Golden Tides Is Not a Crypto Game

Hey everyone,

We get this question a lot, so let's clear it up.

Is Golden Tides a crypto game?

No. Golden Tides is a free-to-play game. You download it, you play it. No wallets, no tokens, no blockchain required. Just a game.

Early in development, we explored the idea of letting players withdraw cosmetic skins outside the game so they could be traded externally. Something similar to the Steam marketplace, just enabled by blockchain technology. We moved away from it. Just because we wanted all of our focus on making the game as good as it can possibly be. That's always been the priority, and anything pulling attention from that wasn't worth it.

A small number of skins from that early period exist onchain. These were released to early supporters who were with us before most people knew Golden Tides existed.

These early collectibles were sold as ingame cosmetics in 2024 for the original price of $15-$50*. They included something called an "airdrop", which stands for us sending the owners of these skins additional skins in the future. We did this in 2024 by sending owners of these skins free cosmetic pet skins. We never sold any NFTs or tokens after this.

These early onchain cosmetics continue function and can be continued to be used as skins ingame. We won't be releasing any more of them.

That's the full extent of it.

*The price varies, as crypto currencies are highly volatile. The majority of the skins were sold for between $15-$25.

Is there an airdrop?

No. There are no hidden (crypto related) rewards for farming activity in our Discord or wishlisting the game on Steam or joining the waitlist to playtest.

We've noticed a wave of people joining our community who aren't here for Golden Tides. They're here because third-party sites are promising rewards that don't exist. We want to be really clear: those guides are wrong. There is nothing to farm.

If you're here because you want to play a new kind of a MOBA, welcome. We're glad you're here. If you're here because someone told you there's an airdrop coming, there isn't, and we'd rather you know that now than waste your time.

"Will you ever add crypto?"

Here's how we think about this.

We have one job: make a great game. Every choice we make runs through that filter. Does this make Golden Tides better for the people playing it? If yes, we do it. If no, we don't. If the answer is "maybe, but it would pull focus from things that definitely make the game better," we don't do that either.

Right now, our players want better combat clarity. They want more heroes. They want ranked play and seasonal content and all the stuff that makes a competitive game feel alive. That's what we're building. That's where our energy goes.

We also aren't blind to how gamers feel about crypto in games right now. That skepticism didn't come from nowhere. A lot of projects used blockchain as a monetization mechanic first and a game second, and players got burned. We get why people are wary, and we think that wariness is completely reasonable.

Community trust is the most valuable thing a game studio can have. We're not going to risk ours on anything our players don't want. We're not going to commit to "never" on anything, because we don't think that's how you build a game that lasts for years. But we will commit to this: we will always build for the community that's actually here, playing Golden Tides, giving us feedback, and helping us make it better. Their priorities are our priorities.

If that community ever overwhelmingly asks us for something, we'll take it seriously. That's the deal. We build what our players want. And right now our players want a great MOBAlike. So that's what we're making.

That's it.

We're 50 people from around the world making a game we believe in. That's the whole story.

See you on the high seas.

Miko 'Anomie' Rytkonen