Introducing the Otherside: Legends of the Mara Blog Series

Stay updated on Otherside: Legends of the Mara (LoTM), decoupled Kodas, Vessels, and Otherdeed Expanded NFTs until the launch of the official LoTM Litepaper. This blog series is written in conjunction with the LoTM gaming team to share updates with Voyagers. 

April 18th, 2023: Vessel Nesting 

An Otherdeed Expanded NFT has many uses, and it will first serve as the board for the 2D web-based game, Legends of The Mara. In LoTM you will need at least one Otherdeed Expanded NFT and at least one of the following to play: Koda, Kodamara, Mara (Hunter or Farmer), or Vessel. Vessels with the Enchanter trait and Enchanter Mara have a special role and their magic will be revealed later…

Only one Vessel can be nested on any given Otherdeed Expanded at a time, so choose your first Vessel(s) to nest into Mara wisely. The mechanics of nesting will be further defined in the LoTM Litepaper.

This is the initial post in this blog series. Check back regularly for the latest LOTM info and game mechanics from the gaming team.

April 25th, 2023: Environment Tiers & Worker Capacity

Environment tiers matter! In LoTM, an Environment tier dictates the number of workers (Koda, Kodamara, Farmer Mara, and Hunter Mara) that you can allocate to an Otherdeed. This capacity limit only applies to those in Hunter and Farmer roles, as Enchanters do not affect worker placement capacity.  

An Otherdeed Expanded with an Environment tier 4 will have a worker capacity of 4 (in any combination of Koda, Kodamara, Hunter Mara, & Farmer Mara).

Environment tier of 5 = worker capacity of 5

Environment tier of 4 = worker capacity of 4

Environment tier of 3 = worker capacity of 3

Environment tier of 2 = worker capacity of 2

Environment tier of 1 = worker capacity of 1.

A Koda can be assigned as a Hunter, Farmer, or Enchanter on any given Otherdeed.  

The gaming team will continue to dispatch info regarding LoTM game mechanics. Check back regularly for the latest!

May 2nd, 2023: Sediment Tiers and Fragments

In last week’s update, we shared how Environment tiers affect worker capacity in LotM. Tiers matter when it comes to Sediment, too — the higher your Sediment tier, the more Sediment Fragments your Otherdeed will produce. Otherdeeds with Sediment tier 3 have the best production, while Sediment tier 1 has the least. A Farmer on an Otherdeed Expanded enables fragment harvest and additional Farmers and Enchanters enhance the production.

Regardless of production, the native sediment will always produce the same type of fragment.  

More soon.

May 16th, 2023: More Than Gameplay: The Collector Metagame

In today’s update, Yuga’s Chief Gaming Officer Spencer Tucker breaks down some of the key strategic elements of Legends of the Mara.

The strategy behind Legends of the Mara starts with the decisions we make as collectors. The game embraces a variety of different play styles, each with their own strategic advantages. The decisions you make as a Voyager will not only guide your journey, but will influence the experience of other players in the ecosystem. 

Read on so you can choose wisely when the time comes. 

Vessels 

There are three types of Vessels–Hunters, Farmers, and Enchanters. Each can hatch into a corresponding type of Mara if properly nested. However, since only one Vessel can be nested on an Otherdeed Expanded at a time, choosing which Vessel to nest first will be one of the first decisions players will face. 

Mara & Kodamara

A nested Vessel eventually evolves into a Mara, which can be assigned to an Otherdeed while your next Vessel nests. You’ll have an opportunity to combine your Mara with a Seasonal Catalyst and Sediment Fragments to evolve it into a Kodamara. 

Kodamara are more capable helpers in the fight to defend Otherside than Mara (though their powers are greatly constrained compared to the ancient Koda). 

Importantly, Kodamara are also a key part of the collector metagame: what they look like, trait rarity, and game function are all influenced by Voyagers’ choices and how the community as a whole leverages the ingredients used to create them.

Koda

Koda holders wield a distinctive advantage – Kodas skip the nesting process and are game-ready for LoTM. They are always more powerful than Kodamara.

The Shattered

Voyagers can deploy their Koda, Mara, and Kodamara to defend Otherside from The Shattered, mysterious titans that awakened shortly after the Vessels descended. Their presence poses a threat to the Mara, Koda, and Otherside itself. The full extent of their power is still unknown…

Sediment Farming vs Battling The Shattered 

Voyagers will have a choice between hunting Shattered for treasure and farming Sediment Fragments, or a mixture of the two.  

Why farm Sediment? The recipe for producing the rarest of Kodamara has been lost to time. It's up to Voyagers to experiment to determine which combinations of Seasonal Catalyst, Sediment Fragments, and Mara will yield the best results. 

