[Feature] Survive-to-Earn: Ready Your Flashlight & Try Not to Scream in Araya

In the month of mayhem, madness, and magic, Halloween horror brings you all the thrills, chills, and feels guaranteed to keep you on your toes and your heart in your throat. You have heard of move-to-earn games, farm-to-earn games, etc, but have you heard of survive-to-earn games? This spooky season is the best time to break the scream-o-metre and see if you have what it takes to survive long enough to earn crypto.

As much as horror games have been a staple in the traditional gaming scene, survive-to-earn does take it to a whole new level. Initially known for its fame on Steam as an eerie and ominous jump-scare game, Mad VR Studios' Araya was later launched as part of the Fear ecosystem and became the first VR action horror on the blockchain. On a side note, Fear is the first hybrid NFT coin and blockchain horror entertainment platform developed by Netcreeper Media Limited. Some of the other Fear games include The Crypt, Blood Realms, Clucking Hell, and Mad Cock: overall, these games make use of the $FEAR token utility.

The studio released the game’s alpha version in October 2021

Araya is a single player survive-to-earn game whereby players will explore a derelict and abandoned Thai hospital as three distinct characters tell the story from their own perspectives. Players must uncover the secret and solve the mystery of Araya's murder while earning $FEAR tokens in different game chapters. The rewarding system is based on three in-game metrics:

1. Story items collected

2. Remaining sanity level which will gradually decrease throughout the game

3. Number of deaths

On 3 August 2022, the game announced its NFT sale on Twitter with 10,000 NFT flashlights for minting ─ these flashlights (Full Moon and Ray of Hope) are necessary to navigate the haunted hospital corridors

Players who do not purchase an NFT will be provided with the red flashlight (Bloody Nightmare) by default. It might be enough to play through the game but visibility is pretty poor and it is the weakest of the three flashlights.

From left: the white flashlight (Full Moon), the green flashlight (Ray of Hope), and the red flashlight (Bloody Nightmare)

The "Full Moon" flashlight, which is a pure white beam that easily exposes dark corners allowing players to smoothly find items and spot spirits, is the ideal option. The "Ray of Hope" flashlight, which emits a medium-intensity green light, is the next best option. It will be a tad more challenging to find items while attempting to avoid "things" that go bump in the night. These three NFTs or flashlights varying in strength and brightness, is the key of the game to helping you navigate through the creepy hospital and avoid getting caught by the terror that awaits.

Araya at the Thailand Metaverse Expo 2022 from 19 to 21 August

So you can buy an NFT and pay a fee to play but you can earn it back if you play through fast enough. You earn once per chapter only but the upside is that you can replay each chapter as many times as you like before claiming your reward. Also, you can earn extra FEAR prizes by ranking in their monthly Leaderboards of Death.

The full launch of Araya survive-to-earn game was on 7 September 2022, a little over a month ago

Well, how do you start? You just need to create a FEAR Wallet by logging in with your Google Account (on desktop or mobile). Then purchase FEAR with your credit card or transfer FEAR on the polygon network. Remember to download the game as well.

Select "Buy $FEAR" on the top-right of the website. Choose your currency and enter the amount. However, there is a minimum buy amount and you will have to spend a lot (close to 200 FEAR) even though the most expensive NFT is just 20 FEAR

Alternatively, you can go to fear.io/token.html then choose an exchange to buy FEAR directly.

Scroll down until you see the above

Enter how much you want to exchange in Quick Swap as seen above. Once you have enough FEAR, you can buy the NFT/flashlight you think you need.

Again, you can play without buying but the dimmest of light (Bloody Nightmare) will be more detrimental than beneficial, especially when the eerie atmosphere creeps up on you unknowingly.

Some things to take note of when you download and extract: you need to do the following steps to successfully extract and play the game.

1. After you have downloaded the game, right click on the file and change the name to "Araya Beta Build.zip". Then check the "Unblock" box at the bottom, click "Apply" then "OK".

2. Right click on the folder then select "Extract All…".

3. Choose where you would like the files to be extracted to then click "Extract".

4. Click into the extracted folder and select "Araya".

5. Welcome to Araya!

6. There is a warning given prior to playing the game.

7. After you log in with your Google account successfully, you will see the below with your name on your Google account and the amount of $FEAR tokens you have (zero in this case).

8. The intro chapter is free to play, even if you did not buy the NFTs. In addition, the intro chapter does not require any NFTs, not even the free one that is already included in the game. This gives you a rough gauge of how the game plays out before you dive into the rest of the chapters where the NFTs will be essential for your survival and sanity.

9. To move around, you can use WASD on the keyboard. Then follow any instructions given on the screen whenever prompted. Like pressing "E" to view an item as seen below. The location you start of is in one of the hospital rooms.

10. Explore the corridors, rooms, and such to collect items. When there is a sudden onset of fast-paced music, it means something sinister is coming, and it is coming fast! Leave that particular area in the next few seconds ─ do not get caught or you will die.

Throughout the game, you can hear the thunderstorm, the pouring rain, occasional crying and laughing, and the haunting background music. Take the lift or the stairs to explore the various levels of the hospital.

Some screen captures from the game

If you somehow survive the intro chapter, which means you do not get caught and die tragically, the subsequent chapters will require you to pay 0.001 FEAR (as seen below) to continue the quest of uncovering the secrets of Araya's death.

Prior to switching on your flashlight, what you see is virtually darkness and it is very easy to bump into things. Not only that, your sanity decreases way faster which will affect your scope of vision and the FEAR earned will be decreased. Even with the "Bloody Nightmare" NFT, everything is still quite dark with a red hue. On the contrary, as seen in the image on the right, if you use the "Full Moon" NFT, you will have brighter and better illumination.

You can claim your FEAR per chapter but only once so you can replay for a better score (more FEAR).

At the time of writing, 0.0023 ETH is a little over 20 FEAR so it does not cost much (20 FEAR is the cost of the "Full Moon" NFT). It is not for the faint of heart ─ though the graphics are not explicit to the extent of being frightfully realistic, but with the addition of the spine-chilling music and the unnerving sound effects, Araya might give your heart a little jolt or two. Download it here: https://araya.fear.io/download

Put your sanity to the test ─ do you dare to play?

Disclaimer: the information contained in this article is not sponsored in any way whatsoever and is from the author’s own experience as well as research done prior and during gameplay.