Today we’ll be taking a look at the blockchain browser based game Holybread. Holybread was developed for the Steem/Hive blockchain by @simplemind and the initial version was released around January 2020. It can probably be best described as a free-to-play idle fantasy game with a small player-versus-player component.
The current version of the game consists of fairly simple mechanics. Gameplay boils down to sending your heroes out on quests for gold, experience, and occasionally a new piece of equipment, or fighting other player’s heroes in an arena. Activities are time locked, with quests taking 5, 10, or 15 minutes, and you can fight in the arena every 15 minutes. You also have limited energy, which is used for performing quests and slowly regenerates over time.
The game has two currencies, gold and Bread. Gold is used for buying items from the store, repairing said items, and increasing a hero’s statistics. Bread is used for recruiting new heroes or skipping timers, which is usually a terrible use of it. Potions can be bought with either currency and give a temporary bonus to your team, but are extremely expensive.
You initially start with a single hero and get to pick from an archer, mage, or warrior. Each class has a different main stat that impacts their damage. A Warrior’s main stat is Strength, a Ranger’s is Dexterity, and Mage’s is Intelligence. Constitution increases hit point, or HP, and Luck increases the chance of doing a critical attack for bonus damage. Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity also act as a defensive bonus against opponents with one of those as their main stat.
New heroes cost 50, 200, or 1,000 Bread, depending upon their rarity. Rarer heroes tend to have larger bonuses and ones that impact the entire team. The arena and questing team consists of 3 heroes, though you have slots for 6 more outside the team – and an additional 6 if you purchase a premium account.
The primary way you earn Bread is through three daily quests: to buy an item from the store with gold, complete 5 quests, and win 3 battles in the arena. With a limit of 3 Bread a day, it can take quite a while to get additional heroes – let alone rare ones. You can also buy Bread for Hive dollars, the cryptocurrency of the Hive network.
The main benefit of rising through the ranks in the arena is that the game will like your posts on the Hive network blogging system (Peakd or Hive.Blog). That’s currently the only real benefit, other than just trying to see your name higher on the rankings. Granted, getting your posts voted up on Hive is how you earn Hive dollars to begin with.
Originally I was going to write about this for the Mobile Money series, as the game had Breadcrumbs, which was their own cryptocurrency on the Hive network. This was recently removed and there is supposed to be a big update for the game currently in the works. However, the version above is what is currently publicly available to play.
Since the game seems to still be in development, I won’t give it a hard rating. I will note that the gameplay is pretty limited, with there really not being a whole lot to do. The artwork is fairly simplistic and there is no sound. But, to be fair, it does seem to be the work of a single developer.
It’s hard to say how popular the game is, but there’s about 2,500 users on the arena ranking and about 500 members on the game’s Discord channel. If you want to check out Holybread the web page can be found here. You do need to create a Hive account to be able to play, but that can be done for free.