Greetings, Trailblazers!

Trailblazers has been a cornerstone of daily activity for many Taiko network participants over the past year. It is one of our most beloved programs, distributing more than 30 million TAIKO tokens so far. We are excited to announce the next step in the evolution of Trailblazers. The new version introduces two unique tracks you can join: The Arena and The Undercity.

We've designed these two distinct tracks to serve different purposes:

• The Arena creates a protected environment where genuine users can compete fairly without having their progress overshadowed by automated activity.

• The Undercity provides a space for sophisticated farming actors (inevitable in any ecosystem) to operate, turning their activity into a way to stress-test our rollup technology while shielding the real community.

This separation ensures fair rewards for real users while harnessing the network activity that helps us optimize performance.

⚔️ The Arena: Play Games and Earn Rewards

Recently, preconfirmations went live on our mainnet, making transactions blazing fast. Users are now experiencing at least a 20 to 30 times increase in transaction speed. This makes gaming on Taiko an incredible experience, and we are inviting you to earn rewards while playing. Your Legacy Lives On-Chain.

For the first time in Trailblazers' history, your profile lives entirely on-chain as an NFT that grows with you. Every victory, every streak, every milestone becomes a permanent part of your gaming identity. Your profile isn't just a number, it's your legend written in immutable code.

What Makes Your Profile Special:

• Persistent Identity: Your stats, level, and reputation follow you across all games

• Visual Evolution: Profile NFTs evolve as you level up (coming soon)

• Achievement System (coming soon): Unlock rare badges or titles

• Cross-Season Progress: Your achievements and base stats persist between seasons

• Social Proof: Show off your profile NFT with integrated stats on social media (coming soon)

• Exclusive Access: Top-tier players may unlock access to premium tournaments and special competitions

Your on-chain profile enables the possibility to participate in unique competitions amongst other players of your level, allowing you to battle against your closest competitors

How to Participate in The Arena

To join The Arena, simply play selected games, such as Gemstown, Intraverse’s Crash or Cash and other partners coming soon. Your performance will determine your position on the leaderboard.

The Experience Point (XP) System:

• Win Rewards: Earn fixed XP for each victory (amount varies by game based on complexity and skill required)

• Loss Penalties: You can lose XP for losses, but you'll never drop below your current level - similar to MMORPG mechanics, where reaching a new level protects your progress

• Streak Bonuses: Build win streaks for bonus XP

• Competition Multipliers: Special tournaments offer boosted XP rates. Stay tuned for more information later this season

• Level Progression: Each level requires more XP but may unlock exclusive perks in the future

Different games reward different XP amounts: shorter, simpler games provide less XP, while longer, skill-based games offer more substantial rewards. This prevents farming of low-effort games, though you're free to play them at the cost of time and gas.

Your Journey in The Arena:

• Create your on-chain profile NFT (one-time mint)

• Play selected games on our GameHub infrastructure

• Watch your stats update in real-time after every match

• Win games to earn XP and climb the leaderboard

• Unlock achievements that showcase your mastery

• Top 10,000 players earn rewards at season's endArena Initial Prize Pool & Stretch Goals

The initial prize pool for The Arena unlocks 100,000 TAIKO tokens of the total 600,000 allocated to this season. However, the community has the power to unlock significantly more! We've set up a series of stretch goals that, once achieved, will increase the total TAIKO distributed. This means your collective effort directly impacts the rewards for all participants.

Here’s how it works: as the community hits specific milestones in total games played, new tiers of the prize pool will be unlocked, eventually reaching the full 600,000 TAIKO.

Community Unlocks:

• Tier 1: 100,000 TAIKO (Initial Pool)

• Tier 2: Unlock upon reaching 500 total games played across all Arena titles

• Tier 3: Unlock upon reaching 5,000 total games played across all Arena titles

• Tier 4: Unlock upon reaching 15,000 total games played across all Arena titles

• … to be revealed later

• Final Tier: Full 600,000 TAIKO unlocked upon achieving the ultimate community goal!

Specific details on the gameplay requirements for each tier will be announced shortly. Rally your fellow Trailblazers and let's unlock that full prize pool!

Arena Rewards (based on the fully unlocked 600,000 TAIKO goal):

TAIKO per Player

Top 10 - 4,500 TAIKO

11-50 - 1,275 TAIKO

51-350 - 300 TAIKO

351-1,150 - 150 TAIKO

1,151-2,650 - 67.5 TAIKO

2,651-5,400 - 45 TAIKO

5,401-10,000 - 15 TAIKO

🌃 The Undercity: Unlimited Activity

This is Trailblazers without the guardrails; the same points system for transactions and volume as the original, but with no daily limits, no multipliers, and no badges.

We recognize that in every major crypto initiative, from airdrops to reward programs, automated activity, and sophisticated farming operations are inevitable. Rather than fight this reality, we've created The Undercity as a dedicated space where these actors can operate freely while generating the high transaction volumes that help us stress-test our based rollup technology. This approach allows us to harness this activity productively while protecting genuine users in The Arena.

Those who make the most transactions win. Each transaction will give you points based on volume & gas spent, similar to the OG Trailblazers XP calculation, and the XP you gain determines your spot on the leaderboard.

There are no daily limits, no sybil checks, and no disqualifications. Advanced users are free to deploy whatever strategies they choose to maximize their transaction activity and climb the leaderboard.

Just do whatever it takes to rank in the top 1,000 of The Undercity leaderboard and claim your rewards.

Undercity Rewards (200,000 TAIKO):

TAIKO per Player

Top 10 - 4,000 TAIKO

11-50 - 1,400 TAIKO

51-300 - 192 TAIKO

301-1,000 - 80 TAIKO

📅 Prize Pool and Season Information

Season begins - September 15 at 12:00:01 UTC

Season ends - December 15 at 12:00:00 UTC

Total Prize Pool - 800,000 TAIKO tokens

Arena Prize Pool - 600,000 TAIKO

Undercity Prize Pool - 200,000 TAIKO

• Prizes will be delivered at the end of the season

• New games may be added during the season

• The Arena participants are subject to checks

Taiko reserves the right to adjust reward structures based on adoption levels, identified cheating dynamics, or other factors deemed necessary for program integrity.

🚀 Moving Forward with Trailblazers

Trailblazers has always been about rewarding effort and participation. With this new stage, we are carrying that spirit forward. At the same time, the new era brought by preconfirmations opens the door to opportunities beyond Trailblazers.

The sustainability of Trailblazers matters to us, and we will keep improving it to reach its best form. Stay with us and be ready for many opportunities ahead. The improved user experience delivered by preconfirmations is already making possible things that were not viable before, and this is only the beginning.

Let's keep pushing forward, Trailblazers.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

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Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

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Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.