Brave Frontier Heroes is a play-to-earn idle RPG from the makers of My Crypto Heroes and Brave Frontier. It was released on January 30, 2020. In the first 48 hours after release, Brave Frontier Heroes reached over 700 users and $280,000 in transaction volume.
We’ve created an account and browsed through the features of Brave Frontier Heroes. We’ll explain how the game works, including how to earn ZEL, purchase units, and obtain original spheres that can be sold for ETH.
We’ll also briefly weigh in on whether Brave Frontier Heroes is fun.
Brave Frontier Heroes Gameplay loop
Brave Frontier Heroes gameplay consists of a simple loop that players engage in over and over again to progress. Here is how it works.
Units
When a new player begins, he receives a set of free characters called units. These units have anime names like God Blade Mifune and Dragon Zephu.
Quests
The player can send his units on quests to battle monsters. Each quest consists of three battles. Depending on the outcome of the quest, the units involved will receive a certain amount of xp as a reward. Spheres, or items, will also drop from these quests.
Some of these spheres are replicas that have no existence outside of the game’s servers. Others are original. These original spheres are Ethereum NFTs that can be traded freely on sites like Opensea and Auctionity.
Spheres increase the stats of units, making them more likely to win battles.
Arena
The player can also send his units to the arena to battle against another player’s team. PvP matches increase or decrease a player’s rank according to an ELO system. Gaining a high rank results in exclusive original sphere rewards.
Leveling and purchasing experience
Questing in easy, low-level areas does not result in original sphere rewards. To get the best loot, the player needs to level up his units over a period of time.
A player can speed up the leveling process by purchasing exp through the game’s exp exchange.
From our research, it appears that the developer does not sell exp directly to players. Instead, some players convert replica spheres into experience at a fixed rate of 10 exp per sphere. This exp is then immediately sold to other players through the exp exchange.
Experience can only be purchased with the in-game currency, ZEL. And replica spheres can only be sold by converting them to exp and offering it for ZEL.
The exp exchange is only available to Brave Frontier Heroes Prime members.
Brave Frontier Heroes Prime
Brave Frontier Heroes is free to play. But in order for a player to use the exp exchange (and get other perks such as added stamina and exclusive collectibles), he needs a Brave Frontier Heroes Prime membership. This costs a monthly fee of 0.035 ETH via Metamask or $4.99 per month using a credit card.
Buying ZEL
If a player wants to buy exp but doesn’t have any ZEL, he can purchase the ZEL directly from the developer at a rate of 0.05 ETH (approx. US$9) per 500 ZEL.
Buying units
New units can be purchased from the developer in exchange for ZEL. Each type of unit has a unique name, image, and individual stats. And each is strictly limited in quantity.
These units can be resold to other players through the game’s internal exchange.
We could not verify whether units are NFTs or centralized assets. But since only spheres can be found on external sites such as OpenSea, players should probably assume all units are centralized.
Playing Brave Frontier Heroes
The basic gameplay loop of Brave Frontier Heroes is simple. It consists of the following steps.
1. Send units on quests or to battle in the arena
2. Earn exp and items
3. As the units get more powerful, send them on higher-level quests or against players with higher rank
4. As you earn spheres, convert old ones you no longer need to exp, and sell it to other players for ZEL
5. Use ZEL to buy exp and/or new, more powerful units
6. Earn original spheres from playing in higher-level areas or gaining PvP rank
7. Use original spheres to quest in even higher levels or gain more rank
8. When you no longer need a sphere, sell it for ETH
9. Repeat
Getting started with Brave Frontier Heroes
If you would like to try out Brave Frontier Heroes, here is a guide to getting started.
Registering
To register for Brave Frontier Heroes, navigate to the official homepage and click the yellow play game button.
Metamask will popup and ask if you want to connect your wallet. Click connect wallet.
If you’ve never used Metamask, read this guide to installing and using Metamask.
Once your wallet is connected, a second Metamask window will appear asking you to sign a transaction. Click sign to continue.
Enter a username and password, and click OK. The tutorial will begin.
Questing
Once the tutorial is finished, the main menu will open.
Click the quest tab at the top of the screen to open the list of questing zones.
Select which zone you want to send your units to. Adventurer’s Prairie is the easiest and most recommended for new units.
Push the prepare button to see the preparation screen.
