Stratosphere Games has kicked off Season 10 in the closed Early Access phase of Web3 co-op looter shooter The Desolation with more special airdrop rewards as the studio gears up to launch the anticipated Economy Update that introduces NFT Crafting, for which detailed info has been revealed.

What’s New in Season 10?

Titled as “The Hellfire Season” this 10th competitive period features dungeon and survival rewards for the top 50 in each category while introducing its own modifiers. As you might guess from the name, the modifiers for this season revolve around thermal damage and burning effects, according to the Discord announcement.

Specifically, players will find during this season that thermal damage has been increased by 25% while enemies have double the AP than before to make them more armored and thus more challenging to beat. Adding to this hellish experience is the chance for demons to spawn in the form of Charged Neonate eggs on players, so get ready for surprise encounters. Speaking of surprises, there is a chance for enemies to even explode on death and add Burn in the process, so it’s best to always stay far away if you can as the developers did not reveal the exact % of these fireworks happening either. We’re not done with surprises, as the last mentioned modifier for this season includes the chance for Elite Hunters to randomly spawn. So overall, be ready for the fiery worst.

Until August 8th, 9:45 AM UTC, players can compete for rewards across the Dungeon and Survival leaderboards. The top 50 in each win Credits and the top 30 get 1 Supply Box while entering into a raffle for a chance at winning 1 of 4 Epic Lunar Boxes. Here’s the breakdown for Dungeon rewards:

• 1st - 3rd Place: 1x CREPITUS GL V4 + 50.000 Credits
• 4th - 12th Place: 1x CREPITUS GL V3 + 40.000 Credits
• 13th - 50th Place: 30.000 Credits
• 1st - 30th Place: 1x Supply Box + Raffle for Epic Lunar Boxes

Prizes for the Survival leaderboard are as follows:

• 1st - 3rd Place: 1x ARX-4 + 50.000 Credits
• 4th - 12th Place: 1x ARX-3 + 40.000 Credits
• 13th - 50th Place: 30.000 Credits
• 1st - 30th Place: 1x Supply Box + Raffle for Epic Lunar Boxes

What’s Coming in the Economy Update?

The developers have shared a very nice 9-page PDF guide in their latest update post to give the community an in-depth look at the NFT crafting-related features that are set to launch on August 7th.

Once this update goes live, NFT owners will finally have in-game utility, allowing them to equip their assets in the blockchain title as well as craft various NFTs on the ship. By having NFT gear equipped while playing, you’ll be able to earn Hard Currency (Platinum) and Transformer NFTs, with rarer NFTs giving better chances of dropping these goodies.

Platinum is referred to as the primary Hard Currency that is needed for crafting NFTs, but it can also be used to speed up the process. At some point in the future, Hard Currency will also be usable for buying shop offers and it seems for speeding up other progression based features as well. Apart from earning it by playing with NFTs, the guide also reveals that it can be bought exclusively from Open Loot as well as earned in the Seasonal Leaderboard. It’s also mentioned that it won’t be possible to transfer Platinum if migrating or connecting accounts to Open Loot, and because of this connection with Big Time’s platform, the currency won’t be available for purchase on Steam or the App Store either. Another hard currency might get introduced to give free to play players an accessible way of acquiring the currency outside of the Web3 platform.

Transformer NFTs are very rare crafting resources that have a chance of dropping from Mystery Boxes (more on this later) and enemies while having NFTs equipped. It looks like there will be different types of Transformers, but for this initial release NFT holders will be able to earn Weapon Transformers.

To actually unlock the ability to craft NFTs, players will need 2 new NFTs: an Uncommon Transformation Workshop NFT and Uncommon Weapon Workstation NFT. The rarity won’t matter for this first release, meaning every rarity will be possible to craft, but a future update will have rarity affect the maximum rarity you can get with a certain NFT. This means that a Rare Workshop will only work with Rare Workstations or lower, for example.

A Transformation Workshop NFT lets you access a new workshop room on the ship where you will be able to use a Workstation that is unlocked by owning a Weapon Workstation NFT. To actually craft NFT gear though, you will then need a Weapon Transformer NFT, Platinum and Weapon Set #1 Blueprint. This will be the only blueprint available on release that is dropped by Seasonal Bosses, allowing you to craft 4 NFT weapons:

• Uncommon Shotgun - 2000 Total Mints
• Rare SMG - 1000 Total Mints
• Epic AR - 500 Total Mints
• Legendary MR - 200 Total Mints

Crafting an Uncommon Weapon requires having 1 blueprint and 100 Platinum. Getting higher rarities requires using more blueprints and Platinum.

The guide also reveals that players will be able to earn Workstations, Workshops, Weapon Transformers and Platinum from requisition boxes. A total of 50,000 requisition boxes will be given out via community events but also from taking down bosses in a seasonal challenge mode, though it is said that drops from this mode will be very rare.

As for Mystery Boxes, a certain number of them will be airdropped each month to eligible players, and the rewards you can get from them will depend on the NFTs you own, with Rare, Epic, Legendary and Mythic assets awarding you with varying amounts of Reward Tier Points that are used to determine your prizes. Players active in seasons and those who rank in the top 20 on the leaderboard will also get Tier Points. There will be a total of 5 Reward Tiers, with the first Tier not featuring any airdrop. No details on the number of points needed to get to a higher tier has been revealed, but those who end up in the highest tier get 3 Mystery Boxes and a guaranteed airdrop:

• Tier 5 = 3 Mystery Boxes, Guaranteed Airdrop
• Tier 4 = 2 Mystery Boxes, High Airdrop Chance
• Tier 3 = 1 Mystery Box, Medium Airdrop Chance
• Tier 2 = 1 Mystery Box, Low Airdrop Chance
• Tier 1 = No Airdrops

You can find more info on this big new update by reading the guide linked in this official post.