One of the most awaited features, the land upgrade system was launched a few days ago. This is a major feature release by Earth 2 aimed to enhance land and Essence’s utility over long term.
How it works?
The player owned lands before the upgrade existed in 3 tiers – T1, T2 and T3. Post the release of land upgrades a new special land tier has been introduced called Special T1*. Users can upgrade their land progressively i.e. from Tier 3 –> Tier 2 –> Tier 1 –> Tier 1 Special* (one Tier at a time) by visiting the property page and pressing the ‘Upgrade’ button to access the Land Upgrade feature (see picture below).
What’s the benefit of upgrading Land?
A direct benefit is higher Ether Yield. The higher the Tier, better is the Ether generation rate from tiles (Ether can be transformed to Essence)
The relationship of Ether yield between land tiers is as per below table, using an example. Thus Special T1 produces 1.67x Ether as compared to a normal T1, however the Special T! produces 5 times than that of T2
Furthermore, upgraded Special T1 land is rarer as it’s available via a special campaign for only first 125,000 Tiles in a particular country, with the quota divided equally (25k each) across 5 different ways to upgrade – using Essence or using Essence plus a combination of one of the Energies (Red – obtained via raiding, Yellow – obtained via content creation and submission, Blue and Green – Unknown). Once this 125,000 limit it reached upgrades continue as T2 to normal T1.
Additionally, all the perks that come with higher Land Tiers become available on upgraded land. For example T1 has higher voting power, more jewel slots, better jewel yield, etc., while land upgraded from T3 to T2 gets new perks such as jewel, ether and resources spawn; ability to build Cydroids and host civilians – features not available to T3.
What are the Costs to Upgrade?
Land upgrades require Essence. This Essence cost is equivalent, in Fiat terms (basis the token’s externally traded value), to the difference of the New Land Price between the current Land Tier and the higher Land Tier. For example, if the land to be upgraded is T3 to T2 and if the T3 new land in that country costs $1/tile while T2 costs $1.5/tile to purchase, then the user must pay the difference of $0.5/tile in Essence terms at the time of upgrade. Assuming Essence trades at $0.1, then 5 Essence ($0.1×5=$0.5) is needed per tile to upgrade the land.
This cost in Essence terms can be reduced upto 30% (see picture below) by utilizing any of the Energies (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green).
By moving the slider to the extreme right, when using an energy type, maximum discount can be obtained in Essence terms.
It’s important to remember that the land upgrade costs can be dynamic. As land is upgraded from lower tiers to higher tiers, the New Land Price (NLP) changes according to the updated supply of that tier within that country. Additionally, externally traded price of Essence also determines the amount of Essence needed for successful land upgrades.
Shane highlights the costs and the suitability for upgrading land
More Utility for Essence
Earth 2 Land Upgrades offer yet another dimension to Essence’s utility. Essence used in land upgrades removes itself from active supply, where 50% of this goes to E2 treasury while the rest 50% is permanently burnt. This reduces the circulating supply and supports the externally traded price of Essence.
Day 1 of the Land Upgrades saw players use a cumulative 12.2 Mn $ESS on land upgrades. This represents and equivalent fiat value of E$ 1 Mn. As mentioned above, as per tokenomics, 50% of the Essence is supposed to go to E2 treasury while 50% i.e. 6.1 Mn tokens has to be permanently burnt.
However, to commemorate this occasion Earth 2 has decided to burn the entire essence forgoing the treasury share. Thus the entire 12.2 million tokens will be permanently burnt, representing approximately 4% of current circulating supply (~310 Mn tokens) and 1.2% of Max supply (1 Billion tokens)!
Earth2’s article on land upgrades with more details can be found HERE