This screen provides information about the zone’s difficulty, required party level, and what loot drops from it. Click departure to continue.
The battle animation will begin playing. You can move through the battle step-by-step by left-clicking or just hit the fast forward button in the upper-right to skip through it all and find out whether you won or lost.
A total of three battles will play out. After the final battle, you’ll receive your loot.
Selling spheres
To sell replica spheres for ZEL, you’ll need to first subscribe to Brave Frontier Heroes Prime. This can be done by clicking Home → Market → Prime from just about any page within the site.
In order to subscribe, you’ll need to verify your telephone number by entering a code from a text message.
Once this is done, click Market → EXP Exchange to go to the exp exchange menu. You’ll see a chart with the current exchange rate between exp and ZEL.
Click Sell Replica Spheres to exchange your spheres for ZEL.
Once you’ve got the ZEL, you can click Buy EXP from this same screen to get more exp for your units.
Buying units
To use your ZEL to buy units from the developer, click Market → Summon. To use it to buy units from players, click Market → Trade.
Equipping spheres
You may prefer to use your spheres instead of selling them for ZEL. If so, there is no need to take a special action to equip your spheres. They will automatically gives buffs to your team when you enter battle.
Receiving original spheres
In our testing, we were unable to acquire any original spheres. So we can’t verify for certain whether these items are held in a smart contract until the player pushes a button or automatically transferred.
But players can’t sign up for the game without connecting with a wallet. So these assets probably transfer automatically.
Stamina and ZEL
Every time your units quest or enter the arena, they will use up stamina. This attribute will regenerate over time.
Your units’ current stamina is listed beside the heart icon at the top of the screen. The amount of ZEL you currently own is listed in yellow to the right of this.
Brave Frontier Heroes Review
So is Brave Frontiers Heroes a fun game?
Players should be warned that Brave Frontier Heroes is an idle game that requires very little active gameplay. However, it can be played on a mobile device. So some players may find that it entertains them well enough while waiting in line, riding the subway, or otherwise being stuck with downtime.
And at least it appears to be profitable for some players. That’s more than can be said for most mobile games – which tend to suck away players’ money instead of the opposite.
But players looking for complex, active gameplay may find Brave Frontier Heroes to be disappointing. Once a player sends his unit into battle, there are no further decisions to be made. So a player looking for turn-based strategy will not find it in this game.
In summary, Brave Frontier Heroes appears to be a great addition to the crypto idle game niche. But players that don’t like idle games should look elsewhere for a play-to-earn experience.
Very nice review, tnx!
I just started playing it, indeed it seems a money sucker. I’m unable to find any way to get new Units – ugly name – other than buying them. That’s sad, as the game should have enough F2P content to keep low paying and kid players around and build a playerbase. I think it just doesn’t want low paying players around at all.
And then there is the idle fight. I had played Steem Monsters and on that game at least there was some strategy, we can choose the order our cards will enter battle and that’s very relevant. Here we don’t even have that, we just enter a quest and fast forward to earn the XP and leave.
Indeed there are some very very expensive Units being sold on Market, but there are also very few. The game isn’t fun, so I doubt it will sustain. I guess ppl will just give up and leave, and any money spent will be wasted.
I didn’t find any way to get new units either. But it was very easy to do quests and gain exp just with the free units that came with a new account. So I didn’t personally get the feeling that it was a “money sucker.”
My problem with the game was that it was just too simple for my taste. I prefer to play games like Gods Unchained, MegaCryptoPolis, Axie Infinity, etc. that have very complex mechanics. I want to feel like I might lose the game if I don’t make the right decision; and if I lose, I won’t earn any flux or SLP or whatever.
I love the whole “play to earn” concept. But if I’m guaranteed to “earn,” it just starts to feel like a job; and a low-paying one at that.
Still, there are many different types of players. Some people play on mobile phones while they’re standing in line or sitting on a train commuting to their jobs. They are distracted by other things and don’t really have time to play complicated games.
So these players might be happy playing a game like Brave Frontier Heroes.
Although I did not enjoy BFH, I tried my best to provide objective info about it. Maybe those types of players who would enjoy it will still check it out, despite my objections.
But thanks for your feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
It seems like a lot of crypto gaming sites just rephrase the press releases put out by developers. And I find that to not be very helpful. So I always try to play the games and give more detailed information about them when I write these articles.