There will be a capped global supply of Sediment Fragments that Voyagers can gather. But once Voyagers combine Sediment Fragments with their Mara, Sediment Fragments are returned to the global supply, effectively replenishing the amount available to farmers. In this way, the amount of Sediment Fragments a Voyager can collect in a given period on a specific Otherdeed will vary based on global activity, which effectively increases the strategic skills Voyagers need to employ to evolve their Maras for peak performance. 

The supply of Seasonal Catalysts will be limited in quantity and each will have a different effect on each type of Mara. You’ll want to proceed with caution before evolving a Mara: the effects are irreversible.

Why battle The Shattered? When a Shattered is defeated, it leaves behind a treasure. The more efficiently a Shattered is defeated, the more rare and exclusive the treasure . . . 

Otherdeed Traits

An Otherdeed Expanded will serve as the key for unlocking gameplay for LoTM, and its traits will affect strategy. For example, environment tiers dictate possible Shattered rewards such that Tier 1 Otherdeeds will compete only against other Tier 1 Otherdeeds for a specified pool of Shattered treasures. 

In future seasons, artifacts and resources will come into play, and more about each Otherdeed traits’ meaning will be unveiled over time. You’ll want to fine-tune your strategies in a meta that’s constantly evolving based on the decisions of other Voyagers, and equip your Otherdeed wisely to compete against them.

The Leaderboard

Legends of the Mara will have a global leaderboard listing  Environment tier separately. That leaderboard will track the damage dealt by each Voyager’s team and the time it took to take down a Shattered. The race to defeat the Shattered as fast as possible will be tracked, with a collection of treasures or other items going to each season’s top contenders per Environment tier. These items, similar to the treasures the Shattered leave behind upon defeat, are limited and seasonal.

On the Horizon

Season 1 of Otherside: Legends of the Mara will launch this summer. It’s just the beginning, and as we progress through Season 2 and beyond, the team plans to adapt and expand the game’s mechanics offerings.

We will continue to dispatch information regarding LoTM game mechanics and strategy in the coming weeks to help Voyagers prepare to defend Otherside.

May 30th, 2023: StarMap Update I 

Your Otherdeed Expanded is your game board, but look to the skies where the constellations align to provide a vision of the future. While the ancient Koda take center stage in Legends of the Mara, allies will aid in the battle to defend Otherside against the Shattered.

I: The Friends

You won’t be going into battle alone, Voyagers. Otherside will be announcing alliances — both with other Yuga PFP collections and with a select group of third party PFP collections — to enlist reinforcements into the Legends of the Mara battle. Owning one of these battle ally NFTs creates more ways to vanquish the Shattered and gather their treasures. For example, a low tier environment with limited Hunter slots could gain a strategic upper-hand in fighting the Shattered — possibly leading to a better spot on the Leaderboard. 

Choose your battle alliances wisely. Each Otherdeed will have a limited number of ally NFT slots. Stay tuned for our official list of LoTM alliances.

June 13,2023: StarMap Update II

Starting with Season 1 of Legends of the Mara, each element of gameplay that Voyagers participate in is connected to the larger metagame ecosystem. As game mechanics and the LoTM ecosystem evolve and expand, strategies and gameplay meta will ultimately change as well.

II: The Shattered Attacks

In Season 1, The Shades fight to constrain The Shattered, preventing them from unleashing their full powers and preventing them from fully manifesting in Otherside. While some Shades sought refuge in hospitable vessels, others banded together to protect Otherside until the arrival of the Mara. But as Voyagers begin to understand the best ways to subdue The Shattered, the Shades’ ability to constrain them begins to fade. 

In Season 2, the Shades’ abilities to fight The Shattered have collapsed and The Shattered manifest in Otherside, their wrath unbounded. Koda, Kodamara, Mara, and The Friends (learn about Friends in the previous update) need to mobilize a defensive as The Shattered attack mercilessly. To keep the protectors of Otherside safe from damage in Season 2, only the skill and cunning of Voyager strategies will shield the wounded protectors in battle and mitigate damage taken. 

In both Season 1 and Season 2, Voyagers join the fight by strategically equipping slots and hitpoints (HP) on a game card. When a card’s HP has been exhausted, Voyagers can wait for them to recover over a cooldown period or use other means to heal sooner, regain HP and get back in the fight. Once fully healed, a card will return to the battlefield to defend the Otherside once again.

III: The Unearthed Artifacts

When a Shattered is defeated, Voyagers will be rewarded with treasures called Unearthed Artifacts. While some Unearthed Artifacts will be consistent across all leaderboard tiers, each tier will have a limited supply, which means there will be exclusive rewards for Voyagers who slay a Shattered expeditiously.

Some of these treasures will be utilized to enhance a Voyager’s gameplay within Legends of the Mara, while others will aid The Friends