Tiers, Rarity & Value
Tiers
All DeRace NFT horses sold in the DeRace metaverse belong to one of five rarity tiers, with Olympian (tier 1) being the rarest, with just 1% or 50 horses available in the initial 5000 Gen-0 horses; whilst the most common is the Omega (tier 5), with 64% or 3,200 available from within the original 5,000 Gen-0 horses.
DeRace horse tiers have no impact on gameplay or horse performance in any way. An Olympian horse is no faster nor any more likely to win a race than an Omega horse. The performance of a horse depends entirely on its hidden attributes, irrespective of its tier. It’s entirely possible to own an Olympian horse with poor speed and stamina that would lose against an Omega with good speed and stamina properties. See the section on racing for more information on the mechanics behind the selection of race winners.
Of the 5000 Gen-0 horses, the following were available:
- Tier 1 – Olympian – 1% (50)
- Tier 2 – Demi-god – 5% (250)
- Tier 3 – Alfa – 10% (500)
- Tier 4 – Beta – 20% (1,000)
- Tier 5 – Omega – 64% (3,200)
DeRace have introduced races with tier restrictions which allow higher/rarer tier horses to enter high stakes races. The DeRace team will also be adding additional benefits and utility to owners of rarer tier horses.
Generations
The first 5,000 horses sold by DeRace are the only first-generation (Gen-0) horses that will ever exist in the DeRace metaverse. Gen-0 horses will be rarer and therefore more valuable than any other generation of horses because more cannot and will not be created. As breeding takes off, the Gen-0 horses will give birth to Gen-1 horses, who will subsequently give birth to Gen-2 horses, and so on.
As each Gen-0 horse can breed multiple times, the number of Gen-1 horses in circulation will be significantly higher than the limited 5,000 Gen-0 horses. Each of these newly bred Gen-1 horses can also breed multiple times, thus making the population of Gen-2 horses significantly higher than the population of the Gen-1 horses. As such it can be speculated that the lower the generation of a horse, the rarer and more valuable it will be.
There will be exceptions to the notion that higher tier horses will be cheaper because a horse’s ability to generate income from racing will largely affect its value. Horses that are created from breeding can inherit their parent’s speed and stamina with a +/- 5% deviation, and thus the newer generation horses can be bred to be faster. More information on value from racing can be found below.
Rare breeds & special editions
In addition to tiers and generations, there exists a number of special edition horses which were sold as part of the first 5,000 Gen-0 horses but in extremely small quantities. Some breeds of horses are much rarer too. For example, the Appaloosa breed was minted in very small numbers and has benefited from a higher value as a result.
Racing performance
The performance of a horse in a race will depend upon the horse’s hidden speed, stamina and reaction time attributes. These values can only be speculated on by examining a horse’s past racing performance.
A horse with a good racing performance will be more desirable and valuable because its money-making potential in races is already proven. Such horses will also be more desirable for breeding because they have a greater chance of producing another race-winning horse.
A horse’s racing record is recorded in a value like so: 20/14/15/207. The first value represents the number of wins, the second value the number of second places, the third value the number of third places and the last value represents the total number of races. This can give you an indication of the horse’s ability as its win rate and podium rates can be determined quickly.
Understanding a horse’s real racing potential requires data. The community is already working on free race data spreadsheets and tools to allow you to see a horse’s race history in detail to make more informed decisions on their racing abilities.
Appearance and properties
The unique appearance of a horse is made up of over 20 different visual properties. Naturally, there will be some breeds or colours that are rarer or more desirable than others.
The split between horse gender is also random. At the time of writing, there’s a 35%/65% between stallions and mares. This means there will likely be a higher demand for stallions to breed with.
