decrypt.co
After racking up 300 million players, hit Telegram tap-to-earn game Hamster Kombat launched its HMSTR token on The Open Network (TON) in late September. Now the team has shared a better sense of when the game will begin its next full-fledged season of gameplay, which will come with its own future airdrop.
Season 2 of Hamster Kombat is set to arrive “very soon, at the end of October,” the game’s anonymous development team told Decrypt this week.
Ahead of the airdrop, on September 20, the developers launched what was planned to be a short “interlude season” that would only last a couple weeks or so before the next full-fledged content season. It’s still running as of this writing, with a simplified gameplay loop that revolves around earning in-game diamonds rather than the coins from before.
The developers promised that playing the interlude season would provide some sort of advantage for the next full season ahead. No further details have been shared, but the team emphasized that it will be a major benefit for players.
“Players should prepare themselves for a significant boost at the start,” the developers told Decrypt, adding that details will be shared shortly.
It’s not the only benefit that Hamster Kombat players can potentially secure right now. Earlier this week, Hamster Kombat revealed a staking-like feature that lets players keep their airdropped HMSTR tokens within the game rather than withdraw them to a wallet.
While the benefit is akin to staking—that is, locking tokens within a protocol to gain rewards such as yield—the team clarified that it is not an on-chain staking mechanism. However, it will provide some benefit for the next season of the game, plus players who withdrew their tokens will be able to bring them back into the game.
“If players decide to keep their tokens instead of withdrawing them, they will not only retain their tokens but also receive a significant boost at the start of the new season,” the team said. “Those who want to return them to the game will have an opportunity to deposit tokens."
Season 2 of Hamster Kombat is planned to have its own airdrop for players, which is currently set for next summer. The developers also plan to expand Hamster Kombat beyond its Telegram home via the launch of web apps for various platforms, along with future integrations with desktop PC games.