Axie Infinity Wields Banhammer on SLP Farms

The rise in popularity for Axie Infinity doesn’t come without any challenges, because SLP farms are popping up. In their endless battle to stop cheaters, Sky Mavis has banned 800 Axies from their game. “Axie is more than a game, so we need to be careful to protect this early ecosystem”, co-founder Aleksander “Psycheout” Larsen told Play to Earn.

Larsen confirmed the ban of SLP farms in the official Axie Infinity Discord channel. He emphasizes that everybody is allowed to contribute to the ecosystem, but only through one account per person. “One person playing on five to six accounts is unacceptable”, he explained to us. The ‘bans’ in this case are all temporarily, but Sky Mavis will modify bans or lift them as they see fit.

How Sky Mavis is able to detect these farmers, is unknown. Larsen doesn’t want to share details about their procedures. “I won’t go to deep into it since people will abuse any system but we are tracking a lot of data to ensure a fair playing environment”, he stated.

In Axie Infinity gamers can win Small Love Potions or SLP tokens. These tokens are needed to create new Axies, and therefore they are in high demand. Players can use these potions or sell them to the highest bidder. The team behind Axie Infinity takes pride in the fact that people from Venezuela and the Philippines are able to play their game as a way to maintain themselves.

At the moment Axie Infinity is still in early development. The game is in its alpha phase, and Sky Mavis is working hard to prepare it for a mainstream release. Right now players can win SLP tokens or AAVE shards, however when the AXS governance token gets integrated they want their system to be water tight.

What happens to banned Axies?

To play Axie Infinity, players need to login using their cryptocurrency wallet and e-mail address. Sky Mavis has banned 270 accounts yesterday, and with it 800 Axies. These Axies are now marked as banned on the open marketplace. This means that they are temporarily banned from battle.

“All these Axies can be traded of course, they are still owned by the users. But we limit their ability to interact with our service. […] Some bans are shorter than others. Some get perma banned if we’ve got enough evidence.”

Aleksander “Psycheout” Larsen, to Play to Earn (November 18th 2020)

So yes, when you scroll the marketplace. Beware that you’re not buying a banned Axie! However, if you buy a banned Axie by accident, you will have to wait until the ban is lifted before you can use it.

What is Axie Infinity?

Axie Infinity is a tactical battle game in which two players fight each other using a team of cute creatures called Axies. These little weird balls of joy live in a world called Lunacia, and they come in all kinds of shapes in sizes. Their characteristics influence which moves they are capable of performing. They can be damage dealers, healers, or bad ass tanks.

Axies are deadly cute, that is an undeniable truth. But Axies are not only just cute, their appearance are almost unique. It is difficult to find two look-alike Axies since their body parts have various forms and shapes. There are more than 500 Axie’s body parts. Axies’ body and parts are classified into classes including Beast, Plant, Bug, Bird, Reptile and Aquatic, and more in future release. Moreover, the parts also come with four levels of rarity, which are Common, Rare, Ultra Rare, Legendary.

It is the battle system that makes Axie Infinity stand out. Axies will take turn to fight in a 3v3 battle. The Axies fight for their own will, but to win the victory, players need to a real strategist, from wisely choosing appropriate Axies for their team to placing them at the tactical positions. Soon the team will introduce land gameplay, their AXS governance token and there’s probably a lot more waiting beyond the horizon.