press E to battle it with a capybara from your team. Win and it joins your collection; lose and it wanders off for the rest of the day.
- There is no daily limit: catch every capybara you can win against. Each region gives you a fresh set every day, so exploring pays off.
- The day follows the game clock, which started with the current season.
Duels and ranking
- Open the Battle panel to see the players in your region and challenge one. They get a card with your fighter and can accept or decline.
- Each turn, both players pick a move in secret: your browser sends only a sealed fingerprint of it. Once both moves are sealed, both are opened and the contract plays the turn. Nobody sees the other's move before choosing.
- The turn's randomness comes from both players' secrets together, so neither player can steer it.
- If a player stops answering, the other wins on time.
- Duels give XP (6 for a win, 2 for a loss, for the first 3 duels against the same player each day) and move your rating: everyone starts at 1000, and beating a higher-rated player is worth more. The ranking is in the Battle panel.
Battles
A battle is one round of up to 10 turns. Each turn you pick an action; the wild or training capybara picks its own, and the faster capybara acts first.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Attack | A hit with your main element. Gains 1 focus. |
| Defend | Takes only 40% of an attack's damage (80% of a special's). Gains 2 focus. |
| Special | One of your capybara's two signature moves, each with its own element and power. Costs focus. |
- Focus starts at 2 and goes up to 10. Save it for a strong special at the right moment.
- Damage varies a little each hit (85% to 100%), and 1 hit in 16 is a critical for ×1.5.
- Knock out the other capybara to win. If both are still standing after turn 10, the one with the higher share of its HP left wins.
- There is no turn timer: take your time.
Elements
Every capybara has a main element and sometimes a second one. A move against an element it beats deals ×2 damage against the main element (×1.5 against the second); a move against an element that beats it deals ×0.5 (×0.75).
Economy and rarity
Every number below is a rule of the game contract, the same for every player. The odds were measured by drawing 200,000 wild capybaras with the game's own rules.
How rare is a wild capybara?
| Rarity | Chance per wild capybara | About one in |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 70.3% | 1.4 |
| Uncommon | 19.5% | 5 |
| Rare | 8.1% | 12 |
| Very rare | 1.9% | 52 |
| Legendary | 0.1% | 900 |
- Shiny: 1 wild capybara in 4,096 is shiny, and a shiny one is always Legendary.
- Where rarity comes from: each capybara has a genome of 12 traits (body, pattern, eyes, elements, moves and more). Every trait has a visible gene and three hidden ones, and each gene is common, uncommon, rare or very rare. The rarity score adds up the visible genes (0, 10, 40 or 200 points by tier), a quarter of the hidden ones, and the capybara's four hidden stats (0 to 15 each), plus 500 for a shiny.
- The score sets the band: Uncommon from 70 points, Rare from 97, Very rare from 138, Legendary from 299. The collection shows each capybara's band and score.
- Every region has the same odds. The biome changes which kinds of capybaras turn up (shapes, elements), not how rare they are.
How many can you find?
- Each region draws a set just for you every day: no wild capybara 25% of the time, one 40%, two 25%, three 10%. That is 1.2 per region per day on average, across 144 regions.
- No daily capture limit: catch every capybara you can beat.
- A season has a cap of 5,000 wild capybaras for all players together. Once 5,000 have been caught, no more wild capybaras can be caught until the next season. Early players find the most.
- Every account also gets one free starter capybara, bound to it.
The world's regions
| Biome | Share of the map |
|---|---|
| Plains | 20% |
| Forest | 20% |
| Mountain, Lake, Desert, Ruins, Volcano | 12% each |
The 4 × 4 city sits in the middle of the 12 × 12 world. Lakes can only be crossed by a team with a Water capybara.
Growing stronger
- Capybaras level up from 1 to 10. XP per battle: wild and training 3 for a win and 1 for a loss; duels 6 and 2 (the first 3 duels against the same player each day).
- A capybara earns at most 12 XP per day, so a strong team takes time and care, not just grinding.
- Duels move your rating (start 1000, from 4 to 28 points per duel); the ranking is in the Battle panel.
Your capybaras
- Each capybara has a genome: its body shape, elements, stats (HP, attack, defense, speed) and moves all come from it.
- Rarity comes from the genome too, in five bands: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very rare and Legendary. About 1 wild capybara in 4,096 is shiny.
- Capybaras level up from 1 to 10 with XP: 3 XP for a win, 1 XP for a loss, up to 12 XP per capybara per day.
- Your team holds up to 4 capybaras. New captures join it while it has room.
Fair randomness
Blockchains have no built-in dice, so the game uses an oracle: a chain of numbers created before the game started.
- Locked in advance. When the contract was deployed it stored a fingerprint (a hash) of the whole chain of numbers. Each number the oracle publishes must match that fingerprint, so the numbers cannot be changed or chosen later. Anyone can check them.
- Your secret. When you arrive in a region, your browser picks a secret number and sends only its fingerprint to the contract.
- The draw. Your wild capybaras come from mixing your secret with the oracle's next number, one that was not published yet when you sent your fingerprint. You reveal your secret when you battle, and the contract checks it against the fingerprint. Nobody can steer which capybaras you get: not you, and not anyone else.
- Battle turns. Your move is recorded on-chain first, and the turn is resolved with the oracle's next number. The contract runs the same rules for everyone.
Costs
- The game takes no fees: registering, catching and training are free.
- Each move pays the network fee for running it on Zycord, about 0.01 ZCD (a capture's first move is about 0.03 ZCD).
- Your game wallet keeps its ZCD as a handful of small coins, so several moves can go out at once without waiting for a block. You only ever see one balance.
- This alpha runs on the Zycord test network: test ZCD from the faucet is free and has no value.
Coming next
These features are designed and on the way to the contracts. Details may still change before they go live.
- Lands. 128 lands around the city. 8 open first, right next to the city, then one more each week, opening outwards. Every open land has a boss: a team of 4 capybaras that changes every day. The first player to beat it owns the land for good and can give the region its own map.
- Marketplace. Buy and sell capybaras with other players.
- Breeding. Two capybaras pass their genes on to an egg, with rare genes in play.
- Tournaments. Daily tournaments with Swiss rounds and a ranking.
Your account
- Your key exists only in your browser (encrypted with your password) and in your backup file. There is no email and no password reset: keep the backup file somewhere safe.
- The game wallet spends on its own while you play, so keep only small amounts in it.
- During the alpha, a new season may start with improved rules. A new season starts everyone from scratch; your ZCD stays in your wallet.