A first pass at decoding the investment value of land in the Otherside Metaverse
To say the last five days have been intense would be the understatement of the year. Saturday was a historic day for the NFT world, there was some good, some bad, and plenty of articles and tweets you can read on both. Since the focus of this blog is NFT Investing, hence the name, I'm going to stay out of the politics and focus on the opportunities we have as investors.
So let's get to it, starting with the basics ⬇️
The first 55,000 deeds to land in the Otherside Metaverse (aka Otherdeeds) were sold last Saturday. Shortly after that, OG Bored Apes and Mutant Apes were able to claim, and that window is still open (it's a total of 21 days). In total, 100,000 Otherdeeds were made available on April 30th, but there will be a total of 200,000 Otherdeeds which means, yes - there's 100,000 more that will be released in the future.
In typical Yuga fashion, we don't know much about how the additional 100,000 Otherdeeds will be distributed but we do have this hint:
The second 100,000 Otherdeeds will be exclusively rewarded to Voyagers who hold Otherdeeds and contribute to the development of Otherside. (source - otherside.xyz)
While we don't know for sure what "Voyagers" but based on how Yuga has described the Otherside Metaverse so far, this isn't just Kodas, it's really anyone from a supported project. Here's the skinny ⬇️
What this means is that if you didn't get land in the Mint, and haven't decided to buy land on a secondary market yet, there probably will be more opportunities ahead both to play and win land in the process.
That being said, at this juncture a lot of people, myself included, are trying to both understand how much their land might be worth, and how to evaluate buying more land as an investment. Since we're not even a week in yet, and none of us know exactly how the game is going to work, there's limited data, but still some data to work off of.
So now let's get to the good stuff and dive into the data.
Land Rarity
There are five rarity tiers for land, going from one to five with one being the least rare and five being the most rare. You can find the rarity tier of land by looking at the very top of the Otherdeed, here's an example of a tier five:
From an investment standpoint this is a relatively easy one to understand, the higher the tier, the more valuable the land is likely to be.
Sediments
Land can be built on five different sediments which span out from the center of the world starting with Biogenic Swamp which was reserved for OG Bored Apes. The next ring out is Chemical Goo, which was reserved for Mutant Apes.
Before I go any further it's important to understand how the land distribution differed between OG Bored Apes and Mutant Apes. OG Bored Apes had their land plots reserved, matching their token ID number. So if you had a super rare OG Bored Ape that happened to have a token ID in the 9,000 range, you ended up with land further from the center than someone with a token ID in the 900 range.
This surprised a lot of people because most of us have been buying apes based on rarity traits, this turned things on their head quite a bit as token ID has rarely played a role in buying/investment decisions.
The bigger surprise and somewhat controversial decision is that Mutant Apes could claim their land on a first come first serve basis which meant there was quite a scramble on Saturday night/Sunday morning in the mutant community.
The next three types of sediment is what people were able to get during the mint on Saturday, and what the additional 100,000 plots will come from. From closest to the center out these are - Rainbow Atmos, Cosmic Dream, and Infinite Expanse.
Like land tiers, this is also an easy one to understand from an investment standpoint, the closer to the center, the more valuable the land is likely to be, i.e. Biogenic Swamp will be the most valuable, Infinite Expanse the least.
Kodas
Ah Kodas, easily the most-talked about part of the Otherside and possibly the element we know the least about. I wrote an article with my thoughts about what I think Kodas are before the land drop, and my thinking hasn't changed much.
What has changed is the data we have about the Kodas now that their traits have been updated and we know all the unique and different qualities they have. I'll probably do a follow-up article just on Kodas because they really do deserve an even deeper dive.
For now what I'll say is - Mega Kodas look like they are easily the most valuable from an investment standpoint, and Kodas with weapons are probably next on the list.
Natural Materials
Land in the Otherside Metaverse can have up to four resources on it, and on the website they mention that the resources replenish which gives us a window into one of the game mechanics. Here's a quick look at the four resources that an Otherside land plot can have:
The resources further divide into things like Moldium, Brimstone, Lumileaf, and a whole lot more. To make things even more complex and confusing, they can be on the Northern, Southern, Eastern, or Western side of your land.
My prediction is that it won't just matter which resources you have on your land, but the orientation will matter when you look at how your land will line up with other plots of land. Something tells me that having matches resources with another plot, i.e. two of the same resources touching, could do interesting things.
For now I think trying to buy land based on specific resources is a tricky game to play, instead, the easier path is to pick land with as many resources as possible. Land with no resources is likely worth less than land with four resources, all other things being equal.
All that being said, Yuga has made it clear that these are dynamic NFTs so you can very likely add resources to your land, turning a land with no resources into a land with four reasons, so many having optionality could be better 🤔
Artifacts
Last but not least is artifacts, another thing that we really don't know much about but we do know some are more rare than others. There are only one of artifacts like Sword of the Chosen or Pandora's Box, 125 Koda hammers, and over 500 monkey barrels.
I'm still studying both resources and artifacts, and there's a lot to study. From an investment standpoint it feels logical that the rarer the artifact, the more valuable the land would be from an investment standpoint.
But wait there's more - resources also have their own rarity tiers going from one to three, one being the least rare and three being the most rare. Like land tiers they are represented by and "*" on the Otherdeed like so ⬇️
Like I said above, I would have to think the more rare the better and tiers can be your cheat sheet to quickly sort when you're looking at land you might want to invest in.
But dynamic NFTs change everything
Now is the part where I tell you everything I just told you might not matter very much at the end of the day because these are dynamic NFTs. So while you might not start with amazing resources or your dream artifact, it sounds like that can all change based on how you play the game.
The one thing that could really throw everything for a loop is if resources cannot be moved once they are placed in your land. This would mean land that came with four resources would always and forever have those four resources in those exact four locations. If that turns out to be the case, then all this land with no resources that everyone is getting a bit bummed out about, could turn out to be incredibly valuable.
A lot of mysteries here but still some good vectors to follow to evaluate land to invest in today, knowing that things can and likely will change so there's certainly some risk. The idea of a dynamic NFT is intriguing and if anyone is going to have fun with this concept it's Yuga, and well, all of us.
So let's recap what to look at when investing in Otherside land ⬇️
- Land comes in five tiers, the most valuable land will likely be Tier 5
- Land also comes in five different sediments, the center area (also often called Alpha plots) are called Biogenic Swamp and currently are seen as the most valuable
- Kodas are rare, everyone wants one on their land, and it's safe to say land will be worth more with a Koda on it
- Resources are a tricky one but I'm placing my bets on it being better to have all your resources filled and with the rarest ones you can get
- Artifacts are a relatively easy trait to analyze for investment potential are there are clearly some that are a lot more rare than others
While that was a lot to go through, there's a lot more to come and I could probably see myself writing articles about each of these elements as they really do deserve a deep dive of their own. As you can probably tell, I'm having a fun time doing a deep dive here, there's so much detail and complexity to the Otherside Metaverse and there's going to be a lot more to learn as the weeks and months go by.
That's it for now. See you on the Otherside 🕺
Disclaimer: The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice. The author does plan to invest in this project.